Israeli/Palestinian conflict

The problem is not just the territory but also because Al Aqsa Mosque (IIRC) is now standing on the rubble of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. The Jews want their temple rebuild and they would kill for it because that place is the promised place where God would make his presence when the temple is built as written in the Old Testament. Israel will always claim the land as theirs for that's what was written in the book. Unreasonable killing? that's religion for ya.

AND the Palestines would kill so that the Al-Aqsa Mosque wouldn't be demolished. The mosque holds a significance for muslims in that it's the first qibla for the muslims. That's what written in the book.

And it's the Israeli government(The Chief Rabbinate to be precise) themselves who restricts Jews of any access to the holy site.

Strange? Oh yeah.

IMO, this is a perfect example of "using a sledgehammer to swat a fly".

Israel has the right to defend its people, but they've taken this "retaliation" business way too far. They're bombing the homes of suspected Hamas members and just basically swinging the hammer at everything they see. For goodness sake, they blew up a freaking mosque, which killed 20 people, most children.

And lately, Israel has been looking like a real ass. You know something's up when one of the candidates for the office of Prime Minister claims that he has killed more Palestinians, and there are actually people who will flock to him.

As I said before. These types of people will stock weapons and ammo inside hospitals, schools, mosques,etc. Hamas does care about civilians especially the lives of children since they clearly put them in danger. Their "public" station play children shows that promote suicide bombing.

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1726

Not to mention the mentally challenged

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UHNN081&show_article=1

Attacking schools
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-forces-foil-suicide-bomb-attack-on-school-575594.html



So let me ask you this. What is worse?

Teaching children that suicide bombing is "fun", using the mentally handicapped as bombs, using young men and women to blow themselves up on buses, in market places and in schools which are civilian targets NOT military.

Or

Bombing a few places which you suspect hold rockets that have been fired on your countrymen for years?

Feel free to try and give the "pro" side of the suicide bombings of civilians and teaching children that becoming a martyr is "fun".

Teaching kids that suicide bombing is a good thing and they should to it too is just wrong any terrorist group that to this should be stop. people who due this are just monsters when is it good to teach children that suicide bombing are ok but i also believe that before Israel attacks a place that they believe has rockets,bombs,etc they need to have hard evidence because if they attack and there was nothing there it makes you think why would they attack there if there was nothing and did they had any evidence

Wow i want to flame the terrorists so badly but I guess i'd better not. If i do so, it'll bring me down to their level?

One thing's for sure, I do not want to live near the terrorists.. that footage makes me feel kinda sad for the kids watching it.

coz' it's convenient

using the hamas as the culprit they can attack israel freely and they won't take care of it coz' the hamas give the palestinian someone yo blame for the attack on israeli

so i highly doubtthat palestina'll take hamas problem int consideration

well~~ the first time i don't support anyone.... but after i watch the news in TV. the news tell that The Israel have killed so many innocent people.... of course i'm mad! War is already ugly... so why the innocent must die too just because of silly territory....

for me the solution is.... Kill the leader... save the Innocent... make a territorial line that guarded by UN and end the war! peacefully if it can.... in all war the leader is the troublemaker...

A few ideas that have been floating around are:

After Israeli forces destroy the ability for Hamas to send rockets into Israel. Destroy their smuggling tunnels (which the rockets and other things enter into Palestine). Basically, "cripple" Hamas then they will withdraw their forces since they have no intention to occupy Palestinian territory. The create a "demilitarize" zone in which U.N. peace keepers will be in charge of keeping the peace.

To first understant the situation even slightly:

#1 we cannot look situation by using western idea and western cultural background to judge situation.

#2 you need to understant Islam and judaism, their holy scriptures and history of the place to get some idea what is really going on.

There are few problems that western peoples do not understant:

1) The palestine, that derivate Roman province of Filistea, southern part of that was Judea. After 2nd jewish rebellion and after its qualling violently by X legion, including Massacre Masada and destruction of Jerusalem, Romans wanted to whipe out memory of Judea from the peoples memory. A lot key figures of rebellion came from Judea. Romans renamed big part of Judea and neighbouring province as Filistea, to honour Foinicians.

Roman's ( Emperor Trajan ) also used same thing against 2nd Dacian campaign against King Danace and is Capitol Sarmitsegethusa.

2) Significance of Eastern Jerusalem. Muslim's Jerusalem is 3rd Holiest site, after Mecca and Medina. Dome of the rock and Mosque of Al-Aqsa are there. Temple mountain is also site where Muhammed according legend rose into Sky.

To Jewish, that is the place, where The Temple can be build. Western aka Wailing wall all that is left from the sacred Temple, that was destroyed X legion.

To western peoples, whom are not that religious and have come more secularic, idea of such holy places be worth of blood is... beyond our imagination.

Generally speaking, Eastern-Jerusalem means more to average Jewish or Muslim that Manga or anime collection to average Otaku.

Eastern Jerusalem is reason why Arabs want -67 borders back and Jewish don't. Jewish are affraid that in current world situation arabs would destroy even what little would be left of the Temple, the whailing wall.


To actual Topic:
However, after Cease fire ended, Hamas started shooting rockets, even during CeaseFire Hamas had shot rockets. Israel anounced wednesday that unless rocket fire would cease, israel would start action. By Saturday, nothign had happened, except rockets fell on Sderoth and Ashkaloth.

Hamas had 3 days to stop rocket fire. Did they? No. Hamas brough this one on themselves. Simply: Hamas cannot rule as civilain government. It doesn't know how to handle basic civilian necessities or uphold basic infrastructure, like Hizbollah. In order to draw attention aaway from Hamas' own internal compitence, they needed again external threat from ISrael.

I just wonder how many palestinains have Hamas killed, since last summer. Lot's died during the coup and there were reports of killing Fatah members afterwards

This one is completely Hamas' fault and cannot be otherwise seen. Hamas had 3 days to stop rocket fire and it did not do that.

News are always biased when it comes from that area. I can't tell wether there are dozens of dead or hundread dead civilain. But what seems to be clear, even from Hamas' and palestinains records, hundreds of Hamas' members, members of hamas security forces, armed wings, and members of armed groups have been killed.

UNRAW estimation 42-60 civilians died when casualties were 350+ few days ago.

It just escalated.

Fix'd

Also to provide a visual example

The US a taking a big gamble by blocking the ceasefire resolution. If it works, then Hamas may be eliminated with minimal damage to US public image. However, if this thing drags on and civilian casualties mount, then things could get really ugly on a global scale.

Send in the Gundam Meisters from Celestial Being to quell the situation! LOLZ

Well, joking aside...Just like what thejumpa said, the news can be biased about these things, so please excuse me if I say something offensive or somewhat wrong.

In the way I see it, the extremists for both sides are the real problems here. IMO those extremists who are closed to changes are just using religion as an excuse in order to justify their killings. This in turn contradicts the function of religion of being a "binder" of society and people. Even though, that each sides' scriptures are holy, I believe that man has the power to change his destiny and has the capacity to stray from being dictated upon these scriptures or we can call them as teachings.(Though you'll be labeled as a "sinner" or something when you go against teachings } But isn't it a wee bit disturbing if you are taking away the lives of others, just so that you won't be labeled as a "sinner" or a "heretic"?

I may sound silly, but here is a question that I've been thinking about... "What would happen if the Israelites and Palestinians exchanged Holy scriptures and just stopped to look at the contents of each one?" Would it lead to understanding or more chaos?

I really can't come up with a viable solution since I'm still struggling to get a clear view regarding the problem. All I know is that territory and having a closed mind towards change are the roots of this conflict.

Obviously, no one's going to defend terrorism. I feel sympathy toward Israel's plight; at the same time, the situation in Gaza has resulted in a high death toll and as Israeli forces have pushed deeper into the Gaza strip, the humanitarian situation has worsened. While attempting to destroy Hamas leaders (who unfortunately live mixed in with the civilian population), many innocent people have also been killed, which makes Israel's actions hypocritical.

"The Palestinian death toll rose to roughly 507, with more than 2,000 wounded, including many civilians, according to United Nations and Palestinian health officials." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010400743.html) Meanwhile, the number of Israelis killed since the invasion-- 4.

Israel claims that the region does not face a humanitarian crisis, yet their words are belied by UN spokesmen, one of explains: Too many civilians have already died. Women and children and babies are dying, and it has to stop, as the U.N. secretary general has said," said Christopher Gunness, a U.N. spokesman. "We in the U.N., who have 9,000 or 10,000 workers on the ground, are in a much better situation to determine whether there is a humanitarian crisis, which there is, than Israel, which views Gaza through the lens of high-altitude bombers.


Sadly, The UN lacks teeth, so they do a poor job at enforcing resolutions. Meanwhile, Israel has restricted food, medicine and other supplies to the strip as a way of trying to starve out Hamas members, but as you can imagine, this is having a terrible effect on the rest of the population (there's about 1.5 million people living in Gaza).

Gunness, the spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, said fuel shortages are worsening and hospitals are running on emergency generators. Electricity is growing scarce. About 250,000 people are without drinking water, he said, and he predicted that wheat flour would run out in three days.

"Gaza has been bifurcated by this offensive. We can't get food up to the north," Gunness said. "In anyone's book, this is a humanitarian crisis."


"Don't kill innocent people. If you do, we will strike back and kill innocent people too." <-- I know this is a simplification of the situation, but this is what is basically happening. Ground assault in the Gaza strip will lead to more civilian deaths and massive infrastructural damage. What will be left of the desperately impoverished land? Not much, but there will be a series of consequences that will exacerbate the problems of this region for years to come.

---

A foreign Red Crescent doctor said on Sunday: "Civilians are being killed ... shells are severing people's legs, shrapnel is going into people's bodies and into people's homes, a lot of people are being cut down. Everyone is terrified."

Blasts rocked Gaza overnight after Israeli soldiers moved into a northern zone. A tank shell killed three children and their mother in their home in Gaza City, medics said. An air strike killed a man as he sat in a relative's mourning tent.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2008/12/31/GA2008123102467.html

While I agree on the fact that the U.N. lacks any real ability to enforce resolutions. I disagree on the restrictions of food, medicine and other supplies. Either earlier today or late yesterday (I forget the difference in time between here and there) they opened up the boarders and sent in truckloads of food, and medical supplies.

Something I would like someone to answer is: Why does Hamas a known terrorist group get sympathy over the bombings when Israel has been bombed and attacked repeatedly for decades and barely anybody even raised their voice? Can somebody please explain this to me?

Hamas has already stated that they will not agree to a new ceasefire.

Hamas is the real criminal here, he's letting the civilians die just so that he can survive and continue to hide like a wuss. The Jerk! IF he was playing halo3 i bet he'll be in hidden league gamer something.

Hamas isn't a person. It's an organization with several "branches". Each in different areas from Charity (accepting donations mostly), politics (the Hamas political party. Considered a fundamental extremist group what is common in the middle east), the terrorist aspect and a few others.