To be horrified re the 2000+ children killed in Gaza.

[SoShallINever]

The news tonight was unbearable.
I am sickened that the West is not calling for a ceasefire or some restraint.
I found out today that Gaza is almost exactly the same size as the small Hebridean island of Jura. But whereas Jura has a few hundred residents, Gaza has 2.4 million packed in. You couldn't throw a stone into Gaza without it hitting someone, never mind a missile.
The children of Gaza are not terrorists and I wish Israel would stop.

Gaza has a population density similar to London, has a lower population density than New York and is by no means the most densely populated place on Earth. Comparing it to Jura is a bit disingenuous. Why not choose a piece of land the same size in somewhere like Manila?

They’re also not entirely without electricity (lots of solar panels), food and water (Israel supplies around 10%). Hamas could have provided solutions to these problems and actually provided for and safeguarded their people instead of committing terrorist atrocities while sacrificing those same people.

It's appalling. Such inhumanity on both sides. Nothing justifies slaughtering innocent civilians

Many Jews do not support what Israel is doing and it’s wrong for you to conflate the two. In fact, many non Jews support Israel right now, so where do they sit? Jews are not responsible for Israel’s actions.

You are entirely correct and I apologise. I am heated, like most on this topic.

What I meant to say is "any Israeli or Jew who ..."

I am traditionaly a great supporter of Isreal and have spent many long months there over the years. I admire what it is trying to achieve and what it has achieved.

This is plain wrong.

You're in favour of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Shocking.

I've never been to Manila and know nothing about it, I've been to Jura several times. It's tiny.

It’s been running out for weeks now??

Well that’s just sexist nonsense.

You’re using emotive language here. There is of course no ethnic cleansing, but I guess you think it gets your point over if you throw that into your post. They are a country protecting their own people, which they have every right to do. Blame Hamas for the bombing taking place. They should be guiding and protecting their own like the Israeli government and army are doing. But they have abandoned them.

Honestly I’ve looked at my baby so differently these past few weeks and cry watching him sleep. those lifeless photos, names written on their hands, that poor man carrying a bag of his children’s remains, the thousands of bodies 💔 humanity is broken.

Imagine if tens of thousands of bombs rained down on New York or London or any city It would be carnage. Same as it is in Gaza. Only Gaza has been blockaded for years so they are much worse off to begin with.

Also you're telling lies about water in Gaza. Since 1967 Israel has controlled water in the occupied territories and has interfered with any attempts to build water infrastructure. Licences are required from the Israeli authorities and they never give them. They've also poisoned and destroyed wells in the past.

So that's why people are drinking sea water right now.

Bombing people and telling them to leave on threat of bombing is ethnic cleansing. That is just fact. Have a look at what happened in Bosnia in the 90s.

Thanks but I think I'll blame the army doing the bombing on this one.

How do you get to a place where you think bombing civilians is OK? I'd love to know. It's madness.

Bombing people and telling them to leave on threat of bombing is ethnic cleansing.

Telling people "Go South and we won't bomb you", then bombing south, is ethnic cleansing.

This is just devastating.

As the American expression has it, words are free, whisky costs money.

Israel fears for its very existence, as do the vast, vast majority of world Jewry, which supports Israel. They have to act. Militarily. There‘s no other option for them.

Nobody likes this conflict but let’s not pretend that it’s some sort of terrible one-sided thing. If terrorists hide behind civilians the deaths and horrors are on the terrorists, not on the people wishing just to exist.

Why is that the best you can hope for? How is that the best for the Palestinians?

Hamas should stop hiding away among civilians.

Totally agree

What Israel is doing is horrific.
Taking the terrorist actions of Hamas militants as an excuse to exterminate thousands of innocent women and children, while driving more than a million into the most horrendous possible living condition.

However, it is unreasonable to conflate what Israel is doing with the views of Jews around the world - I for one am completely appalled. I am having trouble sleeping and find myself despairing as former friends and acquaintances (and sadly also a family member) declare to me they are now joining the army to “defend” Israel. I say former friends because any attempt to question what they are doing is treated like a total betrayal or attempt at self sabotage.

But even then, there won't be peace will there, until Israel have taken over the entire territory. There is no peace in the West Bank, where there is no hamas, yet armed settlers attack Palestinians and destroy homes at will to expand territory (Sheikh Jarrah, Jenin, Nablus) and attack worshippers praying at Al Aqsa in Ramadan.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/3/israeli-settler-attacks-against-palestinians-by-the-numbers

Obviously Netanyahu's son doesn't fear for anything as he relaxes in Miami.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12664565/amp/yair-netanyahu-benjamin-son-idf-reservists-miami.html

I am sickened that the West is not calling for a ceasefire or some restraint

They are.

Given that 1,500 Israelis were killed the IDF will start negotiating when 8-10,000 Palestinians have been killed. They have always worked on a ratio of between 5:1 and 8:1.

Unfortunately that ratio goes up when it's a 'war', hence the overall ratio currently around 15:1.

The IDF doesn't seem to have learnt that repeating a course of action and expecting different results is insane.

Because the sooner Israel win, the less Palestinians will die.

Israel is under bombardment too and Hamas knows that the Israelis will retaliate. This is what happens in war, every war that ever was and ever will be.

That elderly lady reduced me to tears today.
The only person I've seen with a spark of humanity and dignity in this horror of horrors.
Please God make it stop.

Israel fears for its very existence, as do the vast, vast majority of world Jewry, which supports Israel. They have to act. Militarily. There‘s no other option for them.

Israel is less than 80 years old. Will this guarantee the next 80?

If terrorists hide behind civilians the deaths and horrors are on the terrorists, not on the people wishing just to exist.

The State of Israel, Israeli people, and Jewish people the world over cannot hide behind this wishing just to exist because implict is this existence comes at the extiction of another group