Frank wrote on Nov 6^th, 2023 at 8:13pm:


No he is right - you should get this after taking the low road for decades.

It isn't difficult to get the Hamas killing Israeli children is horrendous just as Israelis killing thousands more Palestinian children is horrendous.

Both sides are responsible for war crimes both should be punished. None of this is justified or excusable.

John Smith wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2023 at 1:14pm:


A moronic and spineless equivalence, of course.


Ramesh Thakur, a former UN assistant secretary-general and emeritus professor at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, quotes a pertinent argument put by British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps: “If 1400 Brits had lost their lives, the idea that we wouldn’t pursue the terrorist organisation when we knew where they were, and that anyone would tell Britain that we shouldn’t do that … would be rather improbable and extraordinary.”




The protection of hospitals is covered in article 19. It states that their entitlement to protection ceases if “they are used to commit … acts harmful to the enemy”. A commentary published in 1958 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the custodian of the Geneva Convention, clarifies that examples of such harmful acts “include the use of a hospital as a shelter for able-bodied combatants or fugitives, as an arms or ammunition store, as a military observation post, or as a centre for liaison with fighting troops”.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has confirmed that Hamas is using hospitals as command and control centres. This makes them legitimate military targets, and the responsibility for all resulting loss of life rests wholly and solely with Hamas.


The mask of fitting in with host-society norms slipped from the thousands of immigrants who celebrated 10/7. As a show of strength, they have been impressive and effective. The same social-justice crowd that insists words are literal violence wants us to contextualise actual violence as a necessity, rape as resistance, incineration as liberation. Young people whose self-introductions include preferred pronouns have adopted the chants of a genocidal death cult as anti-Semitism moves in from the fringes to occupy the public square.

The brutal reality is that if a ceasefire was declared, Israel could not resume the war on Hamas absent a major fresh terrorist attack. Hamas wants the extermination of Israel, not reconciliation with it. Its explicit, charter goal is to liquidate Israel and ethnically cleanse Jews “from the river to the sea”. Its strategy is to delegitimise the Jewish state. Its tactics are to target Israeli civilians and endanger Palestinian civilians as human shields by placing fighters under hospitals and ammunition in schools.

Hamas and Israel cannot coexist. Hamas must be forcibly removed from power. Its 30,000 fighters are an armed militia, not soldiers in uniform. The objectives of 10/7 were to kill, rape, maim, mutilate, burn, kidnap and subject to public humiliation on the streets of Gaza as many Israelis as possible; undermine Israelis’ confidence in their government’s ability to protect them; provoke a reaction of extreme violence from Israel that would kill huge numbers of Palestinian civilians, the more the better to inflame the Arab street, enrage Muslims worldwide and flood the streets of Western cities with massive crowds shouting pro-Palestinian/Hamas slogans and spewing Jew hatred; secure the international isolation of Israel; dismantle the Abraham Accords; and disrupt the process of normalisation of relations with Arab states.

The international humanitarian law requirement of proportionality does not mean in proportion to the initial attack but in relation to the military objective. If the number of civilians killed in the war is very high, that’s due to Hamas hiding fighters and weaponry deep amid civilian populations. Israel does try to do everything possible – from initial advance warnings to vacate, to choice of targets and weapons – to minimise casualties. But not if that means allowing Hamas to continue as a threat to Israel.


Wong has taken sides. It may yet turn out to be the right side of history, given the muddled morality of the huge numbers of rabidly anti-Jewish protesters across the West. But it is unquestionably the wrong side of morality. She should watch Israel’s 43 minutes of raw footage from October 7 using CCTV security cameras, dashcams and GoPro cameras used by the terrorists. No context is needed to know that burning children and parents tied together and raping women next to the bodies of slain revellers are evil.

The West gave us the Enlightenment and Enlightenment values are worth fighting for. Israel has become the frontline in that war.

Ramesh Thakur is emeritus professor at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy and a former UN assistant secretary-general.

Dnarever wrote on Nov 7^th, 2023 at 6:55pm:

The fourth Geneva Convention (1949) deals with the protection of civilians during armed conflict. Its prohibitions cover both state and non-state actors, but the world has yet to figure out how to enforce them on the latter. This has created a de facto imbalance that is simply not sustainable in the long run. The protection of hospitals is covered in article 19. It states that their entitlement to protection ceases if “they are used to commit … acts harmful to the enemy”. A commentary published in 1958 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the custodian of the Geneva Convention, clarifies that examples of such harmful acts “include the use of a hospital as a shelter for able-bodied combatants or fugitives, as an arms or ammunition store, as a military observation post, or as a centre for liaison with fighting troops”.

The international humanitarian law requirement of proportionality does not mean in proportion to the initial attack but in relation to the military objective. If the number of civilians killed in the war is very high, that’s due to Hamas hiding fighters and weaponry deep amid civilian populations. Israel does try to do everything possible – from initial advance warnings to vacate, to choice of targets and weapons – to minimise casualties. But not if that means allowing Hamas to continue as a threat to Israel.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/from-vows-of-never-again-to-a-here-we-go-again-shrug/news-story/90c6fd18385c15734e3a6ce84cf50b06

Frank wrote on Nov 19^th, 2023 at 4:02pm:



not sure why you think quoting some else saying something stupid helps you

Frank wrote on Nov 28^th, 2023 at 1:14pm:



No? The article wrote itself did it?

Ya dumbarse

John Smith wrote on Nov 28^th, 2023 at 11:12am:


Be fair John - You have to leave him with something.

John Smith wrote on Nov 28^th, 2023 at 1:19pm:



It is not a quote, moronic and spineless equivocator. The article is quoted. That you are a moronic and spineless equivocating is not.