Annie Anthrax wrote on Jul 27
th, 2014 at 7:31am:
Chicken lips - do you think the civilian casualties are justified? You and I have had sensible talks about sensitive topics before, so I hope you know I am not baiting you. I'm generally interested to know if you think these deaths are okay.
I know you are not baiting me Annie, and I never would have thought so.
The civilian casualties are never ever justified, however I am increasingly saddened by the total inevitability of the situation.
The moment Hamas started firing long range rockets into Israel the week before invasion reaching northern cities and towns left the Israeli's with no choice whatsoever other than to go in to Gaza to destroy Hamas.
Hamas is sworn to the killing of Jews and the total destruction of Israel, meaning there is no room left for negotiation.
They simply want the Jews dead.
The Israeli Jews are under no illusion that should Hamas prevail, the world will sit back and witness another Holocaust, and the Israeli's truly believe they can expect no assistance from the UN in this case and can only count on themselves to protect their people.
And Israel can have a ceasefire for as long as they like as many times as they like, Hamas will continue to attack regardless.
Israel wants to meet peace with peace, however is prepared to meet war with war.
And the mixture of total urban warfare coupled with Hamas being totally ingratiated into Palestinian society having no soldiers barracks to live in, means there will be automatically increased civilian casualties despite any attempt by the Israeli's to minimise casualties through various means.
Hamas has been found time and time again to be using schools, hospitals and areas close to UN buildings to launch attacks into Israel making them legitimate targets of war.
The UN has been found to be good at talking but dreadfully poor in action.
Logic would suggest the Bluecaps should be kept in Gaza to keep the terrorists in check, however the experience in southern Lebanon before the 2006 invasion against Hezbollah demonstrated the UN's total incapability in stopping the terrorists ability to re-arm themselves as we saw.
The Bluecaps were left cowering in their barracks in fear for their lives leaving the terrorists to go about their business, and we could expect the same in Gaza should foreign troops ever be stationed there.
Hamas pushed the Israeli's too far this time, and the Israeli government and IDF are now totally committed to ripping out Hamas from Palestinian society 'root and branch'.
This can only mean one thing.
More civilian casualties.