Quote from a_person:
Hey, long time no see, still as ignorant as before and still siding with fundamentalists and terrorists, aren't you?
Of course, I also still eat babies!
Anyway let me answer your question - people who criticize Israel only, who never approve of anything Israel does, who never criticize any other country (with the exception of the US perhaps) and certainly never criticize Israel's enemies, people who overlook/excuse gross human right violations all over the world, who ignore and justify threats and attacks against Israel but demonize Israel any time it tries to defend itself - these people tend to be Islamonazis and/or Jew-haters.
But you're missing one little detail; those same people would turn on a dime if the situation turned and Israelis became the victims of a brutal occupation. It's not about supporting Muslims, most of us don't care the slightest bit about who's got the strongest religious right in the region. It's all about the oppression, the killing, the theft of land. Equating us with Islamists who demand Jerusalem to be returned to Muslims is pretty much useless, we don't give a damn about that one way or the other.
But if you have a better idea as to how Israel should have responded to 10,000 rocket attacks after it withdrew from Gaza 3.5 years ago, if you think Israel had better options after Hamas refused to extend the truce and escalated these attacks - feel free to criticize.
Yes, I do have a better idea. Instead of continually wrecking Palestinian homes [1] making complete families homeless, building a wall that eats up huge chunks of Palestinian land [2] and separates families (as opposed to building it the Israeli boarder), terrorizing children and old ladies in checkpoints [3] and overall killing people at a ratio ten times as high as that of terrorism by all Palestinian organizations and fractions combined [4] [5], the Israeli government should try to achieve peace by being
fair.
[1]
http://www.btselem.org/English/Punitive_Demolitions/Statistics.asp
[2]
http://www.btselem.org/English/Separation_Barrier/Statistics.asp
[3]
http://www.btselem.org/English/Freedom_of_Movement/Statistics.asp
[4]
http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Casualties.asp
[5]
http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2008.html
B'Tselem is not some jew-hating anti-semitic islamofascist source, it's an Israeli human rights organization which is well respected even in the Israeli Knesset.
This map pretty much sums up what the Palestinians lost and what they're fighting for:
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/israel-palestine map.jpg
I'm not saying Israel should drop their arms and accept terrorism, I'm simply saying they should be reasonable and fair. They should find solutions that actually work, they should not do everything in their power to escalate the conflict as they always seem to be doing. What's the point of placing out settlers who terrorize Palestinians and steal their land? What's the point of building a security wall on other peoples land? Why not put it on the actual border? How does the Israeli government figure they will end terrorism by demolishing homes of innocent people as part of collective punishment?
Just hours ago a family of 11 civilians was annihilated in Gaza. Only a nine months old child survived the attack, though she lost an arm:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/midtosten/article2850359.ece
Yesterday a family of seven was destroyed, except the father:
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/midtosten/artikkel.php?artid=535524
Can you explain to me, a_person, how these actions is supposed to stop terrorism against Israel? How is the father of those three children supposed to move on? He probably feels like ending his life already, what's to stop him from strapping on a bomb and go out hurting those who took his children in the process?
Israel needs to stop hurting innocent people, and start working for a viable, reasonable solution to the conflict. No, they haven't been doing this, as we've already discussed, all previous Israeli peace proposals are insanely unreasonable. If they actually make an effort, terrorism will disappear by it self because the Palestinians will no longer feel like these extremist bastards are the only ones actually protecting them and fighting for their rights.