With the near legendary accusation that all Heathens are racists, it might surprise people that a Heathen would actually support the Jewish state. Given my mixed history with Judaism as a religion and my record of viciously despising the god of said people (which I don’t know how much that’s really softened when it comes down to it), it might surprise people that I personally support the state of Israel. And with all the reports of Israeli abuse and murder of Palestinians, a lot of people wonder how anyone can support Israel.
While I am prepping a larger article that might go out on this subject, I’m going to make a few brief points to show why I stand where I stand.
1) People like to point at the death counts to show that Israel is the bad guy. As of the last report I heard yesterday morning before work the Israelis stated that only about 50 of their soldiers had died in this current conflict (which I think has lasted a couple weeks this time) while according to the Palestinians hundreds, maybe a thousand, of their civilians have died. Though they won’t let outside observers in to actually do a count, just reporters to take pictures.
Notice that none of their soldiers have apparently died. More on that later
2) Hamas had, at the start of this current conflict, fired I do believe 300 rockets into Israel without warning, targeting primarily civilian areas. Now, depending on the rocket in question (which if anyone can tell me I would appreciate) we can estimate that a shoulder fired could kill on average 5-10 people. Since none of these rockets hit based on Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missle system, I presume that these rockets were much larger, capable of taking out buildings and thus 100-1000 people, depending on the building. Thus Hamas has committed the attempted murder (for without a declaration of war, it can be nothing more than murder) of between 1500 – 300,000 people. Those people only live due to the superior defensive techniques of the Israeli military.
To give some scope of this, in the event of a Nuclear war, America attempted to create a similar system dubbed Star Wars. It was later abandoned because we would never be able to shoot down all the missiles, which probably would have been about 300 or less if I recall correctly.
3) In regards to civilian casualties of the Palestinians, it has long been recorded by both Israeli and American intelligence services that Hamas likes to use homes, schools, hospitals, government buildings, etc, to house their weapons. While most armies house their weapons in armories in an attempt to limit civilian casualties, Hamas is widely recorded to intentionally create armories in civilian targets so that civilians will be killed in the attempt to destroy those stockpiles. Hamas also tends to not wear military uniforms, an act which violates the Laws of War (yes, those exist). Recently, it had been reported in a few news outlets that Hamas will physically prevent Palestinian civilians from leaving an area at gun point so that they will die at Israeli hands for the sake of propaganda.
It is important to note that Israel goes so far as to make personal phone calls to everyone in an area they are about to strike to let people know they need to get out. This is an act unprecedented in any conflict. And they do it with plenty of time for people to get to safety. This isn’t call, then five seconds later, bomb. So unless the Palestinian people have the intelligence of lemmings, I would presume they would have the sense to get away from a bomb. This leads credence to the story that they are being held hostage by Hamas. I lost the link to the original story, I will try to find it at some point.
What Hamas has essentially done is strap women and children to their chests to create bullet proof vests, go charging in shooting, then claimed that when those people they attacked shot the person they strapped on are murderers.
4) Additionally, Hamas has been recently digging tunnels into civilian areas of Israel so they can pop up out of the ground and kill people. Since missiles don’t work, now they try mines (hah). Then when a cease fire was set up, Hamas sent suicide bombers to kill Israeli troops who were trying to remove those tunnels and on CNN a Palestinian official all but declared that the destruction of those tunnels was an Israeli act of war and was what broke the ceasefire, not the suicide bomber.
Please, think about that for a moment. Destroying tunnels to prevent enemy incursion and loss of civilian life was an act of war by Israel.
Conclusion: We have one group that uses their own civilians as hostages, digs tunnels for surprise attacks against civilians, uses missiles to attempt to kill thousands to hundreds of thousands of civilians, never declares its attacks, and whose state motto seems to be “Hitler’s Holocaust was only a good start”, vs a state that calls civilians before every attack (far exceeding the regulations of declaring war), has developed a missile defense system thought impossible to protect its civilians, and who despite dealing with this type of attack for over 70 years since its creation as a state, still tries to make peace and support its Palestinian citizens.
Who else could a man of Honor and Justice support?
Feel free to discuss in the comments.
Son of Hel 
As I said in my own blog post, a lot has to do with which news media you are believing and what historical truths you accept or ignore and how you interpret them. I respect you as a man of honour trying to find a truth and for taking a line which even in America maybe becoming unpopular or hard to justify. However I think yo are very mistaken in your conclusions. To address a few of your points briefly.
1) it is Israel and Israel only who decides which reporters and which other officials are allowed into Palestine to count the dead or do anything else. Since the now 7 year blockade, Israel totally controls all the boarders into Gaza by land and sea. They decide how much food, water and oil the Gasans are allowed and who is allowed through the check points. That is the reason that the Palestinans built the tunnels; to smuggle goods into the country (and yes that does include weapons to use against their oppressors). Egypt controls the southern border and they are no friends of Hammas either.
2) I think you will find the rockets Hammas are using are little more than fireworks; whereas Israel is using state of the art weopnary much of it supplied directly and sometimes free of charge by the USA. It really is David against Goliath but the Palestinians are David. I think when you check your facts you will also find that while it is true that Hammas rockets are sometimes fired into civilians centres, they are so ineffective that in all the years they have been using them they have caused less than a handful of fatalities. I would also add that depending on how you interpret history, Gaza and Palestine have every reason to fight for land that was blatantly stolen from them. It is not terrorism, it is the honourable thing to do.
3) when you see how tiny and overcrowded Gaza is on the map it is unsurprising that civilians and Hammas militia are in close proximity. However, given the sophistication of Israel’s weapons they could avoid a lot more civilian deaths if they wanted to. Oh yes, Israel sometimes warns neighbourhoods by phone before an attack. What that means is Palestinians are given some time to go somewhere else in this tiny territory while Israel reduces their homes to rubble. But they don’t always give warnings and on three occasions they have bombed U.N. Buildings and designated safe areas. They have now been called criminal and immoral by just about everybody including most recently by their closest ally, America.
LikeLike
You do make some valid points. Truly, no state is wholly good or evil.
I do not recall if I knew how strict the border control of Gaza is at the moment. If it is as strict as you say (and I have no reason to doubt what you believe true) that does explain the limits of news that gets out. That said, most reporting done by those allowed in is very pro-Palestinian. One of the things that causes me to lean towards Israel is the fact that they allow reporters who clearly do not support Israel into those areas which would make Israel look bad.
One thing that no one can deny is that Israel is always willing to try and make peace, and even allow things that do not make them look good to be spread. This is not the actions of a genocidal oppressor as many people like to portray them. With its sophisticated weaponry and intelligence network, Israel easily could have wiped out all of Gaza at any point in the last 20 years, and has the military power to make it so that no one could even hope to bring reprisals against them. I think it says much to their character that rather than do what has been done to them, they try to take a different path.
The same cannot be said whatsoever of Hamas.
As for the missiles in question, and their effective killing power, I’m still trying to figure out where to get that info from an unbiased source. But as I said above, even if they were basically RPGs (which seems unlikely, since any rocket that can be shot down by a defense system has to be of moderate size, which puts it well above “firecracker” territory) still could have killed at many as 1500 people.
I will give you that the land was “stolen” from them. Mostly because that is more or less true. But it wasn’t stolen by the Israelis. It was taken by the British and held for several decades, and when the British left they set up a Two State solution. The exact same solution everyone always seems to be calling for. The problem was is the instant the British left, the Palestinians attempted the complete genocide of the settled Israelis, even though both parties had agreed with the British to a two state solution. It was only through planning and sheer will power that any jews survived that attack, much less manage to not only maintain their state but then grow it to survive.
Gaza is sealed off that tightly because every year, every month, for pretty much 70 years, Palestinians either by themselves or in groups like Hamas killed Jewish civilians in the name of Islam, anti-semitism, and Palestine.
Yes, the sealing of a population is harsh, but to me it is the same as a bully being sent to a corner after he repeatedly beats up another kid, and then screaming that he is being oppressed by the time out.
And maybe the tunnel was to smuggle goods in that are needed. I’m sure it was used for that. I’m also sure that those tunnels were used to smuggle weapons and to initiate attacks on civilians.
You are right in that it is honorable to resist those who steal ones land. But there are Laws to war, codes of honor that must be followed. But Hamas doesn’t follow those rules, and doesn’t act with honor. If Hamas attacked only the Israeli military, their actions would be honorable. But they don’t, they always attack civilian targets first. Effective or not. They even at times will avoid military targets in order to attack civilian targets. This is dishonorable, not matter how honorable the motivation might be. That isn’t resisting your oppressors, it isn’t fighting for your lands. That is murder. That is terrorism. That is the exact same thing they claim Israel is doing. The only difference is that after 70 years of constant warfare, of constant genocide, Israeli citizens and military know how to defend themselves.
The reason Hamas is called terrorists isn’t just because of their tactics. In the Rule of War set down my mutual agreement, a person who doesn’t’ wear a uniform and engages in belligerent acts of war, is a terrorist. Since most Hamas deliberately do not wear uniforms when they attack, that violation of international law is what labels them as terrorists. At least if my reading of the laws is correct.
I know I’m not going to change your mind, and I don’t even want to try that. Yes, Israel could do much more to limit civilian casualties. Gods do I know that. But the tactics that in the long run would do that would be a full scale ground invasion by the Israeli army. Not in tanks, but individual soldiers on foot going door to door. The loss of life to both sides in the end would be far, far more terrible. Hamas would literally booby trap the entire area of Gaza, it would be like the American Vietnam war on steroids. Which is the reason Israel doesn’t do that. They could wipe out Hamas in a week, but the cost is too great to civilians of both Nations.
If Hamas, if Palestine, truly wanted peace they would stop the violence they commit. They could have a two state solution, or be fully integrated as Israeli citizens, which ever they wish. Israel has made peace with literally all of its neighbors, with nations that time and again have tried to finish the Holocaust. The only one left is Hamas. Israel has always attempted peace. But Hamas doesn’t, it wants genocide, and it is part of an Israeli-Palestinian war of over 70 years in length. If Israel was really the monster it is made out to be, tell me why it hasn’t done what ever nation ever placed in such a position has or would have done, and wipe out its foe?
LikeLike
Here is a concise history of the region which is as neutral as I have seen anywhere. The facts speak for themselves. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_ip_timeline/html/default.stm
LikeLike
Also, though not so neutral… http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/06/devastating-new-un-chart-proves-isreals-gaza-attack-was-a-war-on-civilians/
LikeLike
I have no doubts those numbers are correct. Of course, there was no mention that all those civilian areas had been used by Hamas to house and launch their rockets. CNN (one of the more liberal and rather pro-Palestinian news networks) was showing video captured of Hamas setting up a rocket station (and it wasn’t a small rocket) basically in the courtyard of a half dozen apartment buildings. 😛
I may have to go and add that link into my Magneto post though that I posted yesterday, since it kinda proves what I was saying.
LikeLike
“think you will find the rockets Hammas are using are little more than fireworks”
No amount of explosives are harmless. If you’re in the blast radius of a Qassam rocket without cover it will maim and kill you. The casualty rates aren’t higher not because these things aren’t dangerous, but because they lack effective guidance systems and consequently land where they land.
What Hamas is doing is the rocketry equivalent of firing a rifle randomly into a crowd. Israel’s aim just happens to be better when returning fire, and as the Dhali Lama has said if someone has a rifle and is shooting at you, it’s only reasonable to shoot back.
The Qassam is also the product of isolation, before which they got Katusha Rockets and other more technologically advanced designs flowed into the country from states that support terrorism.
” if Palestine, truly wanted peace they would stop the violence they commit. ”
There was a James Clavell Novel, though which profoundy stupid had one intresting part. Apparently some Palestinian studied Ghandi and the American Civil rights movement and made the novel move of using passive resistance against the Israelis instead of the usual Jihadi lunatic crap. They got their two-state solution pretty quick.
Pity there’s nobody whose figured that one out in real life. If you REALLY want to induce moral paralysis in an enemy who plays by rules, exploit them.
LikeLike