Gaza death toll rises as Israel hits a disability shelter

[Ben Huh]

[Ben Huh]

[exploited]

They have no other options. They can adopt nonviolence tomorrow, and stick with it for ten years, and there will be absolutely zero progress made stopping the settlements or preventing Israel from making mass arrests (usually nighttime raids into Palestine). Hell, many people in the West Bank protested nonviolently for a half-decade. The only thing it got them was five thousand more settler homes and two dead. Further, they don't get any news coverage. The entire point of shooting rockets is to draw attention to their plight - and it has. But until Israel is brought to heel in certain ways, no tactic will work.

And that is the entire point. You guys simply refuse to admit it.

[exploited]

[Dylan]

[exploited]

I can agree with Dylan's assessment. I have some issues with it, but I recognize good sense when I see it.

[Ben Huh]

[exploited]

Equally as bad? Okay, I can accept that. But I do not conflate Hamas with Palestine. While they were elected, we have to remember that Gazans aren't as capable of rational thought as a comfortable Westerner. 90% of the drinking water is unfit for consumption, a small group of extremists is holding them... if not hostage, then vaguely threatened, and they are demeaned on a regular basis by settlers, soldiers and each other. We simply cannot expect people in that kind of environment to behave along strict lines.

Let us also recognize that Israel reelected Ariel Sharon, so they have their own problems with extremists.

How do you feel about cutting aid to Israel, or at least making it conditional upon proportionality and settlement issues?

[Saz]

[exploited]

God. A productive discussion is kicked off by a great post, and you submit that. f**k's sake.