I’m beyond trying to converse with you assholes.

There is no doubt in any sane person’s mind that if the Palestineans would use constructively what they are given to build a peaceful society adjacent to Israel, they will achieve great things. But they don’t – they democratically elect a rejectionist party that champions terror – and you twits seem to look over that fact. You say Israel takes their homes and gives them nothing – bullshit – they give them opportunities and the Palestineans squander it on perverted dreams of grandeur – thinking they have a divine right to the Middle East. They don’t. No one does. Not the least of which is because there is no God. But that’s the subject of a future rant.

Wake up already.

Oi.. Here we go.

It’s as if nobody is seeing that Israel is trying to give up the Gaza area and give it to the Palestinians just as they desired.

This is completely false. If Israel intended to give up Gaza, then they would have given Gazans control of their own destinies by lifting economic sanctions against them. But the fact is that Israel controls how much power, water, and goods Gazans receive — that’s total control. That’s not giving up Gaza.

Unfortunately this is not what the Palestinians and for that matter Arabs and Hezbollah want. They wan’t the destruction of Israel.

More stereotyping of all Palestinians, blah blah blah… Not even worth commenting on.

Well I for one have no problem with them pounding the hell out of them.

And this is what makes you a small part of the problem. How do you feel being just a tiny bit guilty of people’s deaths?

They have consistently lobbed mortars and missiles into innocent civilians without care or remorse.

After, of course, Israel took away their homes and livelihoods. All things being equal.

If the USA is attacked we react appropiately and will continue to do so.

If you truly believe this, then you’re delusional.

For anyone not part of this conversation reading my comments, I might be construed as a dick. But you know… I’ve heard this man’s opinions a zillion times before. And I knew some jackass like him would find his way onto the comment thread. Regardless, it gets tiresome and I don’t consider people like T Ravis — people who are prejudiced against Arabs — ready or mature enough to discuss the matter. Until they see past their myopic visions of the Middle East, they are part of the problem.

And btw, the USA did not react appropriately to the 9/11 attacks, if that’s the attack you’re referring to. So it’s not all that different in terms of it being wrong to invade and occupy Iraq.

But we all know how Israel will react when provoked. This is brutal but, unfortunately, not surprising given the history of decades of Israeli reaction. They even had the gall to bomb an American ship, ferchristssake. But Palestinian strategy (well Hamas, at least) has been to provoke Israel, despite (or maybe because of) knowing how Israel will react. They need to cut the shit and stop it.

I think that’s the wrong question. A better question would be, Why is Israel doing this? What is Israel achieving toward the goal of national security?

Obviously, firing rockets from Gaza into Israel is wrong, but there is no way to compare the effect on Gazans of being pounded by laser-guided airstrikes to the effect on Israelis of dumb rockets being fired across the border, landing wherever they land.

Even more to the point are the effects of the economic embargo, which has been in effect for well over a year now. Because of the embargo, Gazans cannot produce or sell crops, they are unemployed in massive numbers, they can’t prepare food or get medical help — it’s just almost impossible to convey in words the horror that is being visited on them. And people (not you) compare THAT to rockets being fired at Israeli border towns? And how does Israel expect the figurative temperature to be in Gaza after more than a year of these lethal sanctions — which, needless to say, are an unequivocal violation of international law.

The fact that I’m Jewish and that my parents are Holocaust survivors only deepens how depressed I feel about what Israel is doing. It’s so wrong, and it’s SO counterproductive, and self-destructive.