world

Israeli strike on Gaza kills 10; unrest spreads to West Bank

80 Comments
By FARES AKRAM and JOSEPH KRAUSS

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


80 Comments
Login to comment

The indiscriminate rocketing of civilian centers by Hamas is a war crime.

But so is collective punishment, destroying civilian infrastructure, the disproportionate use of force, and failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants, war crimes that Israel commits.

And don't give me this nonsense about human shields.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated the charge that Hamas uses human shields and could find no evidence to back up the claim.

Hamas is under no legal obligation to locate its forces in the open so Israel can more easily bomb them.

It's just a lame excuse that Israel supporters use to justify the mass-killing of civilians, including children.

One war crime doesn't justify another.

16 ( +24 / -8 )

I understood US support for Israel in the context of the Cold War where the Soviets had nuclear Scud battalions in Egypt and Soviet Frontal Aviation pilots flew Egyptian and Syrian aircraft for them, Soviet controllers directed their missions and Soviet Army personnel manned some of their air defense systems. But today with the horrible, arrogant way the Israeli's treat the Palestinians and their incessant efforts to expand their borders beyond the UN approved pre 1967 borders I see no reason for the US to continue to support them. Especially as Israeli controlled offshore oil and gas fields in the Levant Basin come on line and generate revenue the US should cease aiding Israel altogether.

15 ( +20 / -5 )

Artillery, airstrikes and shooting vs. throwing stones.

I know, I'll get voted down again for this comment, so be it.

Not by me you won't.

11 ( +19 / -8 )

Is Hamas winning yet?

-9 ( +5 / -14 )

Why do the shocking scenes of the violence and terror in Gaza remind me of the Warsaw Ghetto? No, it's not because I'm an anti-semite (which I am most definitely not). Truly, human history works in mysterious ways, methinks.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Both sides hate each other and have been stockpiling weapons for years. Both were just itching for a excuse to fight. Temporarily truce are always temporarily anyway. I am surprise they lasted this long. When you lived next to another and hate each other the core, it will always ended up in tragedy one way or the other.

And don't forget their hate comes from fighting each other for countless years just for some old buildings and rocks they called Jerusalem. All this bloodshed in the name of religion. The world is huge and there are so many places where people can settle down. The arabs will never stop trying to reclaim the land they lost and root Isreal out and Isreal will never give up what they have taken to establish their state. Is a never ending cycle of hate and fighting. Even if UN can calm both side down, in 5-6 years the fighting will resume with the next generation.

If there are palastinians who are smart and wishes to live peaceful lives,then they would take their kids and live elsewhere in other arab country. Otherwise they will just eventually be consume by the fighting.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

Come on guys when concentrating Palestinians in refugee camps, oppressed, daily humiliated, don’t expect them to throw flowers in your way. They are paying a high price for resisting Their oppressors the Israeli state. Palestinians are teaching us that DIGNTY IS PRICELESS.

12 ( +19 / -7 )

The Israeli bombs you, and he cries out in pain.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

no mention about the supply of rockets to Hamas... Guess who supplies them .. IRAN... who would deeply love to see Israel wiped from face of earth...and what does Biden think ... Trump should never have broken the Nuclear deal with such a nice Nation...

-10 ( +9 / -19 )

Hamas does not represent the majority of Palestinians

That’s right they don’t and yet, they’re doing that. Hamas could care less what other Palestinians think, they feel they represent all sides and refuse to back down and in doing so, they’re sealing the fate of thousands of people that really have nothing to do with hatred and war with the Israeli government. The objective will continue and the Israelis will root out and take out anyone that poses a direct and eminent threat now and going forward for the foreseeable future.

-9 ( +9 / -18 )

And no mention about the supply of jet fighters and bombes to Israel ...AMERICAN TAX PAYERS ... Israel get them free hence excessively used .

13 ( +18 / -5 )

Had Hamas taken thought for the people they govern they would not have started rocketing Israel with unguided missiles, but they couldn’t care less for the ordinary Palestinian, they knew Israel would strike back and no matter how precise and targeted the weapons they use as Hamas has located their rockets among civilians some will be hurt. Win for Hamas who wail about civilian casualties to the western media.

-12 ( +6 / -18 )

https://bdsmovement.net/

Even Human Rights Watch has declared Israel an apartheid state and their actions crimes against humanity.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/27/abusive-israeli-policies-constitute-crimes-apartheid-persecution

10 ( +17 / -7 )

Brian Smith - shh, we are in delicate negotiations that will solve all the Middle East problems. Don't call out the peace loving Iranian theocratics, I am sure they are peaceful neighbors for Israel.

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

And don't give me this nonsense about human shields.

Yes, using innocent civilians as human shields should be totally ok.

-14 ( +5 / -19 )

First off, the Israeli regime always claims to be 'targeting just militants and terrorists' and yet every investigation into what they did ends up proving they were deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Google the reports from Cast Death or any other of these Israeli regime campaigns.

Secondly, the Israeli regime always overstates the number of legitimate(ish) kills, and understates the civilians it slaughters, even when, as in Cast Death, the need to make the two numbers seem to fit the 'we don't target civilians' narrative makes the total of the two so ridiculously low that even the American government can't believe it.

PS, love the idea that Iran, who's precision missiles almost effortlessly went right through the fully up and running, because Iran announced them far enough in advance for it to be meaningful, American missile defenses and took out the precise building each one was aimed at, is 'supplying missiles to Hamas'. Overlooking one obvious absurdity (getting a missile in past the Apartheid Wall around Gaza without anything being intercepted by Israel, and then stockpiling a thousand somewhere in Gaza without the omnipresent surveillance and extensive network of voluntary and involuntary spies that the Israeli regime has focused on Gaza getting even a hint) is bad but not unusual, but ignoring 2, well that's conspiracy theory believer territory.

1 ( +9 / -8 )

zichiToday 07:44 am JST

Hamas does not represent the majority of Palestinians.

But they are the ONLY ones doing ANYTHING to try to free the Palestinians from their Concentration Camps. The PA is worthless since they who cannot be named here ( I wonder who) poisoned Palestine's greatest modern leader Arafat, and the fat PA politicians who remained decided personal ambition was more important than their People. They also killed Rabin, their own kind. Supposing that the zionists want anything less than total ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine is to ignore what we do wherever we Humans go.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

But so is collective punishment, destroying civilian infrastructure, the disproportionate use of force, and failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants, war crimes that Israel commits.

And don't give me this nonsense about human shields.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated the charge that Hamas uses human shields and could find no evidence to back up the claim. 

its actually laughable that you cite the completely biased AI and HRW. The entire world knows they run cover for Hamas and are totally biased.

Hamas as a matter of policy put their women and children in harms way for 2 reasons. They are human shields that Israel goes to great lengths to avoid, and 2; they can then use their inevitable deaths as PR for unwitting western liberals to don't look beyond headlines.

Headlines like this peach on JT that gives the impression those poor, poor Palestinians are being set upon by bloodthirsty Jews.

God bless Israel in this difficult time.

-10 ( +4 / -14 )

And, as long as I'm here, I have a question. Did Rupert Murdock buy out Japan Today? The editorial policy I see here strongly suggests just such a thing...

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Again, the root of this crises is the Continuous Occupation of Palestinian land by Israel for over 70 years.

Israel must recognize that the Palestinians have the same rights to live in peace and be FREE in their own homeland, until then there will never be peace in Israel or Palestine.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Occupation Sucks, and Freedom Rocks.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Can someone please tell me why such an outcry on here for innocent Palestinians but not a peep when their country kills tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iran for example? There were tons of children dead in those countries too. I swear people want to be outraged just to be outraged.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

Oh, should point out that while the Geneva Conventions set the strictest limitations on what an occupying power like Israel can do to an occupied territory like Gaza, and what Israel is doing actually constitutes a flagrant war crime under the looser limits of what a warring nation can do to another nation, the framers of the Geneva Conventions also understood how ridiculous it was to put anything more than the lightest limit on what an occupied people like the Palestinians can use to fight for their freedom from their oppressors.

Which is why though Israel, like every occupier in history, may claim that any act by the occupied to try and free themselves is a war crime, international court of laws very rarely uphold those claims as being legitimate in general, though they often will find one or two specific instances in a campaign of resistance that did cross the line.

And, when the occupier is also committing a Crime Against Humanity, well, I don't recall a single instance where they ruled ANYTHING a war crime that a warring state did to them, even deliberately setting an entire city full of citizens on fire to destroy a couple military targets, so the odds of such a court condemning the rocket fire out of Gaza as a war crime seems very remote, even if the Israeli regime's claims that the rockets aren't aimed at the clusters of Israeli regime military might it stations next to its civilian population but instead all aimed at said civilian population miraculously turn out to be truthful.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

The Palestinians have the Legal Right to defend themselves and push back against the Israeli Occupation, same as when the Jews had the Legal Right to push back and defend themselves from the Nazi's aggression.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

I do not want to pick a side. There is plenty of blame to go around. That said, if rockets had not been launched from Gaza, the IDF would not have retaliated. If rockets were to cease being fired from Gaza, I suspect the IDF would stop retaliating. One can argue that the use of force by the IDF has been disproportional, but is there any doubt that this mess would end if the rockets stopped being fired from Gaza?

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Hamas showed no signs of backing down. So far, it has fired some 1,800 rockets toward Israel, some targeting the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, although more than a quarter of them have fallen short inside Gaza and most of the rest have been intercepted by missile defense systems.

If any neighboring nation or group had publicly vowed your destruction and started firing hundreds and hundreds of rockets into your towns and cities, what would you do in response? Send them cookies? Please.

Israel has every right to defend its nation and people. Its so sad how the narrative of many is to be anti-Israel. Do your homework about how Gaza and the “Palestinians” came to be. No other Arab nation would accept them when Israel became a sovereign nation again 73 years ago yesterday.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Please stop spreading Zionist Propaganda, AP. They've been at it for at least a thousand years:

"These people (Arabs, Christians, Alexandrian & Greek pagans, Russians, Poles, Ukrainianians, Latvians, Germans, etc) hate us for no reason at all ! They just can't be reasoned with !"

2 ( +7 / -5 )

The root cause of this conflict (and many others) is religion, fact. What they read and what they're taught reinforces their intolerance, stubbornness and their "we're in the right" attitude.

Sadly, this conflict will NEVER end while difference versions of religion are still handed down and taught to children, who themselves grow up and continue the cycle of intolerance and violence over and over again...

4 ( +8 / -4 )

If there are palastinians who are smart and wishes to live peaceful lives,then they would take their kids and live elsewhere in other arab country. Otherwise they will just eventually be consume by the fighting.

The Arab countries only want Palestinians to come, without their families, to work in construction or has housekeepers. They do not allow Palestinian families to immigrate to their countries. Jordan might be the sole exception to this by virtue of their shared border with the West Bank and large internal Palestinian population.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Why is China's treatment of the Uyghurs described as genocide when Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is accepted as unavoidable and Western countries all offer their support?

2 ( +6 / -4 )

The West Bank and Gaza have been occupied by Israel since 1967, roughly 54 years. Imagine Japan if the US had maintained not just a military occupation of Japan preventing it from having its own sea ports of airports for 54 years after the end of WWII, until 1999? Now imagine the US during this time also insisted on moving Japanese out of their homes to make way for American families and isolated Japanese communities behind high walls while building separate highways for Americans to drive. Imagine the only work available to Japanese was as laborers for the Americans. Imagine Japanese shrines blocked by American police on major Japanese religious festivals so Americans could visit. Do you not think the Japanese would have rebelled? Of course they would have. But the west condemns the Palestinians for fighting for their rights. Israel will not be the only nation to have to answer for this barbarity. Much of the west shares culpability in the brutalities inflicted on the Palestinians. After WWII the cry was "Never Again". Yeah, until the next time.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Israel has every right to defend its nation and people.

Worth repeating - From who?

A population, half of which are children, with no army. Living in an open air prison, walled off by the state of Israel. The state which uses highly advanced weaponry (including chemical) to attack those people living in said prison.

Its so sad how the narrative of many is to be anti-Israel.

Not anti-Israel. Criticism of the govt, the IDF and the apartheid state is legitimate.

Do your homework about how Gaza and the “Palestinians” came to be.

Been doing that for decades. I imagine most here have.

No need for the quotation marks, Palestine has as much right to exist as Israel does. And before the Nakba, Palestians were not just Muslim, but Jewish and Christian, too.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

The root cause of this conflict (and many others) is religion, fact. What they read and what they're taught reinforces their intolerance, stubbornness and their "we're in the right" attitude. 

Crackpot jihadis and Messianic morons are a large part of the problem. Also, nutcase Christians, particularly in the US, have had an unhealthy influence on policy in this part of the world.

A recipe for disaster.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Hamas does not represent the majority of Palestinians..

Good Point, the Fatah group represents majority of the Palestinians and they can live in peace and co-existence with their neighbors, it's the militant Hamas group (backed by Iran) which does not want any peace, and is the reason for this conflict.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

R BarnettToday 10:47 am JST

If any neighboring nation or group had publicly vowed your destruction and started firing hundreds and hundreds of rockets into your towns and cities, what would you do in response? Send them cookies? Please.

Israel has every right to defend its nation and people...

Israel is an artificial country, but it is very small within the large Arab world and a prime target for terrorists which primary goal is to extinct it.

There is no way for a peaceful solution. - What shall Israel really do now if attacked by hundreds of rockets? Good question.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

"My ancestors and family in Palestine deserve the right for their history to be told without any obstruction or lies," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

"They have a right to be able to explain to the world that they are still suffering from Nakba, when the world watched with no intervention."

Nakba, or "catastrophe, is when over 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced and expelled from their homes by the Israeli Zionist government from 1947 to 1949, creating the worlds largest refugee humanitarian crisis in the world.

Millions of Palestinians refugees still reside in refugee camps across Gaza, Jerusalem, West Bank, and in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria clinging on the right of return to their homes and cities, a right Israel denies.

Around 15,000 Palestinians died in a series of attacks, including at least 70 massacres that erased entire neighborhoods and towns.

Follow cravingpalestine / jewishvoiceforpeace / on Instagram, for another side the western media does not show. Watch cellphone vid and images from Palestinians in Palestine and Israel as the crises continues.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

LamillyToday 11:04 am JST

Israel became a sovereign nation on Palestinian land, don't you get that.

And what is your solution for that?

When Israel was created it was the question where it sould exist and unfortunately - because of religious arguments - a wrong location was chosen. There were other locations under consideration at that time, in Africa in Christian located areas like Ethiopia.

You cannot blame the young people who are living now in Israel for all this mess. Many of them have only Israel citizenship and they have no choice to go to elsewhere. What shall they do?

I have seen some strange calculation about if it makes sense to relocate Israel to somewhere else and if such a moving of an entire small country might be cheaper than continue all this never ending fightings in that region.

There were calculations about to move Israel to Australia or Brazil buying unused land from those countries or to Canada or into USA.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The people of Gaza are not allowed to export their farm produce. Not allowed to fish in the sea. Not allowed to extract the oil and gas off its coast. Really, Gaza is the world's largest prison camp.

Yes, that happened after Hamas took over control of Gaza in 2007, compare this to the West Bank where the economy has considerably improved since 2007.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

This is funny. Inaccurate, but funny.

Nothing inaccurate, start with the 2007 conflict/split between the two groups... finding this funny,.now that is funny..

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Nakba, or "catastrophe, is when over 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced and expelled from their homes by the Israeli Zionist government from 1947 to 1949, creating the worlds largest refugee humanitarian crisis in the world.

That is accurate, literally living like refugees on there own land.. but Israel did not create Israel..the British did that..and not only Israel, most of the boundaries in the middle east were carved out by the British and the French as they saw fit...and that's one reason why that region is always in some conflict or another.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Rafat Tanani, his pregnant wife and four children, ages 7 and under, were killed after an Israeli warplane reduced their four-story apartment building to rubble in the neighboring town of Beit Lahia,

Don't come bleating about the Holocaust when you are approaching the evil of the Nazis.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Toasted HereticToday 11:59 am JST

Israel has every right to defend its nation and people.

Worth repeating - From who?

A population, half of which are children, with no army. Living in an open air prison, walled off by the state of Israel. ...

This open air prison is really very open if you can import plenty of rockets and dig tunnels and nobody says a word about it.

If Israel is receiving hundreds of rockets - who pays for these weapons? - into their cities fired from Hamas within Gaza area and is threatened by invasion of terrorist fighters through plenty of tunnels which construction costs millions of USD, I ask myself what Israel should really do instead of fighting back? To remain silent, doing nothing? Or even to surrender? LOL Any idea?

Of course Israel policy is to fight back immediately without any consideration about what is next. What else do you expect?

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

The Palestinians have the Legal Right to defend themselves and push back against the Israeli Occupation, same as when the Jews had the Legal Right to push back and defend themselves from the Nazi's aggression.

Yes, but in the end, the Palestinians will lose this war.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

That Palestinians in East alQuds, areas A, B, and C of the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan are all protesting against the Israeli regime really destroys any basis for the notion that it's Hamas, or 'the terrorists' behaving badly, and yet that is the narrative you are seeing here, on CNN, BBC, basically everywhere where the predominant political position is that the Israeli regime is a democracy, and Palestinians a problem because they won't accept what they are told they have to.

The problem is that when all you hear is a narrative that is divorced from reality, you get people who literally see the problem as being caused by those who refuse to 'accept the truth/do nothing but tell lies' (see Trump supporters) and people that used to be 'moderate' (meaning capable of realizing that, at a certain point, not acknowledging what is actually the truth doesn't hurt the other side, it hurts you) either embracing the lies for real, or being fanatical in their pretence of embracing the lies.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

As always, the media headlines kick in once Israel responds, after ignoring the rocket attacks from Hamas that caused the response. We know the pattern by now.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

bassfunk

Yes, but in the end, the Palestinians will lose this war.

How do you define "Palestinians"? If "Palestinian" includes all residents of the area of Palestine before creation of Israel, it includes muslim Arabs, christian Arabs, Jews, Druzes, Yazidis, and more. Are they all at war against Israel?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Yes, but in the end, the Palestinians will lose this war.

According to who?

2 ( +5 / -3 )

As always, the media headlines kick in once Israel responds

What media should we be reading?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

How do you define "Palestinians"? If "Palestinian" includes all residents of the area of Palestine before creation of Israel, it includes muslim Arabs, christian Arabs, Jews, Druzes, Yazidis, and more. Are they all at war against Israel?

No, they’re not and thanks for the correction, I’m talking about specifically the branch of Palestinians that have sworn to use every available tactic to take on the IDF and Israelis as a whole, minus the innocent people on both sides that made up of all these individuals ethnicities you mentioned, you also have Israelis that are against the bombings, it’s all convoluted, but the radical wing in Gaza that is run by Hamas and sponsored by Iran as it pertains to this conflict. Sadly, this is conflict is something that will never end and neither side wants to budge on the key issues, but when it comes to the military might, the Palestinians just don’t have a chance, and regardless of which side doesn’t want to give in, the ones wielding the heavier artillery will always win.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

According to who?

According to the IDF-period.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Way up the consequences, the human costs before judgement, sanctions or retribution.

Modus vivendi,……..

“The Jewish Problem in America”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1941/06/the-jewish-problem-in-america/306268/

Pretty please give this long read a review.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are the most corrupt regimes in the region. Billions of dollars have been sent by the USA, by Europe, by various UN agencies, and by other Muslim lands and the wealth has been squandered on weapons and tunnels and stashed in secret Swiss and Cayman Island accounts. The biggest tragedy for the Palestinians in both territories is that they will never get better leaders and will never get accountability for the wasted resources over many decades.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

The great German thinker (and despiser of antisemitism), Nietzsche, had a chilling thought that the Israelis would have been wise to heed: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” Israel is now gazing into Gaza.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

The indiscriminate rocketing of civilian centers by Hamas is a war crime.

The primitive rockets have no modern guidance systems. Hamas does not have the technology or means to design or make reliable guidance systems. They use the best they have and if they could target accurately they would be targeting Air force bases to destroy the aircraft Israel uses to kill civilians and destroy multi story residence buildings and the military positions from which Israel maintains the Gaza Ghetto lockdown.

Calling self defence a war crime is a stretch considering all the unguided bombs dropped on civillians in WWII, Korea and Vietnam by all sides. The Palestinians are being slowly erased from existence by the continuous theft of family homes, orchards and land to make way for new housing for Israelis. They have the right to defend themselves the best way they can. And they are.

A two state solution with equality is the only viable solution or generations more will continue the senseless violence.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Israeli strike on Gaza kills 10; unrest spreads to West Bank

Uh - what about the rocket attacks that necessitated the Israeli’s military response? Israel is typically responding to a Hamas provocation. Hamas purposely embed their military assets in civilian neighborhoods using the inevitable deaths of civilians for their propaganda- titillating the global Left inspiring their anti-Semitism. Sadly the Palestinians accept this as the status quo. Things will never change until Hamas is defeated or the Palestinians have had enough and decide to eject this evil ideology from their midsts.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

The primitive rockets have no modern guidance systems. 

They are far from primitive simply because there's no guidance system. Dumb rockets/bombs are and have been used by all militaries and Hamas's rockets are also military grade. How else do they reach Tel Aviv?

Calling self defence a war crime is a stretch considering all the unguided bombs dropped on civillians in WWII, Korea and Vietnam by all sides.

The right of self-defence does not extend to terrorist organisations, genocidal lunatics, jihadists, or autonomous territories whose status is determined by international agreements. Neither does it justify war crimes in turn (a fallacy).

First off, the Israeli regime always claims to be 'targeting just militants and terrorists' and yet every investigation into what they did ends up proving they were deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Google the reports from Cast Death or any other of these Israeli regime campaigns.

There's no such campaign. There's no such investigation.

But so is collective punishment, destroying civilian infrastructure, the disproportionate use of force, and failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants, war crimes that Israel commits.

Israel did none of these things.

And don't give me this nonsense about human shields.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated the charge that Hamas uses human shields and could find no evidence to back up the claim.

Massive amounts video evidence and testimony clearly establishes they do.

Hamas is under no legal obligation to locate its forces in the open so Israel can more easily bomb them.

False. Hamas as a government-military authority in an armed conflict has an obligation to evacuate civilians and avoid placing soldiers in areas where civilians are be present.

Artillery, airstrikes and shooting vs. throwing stones.

I know, I'll get voted down again for this comment, so be it.

In their propaganda videos, Hamas clearly shows rockets, anti-tank missiles, mortars, rifles, and commandos. You shouldn't be downvoted, you should be locked an insane asylum.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

The great German thinker (and despiser of antisemitism), Nietzsche, had a chilling thought that the Israelis would have been wise to heed: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” Israel is now gazing into Gaza.

Absolutely visceral quote, thanks for sharing. But what is your point? How does this apply to Israel? Israel is less of a monster than ever before. In fact, it is one of the most peaceful and least barbarous countries in the world, ever.

Perhaps all the self-appointed moral critics and guardians of Israel who have never been in a morally difficult situation or a war should get off off its case and get off their high horses, lest the abyss of immorality they are trying supposedly to stare down should happen to gaze back at them. And they become riders of horses of immorality.

Unfortunately that has already happened. Hamas is a radical Islamic terrorist organisation that wants to carry out genocide of the Jews, murder gays, oppress women, and in general opposes the entire liberal project. Just like ISIS, al-Qaeda, etc. The fact that people in their haste to 'criticise' Israel have forgotten this and feel free to ignore it is sickening. This organisation like every single last one of its kind should be ruthlessly exterminated like the Nazis and then we can talk about 2 states. In the meantime let's leave the war crime bulldust and moral lecturing outside.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Why were there no troubles during the Trump years, and only now with the start of Biden's Democrat tenure we see a sudden flare up ?

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

The Israeli Government likes to associate any Criticism of it with being anti-Jewish, and continually reminds us of the Holocaust. Its like they can do no wrong, and continually show this "Get out of Jail" card whilst looking for Sympathy... they even have had Countries sign up to this belief and make any criticism of Israel a hate crime...

Anyway, what more can I say. Don't want to be breaking any Laws now....

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Issues surrounding Muslims seems to be increasing dramatically in reason days and you have the situation in India where the left-wing is blaming the right wing for everything with undertones of supporting Muslims. Any news outlet that forces one side of the story like this one just fuels more Islamophobia and plays into the hands of the right wing. I am quite sure that Kamala Harris will become the scapegoat of the Democrats and they will do nothing to help the situation move forward.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

mmwkdwMay 15  09:15 pm JST

Why were there no troubles during the Trump years, and only now with the start of Biden's Democrat tenure we see a sudden flare up ?

Think again. When Trump and his daughter-wife were at the new embassy opening in Jerusalem, tensions got so high that Israel tear-gassed Palestinians en masse big time. The crap hit the fan. But this sudden 'flare-up' has zero to do with Joe Biden or anyone in America.

HAMAS is not Islam and Israel is not Judaism. Look at the last picture in the gallery showing an Israeli soldier harassing mosque worshippers. Shameful. Benjamin Netanyahu has been convicted of a crime and he's starting this crap up as an excuse to divert attention. HAMAS is fanatical terrorist scum but look at the fighting, the Palestinian women, children, civilian men killed. People who did nothing to deserve it.

And nobody is winning anything in this stupid war. It'll solve nothing, it's good for absolutely nothing.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

But so is collective punishment, destroying civilian infrastructure, the disproportionate use of force, and failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants, war crimes that Israel commits.

Hamas is launching hundreds of rockets indiscriminately at Israel and when they respond with precision weapons at military targets the Left points at the Jews and calls them war criminals. What kind of twisted logic leads people to think this way? It’s as if the Jews are evil because they are unwilling to sit back and allow themselves to be killed. There is a sick strain of anti-Semitism that is coursing through Leftist politics impervious to reason or even common sense.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The abyss gazes also into you.” Israel is now gazing into Gaza.

Hamas’s goal is the elimination of Israel. Hamas is supported by Palestinians in Gaza. How do you suggest Israel prevent Hamas who are right now launching rockets at civilians all over their country?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

It’s as if the Jews are evil because they are unwilling to sit back and allow themselves to be killed.

No, the Israeli government is evil because they continue to steal homes and land forcing more Palestinians to become refugee's in their own land. Because the law in Israel is applied differently between Jewish citizens and Arab citizens. Because the force used against the Palestinians is way out of proportion and targets citizens and infrastructure more than militants. Destroying an international media center in Gaza to minimize news and pictures of destruction from getting to the world.

The Government of Israel is a terrorist organization as far as I am concerned and they are more guilty of war crimes than anything Hamas does in self defense and for Palestinian survival.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Hamas’s goal is the elimination of Israel.

Israel's goal is the destruction of the Palestinians and the eventual ownership of all Palestinian lands.

Hamas is supported by Palestinians in Gaza.

Israels government is supported by Israelis throughout Israel.

How do you suggest Israel prevent Hamas who are right now launching rockets at civilians all over their country?

Stop building in Palestinian territories, stop evicting Palestinians from their homes and taking their lands, erecting walls to separate Palestinian land and dismantle the walls making Gaza a ghetto/prison. Open true, friendly dialog. Implement the two state solution and help rebuild the Palestinian infrastructure to show your serious about living in peace with and assisting Palestine into the future.

Be a good neighbor instead of a really bad neighbor. Sadly that is not what Israel is interested in becoming.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Israel's goal is the destruction of the Palestinians and the eventual ownership of all Palestinian lands.

Israel would settle for an end to continuous and un-ending terrorist attacks against its citizens. If Palestinians would have accepted the state of Palestine granted by the UN their would be no conflict. Hamas will not accept a Palestinian state along side a Jewish state. That’s the entire problem. Israel has accepted several two state peace offers but the Palestinians always end up rejecting them. Why? The answer is obvious- they don’t want the existence of any Jews in the region.

Palestinians to become refugee's in their own land. 

Palestinians are refugees because they rejected a state of their own and because neighboring Muslim states will not accept them as immigrants.

Because the law in Israel is applied differently between Jewish citizens and Arab citizens.

Because the Muslims would vote the Jews out of existence.

Because the force used against the Palestinians is way out of proportion and targets citizens and infrastructure more than militants. 

Because Hamas purposefully uses civilian buildings such as schools, hospitals, and media locations as part of their terrorist efforts. Israel doesn’t do that. The Israeli military regularly call the occupants of these buildings ahead of time to save lives. Does Hamas extend the same courtesy to Israelis before launching rockets at them by the thousands?

The Government of Israel is a terrorist organization as far as I am concerned and they are more guilty of war crimes than anything Hamas does in self defense and for Palestinian survival.

You are only supporting terrorism as a solution to the Palestinians unwillingness to accept the existence of Israel.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Israel has accepted several two state peace offers but the Palestinians always end up rejecting them. Why?

They both came with restrictions on their sovereignty. No right for a military, no control over air space or sea space. That would be unacceptable if it was reversed and would be unacceptable to any nation.

Because the Muslims would vote the Jews out of existence.

You cant vote other citizens out of existence you have laws equally applied to everyone. They could vote for different leadership and change. They have a right to vote.

Because Hamas purposefully uses civilian buildings such as schools, hospitals, and media locations as part of their terrorist efforts. Israel doesn’t do that. The Israeli military regularly call the occupants of these buildings ahead of time to save lives. Does Hamas extend the same courtesy to Israelis before launching rockets at them by the thousands?

They use high rise building to extend the range of the missiles. They leave immediately but Israel demolishes them later anyway, knowing there are no militants there at the time. If Hamas knew exactly where their rockets would land as the Israeli's do, they might just do so, just for the moral points.

You are only supporting terrorism as a solution to the Palestinians unwillingness to accept the existence of Israel.

I support the right of self defense for Palestinians being stripped of their lives and future's by the terrorist Israeli government. Some like to support the apartheid, terrorist Israeli government with its continuous persecution of Palestinians in their own land.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

" A land without a people for a people without a land'. Well, Israel is sure making good on their commitment to a land without a people, particularly in Gaza.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Some like to support the apartheid, terrorist Israeli government with its continuous persecution of Palestinians in their own land.

Apartheid. That was finally ended in South Africa in 1994 by peace. It was finally stopped in Kosovo (then run by Serbs) in 1999 thru war. It's been happening in Myanmar against the Rohignya since 1962 and now it's become a genocide. And it's happening to the Palestinians and it's another stupid war where there are no winners.

Netanyahu has been indicted of criminal offenses and he's using this apartheid as an excuse to launch this idiotic war to divert attention from his misgivings. He is scum. But so are the fanatical Hamas. They are scum. And you have Israelis and Palestinians in the midst of it all who don't want this crap. Rock and a hard place.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites