bigross86

Well, you were smart in saying Muslims and not Arabs, because the Druze and the Bedouin are also Arabs, as well as Christain Arabs that are not Muslim. AS for Muslims liking and supporting terrorism, I think it's just the fact that they don't like Israel and Jews, because we're the exact opposite of what they want. Since politics doesn't seem to be helping and terrorism looks like it works, they support it.

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You're a naughty girl, go to my room!

Trooth

Yep, the IDF hastened an old murderer to his death a few years early and it will undoubtedly spawn a round (or several) of chicken and egg killings on both sides. Several young people, probably a few children, will now die.

Will it be worth it? Not for me to judge.

The only way forward, my friend. Stay safe though.

Officer of Engineers

Has people forgotten that Israel gave birth to Hamas as a source of Civil War within the PLO?

Like it or not, the Israelis are reaping what they've sown.

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Chimo

Praxus

I agree this tit for tat violence needs to stop, but not by Israel surrenduring it's right to self-defense to the enemies of the west.

Militant Islam needs to be destroyed by whatever means nessecary, thoose in the Islamic world who refuse to fight against this evil are just as guilty as the murderes that blow up innocent children in Israeli cities. Civilian casulties should be a non-issue. The initiator of force is always guilty and a dictatorship by it's very nature is an initiator of force, it is inherantly evil. The very thing the Palestinians want to create is by it's very nature EVIL. There is no such thing as a right to establish a dictatorship. Israel has a moral right to that land and in fact has a right to whatever land in the middle east it so chooses, because despite the very socialist nature of Israel it still possesses many of ideas of western philosophy such as rudimentry property rights and the right to free speech.

This is a battle between Militant Islam and Western Society, it is a battle to the death and Israel should not sacrifice a single peice of land or a single soldier in the name of peace or "reducing innocent casulties". Thoose who do not support the PLO/HAMAS etc. should join the side of Israel and fight thoose who would deprive them of their rights.

Israel killing a big Hamas leader will not inspire a bunch of attacks, they are already at war with Israel and will attack them no matter what.

But hey it's not like I have a strong opinion on this subject.

Confed999

Amen, to all but the innocent casualties part. That part is what makes us us and them them. We have to do our best to save the innocent, while their cause shows it's wish to harm the innocent.

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Confed999

U.S. vetoes UN resolution censuring Israel for Yassin killing

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters



The United States on Thursday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution which called for a condemnation of Israel for the killing of Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin.

Yassin was targeted on Monday in an Israeli helicopter missile strike outside a mosque in Gaza.

Eleven nations, including France, Spain, Russia and China supported the resolution. Three nations, the UK, Germany and Romania abstained, and the U.S. used its veto power, and voted against the resolution.

The killing has been criticized around the world as sparking an escalation of Middle East violence.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman said "the Security Council ... would have committed an unforgivable act of hypocrisy had it come to the defense of a man whose life's work was the eradication of peace, a man who was nothing less than a mass murderer."

Algeria, the only Arab nation council, introduced a draft resolution late on Wednesday condemning "the most recent extrajudicial execution committed by Israel." It has scheduled a vote late on Thursday.

The measure also condemned "all attacks against any civilians as well as all acts of violence and destruction" in an effort to get European votes.

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, wanted the resolution to pass unanimously, a top diplomat was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"We think this resolution has a sufficiently balanced character and appeal for it to reflect the positions of all Security Council members," Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov as saying.

The U.S., Israel's closest ally, has said it is troubled by the assassination that has echoed throughout the Islamic world. But it opposes the draft resolution because it does not mention Hamas as a group responsible for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

"If the Security Council is going to pronounce itself on this question, it must recognize the reality that Hamas has been responsible for numerous, extensive and very recent terrorist activities," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said.

The U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China are permanent Security Council members with veto rights.

If a council resolution receives the minimum nine votes needed for adoption and is vetoed, the sponsors can call an emergency session of the 191-nation General Assembly, where a measure critical of Israel is bound to be adopted.

Assembly resolutions, compared to those passed by the Security Council are not binding, except on issues such as UN budgets, but express the will of nations around the world.

Reaching nine votes depends in part on the four European Union members and their allies in the Security Council.

Diplomats foresee a similar split as the past controversial votes on a Middle East resolution - Britain and Germany abstaining and France and Spain approving the measure,

The U.S., Russia, the European Union as well as the UN are members of a quartet of Middle East advisers but have rarely had a unified position on the issue in the Security Council.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, visiting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday, called Yassin the "godfather of the suicide bombers."

He told reporters that the United Nations could play a key role in Middle East peace efforts and discourage attacks on Israeli civilians by holding a special session against "the phenomenon of terrorism."

Shalom said that "would be a clear sharp voice that would come from this building against terrorism, against extremism and against racism."

Original Story

Confed999

No way, really? :roll

bigross86

I'm actually surprised at Spain. But then again, the basketball team from Valencia refused to come play in Israel. Now they're debating whether the Euroleague Final Four Championship will be held here. I;ve got one word for all of them: COWARDS!!!

Praxus

What makes us different is that they are the innitiator of force, we are using the retalitory use thereof. We defend our rights, they are trying to destroy them. That is measure of difference. We should make no distinction between the following "moderate" legions and the crazy people that blow up buildings.

Trooth

Israel will always succumb to Tit for Tat, and we shouldn't expect any different, after all it holds a lot of stock by "an eye for an eye". This plays into the hands of the terrorists, because no one can remember which tit started the problem, if you pardon the pun, so we are always relating the next atrocity to the one just gone.

I have always been concerned by Israel's actions, because it is a nuclear power that doesn't seem to have the most stable of leaderships.

bigross86

The sad thing is, if the Intifada hadn't started when it did, or hadn't started at all, we truly would be well on the way to peace already, IMHO.

Trooth

but not so much that a large "fence" can't help to annex someone else's property.

I am somewhat surprised by the US vetoing resolutions condemning state sponsored assassinations, which i thought was something outlawed by the US congress, although i expect that Palestine is outside of US jurisdiction. Mind you obviously it isn't a surprise that the US vetoed a resolution criticising Israel.

bigross86

IIRC, assasinations are allowed if there's an Executive Order. In the Yassin assasination Sharon was woken up in order to give the final "go"

Praxus

In a nation were private property doesn't exsist , the land is owned by no one, so Israelis who build and work the land have a RIGHT to claim it and it is the Israeli's Government duty to protect them.

That being said a wall is the wrong solution, the right solution is to destroy all militant Isalmics and their supports, ignoring "innocent" civilian casulties and for Israel to take control of the entire west bank and the gaza strip, it is their land by right. They gained it in a war of self-defense.

Trooth

That is an excellent solution to promoting bloodshed for the next century. I commend you.

I suspect the only real answer, with so many people, so much history, so many religious sites, all being trapped in a relatively small area would be some sort of federal state comprising both what we refer to as the modern Israel and Palestine with full democratic elections. However i can't see either side being up for that one.

Ultimately, however, I think the west should stay out of the Israel/Palestine completely and leave them to sort out their own local issues. Admittedly the west has helped cause this problem. But clearly we can't solve it. Only those that live there can solve it.