Let's face it Iran is indiscriminatly hitting Israeli civilians targets including schools using cluster bombs.....

[mids2019]

Iran is firing missiles into heavily populated Israeli towns and have abandoned the pretence of targeting anything military.....this is just pure terrorism and does make you think what would happen if Iran did manage to develop a nuclear weapon.

Just hoping more of the missile launch sites can be taken out and this terrorist regime falls.

Hospitals are not actually protected if they have been turned into military sites - I can find the exact wording if you want?

Oh it’s ok then to attack civilian targets & use terrorist tactics in war?

We don't know the final outcome of this war so who can say what, if anything, will be gained. One would hope that Iran's power in the ME will be sufficiently dismantled at the very least. Israel, Lebanon, Palestine etc all deserve to live in peace without fear of the terrorism funded by Iran.

Of course both sides would say the civilian sites were being used for military purposes or just happened to be very close to military sites (like the school in Iran that was hit) or were accidents, etc, etc, no one is going to say they hit schools and hospitals deliberately. But it just gets more indiscriminate as the war goes on.

Even military hospitals and field hospitals are protected and attacking them is considered a war crime on a par with killing surrendered combatants. Obviously if a hospital is not actually a hospital but merely a front for a military installation it would be a valid target.

But in any case, arguing about war crimes is pointless, as both sides in this war have made it clear they care not a jot for the laws of war or recognise the ICC.

I've been on here a while and I often see condemnation of Israel from Israel supporting posters. Myself and @Twiglets1 have done it on this thread even. Israel is a nation of humans just like every other nation of humans so some of them will commit crimes, be awful people, and they are as likely to have poor leadership as any other nation too.

However, we don't solely seek out Israeli crimes and then use them to justify our hatred of a whole nation.

Do you think Israel and the US would have gone to war with Iran had Iran not vowed many times to destroy Israel?

Do you think Israel should just sit back and allow Iran to fund war against Israel from its multiple proxies in the region?

I don't know if this war was a good idea. I think ( ok I'm pretty sure ) that its increasingly likely it was a fucking terrible idea- poorly planned and probably motivated by ego on the US side at least. I'm so glad I'm not in charge of making life or death military decisions. Nonetheless- it's rather oversimplifying it to say Iran didn't start this war. Iran isn't the innocent party here. And almost every single one of their missile strikes is likely to be a war crime.

@dairydebris
"Do you think Israel and the US would have gone to war with Iran had Iran not vowed many times to destroy Israel?"

How many ballistic missiles had Iran launched at Israel before this war? How many Shaheds had it launched at UAE and KSA?

The war was completely avoidable - by simply carrying on the policy of containment and disruption of Iranian proxies that has been in place for decades. It was the US and Israel who chose escalation.

Aren't you counting the rockets and missiles launched by Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis?

Are you denying that the destruction of Israel hasnt been a mission for Iran since 1979?

Do you think Israel has successfully contained Hezbollah? Hamas? Are they no longer posing a threat? Are they certain to never pose a threat to Israeli civilians in kibbutzes near Gaza? Are all the Israeli citizens who've been evacuated from their homes in northern Israel back home safely now? All the proxies are contained are they?

@dairydebris yes I do think that Israel has successfully defended itself against attacks by Iranian proxies over the years and that the proxies are contained. Iron Dome is an effective shield against the kind of small scale attacks that they are able to launch - after all, that is what it is designed for. What it cannot provide 100% cover for is the large scale attacks that have begun since the war started.

The destruction of Israel is indeed an avowed mission of Iran. One that Israel is more than capable of defending itself against without launching a direct attack on Iran.

Ultimately though, this is a war that only damages our interests and which is causing huge damage to an already fragile world economy, while emboldening Russia, and no doubt China - both far greater threats to us. We should be doing all we can to stay out of it and hope for a rapid resolution.

Quite right. It's an appalling post, the irony of which is clearly lost on the author.

Right. So Israel should just accept rocket attacks from its enemies on its borders as the price it pays for the right to exist. Got it.

Just checking if you'd also like them to accept invasions like 7 October?

What rubbish. No-one has said either of those things.

Nothing justifies the wanton flattening of an entire country, killing nearly 100,000, mainly women and children. Nothing.

You can't justify it so stop trying.

Who said that? Are you able to quote them?
All these attacks are wrong, worst of all the genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza. It has flattened the country, murdered the people and stolen their lands.
Do you not think that the Palestinians have a right to exist? What about the Lebanese? Is it only Israel that has an extra special right to exist?

I agree. That particular poster has behaved tolerably across most of the thread, but that post was grossly and wilfully offensive.

I'm not sure where you got 'accept' from. Israel of course should be able to defend itself - which it does.

Likewise, we should put ourselves and our allies and neighbours first, and supporting this war does nothing to benefit us and everything to put us at risk - just as our misguided adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan did. It is merely a distraction from the ongoing threat from Russia.

I hope for a quick resolution and a rapid opening of the gulf and a re-establishment of sanctions on an emboldened Russia. I, and no doubt the vast majority of the British public, couldn't care less who 'wins' this war as long as it is over soon.

Trump and that Israeli idiot have done the “fuck around” part and are now in the “find out” phase.

Quite honestly this is going exactly as any one with a functioning brain could foresee…..and military strategists have warned about over decades.

Civilians are dying including the 180+ Iranian children in the school which the US dropped a bomb on. Trump is a scumbag and so is Netanyahu. The Iranian regime was disgusting but they’ve had decades preparing for this and it’s going exactly as strategists always said it would,

@FernandoSor

Are you saying Israel should be allowed to defend itself against Hamas, Hezbollah? Or that it should just crouch behind its Iron Dome? Accept the rockets because they rarely hit? Are they allowed to shoot rockets back at all?

Because Israel defending itself against the Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Gaza will inevitably result in Palestinian civilian death. So is that acceptable to you?

Iran has been at war with Israel for very many years through its proxies who have hammered Israel with rockets and other terrorist attacks. Without the Iron Dome and other defence systems Israel would have been destroyed long ago.

So you are saying they were containing the situation then ?

'Containing the situation'? Do you mean Israel? If so the Israeli government has spent millions of $$$ on the protection of all its citizens. The Iron Dome Defence was developed primarily by Israel in collaboration with the US, I believe.

Well, it's looking like it will be Israel on it's own against Iran now.

Trump appears to be bailing.

This is pretty much what I came on to say so thank you.

Israel is having a taste of its own medicine, guess it isn’t going down too well….

Iron Dome is literally a defensive system so I really don't understand your first question. By operating Iron Dome, Israel is defending itself.

Offensive actions against Lebanon and Gaza may be justified militarily but they are just that - offensive actions, not defensive ones. Just as while Ukraine takes primarily defensive actions in the war, it does also take offensive ones, such as attacks against infrastructure in Russia itself.

The situation in Gaza is of course tragic, but not our problem other than it results in disorder caused by protesting co-religionists here. We should certainly not be exacerbating it by selling arms to Israel - which would have the added benefit of mollifying protesters here.

Quite. Trump Always Chickens Out, and Trump always throws his allies under the bus when the wind turns. He'll be claiming 'I never knew that guy' about Netanyahu within a month.

Don't be ridiculous. I haven't "behaved intolerably" which is what I'm guessing you meant.

Just because you don't like my opinions, that does not reflect on my behaviour.