1) The Gaza Strip isn't occupied by Israel
Boston Globe: "Israeli-imposed buffer zones.. now absorb nearly 14 percent of Gaza's total land and at least 48 percent of total arable land. Similarly, the sea buffer zone covers 85 percent of the maritime area promised to Palestinians in the Oslo Accords, reducing 20 nautical miles to three."
Human Rights Watch: "Israel also continues to control the population registry for residents of the Gaza Strip, years after it withdrew its ground forces and settlements there."
B'Tselem, 2013: "Israel continues to maintain exclusive control of Gaza's airspace and the territorial waters, just as it has since it occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967."
1.) Those alleged 14% buffer zones are not occupied, but remain a demilitarized zone. Or tell me, is South Korea also "occupying" North Korea?
2.) Control of population registry is occupation? Whaaaat?
3.) Control of airspace? Gaza doesn't even have an airport, and aside from their terror-rockets, they don't have any aircraft either. As such, the "control of their airspace" is funny.
2) Israel wants a ceasefire but Hamas doesn't
Al Jazeera: "Meshaal said Hamas wants the 'aggression to stop tomorrow, today, or even this minute. But [Israel must] lift the blockade with guarantees and not as a promise for future negotiations'. He added 'we will not shut the door in the face of any humanitarian ceasefire backed by a real aid programme'."
Jerusalem Post:
Their demands are laughable.
If I demanded that the United States release 1000 prisoners, would you think it's an "okay demand" and "nothing too serious"?
Same goes for the alleged blockade - if Gaza Muslims invest all of their money into weapons, then the state of Israel has every right to block all imports of weapons grade material.
Israel wanted to continue the cease fire through Monday, Hamas didn't want to. Now there will be more dead terrorists and, sadly, more dead human shields.
3) Israel, unlike Hamas, doesn't deliberately target civilians
The Guardian: "It was there that the second [Israeli] shell hit the beach, those firing apparently adjusting their fire to target the fleeing survivors. As it exploded, journalists standing by the terrace wall shouted: 'They are only children.'"
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay: "A number of incidents, along with the high number of civilian deaths, belies the [Israeli] claim that all necessary precautions are being taken to protect civilian lives."
United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, 2009: "The tactics used by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza offensive are consistent with previous practices, most recently during the Lebanon war in 2006. A concept known as the Dahiya doctrine emerged then, involving the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations. The Mission concludes from a review of the facts on the ground that it.. appears to have been precisely what was put into practice."
Sure. The old "Israel is trying to commit genocide."
That's why they're phoning ahead and distributing leaflets. Because they want to maximize casualties.
I lol'd at that.
4) Only Hamas is guilty of war crimes, not Israel
Human Rights Watch: "Israeli forces may also have knowingly or recklessly attacked people who were clearly civilians, such as young boys, and civilian structures, including a hospital - laws-of-war violations that are indicative of war crimes."
Amnesty International: "Deliberately attacking a civilian home is a war crime, and the overwhelming scale of destruction of civilian homes, in some cases with entire families inside them, points to a distressing pattern of repeated violations of the laws of war."
It might be that Israeli soldiers have committed war crimes. War is terrible and there will always be mixups and even power-baboons who abuse their position for some personal revenge.
The difference is that while Israel investigates these incidents and brings the responsible individuals to justice, Hamas and Muslims in Gaza seem to cheer on the deaths of any Israeli man, woman, or - as we have just seen last month - child.
5) Hamas use the civilians of Gaza as 'human shields'
Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor: "I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel's accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields."
The Guardian: "In the past week, the Guardian has seen large numbers of people fleeing different neighbourhoods.. and no evidence that Hamas had compelled them to stay."
The Independent: "Some Gazans have admitted that they were afraid of criticizing Hamas, but none have said they had been forced by the organisation to stay in places of danger and become unwilling human-shields."
Reuters, 2013: "A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields."
I heard ISIS is a free state that only executes murderers.
Let me post that on my blog.
6) This current Gaza conflict began with Hamas rocket fire on 30 June 2014
Times of Israel: "Hamas operatives were behind a large volley of rockets which slammed into Israel Monday morning, the first time in years the Islamist group has directly challenged the Jewish state, according to Israeli defense officials.. The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that Hamas had
probably launched the barrage in revenge for an Israeli airstrike several hours earlier which killed one person and injured three more.. Hamas hasn't fired rockets into Israel since Operation Pillar of Defense ended in November 2012."
The Nation: "During ten days of Operation Brother's Keeper in the West Bank [before the start of the Gaza conflict], Israel arrested approximately 800 Palestinians without charge or trial, killed nine civilians and raided nearly 1,300 residential, commercial and public buildings. Its military operation targeted Hamas members released during the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011."
Yeah, do I really need to provide the Wikipedia link?
Wiki Google: Rocket Attacks into Palestine
Hey! If you can't argue with facts, then choose different "facts" from dubious websites that fit your claim!
7) Hamas has never stopped firing rockets into Israel
Jewish Daily Forward: "Hamas hadn't fired a single rocket since [2012 Gaza conflict], and had largely suppressed fire by smaller jihadi groups. Rocket firings, averaging 240 per month in 2007, dropped to five per month in 2013."
International Crisis Group: "Fewer rockets were fired from Gaza in 2013 than in any year since 2001, and nearly all those that were fired between the November 2012 ceasefire and the current crisis were launched by groups other than Hamas; the Israeli security establishment testified to the aggressive anti-rocket efforts made by the new police force Hamas established specifically for that purpose.. As Israel (and Egypt) rolled back the 2012 understandings - some of which were implemented spottily at best - so too did Hamas roll back its anti rocket efforts."
Oh, that's convenient. They are the governing body of "poor small Gaza" and command the security forces, yet they apparently have no responsibility for other Jihadi groups?
Oh, right, Hamas - those peace guys. Sure sure.
8) Hamas provoked Israel by kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers
."
Go ahead and read the news before the conflict. Hamas had called for the kidnapping of Israelis far before the kidnapping of the three boys.
Of course you don't know that, since you only started reading those blogs once the Israelis decided to defend themselves.
9) Hamas rule, not Israel's blockade, is to blame for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip
US State Department cable: "Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.. Israeli officials have confirmed.. on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge."
The Guardian: "The Israeli military made precise calculations of Gaza's daily calorie needs to avoid malnutrition during a blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and mid-2010, according to files the defence ministry released on Wednesday under a court order.. The Israeli advocacy group Gisha.. waged a long court battle to release the document. Its members say Israel calculated the calorie needs for Gaza's population so as to restrict the quantity of food it allowed in."
10) The Israeli government, unlike Hamas, wants a two-state solution
Times of Israel: "[Netanyahu] made explicitly clear that he could never, ever, countenance a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank.. Amid the current conflict, he elaborated, 'I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.'"
Let me put it this way: If you relinquish control of the Gaza strip completely in 2005 and they decide to elect a terror organization that indoctrinates youth with the Muslim ideology of "needing to exterminate every Jew", then obviously you might not want to grant these people a state.
What more does Gaza need to become a full-fledged state? They already have autonomy in the sense of self-governance, self-administration and autonomous security.
Oh, they need an army? For what, now? To eradicate more Jews?
11) All serious analysts agree it was Hamas, and not Israel, that started this current conflict
Nathan Thrall, senior Mid East analyst at the International Crisis Group, writing in the New York Times: "The current escalation in Gaza is a direct result of the choice by Israel and the West to obstruct the implementation of the April 2014 Palestinian reconciliation agreement."
Henry Siegman, former national director, American Jewish Congress, writing for Politico: "Israel's assault on Gaza.. was not triggered by Hamas' rockets directed at Israel but by Israel's determination to bring down the Palestinian unity government that was formed in early June, even though that government was committed to honoring all of the conditions imposed by the international community for recognition of its legitimacy."
Yes, sure, "determination to bring down..." blah.
I can be determined to stop Al-Qaida, but that won't cause them to suddenly implode.
The question is not who is "determined", but who actually acts. And the fact is that Hamas has acted in the sense of continuous rocket fire.
Look at their charta. What do you have to say about that?
Follow Mehdi Hasan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mehdirhasan
Follow ISIS on twitter!
Follow HAMAS on twitter!
Buddy, you need to cut down on the one-sided news.
Not that Western news outlets aren't one-sided either... I prefer the Russian or Chinese outlets because they have no intention of painting Israel white. And surprisingly, they also agree that Hamas is keen on killing Jews and that Israel has been very reluctant in this conflict.
Get a neutral source.
Get good arguments.
Stop posting opinions and then claim they are facts.
