Why Does Anyone Defend Hamas And The Palestinian Culture Of Death? (Guest Post)

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hamaswithak

“Why in God’s name does anyone show sympathy, and support for a terrorist organization?” – Former Congressman Allen West

And that is the question that should be asked. It boggles the mind and offends the senses that there is EVEN ONE MEMBER OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION who is upset that Israel is pummeling the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Under Ariel Sharon, Israel forcibly removed its citizens from Gaza and turned the land over to the Arabs. Israel has been rewarded for that gesture of conciliation with the abduction and killing of its citizens and the launching of hundreds of rockets into its territory.

Such provocations have finally goaded the state of Israel into launching a ground invasion of Gaza to take on the infamous Hamas, a terrorist group famous for hiding behind women and children even as they target the same. Death and destruction is a deserving end to all those who purposefully target, kidnap, and murder young, innocent civilians. That’s the tragic event that triggered this latest round of the current conflict. May all those in Gaza who support such practices pay a very severe price for doing so.

In reality, Hamas has constructed a terror state on the border of Israel which, at its core, seeks to fulfill the vision of Hitler and “drive the Jews into the sea.” And now, right on cue, the Left, and the Muslims it has allowed into the West, are now marching, protesting, and rioting outside synagogues shouting “Death to the Jews” and “Hitler was right.” It is disgusting for any member of the supposedly civilized West to embrace the cult of the belly-bombers and they should be roundly condemned at every opportunity. It seems that every generation forgets the lessons of history.

The terrorist society that inhabits the Gaza strip teaches its children to hate and kill the Jew from birth. It is a culture of death and destruction that celebrates the concept of genocide and the massacre of innocents. How can we consider such a society to be worth defending or sympathizing with? It’s hard to attain any sort of peace agreement when you up against a culture that teaches blind hate from such a young age.

The enemies that Israel faces have a long history of hostage taking, targeted killings of children, the slaughter of innocents for political purposes, airline and ship hijackings, machine gunning at airports, suicide bombings and civilian massacres. Couched in the language of liberation and the struggle for a homeland, is always a thinly – veiled crusade to slaughter Jews at every opportunity and orchestrate the destruction of the state of Israel.

Perhaps Zahir Muhsein, a former PLO executive committee member, stated it best in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw on March 31, 1977.

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.”

Encouraging and highlighting the deaths of civilians in a crowded war zone is part and parcel of the Hamas propaganda strategy and that there are those who willingly play that game and promote the Hamas storyline is sickening and disgraceful. The fact that the Left falls for this gambit is simply embarrassing and all their hand-wringing over collateral damage purposefully orchestrated by Hamas hiding itself and its arms among the civilian population is either willful ignorance or dangerous complicity.

In fact Hamas, purposefully and as a matter or policy and strategy, welcomes the death of the civilians it hides behind during these periods of conflict (for propaganda purposes) while the Israelis themselves are sallying forth in an effort to protect civilians from acts of terrorism. There is a stark difference and no moral equivalency between the two.

In the end, maybe the lesson will be learned by the people living in the Gaza strip that abducting and killing helpless Israeli teenagers just for the heck of it and lobbing rockets at civilian targets carries a very high price indeed and perhaps should not be repeated in the future. I know they want to take a turn at playing “exterminate the Jew”, but they seem to be discovering that the Jews are putting up a bit more of a fight this time around. I respect the Israelis; they at least have learned a lesson from history. “Never again.”

The Bible tells us that Ishmael will be “a wild one, and that he will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same towards him, but that he will live near the rest of his relatives.” Israel is an island of civilization in a sea of barbarism and Islamic fanaticism. The struggle of the Israeli people to preserve their state and their existence continues to this day and they deserve the support of the civilized world against the barbarians of the modern age.

Whether one likes it or not, the physical state of Israel exists and is here to stay. Israel’s Arab neighbors can either choose to accept the reality of the situation and peacefully coexist with the Jewish state, or accept the sometimes tough consequences of waging war upon it. If you kick a hornet’s nest, you might just get stung. As any homeowner will tell you, you may not get to choose your neighbors but how you treat them can make a huge difference in the end. You can choose to get along with them as best you can, or you can set yourself up for a lifetime of misery. That is the choice the people of Gaza and all those that border Israel must make, and the right decision will put them on a path to peace.

“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” – Golda Meir

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx_L7wrtEC4]
Video: 2010 Hamas and Hezbollah Propaganda Video “Hezbollah With Hamas Brothers In Arms Will Destroy The Zionist Disease Israel”

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Good article! It has amazed me for years that people following a “peace-loving” religion has a goal of killing every Jew in Israel. I had forgotten Golda Meier’s quote but it still is relevant today!

Why do liberals have such a propensity for supporting the wrong side of any cause? Assuming they can actually see the facts (something they seem to instinctively ignore) how could any civilized human being not unequivocally condemn Hamas and all who support them? Their tactics and goals are blatantly obvious, the lies transparent and the fact that they WANT their own civilians killed to use as political props (something not that foreign to liberals) clear and indisputable.

Yet, the left and others sympathize with Hamas. Inconceivable.

@Bill:

I remember the last time Hamas decided it would drive Israel into the sea. Hamas whined and cried how Israel was killing Palestinian children, until they were exposed dragging dead children around to photograph the children in different settings to make it look like they were different children. I also remember the photographs of Hamas, loading roof tops with women and children, to serve as cover for their rocket launchers that sat in front the building the women and children were on.

Hamas was offered a cease-fire. They refused. Time and time again, the only request Israel has is “just quit firing rockets at us.” Time and time again, Hamas refuses. If Canada started lobbing rockets into Michigan, how long would we tolerate that? Yet, the UN, a totally useless and corrupt organization, continues to back Muslims against Israel who simply want to live without having rockets fall on its cities.

To begin with, Palestine is really not a nation-state, and never has been. The name is derived from a name given the region by the Romans, and their early history is not one attached to the Arab nations, but more to the Aegean peoples.

In Portlandia, Oregon, Jewish supporters were recently attacked [verbally] by those who support Hamas; same in Washington, D.C. Obviously, those ignorant leftists have forgotten who attacked us on 9-11-2001 and that we and Israel are fighting the same enemy with the same goals. But now, the Jew hatred is so bad in France that Jews are fleeing France to relocate in war torn Israel. How bad does it have to be that you would prefer to live in a nation being bombed than in France?

Meanwhile, the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador are in Washington, D.C. and the Community Organizer in Chief is still campaigning instead of meeting with those two presidents to solve the disaster that is our southern border.

@Bill: To me the all consuming hatred of the Jews by many that don’t even know why they hate, blinds most to the wrongs and sins of those that also hate Israel and it’s people.

I remember my Grandfather , who was a good man, who hated the Jews. He was born in the Ukraine. Just to show, he could barely read and write, but he’d pick up the News Paper and throw it down and say “the Jews do that” When I, as a child asked him why, he couldn’t tell me except that his family in the Ukraine thought him that the Jews were to blame for everything. This to me is the insanity that the Jewish people have to tolerate today, to be hated for reasons that the haters can’t even explain.

Your fool pres. is one of these people.
These people are not sane-insanity is the culture.
The men kill their wives but have unlimited concubines.
Muhammad was poisoned – assassinated by his own followers, so much for leadership. Want to make a bet that one on one, these pieces of trash would scream like a child. Would not they look good with a cartel necktie through their Chinese made masks.
Oh, where is the pres-sucking up money for his retirement? And to think that his trashy wife has been given credit for reducing plastic water bottle waste-what a joke.

I have become very surprised about the vehemence from American leftists in support of Hamas as well as their vocal and often crudely bigoted antisemitism towards both Israel and Jews in general. I wonder if they would feel the same if their own neighborhoods, every month for the last ten years, had been under attack by snipers, bombers, rockets and missiles by a terrorist group who has loudly claimed it their mission to exterminate them.

Why? Considering this pos pres was elected twice, especially his reelection lends a large body of evidence that we are surrounded by stupid.

Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese General who wrote, “The Art of War,” a text still studied in our war colleges, wrote, you cannot achieve victory until the enemy no longer has the means or will to resist or fight. World War II ended with Germany and Japan in total defeat. After the war, they became responsible countries and valuable allies.

Soon, we will once again ask American patriots to pay for the mistakes of incompetent politicians. They will pay with not only their time, but their blood and lives as well.

Israel has the choice of listening to these same politicians or defeating Hamas, until they no longer have the will to engage in Jihad or what we call terror. Hopefully, the Jews will ignore the sanctimonious Leftists of the world who would sit back smugly if the rockets of Hamas had killed thousands. Oh, no great shrieks of outrage would be heard.
The consensus would be, “Well finally, Israel got what it deserved.”

Israel has been given an opportunity, if they stop in midstream, they will need to fight this war again in the future against even greater technology. Finish the job Israel, there is at least one gentile rooting for your “complete victory.”

@Ditto:

I have become very surprised about the vehemence from American leftists in support of Hamas as well as their vocal and often crudely bigoted antisemitism towards both Israel and Jews in general. I wonder if they would feel the same if their own neighborhoods, every month for the last ten years, had been under attack by snipers, bombers, rockets and missiles by a terrorist group who has loudly claimed it their mission to exterminate them.

Ditto, you give the left way to much credit to be able to think as far as you suggest. Their inherent hatred of Jews is all that matters to them, so they think they can dance with the devil. But dancing with the devil has a price, and when you are member of a group that supports the killing of the unborn and homosexuality, two things that are directly in contrast to the teachings of Islam, they seem to not understand that were they required to live under Sharia law, they would be the first hanging from construction cranes.

Of course, the left has all been quick to tell us how those in Gaza suffer because of Israel’s blockades against them. We are told that they can not even build a school because Israel prevents them from getting concrete.
But the truth is out there, if one only looks for it.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html

and the second modern shopping mall:

http://www.demotix.com/news/761236/palestinians-inside-shopping-malls-new-andalusia-gaza-city

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Biggest-Palestinian-shopping-mall-being-built-in-Gaza

The defenders of Hamas often use ”proportionality” as their excuse for why Israel should stop trying to end rocket attacks against their people.
But at 770 Gazans and 32 Israelis dead the ratio is 24-to-1.
In WWII (the ETO) the proportions were 16 Germans to 1 Allies.
In the PTO the proportions were 15 Japanese to 1 Allies.

The real problem in Gaza is not that a lot of women and children are targeted by their enemy.
It is that women and children are put in the line of fire by their own government in Gaza.
And the ONLY reason Israel has such low numbers killed is the MILLIONS of dollars spent on bomb shelters, early warning systems, the Iron Dome system and a public ready to drop everything and run to shelter inside the 15 seconds of warning they get!
So, proportionality is beside the point.

Finish the job Israel

Alexander knew better. Caesar was a protege, hence his strategy against the Usipetes and Tencteri tribes. War is horrible. William T. Sherman capitalized on that factor.

Some of those that defend the Pali cult of horror and death were raised on hate. They were taught to do so by their parents who, in turn, were taught to do so by their parents. I’ve personally known more than a few such persons (all were, unsurprisingly, of German descent).

Other such people have been brainwashed by the insidiously liberal media entities that have infected Western culture. Yet another factor is that liberals don’t like those who defend themselves against criminally physical aggression. The liberal mindset is that you should allow yourself to be beaten and even killed rather than defend yourself with force.

What’s odd is the fact that many liberals hypocritically fail to “practice what they preach” when it comes to forcibly defending themselves against not only physical, but mere verbal aggression as well.

The bottom line here is that Liberalism, like Islam, is an irrational cult that’s followed by irrational people.

At the end of the day, it became fashionable amongst the Leftists to despise Israel and Jews. Hence, they’ll take the side of anyone or any group that opposes Israel.

Only idiots will defend Hamas.
Even Hamas is not defending Hamas!

Hamas operatives are fleeing, abandoning their positions, leaving behind weapons and other material that the IDF is using to expand its assault on the terror group.

In recent days, a recognizable wave of demoralization has washed over Hamas’s combat battalions. “They simply escape, leaving behind weapons and suicide bomb vests that were laid out for battle. This morning we stormed a position, and they just weren’t there.”
…..
Hamas has integrated the tunnel network into the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, constructing entrances in homes and even mosques. “I have not entered one civilian home that did not have weapons, suicide belts, or booby traps in it,” the source told the Post.
http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/If-we-dont-deal-with-Gaza-tunnels-now-these-threats-will-come-to-us-368922

The old Hudna.
When you are losing you simply dissolve into the civilian population.
Hamas is doing that as of today.
Then, although you are the loser, you ”sue for peace,” hoping to get as favorable a situation as possible while you RE-ARM for next time.
How many times must we see this same tactic by Muslims before we ”get it?”
I know Israel gets it.
But either Obama is rooting for Hamas or he still hasn’t got it.

A great question and should be asked of the DNC as well as liberal Jewish Americans who for some reason hate the Jews and Israel. Madness is the answer as it is inspired by Liberalism. Period. University education nowadays is simply a brainwashing attitude and as a conserv college teacher I am surrounded by said libs.

Has anyone read this article today? It is quite moving and asks some very important questions that extremists will ignore. (That is Islamic and Democratic extremists!)
http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/07/were_both_from_the_same_village.html

Come on! Hamas represents the grand dream of Martin Luther and his successors. All of the woes of the world come from the fact that the Jews killed Jesus. Thus, kill all the Jews, and everything will be fine.
Blaming all the Jews for the death of Jesus is absurd. Most of them knew nothing about it. It was a rump session of the Sanhedrin which appealed to Pilate for his death. And Pilate (who actually ordered the execution) complied.
Jew-haters ever since have held the same opinion: death to the Jews. This is the Hamas charter. Thus nothing that they do can be questioned. Human shields, using dead children, digging tunnels, kidnapping, using the mentally deficient and animals as suicide bombers–it is part of their Charter.
So the Jew-haters will rally around Hamas, no matter what.

@mathman: Just to add a small point to your great comment:
Hamas as well as all of Islam only looks upon Jesus as one of the Prophets, NOT the Anointed (Messiah. or Christ.)
As a matter of fact they believe the entire Bible has been twisted into a huge pack of lies.
That Mohammad was THE prophet, Jesus only A prophet.
That Mary had a bastard, not a virgin birth.
That Jesus was never resurrected.
That our future life does NOT depend on following Jesus, but in obeying Mohammad.
And so on where ever Jesus is shown to be fulfilling Scripture.

@Skookum: I’ll give you one better. Read Caroline Glick’s articles about the Israeli Solution to the problems with the West Bank. Judea( ancient land of the Jews) and Samaria( ancient land of the Samaritan Torah) should be annexed to the State of Israel. The Palestinian homeland is a joke( horseface Kerry wants this). With the defeats of 48, 56,67,and 73, the Palestinians ruined their chance for a homeland. Terrorism is their political will.
As an engineering officer, I can visualize the Heights of Golan, the steep walls of the Jordan River Valley from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. No more land concessions. Israel should annex, police, and deport undesirables. You win by improving the standard of living. You win by voting. You win by the shovel, underground irrigation, and desalination. You win by expanding your settlements. Israel can do all of this.

In spite of all the supposed well meaning opinions listed above, I still feel that “Israel” is on the “wrong side of history”

@Nanny G: Regarding “proportionality”, a caller on the overnight Red Eye talk show (not the Fox TV show) made the point that Israel turned over 1000 ‘palis’ for one Israeli soldier. If that’s the ratio, then they’ve got a way to go… with 67 Israelis dead, 60,000 palis have to go for it to be ‘proportional’. ;-/

@james geddes: Well, at least you admit your ”feeling” is just that; a feeling.
No amount of reasoning can change your ”feeling,” most likely.
Charles Krauthammer’s The vacant presidency makes a case for your (and Obama’s) feeling….

Obama’s passivity stems from an idea. When Obama says Putin has placed himself on the wrong side of history in Ukraine, he actually believes it . He disdains realpolitik because he believes that, in the end, such primitive 19th-century notions as conquest are self-defeating.
…..
Remember when, at the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, Obama tried to construct for Putin “an offramp” from Crimea? Absurd as this idea was, I think Obama was sincere. He actually imagined that he’d be saving Putin from himself, that Crimea could only redound against Russia in the long run.

If you really believe this, then there is no need for forceful, potentially risky U.S. counteractions. Which explains everything since: Obama’s pinprick sanctions; his failure to rally a craven Europe; his refusal to supply Ukraine with the weapons it has been begging for.

The shooting down of a civilian airliner seemed to validate Obama’s passivity. “Violence and conflict inevitably lead to unforeseen consequences,” explained Obama. See. You play with fire, it will blow up in your face. Just as I warned. Now world opinion will turn against Putin.

But, what is ”world opinion, whether based on facts or based, like in your case (and Obama’s case) on feelings?
It is NOTHING!
World opinion is useless!
It does nothing on its own.
Putin doesn’t care about world opinion.
If people die in Ukraine, in Syria, in Israel it is no different from when people died in Hitler’s Germany…..except for one thing: back then America acted as leader.
Today we follow Obama’s feeling that nothing needs to be done to speed up anything, history will show who was right and who was wrong.
BTW, Hamas is padding their numbers dead by counting all natural deaths, all accidental deaths, all deaths from sicknesses AS DEATHS from Israel.

Caught In The Act! Gaza Health Ministry Inflating Number of Gazans Killed

42 names out of 592 are listed more than once! They usually have different spellings but it is clear they are the same names.

Even worse, two people are listed as being killed three times! And by sheer coincidence – they are both children!
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/07/poor-yaseen-al-kilani-hamas-says-he-was.html#.U9PUCrFuruB
Hamas also refuses to admit how many of the ”children” dead are actually Hamas soldiers.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-real-statistics-of-those-killed-in.html#.U9PLALFuruB
Hamas counts as killed BY Israel all those in Gaza killed when their own un-aimed rockets fall short and hit inside Gaza!
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/07/on-thursday-over-150-gaza-rockets-fell.html#.U9PKZLFuruB
A rocket fired from Gaza July 12th fell short and crashed into UNRWA warehouses. Now there is a massive fire.

Edited to add: don’t be fooled!
Islamic TV EDITS between IDF’s “”knock-knock” roof hit and their missile that destroys the building.
See it here at the 21second mark as an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rR0VwVCc7E0

But, hey.
You’ve got your ”feelings.”
Facts and rationale be damned.

@retire05:

If Canada started lobbing rockets into Michigan, how long would we tolerate that?

Well, that all depends; would Obama still be President?

@james geddes: You are entitled to your opinion, but to have standing on these cyber pages, it is imperative to have reasons or backup data. Basing your assumptions on bigotry or ideology reminds us of Valerie Jarrett and her sock puppet in the Oval Office and relegates you to the level of a buffoon. Please defend your position or accept your designation.

@james geddes: Do you know History? Reading the Old Testament, historians have over 800 referrals of Israel. There is not one citation of Palestine before the Diaspora. It did not exist. There is even a genealogy to King David. Who is on the wrong side of history?

80% of the 1000 dead are civilians
The pummeling of Hamas is maybe 200 dead
If Hamas were wiped our it would probably be replaced by something worse
Israel should be trying to build a stronger partner to negotiate with not a weaker one
How have the long term national security issues of Israel been helped by killing so many ?
Has its international prestige been helped ?
Hundreds of dead kids is bad PR

@John:

If Hamas were wiped our it would probably be replaced by something worse

But you don’t know that it would be, and that is only supposition on your part.

Israel should be trying to build a stronger partner to negotiate with not a weaker one

And what responsibility does Hamas have for building a stronger partnership with a nation that it won’t even admit has a right to exist?
If you lived next door to me, and I fired at you every time you poked your head out of your door, how willing would you be to “negotiate” a cease fire with me?

How have the long term national security issues of Israel been helped by killing so many ?

The Arab nations have been trying to destroy Israel since its inception. Personally, Israel should rack up a higher body count than it has. But then, no surprise that you support an organization whose roots go back to Nazism.

Has its international prestige been helped ?

When you’re fighting for your very life, are you really worried what your neighbors think of you?

Hundreds of dead kids is bad PR

Millions of dead Israelis is even worse PR. Perhaps Hamas should stop using women and children as shields.

@John: How many tens of thousands did Hama intend on killing with their upgraded rockets?

Destroy their will to fight and the Palestinians will become good citizens: declare a cease fire and hamas will regroup with rockets the iron dome can’t stop.

Did we show mercy during WW II or did we call a cease fire when they were retreating? No, we fire bombed Tokyo and Dresden, but neither country was a direct threat during the last year of the war. “War is Hell” to quote the man who split the South in half with a path of utter destruction, but he brought an end to the South’s willingness to fight and the war was basically over.

Yes, the media wants us to swallow their spoon fed propaganda pablum, but Israel is fighting to secure a peaceful existence, not to insure they keep alive Jihadists and their homicidal tendencies.

@John: 80% of the 1000 dead are civilians.

Several of the so-called dead were counted several times each, John.

The pummeling of Hamas is maybe 200 dead

Now you’re believing Hamas’ numbers which discount all their YOUNG dead fighters as NOT Hamas.

If Hamas were wiped our it would probably be replaced by something worse

Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of Israel….how much worse than that is there?

Israel should be trying to build a stronger partner to negotiate with not a weaker one.

Israel tried that years ago when they gave Gaza to the people there, making all Jewish people leave.
The Israelis gave building materials to the Gazans so they could upgrade their infrastructure.
First thing the people did was tear down their money-making greenhouses and next they started building unguided rockets out of the donated sewer pipes.

How have the long term national security issues of Israel been helped by killing so many ?

Long term, Israel still will need to address Iran’s nuclear missile making.
At least Hamas will not be tunneling in a dirty bomb.
Iron Dome’s anti-missile missiles will be re-stockpiled.
Perhaps Israel will build even better bomb shelters.

Has its international prestige been helped ?

12 Israeli Jews have won Nobel Prizes.
That’s amazing considering Israel hasn’t been around all that long as a nation.
Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 850 individuals, of whom at least 20% were Jews, although Jews comprise less than 0.2% of the world’s population.
Overall, Jews have won a total of 41% of all the Nobel Prizes in economics, 28% of medicine, 26% of Physics, 19% of Chemistry, 13% of Literature and 9% of all peace awards.

Ever have a blood typing test?
A Jew invented that.

Anyone try to talk you into X-ray therapy?
A Jew discovered that you will suffer cellular mutations if you do so.

Use anti-biotics?
A Jew discovered penicillin and streptomycin.

Ever see if your family carries genetic diseases?
A Jew discovered how DNA and RNA are coded.

Hundreds of dead kids is bad PR

Yeah.
Too bad that Hamas disagrees.
They think dead children is GOOD PR.
They claim young fighters are children even though they are part of Hamas’ military wing.
They have been caught counting dead children from disease and accident as if IDF killed them in missile strikes!

Let me see if I get leftist thinking (or what passes for such) on Israel….

Despite over 50 years of being attacked by muslims who expressly state their goal is to destroy Israel and drive all the Jews into the sea, Israel has one of only three (nominally) democracies in the middle east. (Turkey and what is left of Iraq after we removed Saddam being the other 2).

The PLO has been engaging in terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians since at least the 1970s, in spite of the Israelis giving back Gaza, which they conquered after being attacked by a coalition of muslim countries in 67 or 73.

Now, Hamas, whose founding charter explicitly calls for the complete destruction of Israel, has been launching rockets against Israel from schools, hospitals and mosques – all in violation of the Geneva conventions – and using women and children as human shields against Israeli counter attacks….

But ISRAEL is the bad guy? For defending themselves against these cowardly attacks by Hamas?

I say again, leftism is a mental disorder……

@retire05: #3
“If Canada started lobbing rockets into Michigan, how long would we tolerate that?”
Retire, under our current administration, the only response would be a very public hand-wringing amidst anguished wails of “We must have done something to upset them!”

@John: #28
“How have the long term national security issues of Israel been helped by killing so many ?”
Well, John, Israel is still there, so I would say that it’s helped quite a bit…

John, and so many other liberals seem so worried about THE CHILDREN.
So, how does Hamas feel about CHILDREN?
The article, “Gaza’s Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israel’s Siege,” was published in the Summer 2012 edition of the Journal by Nicholas Pelham, who writes for the Economist and the New York Review of Books, according to his bio. http://www.palestine-studies.org/journals.aspx?id=11424&jid=1&href=fulltext

Myer Freimann of Tablet wrote a post about CHILD LABOR under Hamas, based partly on that study:
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/180400/hamas-killed-160-palestinian-children-to-build-terror-tunnels#undefined

The tunnels underneath the Egyptian border enriched Hamas through a thriving black market as well as arming it with new weapons.
Pelham: “Nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies. At least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials”
The number of deaths since 2012 has yet to be reported, but almost certainly exceeds the 160 Pelham reported.

To sum up: Hamas is not only using child labor, but likely child slavery, in building its terror tunnel network.

Pollack: The knowledge that Hamas used children to dig tunnels for smuggling and terror up to 25 meters below ground changes the moral calculation of the war significantly.
Not only does Hamas show extreme indifference to the lives of Palestinian children by using them as human shields, placing rockets in UN schools and the like, but it actively destroys those lives by sending Palestinian children to die underground in 19th century conditions.

In 2010 we learned Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space causing people caught inside to suffocate.
But that is Muslim-on-Muslim crime, so liberals, like John don’t care.
After all thousands of Syrian Muslims are being killed monthly by other Muslims.
ISIS in Iraq and al Qaeda in Afghanistan are killing hundreds of fellow Muslims weekly.
Liberal media = crickets.
WHY?
Because Obama = crickets.

Obama is taking a public position on the Israeli conflict with Hamas that’s in the best interest of the United States. We have important relationships with a number of Muslim governments to consider. Nothing he’s said or done has hampered Israel’s military response to continuing Hamas attacks. It’s a necessary balancing act.

Hamas is actually the enemy of the Palestinian people. Nobody can figure that out for them, unfortunately.

@Greg: We have important relationships with a number of Muslim governments to consider.

Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have many shared interests.
They side AGAINST Hamas.

Just today Egypt’s army said it has destroyed 13 more tunnels connecting the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip, taking to 1,639 the overall number it has laid waste to.

(Nice video at the link!)
Wow!
Talk about an unknown action!
EGYPT has destroyed 1,639 Hamas smuggling tunnels!
Hamas used the tunnels to smuggle arms, food and money.
Hamas is an affiliate of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Cairo also accuses of Hamas of being involved in militant attacks inside Egypt, which have multiplied since Morsi was toppled.

Seems idiotic Hamas is fighting a two-front war and the world is only paying attention to the Israeli side.

@Greg:

Obama is taking a public position on the Israeli conflict with Hamas that’s in the best interest of the United States.

No, the position Obama is taking is only in the best interests of Hamas who is of the same radical Islamic sect of his own formative years. (ie. Sunni, which is also the sect of ISIS, al Qeada, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Wahhabi, etc…) Obama’s administration has continually expressed a hard line against Israel (even worse than Carter’s well noted anti-Israel stance,) with a soft hearted, weak-kneed approach towards all Muslim groups, but most especially to those of Sunni alignment.

We can only hope that Jewish Americans will finally wake up and recognize the anti-Semitic actions of far-left Democrats, and throw off the yoke of false friendship of your party’s Jew haters.

There’s been a lot of blame on IDF for an explosion at an UN school where 20 people died.
The investigation as to whether IDF or Hamas actually bombed the school is not finished yet.
BUT….
The UN being used by Hamas.
Three IDF soldiers were killed on Wednesday in Gaza in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed the opening of a tunnel.

Staff Sgt. Matan Gotlib, 21, of Rishon Lezion, and Staff Sgt. Omer Chai, 21, of Savion, part of the elite Maglan unit, were taking precautionary measures in efforts to limit damage to the structure before eliminating the tunnel, when the explosives detonated in the small building.

Hamas gunmen have used more than a thousand Improvised Explosive Devices so far, destroying thousands of buildings in the Gaza Strip.
OOPS!
No media coverage of that!

IDF has destroyed hundreds of weapons storage facilities.
IDF Southern Command head Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman said “many hundreds” of Hamas operatives have been killed and the IDF is “days away” from completing the military goal of destroying all of the tunnels, though the process is complex.

With the amount of concrete Hamas poured into the tunnel project, two hospitals, 20 schools, 20 healthcare centers, and 100 kindergartens could have been built!
http://www.timesofisrael.com/3-idf-soldiers-killed-in-booby-trapped-unrwa-clinic/

@Nanny G: I read that article. It was in a building with an UNRWA sign. I call this agency the United Nations Rocket and Weapons Armory.

After reading this, I am thinking this war might not last as long as I had previously feared:
http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Analysis-The-hidden-picture-in-Gaza-369501

Hamas members seized UN food coupons and prevented Gazan civilians from receiving the aid, in order to try and keep field cell members fed. The Islamist regime refuses to publish most of the names of its members who were killed fighting the IDF, and disposes of their bodies quickly, to avoid harming morale. It has tried to ban Gazan civilians from giving interviews to the foreign press during humanitarian truces.

The IDF has seen Hamas tunnel fighters surrender because they have run out of food.

How long before the non-Hamas people of Gaza have had enough of these terrorists?
Hamas doesn’t just terrorize Israel, they terrorize their own Gazan neighbors.
Sure, there’s a Koranic demand that jihadists be given support from the non-fighting Muslim…..but that is supposed to only be 1/7th of their tithe (zagat) NOT all the food they have!
Hamas has overstepped their privileged position as jihadists in this.
And it is pretty obvious this tunnel destruction work by Egypt and Israel is working.

@John: You can not negotiate with someone whose sole goal is to kill you and wipe your people off of the face of the Earth.

@Greg: Only the rogue Moslem countries are allied with Hamas. Our President is on the side of the terrorists.

Italian reporter confirms: Hamas rocket killed children on playground

Returning from a stint in Gaza, and safe from what he ominously referred to as potential “Hamas retaliation”, Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati broke the media silence by tweeting the following message, confirming that Hamas terrorists rushed to cover up evidence of what was indeed errant rocket fire aimed at Israel:

“Out of Gaza far from Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati.
Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.”

In the second case, another WSJ journalist tweeted evidence of a Hamas rocket misfire which damaged Gaza’s main hospital.

“An outside wall on the campus of Gaza’s main hospital was hit by a strike.
Low level damage suggests Hamas misfire.”

On Tuesday, the United Nations Work and Relief Agency (UNWRA) admitted that it had discovered rockets stored in one of its schools for the third time.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183505
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/182729_mSxgM
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183509#.U9mJDki6Cmp

A Spanish journalist who just came back from Gaza was very friendly. I [Michael Grynszpan] asked him how comes we never see on television channels reporting from Gaza any Hamas people, no gunmen, no rocket launcher, no policemen.. We only see civilians on these reports, mostly women and children. He answered me frankly : “it’s very simple, we did see Hamas people there launching rockets, they were close to our hotel, but if ever we dare pointing our camera on them they would simply shoot at us and kill us.
https://www.facebook.com/michael.grynszpan/posts/10152140390486065
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/31/Why-you-don-t-see-Hamas-firing-rockets-on-TV

@Randy, #43:

The White House’s criticism of Israel’s actions has had to do with the high level of civilian casualties. I think any responsible U.S. president would feel compelled to speak critically on that issue. The rising level Palestinian civilian casualties is appalling.

That’s hardly an endorsement of Hamas. Hamas is politically exploiting the Palestinian civilian deaths that Hamas itself is largely responsible for. The truth is that they likely welcome these results. Most objective observers realize this.

@Greg:

Most objective observers realize it is impossible for Israel to.compromise with an enemy whose founding charter states it has the go of completely destroying Israel.

Israel is fighting an existential threat in this battle with these Hamas savages. It is precisely the goal of Hamas to gin up international criticism against Israel for the civilian deaths that Hamas is responsible for in using women and children as human shields to hide their rocket attacks against Israeli civilian targets. Sorry, but if the international morons would stop.giving Hamas sympathy over these self-inflicted civilian casualties, they would stop causing them.

Hamas started this war. Israel is defending itself. Showing any sympathy with thugs shedding crocodile tears over their own self-induced civilian deaths, as Hamas continues to violate the Geneva conventions with their tactics, will only add to the civilian death toll.

You cannot negotiate with a rabid dog. Hamas is worse than that, since they know what they are doing and continue to act in such an evil manner because international leftists keep giving them political mileage out of this situation. We should stop all aid to Hamas until they stop their tactics and permanently renoun e their stated goal of destroying Israel.

@Greg: When will you understand? There are no civilian causalities. When a people allow an organization to use them as propaganda, they are part of the problem. Where were the lefties when Rhonda people were being murdered by the 1000s? Face it. This administration sides with known terrorist organizations that even this administration has identified as terrorist.

Alan Dershowitz was on CNN this AM and made a great point.
Pull up a google map of Gaza.
You can see for yourself what Alan pointed out:
Gaza has PLENTY of open spaces from which to fight IF Hamas wants to fight soldier-to-soldier without civilian casualties.
Hamas could set up rocket launchers out in open places, too.
Hamas could start its tunnels from open places instead of in people’s homes, schools and market stalls.
But it is Hamas that wants civilian deaths.
Not Israel.

Oh, and lest we forget:
FATAH is firing rockets into Israel too.
http://www.nedal.net/ar/index.php?Action=NewsDetails&ID=18872
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/07/third-and-fourth-fatah-groups-fire.html
And WHY???

A senior Fatah official told me earlier this week in Ramallah that Fatah has felt obliged to fire some rockets against Israel, lest it be seen as collaborating with the Jewish state.

@Nanny G: In their situation, it would be foolish for Hamas to fight out in the open… we’ve seen what results from that. From their standpoint, firing their rockets from population centers and counting on either a) the IDF will not retaliate for fear of hitting civilians or b) civilians will be killed and the stupid anti-Semitic public and be whipped into a frenzy for their benefit.

The real question is, why does the world continue to enable terrorists by falling for their blatantly transparent gimmicks? I guess for the same reason people fall for the game-playing of Obama and his Democrats; the stupid far out numbers those who feed their minds with facts.

@Randy, #47:

I don’t think the women, children, and old people who have been killed were responsible for the situation. Noting that and stating that it should stop doesn’t make anyone a supporter of terrorists. Obama was very clear today about who he considers to be responsible for the cease fire collapse.

The situation isn’t about Obama to begin with.