Israel bombs Gaza in an over-night air raid (as usual)

by Devils Advocate Tue Mar 22, 2011 14:52

While the attack by Israel is unwarranted I note that your article does not comment on the rocket attack on israel. Either an attack by either side is to be condemmed or not. Israel should not attack its neighbours but by the same token rockets should not be fired against Israel. In the intrest of balance should you not show pictures if Israeli people injured in such attacks along side pictures of injuries caused by Israel

by Mike Novack Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:19

There is a great disparity in the number of killed and wounded.

Whether that matters depends upon your point of view. Does intent/effort matter or competence/results? The Gaza militants are TRYING but not very effective, more or less firing their missiles and rockets at random, while the Israelis know how to aim their return fire.

It's sort of like a gunfight where one person is firing away wildly with his or her eyes closed, only hits anything by blind luck, but the other knows how to aim a gun.

In the case of small mortars, NOBODY does well with their first round. Need to have a spotter calling the fall of shot as the mortar crew adjusts. That means staying with the gun long enough to get off a series of rounds but by then Israeli counter fire would be coming in.

The rockets are intrincly inacurate compared to gun artillery but not THAT inacurate if the launcher is carefully aimed. But that's surveying/time and given the activity the Israelis likely to spot it and be waiting, artillery set for that spot for when the crew shows up with rocket.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Wed Mar 23, 2011 14:34

The gaza population are imprisoned in the most densely habitated area on the planet, under seige conditions, and fighting in RESISTANCE to an invasion and disposession of their lands.
The israeli assaults are part of an ongoing colonial operation complicated by European guilt over its long history of anti-semitism culminating in the Nazi final solution, and US sponsorship for its own resource-war agenda; which also suits the Eurozone and all oil dependant economies under that umbrella, which stretches as far as Australia. Israel has the fourth largest military machine on the planet, including several hundred nukes primed to fire if any Arab solidarity interrupts their hegemonic intent.

Its more like a rerun of the final solution imposed on the native American and Ausie Aboriginal peoples. Military sophistication masquerading as higher moral civilisation, the imperial tradition since tribal hubris first reared its martial head. We had a taste from the Brits, some say it still festers.

The roots go back to the European romantic nationalism of the nineteenth century as reaction, among other things, to french revolutionary radicalism and the creation of a mythological Israeli counter to the racism of the 'scientific' Aryan interpretation of 'progressive' history on racial lines, which identified the Indo-European Greeks as the epitome of 'civilisation'(often measured on glorified martial prowess)and discounted the Afro-Asiatic contribution to the science and philosophy believed cradled in an idealised Greece. This academic interpretation suited the blatant and rampant colonialism of the time, and justified the dehumanisation of 'lesser' races, among them the Semites of Phoenicia and the Egyptians who had colonised Greece and the eastern med in the second century BCE.
Most educated Americans and Europeans learned fron WW II that racism is a dead duck as interpretation of history, but the Zionist train had already left the station. The Palestinians fell under that train, partly to facilitate the long-term Euro-plan to deport their Jewish 'excess population'. Out of sight helped alleviate the sore conscience and meant(and means) the Palestinians are continuing to pay for European(mostly german, french and eastern european) fascist extremes.

Its not just relative ballistics; there are ethical issues need unravelling.

by Perplexed Thu Mar 24, 2011 22:01

People here are forever condeming the "evil" State of Israel, and not one condemnation of the attack on a bus station in Jerusalem, bystanders are bystanders whether or not they happen to be Jewish (is that a crime?). Methinks its hypocritical.
PS I have lived in Israel in the 80's and was subjected to the almost nightly katusha rockets coming into Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya. I have no vested interest, I am an Irish Catholic with a lot of bad memories of first the PLO then Amal and Hezb Allah!

by HasbaraBuster Sat Mar 26, 2011 03:03

ok, how about we condemn each state in a ratio inversely proportion to the number of dead people each has accrued? Oops no

or perhaps in inverse proportion to the number of prisoners held by one state versus the other? Oops no

or perhaps in a ratio proportional of the number of square kilometres of one states land the other has systematically and illegally accrued over and above the 1967 boundaries since 1967 while pointless diversionary and meaningless "talks" were continuing? Oops no

or in a ratio proportional to the number of billions of dollars worth of military hardware one state possesses more than the other? Oops no

You see, in a david and goliath situation, giving equal time to both david and goliath is not actually being "fair and balanced".

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:20

And especially when the nuclear armed Goliath is posing under the star of David as it trashes the home-made rocket-armed victims of its hegemonic and dispossessing blueprint.