Israel vs. Gaza round 99

[archibaldcrane]

erm, i mean, getting a little less population-dense every day amirite? I D F! I D F!

[Kuya]

I actually wondered that point recently. I wondered why Hamas bothers with the rockets and if they do it out of desperation. But then i realized that the israeli settlers left the gaza strip years ago and i wonder now if it was because of Hamas.

[Mazmaz]

Why would they settle in the piece of shit area known as Gaza when they can just take over West Bank?

[ringthree]

Why would they settle in the piece of shit area known as Gaza when they can just take over West Bank?

Honestly, there could be the opposite effect here. Since settlements have decreased in Gaza, the situation has grown worse there causing more radicalization. Yes, settlements are pretty stupid and ruin chances for peace with the Palestinians over all, but pragmatically they do bring economic development for both peoples. This is at least partially why there is a widening rift between Gaza and the West Bank. The West Bank is developing, Gaza is not.

[Edelweiss]

Developing for whom?

Yeah.

[ringthree]

Oh no doubt it is mostly to the benefit of Israeli's, but you would have to be blind to miss that it is benefiting the West Bank Palestinians as well. This is just speaking pragmatically, I do not believe that the settlements are a viable political situation.

[ringthree]

Other thing is - Israel always criticizes Hamas for hiding among civilian populations. ...but the Gaza strip has a population density of 9,713 people per square mile, making it the 6th most densely populated "country" in the world. It's about equal to the population density of Santa Monica or Staten Island. Where the fuck are the militants supposed to go that isn't surrounded by civilians?

You do have a good point about the population density of the area, but they also used to (not sure if they do it much anymore) launch rockets from schools and places like that because they thought it would deter Israeli retaliation.

[Gokku]

An Egyptian truce proposal for the conflict in Gaza quickly unraveled Tuesday, after the Islamic militant Hamas rejected the plan, Gaza militants fired scores of rockets at Israel and Israel responded with more than a dozen air strikes.

The speedy resumption of violence, less than a day after Egypt presented its cease-fire plan, illustrated that it will be harder this time than in the past to negotiate an end to Israel-Hamas fighting.

A key difference to a previous truce in 2012 is that Hamas does not trust the current rulers of Egypt who deposed a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo a year ago.

Israel had agreed to the Egyptian plan, proposed late Monday. Under it, a 12-hour period of de-escalation was to begin at mid-morning Tuesday. Once both sides agree to halt hostilities, they would negotiate the terms of a longer-term truce.

Gaza militants responded by firing dozens of rockets after the proposed start of the de-escalation, some of them reaching deep into Israel, though not causing injuries. Israel, which had warned it would strike Gaza harder than before if Hamas did not halt hostilities, held its fire for several hours, but resumed air strikes by mid-afternoon Tuesday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5587308.html

So.... tldr: Egypt - "why cant we be friends" Hamas -" FUCK YOU JIHAD TIME* Israel - " Bruh, you dont want his asswhoppin TRUST ME YOU DONT ust listen to egypt and we wont have issues...."

[ringthree]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5587308.html

So.... tldr: Egypt - "why cant we be friends" Hamas -" FUCK YOU JIHAD TIME* Israel - " Bruh, you dont want his asswhoppin TRUST ME YOU DONT ust listen to egypt and we wont have issues...."

At some point the West Bank is going to say fuck you to the Gaza and negotiate their own peace.

[Gokku]

9:15-End is mind blowing to see

[Correction]

IDF now launching ground invasion of Gaza. Good thing nobody's watching.

[Outlaw]

This whole situtation is just making Israel look like a bully. If Hamas fights the ground troops directly it's going to be a bloodbath.

[thetruepandagod]

Israel din't do nuffin.

[NynJa]

Israel din't do nuffin.

according to some of my jewish friends on facebook, Israel is always the victim. I've never seen someone say "dammit, this is gonna make us look bad".

[notorious bum]

That Vice video was tame compared to videos like these.

[Aurara]

according to some of my jewish friends on facebook, Israel is always the victim. I've never seen someone say "dammit, this is gonna make us look bad".

I say that on occasion. The fact of the matter is though, any action Israel would take would make it look bad, even if they didn't fight back, or as we can see here, protecting itself. Don't get me wrong, innocent people getting caught out and killed is awful, but if Israel DIDN'T fight back, it would be wiped off the face of the earth. Israel isn't that big, and is surrounded by countries that don't exactly like it, as we have seen in the past(Yom Kippur War, and the 6 Day war, both of which Israel was attacked at the start of and had to defend itself).

Edit: I'm pretty open to talk about my views on this topic, so if you want something clarified just ask nicely D:

[Andalusian girls]

the Six-Day War was precipitated by aggressive posturing on all sides but Israel started the shooting with a massive, preemptive air raid on Egyptian air fields + Israel's existence is no longer threatened by the surrounding Arab states. Syria and Iraq have collapsed into civil war, twenty years later Lebanon is still attempting to recover from their own cataclysmic civil war, Jordan sits in the corner praying no extremist winds blow their way, the Saudis could care less about the Jews now that they have a Shia bloc to obsess over, and Egypt has transformed into the closest thing Israel has to a regional friend.

digression aside Israel is playing into Hamas's hands with this invasion. they cannot hope to forcefully crush an asymmetric insurgent organization without a full-blown hearts & minds occupation, which they will not (and probably could not) do, and Hamas appears to be doing everything they can to ensure their own civilians are killed as telegenically as possible in order to engender support for their cause among the observing world. Israel's stated military goal is to disband the tunnel network Hamas uses to maneuver men and material throughout the strip. an invasion over a tunnel network. even if successful give a few dozen Mexicans some shovels and it'd be up and running within a week of Israel's inevitable withdrawal.

Israel should be doing everything conceivably possible to improve the standard of living in the West Bank (which in uncoordinated fits and starts they have been) until indigenous Gazan actors recognize Hamas as the primary impediment to their well-being and turn on them. there is no possible military solution for the Palestinian problem.

[Correction]

Israel shelled a hospital last night. I don't know how much stock I'm going to put in the canned 'Israel must defend itself' responses to today's invasion.

[notorious bum]

Israel is systemically destroying civilian infrastructure. Hospitals, schools, homes, transformers, sewage and water. There is no rhyme or reasoning, never has been. It's thinly-veiled genocide.

All the reporters in Gaza right now are living in a fucking nightmare. Israel tells journalists to evacuate, like the civilians....but there's no fucking where to go inside a walled prison with missiles and shells coming from every direction.

Their tweets are fucking horrifying.

[Byrthnoth]

Israel shelled a hospital last night. I don't know how much stock I'm going to put in the canned 'Israel must defend itself' responses to today's invasion.

Whoa now, they already hit most of their targets with strategic precision and now they're just taking care of survivors. You have to accept that there is going to be some collateral damage in semi-war.