Posted on 01/04/2009 4:13:33 PM PST by goldstategop
Israel's attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but stupid. No country in the world is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from neighbouring territory day after day. If Mexico had a group of anti-imperialists bombing Texas, imagine how long it would take for America to mobilise a counterattack. Israel has every right to respond.
But the kind of response matters. Killing 500 Palestinians and wounding 2,000 others (at the time of writing) is disproportionate. Hamas can harass, but it cannot pose any threat to the existence of Israel. And just as Hamas's indiscriminate bombing of population centres is a crime against humanity, so is Israel's killing of civilians (at least 130 so far in Gaza, not to mention the thousands in the years of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza).
Hamas had respected the previously negotiated ceasefire except when Israel used it as cover to make assassination raids. Hamas argued that these raids were hardly a manifestation of a ceasefire, and so as symbolic protest it would allow the release of rocket fire (usually hitting no targets). But when the issue of continuing the ceasefire came up, Hamas wanted a guarantee that these assassination raids would stop. And it asked for more. With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing acute malnutrition, Hamas insists that the borders be opened so that food can arrive unimpeded. And in return for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, it asks for the release of 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The basic problem with Islam is that it hates...how is that statement different.
Killing the enemy is enough...we are not required to be infected with its disease.
Good points! The Prayer for Absolution in Evening Prayer (1928 Book of Common Prayer) begins thus:
"ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live, ... "Something I have to remind myself of from time to time...
Killing the enemy is enough...we are not required to be infected with its disease.
Said the man with the, "(Death to Hamas!)" tagline. Take a flying leap.
Thanks for this informative post, but consider the irony: that we FReepers don’t get paid a dime for having at least half a brain while posting common sense, while this certified idiot Lerner is wined, dined, and paid a king’s ransom for spouting pure buffalo plop, decade after decade.
Good article and list of self hating Jews but, I hate it when they put music tracks on the sites.
Real men don't hide behind women and children!
Heaven help Israel!
The idiot that was losing of course.
It seems to me that the “proportionate” response would be the one most likely to silence Hamas for good. Why peck and peck and hope for a victory? Just get it done. More innocent humans living in peace will be the ultimate result. Dragging out warfare just prolongs everyone’s suffering.
Hamas needs to get to the point where they resolve not to attack Israel any more. Just like Islam needs to get to that point with the western civilizations.
Love could be described as sending these scum to their dreamed of paradise where their perpetual virgins and pleasant young boys dwell.
You are 100% correct.
He sounds schizophrenic.
http://www.havelshouseofhistory.com/Lerner,%20Rabbi%20Michael.jpg
Rabbi Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Religious Right
at Berkeley. Michael Lerner began his graduate school career in philosophy in 1964
Lerners academic work focused on ethical theory and social philosophy
became a national leader of the anti-war movement
Lerner was sent to Terminal Island Federal penitentiary where he served several months in prison, at which time J. Edgar Hoover described him as “one of the most dangerous criminals in America.”
Michael Lerner returned to Berkeley after his conviction had been overturned, and he completed a Ph.D. at Berkeley in 1972. His son Akiba was born to him and his partner Theirrie Cook in October, 1971.
in 1982 he became Principal Investigator for a multi-million dollar research project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and focused on work and family life.
Some of the attention of the ILMH focused on the question of why so many working people were attracted to the politics of Ronald Reagan and the Right, even though the Right was pursuing policies that were in such dramatic contrast with their economic interests. And what they learned over the course of many years of research with over ten thousand middle income working people was the following: that there was a spiritual crisis in American society and that the Right was speaking to that crisis, albeit with a set of distorted solutions. What they were discovering was what Lerner would later call “the hunger for meaning” or “spiritual needs” which were every bit as important as material needs.
His ideas received national attention when Hillary Clinton adopted his notion of “the politics of meaning” and called for the country to respond to these ideas. Lerner was described by the Washington Post as “the guru of the White House,” and he became the subject of intense national debate.
The Clintons invited Lerner to the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993, but Lerner soon found that though the Clintons were using his words, they were actually following policies that were antithetical to his core ideas. While he was being denounced daily on Rush Limbaughs radio shows for being the central idea person in the Clinton White House, Lerner himself felt that the Clintons approach had abandoned any serious ethical/spiritual focus and was being shaped by their own fears rather than by the vision of a meaning-oriented politics.
Lerner became very controversial among the denizens of the Jewish establishment and in the Jewish media because of the role he has taken in trying to build bridges of understanding between Jews and Palestinians.
In 2003, Lerner was barred from speaking at one of the major demonstrations opposing the invasion of Iraq because Lerner criticized the anti-Semitism that he perceived in the way that criticisms were being made of Israel. Yet Lerner has received a steady supply of death threats from others in the Jewish world who believe he is anti-Israel.
his stand (in TIKKUN magazine) which calls for Israel to respect Palestinian human rights and end the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Lerner resides in Berkeley, California with his wife Rabbi Debora Kohn Lerner.
It seems to be the bastard son of LBJ's "escalation" strategy for VietNam. That didn't work out too well either.
Just back from that flying leap...fun!
Hatred is a disease...and it will eat your soul!
Defending oneself is a necessity!
BTW, Hamas is an ideology...not a person.
That’s the Arab way! Disgusting culture.
And we have to hear the Libs yapping about cultural relativism ..ugh!
The Libs yap and yap when affirmative action doesn’t make it here...but then ignore the disgusting treatment of women and children in Muzzie countries.
And now we have to deal with Islamofascists demanding wearing a Hajib when they get their drivers’ license photos.
And I see some in Wallmart with wearing pants from china with their silly scarves on their heads! I wish Wallmart would ban the wearing of scarves in their superstores! ha. can you see the Wallmart Greeter saying, “welocme to Wallmart, please take off your scarf.” ha. ha.
BTW, don’t take my comment as an insult...I am a much worse person than you. Really!
some days i think the left is stupid,
some days i think they are evil
and most i think both.
gosh, i hate those @#%#$.
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