Robert Ariail for July 30, 2014

Netanyahu’s PR smokescreen.

BTW: The Nation has an article debunking all five of those myths.

Proving that nothing can penetrate the thick skull of your average liberal…

Not just Gaza. The West Bank as well… or at least what’s left of it.

http://www.thenation.com/article/180783/five-israeli-talking-points-gaza-debunked

Oh, Ariail, thank you for this one. It sums up the current debate very accurately

I think it is just a cultural difference. The Palestinians see rocket fire as a way to build a relationship with Israel. They think their grateful targets will institute an immediate cease fire to thank them,

The last decades have shown that Israel has no intention of halting the expansion of settlements, particularly in and around Jerusalem, and Hamas has no intention of ever recognizing the right of Israel to exist. Palestinians are in a no win situation. They can’t control their extremist elements and they can’t influence Israel to do those things needed to make the extremists back off. It is very much like our Legislature. Neither side will back down from their positions and both are willing to accept a certain amount, even an extreme amount of negative publicity and damage to the nation in order to get their way.^It occurs to me that if tunnels are the problem, wouldn’t it be simpler to just run hoses from the sea and fill them with water? As holes fill, the fighters would have to fight on the surface or flee for their lives. Markers could be placed in the water so electronic devices could track them below the surface and perhaps a map indicating ‘safe rooms’ and escape hatches be found.I am sympathetic to Israel. Without the Iron Dome, this current round of hostilities would have been much worse. Had half of the rockets fired by Hamas landed in populated areas, Israel would have likely turned Gaza into a parking lots, and the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands.^On a positive note, Hamas is helping to improve the quality of the anti missile system which, with tensions between us and our cold war neighbors increasing, will help us if we have to start using our own.^As a Abrahamic Christian, I have hopes that when all of these “Religious” leaders who are getting their people killed face their Creator, they will see Him with Abraham/Abram, Israel, Ishmael, Christ, & Muhammad standing nearby. Christians and Jews say God is Love. Muslims say Allah is compassionate and merciful.Let them be judged on the amount of Love, Compassion, and Mercy they displayed in life.Of course, if the Atheists are right, it won’t matter, but then we won’t care either. I have faith, and hope.Respectfully,Prayerfully,C.

Godwin already?

“… Conservatives in the USA happily supported extermination of Jews …”

Wow! Did you write that history book? It certainly is not in any VALID history book …

In other words, you are lying …

“Did you read that piece of lies? No wonder your brain doesn’t function well. You have to stop putting garbage in it…. That was yellow-journalism at its worse.”I didn’t endorse the article. Michael wme asked for a link to an article dtroutma posted about. I found the article and posted a link. That was the extent of it.Instead of showing us what a nasty little person you are by commenting on my brain’s functionality, you could have posted some thought out arguments against the points made in the article.

I looked through the cited Nation article and I saw a lot of weasel words and sophistry. The fact that Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel is not addressed; its response to the charge that Hamas uses human shields is “you have no proof, but even if that were you should somehow avoid hurting civilians anyway;” its response to the fact that Hamas initiated the attacks is to claim that this does not count because “diplomacy brought rocket attacks to a low level,” as though Israel is supposed to allow Hamas to shoot a certain number of rockets at its civilians at all times. It’s criticism of Israel’s right to self defense is based on a very legalistic interpretation of UN regulations that I have never seen applied to any other conflict. -tl;dr the article perfectly exemplifies the kind of mindset depicted in this cartoon.

Jase99: thanks for posting the link, as I hate doing that, rather reference a complete source and let ‘em look at alternative universes from the fog of fraud that passes for press here regarding anything that doesn’t follow the party (mostly TEA lately) line with respect to any non WASP view of who we really are, and what we (as in "We the corporate and special interest body) and our “friends” (who sell our secrets to China, and others) tell them to believe.

One wonders at the logic of ‘you throw a stone at me, I throw a hand grenade at you’ has worked out over the centuries. When I lived in Israel in the 1980’s I saw 6 year old Palestinian and Israeli children throwing stones at each other. And this was within 100 meters of the Wailing Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock.Ghandi and Mandella where are you?