adelcrow wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 2:56pm:


How are Israel an 'occupying force' when they pulled all their troops and citizens out almost a decade ago??

That's like Poland claiming Germany is occupying Warsaw in 1956....

aquascoot wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 12:05pm:


No you're not. If you were there witnessing men, women and children being wheeled into hospital with missing limbs, etc, you'd be traumatised too. With the exception of psychopaths, everyone is capable of empathy. It's an automatic response.

The reason you don't feel anything about the war in Gaza is you don't know anything. A UN official being interviewed on Lateline last night burst into tears. He didn't do this because he was "morally superior". He did this because he'd spent the day travelling around bomb sites and hospitals. The UN official was suffering from what psychologists call vicarious trauma. He was in shock from seeing dead, dying and disfigured people all day.

If you were there, you'd feel the same way. It's only possible for you to feel nothing because you have no idea of what's happening. This is what psychologists call called cognative dissonance. In the past, we called it ignorance.

When it comes to war, and all the moral judgements we make about it, this is an extremely privalledged position to be in.

aquascoot wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 12:05pm:


No you're not. If you were there witnessing men, women and children being wheeled into hospital with missing limbs, etc, you'd be traumatised too. With the exception of psychopaths, everyone is capable of empathy. It's an automatic response.

The reason you don't feel anything about the war in Gaza is you don't know anything. A UN official being interviewed on Lateline last night burst into tears. He didn't do this because he was "morally superior". He did this because he'd spent the day travelling around bomb sites and hospitals. The UN official was suffering from what psychologists call vicarious trauma. He was in shock from seeing dead, dying and disfigured people all day.

If you were there, you'd feel the same way. It's only possible for you to feel nothing because you have no idea of what's happening. This is what psychologists call called cognative dissonance. In the past, we called it ignorance.

When it comes to war, and all the moral judgements we make about it, this is an extremely privalledged position to be in.

ImSpartacus2 wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 5:17pm:


And exactly WHICH 'fortified settlements' are there in Gaza???

Can you name them, or show the locations of them??

Annie Anthrax wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 9:35am:



do you really believe its murder?
do you really believe the Israelis are deliberately targeting schools and hospitals .
I don't.
I heard one of the hospitals was hit when Israeli tanks and Palestinians with RPG's were in a fire fight.
that is not murder. far from it and tragic as it is.
I honestly truly believe the aim of the Israelis is to kill armed Hamas fighters and I honestly believe the aim of Hamas is just to kill any jew they can.
thoughts?

Israel is the occupying force in Palestine so blaming Hamas for the deaths caused by Israels most recent invasion and bombing of Gaza is like the Nazis in WW 2 murdering tens of thousands of French civilians and then blaming the Partisans because they live in the same area.
Due to the blockade by Israel the residents of Gaza have no where to go when the Jews started their murderous rampage so the only people to blame are the Jews.

gizmo_2655 wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 5:26pm:


I was talking about the settlements in what was once Palestinian land on the west bank.....

This is what Wikipedia has to say:

"[Israel] continues to both expand its settlements and settle new areas in the West Bank,[4][5][6][7][8] despite being condemned by 158 out of 166 nations in one vote, and 160 nations out of 171 nations in a different vote, in the UN.[9]

The international community considers the settlements in occupied territory to be illegal,[10] and the United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[11][12] Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and communities in the Golan Heights, areas which have been annexed by Israel, are also considered settlements by the international community, which does not recognise Israel's annexations of these territories.[13] The International Court of Justice also says these settlements are illegal in a 2004 advisory opinion.[14][15][16] In April 2012, UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, in response to moves by Israel to legalise Israeli outposts, reiterated that all settlement activity is illegal, and "runs contrary to Israel's obligations under the Road Map and repeated Quartet calls for the parties to refrain from provocations."[17] Similar criticism was advanced by the EU and the US.[18][19] Israel disputes the position of the international community and the legal arguments that were used to declare the settlements illegal.[20]

The presence and ongoing expansion of existing settlements by Israel and the construction of settlement outposts is frequently criticized as an obstacle to the peace process by the Palestinians[21] and third parties, including the United Nations,[22] Russia,[23] the United Kingdom,[24] France,[25] the European Union,[26] and the United States.[22]"

"ISRAEL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW....Israel’s presence in all these areas pending negotiation of new borders is entirely lawful, since Israel entered them lawfully in self-defence. International law forbids acquisition by unlawful force, but not where, as in the case of Israel’s self-defence in 1967, the entry on the territory was lawful. It does not so forbid it,

....for the effect of such prohibition would be to guarantee to all potential aggressors that, even if their aggression failed, all territory lost in the attempt would be automatically returned to them.

Such a rule would be absurd to the point of lunacy. There is no such rule..."