re: Did Obama call for a cease fire when Hamas was shelling Israel?

Expecting Hamas to accept General Al-Sisi's deal would be like expecting Israel to accept Ayatollah Khamenei's deal. If anyone was going to put a deal on the table, it should have been Recep Erdogan, not someone like Al-Sisi who has an axe to grind.

Is it possible to have empathy for the Palestinian people and at the same time cheer on Israel to skull drag Hamas and kill every damn one of them?

All I see from the Israel haters is talk that supporting Israel means you want the Palestinian people to suffer. It's quite the opposite, I think the Palestinian people would be much better off if the IDF eliminated Hamas once and for all.

So by supporting Israel's counter-operation, I am supporting the Palestinian people.

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No, it doesn't. But many people recognize that the ultimate (and almost singular) goal of those "running" the Palestinian side is to kill Jews. Both short-term and long-term goal. I don't GAF about any "nation" which governs with these goals.

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How widespread do you think that sentiment is? I'm sure there are a number who do take this approach but I don't see that as a general opinion of the Palestinian people nor do I see Hamas exclaiming that as their singular ultimate goal. That sounds a bit like fear mongering. I think they are driven to "kill Jews" bc they believe it to be necessary to achieve their political goals given that Israel uses force to establish the current order. That's any geopolitical conflict. Granted they use terroristic means to do so. Hamas is radical but they have only recently come to power after decades of political domination at the hands of the Israelis. And this current operation isn't going to rid the Israelis of Hamas or other extremist groups and will likely increase Palestinian feelings of desperation.

I used to have a similar take on this conflict as many of you but it's simply ineffective in ever offering a more permanent stability. If the Palestinians are going to forever be subjected to Israeli political domination then this conflict will exist in perpetuity. That is not good for Israel's long term security either. Particularly with the possibility of a few radicals getting a hold of any form of WMD.

I agree the Israelis have completely legitimate security concerns as well, especially when dealing with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad radicals. But the aggressive advancement of Jewish settlements and destruction of Palestinian homes by Jewish extremists also inflames the resentment. And utter disregard for Palestinian life, which I've seen manifest itself amongst Christian conservatives in the US much less the Jewish conservatives in Israel, is equally as counterproductive to resolution as is the disregard of Jewish life from Palestinian radicals.

I simply view this carte blanche for Israel approach to be one sided and rather dangerous. It's a complex issue, which is why it has raged with little resolution since Israel was reestablished in 1948.

Israel is the more powerful force and power actors typically use their relative power to attain more favorable deals. That's clearly a fundamental aspect of geopolitics. But subjugated weaker actors will typically resist political domination through some means or other. Both sides have been obstinate at times in making concessions. That's where we've stood for better than half a century. Neither side has clean hands and both have conflicting interests. Israel also has other external security concerns in regard to larger state actors around her as well, further complicating potential compromises with the Palestinians. The whole thing is a complicated mess and the oversimplification and blind support for Israel's interests is unsound, that is my general opinion and reaction to much of the sentiment displayed on this board.

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So by supporting Israel's counter-operation, I am supporting the Palestinian people.

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But Hamas uses the Palestinian people as human shields and Israel gets blamed in the media for killing innocent Palestinians.

Just for the record, in the Hamas Charter:

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For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails.

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The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!

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And the Jews will not be pleased with thee, nor will the Christians, till thou follow their creed. Say: Lo! the guidance of Allah [himself] is the Guidance. And if you should follow their desires after the knowledge which has come unto thee, then you would have from Allah no protecting friend nor helper.” Sura 2 (the Cow), verse 120 There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.

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When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. This would require the propagation of Islamic consciousness among the masses on all local, Arab and Islamic levels. We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the [Islamic] Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters.

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LINK

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Maybe instead of violent means the Palestinians can gain some type of retribution through international diplomatic means? But we know that won't happen because their ultimate goal is the eradication of the Jews. They've hated the Jews way before the state of Israel was formed in '48.

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You are presuming the Israelis, the power actor, will voluntarily make concessions that satisfy the Palestinians interests yet may conflict with their own. Highly unlikely as the Israelis have displayed aggressive territorial ambitions in expanding settlements and displacing Palestinians. There is a religious component to all this, of course, that adds immense complication to any diplomatic resolution. And the radical Israelis certainly contribute to that as well.

And again, I think you are relying on immense oversimplification and propaganda by arguing that the Palestinians are only motivated by a desire to "eradicate the Jews."

Prior to 1948, what atrocities were being habitually committed against the Jews by Arabs in Palestine, or even elsewhere? A lot of this conflict stems from the British and French colonial rule of these areas following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent mass immigration of European Jews into the Palestinian mandate while under British control. Zionism and British treachery, in regard to permitting Arab self-governance, following the First World War are essential factors in creating this conflict. While Islam is certainly a religion apt for extremism, ethnocentrism and ethnic/religious supremacy is a strain within Judaism as well.

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wth is this?

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South Park reference.

Obama hates the Jews. Its so obvious.

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No, because they never really stop firing rockets for any length of time.

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Hamas did not launch a single rocket in 2013 or the first half of 2014. Your own chart shows a drastic drop in 2013, and like most ignorant I/P posters, you are blithely asserting that all rockets fired from Gaza come from Hamas. In fact, all the rockets in that period were launched by more extremist groups such as Islamic Jihad that were met either with arrests or killings by Hamas itself for breaking the post-Pillar ceasefire, or IDF strikes which Hamas did not respond to.

Israel responded to this 18 months of relative quiet by tightening the blockade and then in June, blaming Hamas without evidence for the murder of the three teenagers in the West Bank and detaining 300 of its people.

Do I believe Hamas are angels? Hardly. But this round of the conflict, in Gaza, is on Bibi. He ginned up this war with Hamas to undermine the unity government and because peace didn't suit his electoral math.