ISRAEL: WHEN WILL THE WEST DO SOMETHING?

[donnie]

Am I alone in feeling outraged that Blair et al have said and done nothing about Israel's incursion into Gaza following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier?

I have been very outspoken on MN about my opposition to the Israeli Government in the past and make no bones about the fact that I do regard it as verging on being a rogue state. Their sustained oppression of the Palestinians is repulsive to me and I see them as legitimised terrorists.

Opinions please.

It makes me laugh hollowly when I hear that the UN are convening in special session, or whatever, to discuss the current crisis. Why do they have to wait for the crisis? Why can't they enforce existing mandates? I despise the way that the US acts as the world's policeman, but while the UN is so toothless this will continue and the US will make the rules - witness Israel/Palestine.

If you ever needed to convince anyone on this, look at the picture on p24 of The Mail today. Have you ever seen such abject terror on the face of such a small child? Why is this still happening? If you can bear it, watch just 5 minutes of Fox News and see the appalling pro-Israeli stance they have adopted. It makes me want to spit (or worse). How ON EARTH can anyone manage to make this justifiable? I am simply too angry to be eloquent...sorry.

Caught a glimpse of Bush on tv yesterday defending Israel's right to defend themselves agains "terrorists". That man must be the most dangerous man in the world today, never mind Bin Ladin. Wish Bush could go and sit in a cave somewhere too
The situation is crazy. What the heck are they doing?

I agree Fairymum. That man has more blood on his hands than anyone else in the world

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"Arab countries have only justified the Israeli fears, continually launching (and thankfully losing) wars from the very day Israel was created"

That may be because the very day Israel was created, thousands of Palestinians were thrown out of their homes and became refugees. Their grandchildren are still refugees. Children in school in the sixties throughout the western world, were told that the Jews went into the desert and made it green again, filling it with olive and orange groves, where before it had been empty.

And then the Intifada brought it home to a large number of people in Europe (although it appears to have passed by most of the people in the USA) that that story of Israel going into an empty place, was a lie. It hadn't been empty, there had been people there, and they had been turfed out...ooops. Perhaps if the foundation of Israel had not involved occupying other people's lands and homes, arab countries would not have felt the urge to wage wars against it from the very day it was created.

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m1m1rie - I am with you entirely. Saw the picture today from the comfort of a tube train and it really upset me. that child looks absolutely terrified and quite rightly. i am sick of it. Israel's action is entirely disproportionate.

Are Hamas still calling for the destruction of The State of Israel as part of their manifesto?

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Doesn't make for great neighbours, does it?

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Since winning the elections Hamas have not continued called for the destruction of israel they have refused to recognise the state of Israel ( although they were on the brink of doing so just before the latest violence. Looks unlikely now)

Israel point blank refuses to recognise the state of Palestine, so you can't really blame Hamas for doing something that Israelis won't do themselves.

The Israelis are behaving disgracefully. How dare they kill Lebanese civilians in response to the capture of two soliders who had crossed over the Israeli border into land that is not their own?

The hypocrisy is incredible.

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The Israelis are sending thousands of shells into Gaza every month. Gaza is one of the most over-crowded places on earth.
You can say they aren't targetting civilians if you want.
But the end result is the same.

Look at the death toll Israelis to Palestinians.
It's not a fair fight by any stretch.

For every awful thing the Israeli's do, you can find an awful thing the Arabs do may be true, but a) as bluejelly says, the numbers don't exactly equal out as it's not a particularly level playing field - the Arabs aren't being armed by the only superpower left and b) the difference is that the actions the arabs have in the recent past been of disparate groups, while those of the Israelis have been those of a sovreign state, a body which is supposed to abide by the UN convention. There is a difference.

The french president has condemned Israel:

President Jacques Chirac said Friday that
Israel's military offensive against Lebanon is «totally disproportionate» and asked whether destroying Lebanon was not the ultimate goal.

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At the moment the French look a lot more balanced than the Israelis don't they?

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It's gone beyond who is right and wrong, its about what will happen now, most of all what will Iran and Syria do.
Iran flex a single muscle and you know who is going to come marching in and do what he has wanted to do for the last 2 years.

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I work in international affairs and have a good friend working for the UN in Jerusalem.
Really do think the Israelis have overstepped the mark in a big way