When does terrorism become war?

[mids2019]

Looking at the news this morning I think the media are finding it difficult to register Palestinian attacks as a terrorism event or simply an attack of one state against another.

I suppose whether you view 5000 tickets as a terrorist atrocity or a declaration of war is dependent on your views on whether Palestine can ever be a functioning state. We plainly in Europe would describe such events as terrorism in that civilian populations have been targeted but in the eternally challenged middle East the use of such a word has political connurtations.

Is this a terrorist attack on Israel?

Deliberately targeting and murdering civilians, and then filming yourselves celebrating, are not the actions of desperate people and they are not "desperate things". They are atrocities, and the videos are all over the internet. You can defend the killers, but the evidence is right there, I'm afraid, and people seeing them will make their own judgements.

@Truthisbetterthanlies
I have sympathy for any innocent civilian in any conflict - you assumed that I didn't despite me not saying otherwise!

Palestinian civilians have been attacked and killed by the Israelian army for years and years and years. They were never called terrorists.

Honestly, there seem to be a big propaganda campaign (and mass hysteria) going. The violent retaliation has already begun and 100s of Palestinians have already been killed (it will be thousands before the end of the day, won't it?) and people won't bat an eyelid because "terrorists". I already see calls to wipe out Palestinians and a whole one sided narrative being created.

The killing of civilians on both side is unacceptable. The Hamas has no right to touch a hair of any Israeli civilian and I am deeply saddened by any loss. But this is just the next step in a conflict. This was a disaster waiting to happen. And now let's watch Palestinians suffer immensely.

desperate people do desperate things?
The reporting of women being stripped
and murdered is "just propaganda"?
Seriously give your head a wobble if you think this isn't antisemitism.

Really? How blind those can be who don't wish to see. You don't have to look far. Second post in this thread is a typical example condoning the actions of terrorists:

Westfacing · Today 09:24

Palestinians are under occupation - it's gone on for so long that fact is often forgotten.

So if you're under occupation it's not terrorism to every few years rise up against the occupiers, IMO.

"Hamas has no right to touch a hair of any Israeli civilian and I am deeply saddened by any loss. But..."

Of course there's a 'but'. There always is for your sort.

THERE IS NO BUT.

Either you condemn terrorism, or you condone it, as you do here. Shame on you.

They are not anti-Semitic. They are not comments saying they wish these things happen to the Israeli community - they are saying in any conflict that actions like this CAN be rationalised by the people taking these actions.

I do think that people should be wary about labelling anything coming out right now (on either side) as propaganda - but I don't think this comment was anti-Semitic either. Maybe just reactionary - which is what most comments on here seem to be!

As long as they target military targets, Palestinians should have the right to defend themselves, no?

Or what do you offer they do to stop their land being stolen, their people being attacked and murdered and their basic rights being thrown out of the window?

I am not justifying anything.
I can understand that people who feel oppressed will want to fight back.

I can understand that in some people's view who live there, that the only way they can see to fight back is to attack Israel in any way they can.

It won't work. Sadly this is going to end badly for the Palestinian people.

During my life time, it seems that there have been lots of attempts at solutions, settlements being built, and life has not improved for the Palestinian people.

I have watched reports about the border, the blockade of the sea and just how difficult it seems to be to live in Gaza.

How does this end and what does the ending look like?

Indiscriminate attacks is terrorism (there's apparently footage of Israeli civilians being randomly shot at by Palestianis in jeeps).

Coming from Northern Ireland and having experienced what could loosely be called tribal warfare (obviouely nowhere near on the scale of this conflict), its just sad to see such pointless bloodshed. Taking sides is also pointless as this whole conflict is highly complex; much more so than the one we had.

@Truthisbetterthanlies Well, then, I condemn unequivocally Israeli terrorists killing Palestinian civilians and Palestinian terrorists killing Israeli civilians.

A question might be:

When is resistance terrorism?
When is protecting your country oppression?

I know how a blockade works @cakeorwine

Israel unilaterally withdrawing from the Gaza Strip commenced in 2005. Then a year later Hamas won a surprise victory in the first (and only) elections held in Gaza. This led to an armed conflict between Hamas and fellow Palestinian group Fatah, resulting in up to 600 deaths. Following the Hamas victory, Israel and Egypt coordinated a blockade of the Strip; this blockade was made permanent in 2007 after Hamas continuously aimed missiles at Israeli civilians (targeting civilians violates the Geneva convention, by the way)

What would you have done, had you been in charge? I’ll wait.

@BlurredEdges sorry about your friend & her children hopefully they'll be safe now as IDF have started moving civilians to shelters.
I seen the other thread and the antisemitism on it was shocking, glad it got pulled.

But you know that's not what's happening here, right? Have you just managed to completely miss the dozens of civilian hostages taken prisoner (a war crime), the Hamas soldiers going door to door murdering civilians (a war crime), the corpse of the stripped Israeli woman being desecrated (spat on) by Palestinians (a war crime), the Israeli soldiers being beaten up and taken hostage (a war crime)?

Why are you overlooking/condoning these things?

I don't comment on every military engagement between Israel and Hamas. But this is not a normal military engagement - very far from it.

If you haven't realised that, you really shouldn't be commenting at all.

Do you think the blockade is working or is it just exacerbating a situation and making it worse?

The rockets haven't stopped.

Here you go. ^^
First Anti-Semitic post on this thread from @QuacketyQuack ^^

The definition of Anti-Semitism adopted by many organisations including the UN, UK Government and the EU:

• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Reported.

Criticising the Israeli Government is not anti-semitism.

What anti-semitism did you see on there?

And I'm coming on to say that's a load of bollocks, and Israel is neither a terrorist state, nor committing apartheid.

And if it were true (which it isn't), IT WOULD IN NO WAY JUSTIFY THE MURDER OF ISRAELI CIVILIANS, MASS HOSTAGE-TAKING OR OTHER WAR CRIMES BY HAMAS.

And anyone who says it does needs to explain why they support war crimes when they're against Jews.

^^@ADiT
Another Anti-Semitic post reported.

All the many posts justifying war crimes against Israeli civilians.

Though all the 'surprised face I have no idea why this might be construed as antisemitic' posts come a close second.

how is saying Israel is a terrorist state anti semitic. When everyone saying Palestine are terrorists isn’t called islamaphobia. We can separate the government from their religion. Government should not have anything to do with religion.