Posted on 01/06/2009 1:59:43 PM PST by presidio9
The recent carnage in Gaza has left little doubt that within the tortured dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both the chicken and the egg have completely and utterly lost their minds.
Regardless of who's to blame for the origins of the conflict, shame on both Hamas and Israel for their recent violations of international law that have led to a humanitarian inferno in Gaza and southern Israel.
Hamas is to be blamed for its sophomoric provocation of its neighbor's military wrath by firing missiles into southern Israel. Israel also should be condemned for its disproportionately inhumane onslaught in Gaza, which has currently left 555 people dead and 2,750 injured, according to Palestinian medical sources cited by CNN. The United Nations estimates that at least 25 percent of Palestinians killed have been civilians.
Simply put, both sides have committed acts tantamount to "war crimes," and both continue to violate international law repeatedly in this nightmare.
Under international law, the Geneva Conventions prohibit armed reprisals that intentionally inflict "collective punishment" against civilian populations as well as the targeting of nonmilitary targets.
Both Israel (with its military onslaught in Gaza) and Hamas (with its primitive rocket-firing into southern Israel) violate Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, which states: "No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
Further, the legal doctrine of "proportionality" originated in the 1907 Hague Conventions where, according to Lionel Beehner, writing for the Council of Foreign Relations, "a state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary, refrain from targeting civilians and require only enough force to
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
CNN has blood on their hands paying Saddam for exclusive access to Iraq during Saddam’s killing years.
hamas has for years rocketed Israel and they have broken treaties. Israel is correct in destroying hamas.
Tell your cowardly friends to stop hiding behind women and chidren in their schools and mosques!
the cnn mentality: blame it on the jooooooos.
“disproportionately inhumane onslaught”
No such thing. You have a scratch, you itch until it’s gone.
Hamas started what it cannot finish - sucks to be them. They should have never started it.
Both sides... CNN and Ham-ass.
The only thing Israel has done wrong is allowing the problem to stay. Kick the Palis out, let them live with their arab brothers.
By this guy’s logic they will be justified in going in and taking out Hamas, along with the usual collateral damage, if they would only wait a few years and they have enough dead Jew chits to make things equal.
Perhaps they could just handle things themselves (the Palestinians aren’t that competant anyway). If the number of casualties needs to be equal to make things justified, they could hold a state lottery, and execute the winners until each column has the same number.
Actually the are correct for the wrong reason. Israel should be lining up the bulldozers and driving the entire mess into Egypt, then sealing the border.
Wow, thats brave.
both sides have committed acts tantamount to "war crimes,"
The whole notion of "war crimes" has been devalued to the point that its meaningless. When firing rockets and mortar shells into neighborhoods is considered equivalent to the military action intended to stop the attacks, the words have become meaningless.
Geneva Conventions prohibit armed reprisals that intentionally inflict "collective punishment" against civilian populations as well as the targeting of nonmilitary targets.
Hamas has been targeting nonmilitary targets for years, forever, from its very birth. Thats what Hamas is, and thats what it does. So, who is going to stop it? Anyone? No one? No one. If Israel doesn't do it, no one will stop them. No arab will even speak against them, because why? Because its deadly dangerous to speak against them.
And since Hamas is technically a civilian organization, they recruit civilians, they hide among civilians, they launch their attacks from among civilians, it is impossible to target them without killing civilians. Impossible. Of course, these are the same civilians who empowered them from the beginning, and elected them into power. So its a bit much to pretend that the civilians around them are innocent bystanders.
Do they really want a proportional response? Do they really want Israel to lob mortar shells into Gaza neighborhoods every day of the year, year in and year out? No, of course not. Which is why the "proportionality" argument is fraudulent.
Writers like this one never complain when Hamas targets civilians. They only discover "international law" when Israel tries to stop it. Which means their complaints are meaningless.
No such thing for those who have no state nor any claim to a state...who are nothing but pawns for the other gutless arab states.....who are nothing but nameless arabs who have been manipulated by the gutless arabs who can't do their own fighting but have scabs do it for hem.
Israel must strive for complete victory or be prepared to recommence the slaughter at a later date.....
“Arsalan”
“Arse” for short.
And "all" Israelis targeted by Hamas missile attacks have been civilians. All of them.
Under international law, the Geneva Conventions prohibit armed reprisals that intentionally inflict "collective punishment" against civilian populations as well as the targeting of nonmilitary targets.
Arsalan fails to mention that hiding weaponry in and firing same from schools, religious sites or, indeed, any civilian area that hasn't first been cleared, is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The purpose of such a qualification in the Geneva Conventions is to avoid putting civilians at risk.
Both Iftikhar and CNN are guilty of being either provable morons...or propaganda shills for the Palestinians. Or both.
When I read things like this, I always think of when my son was in the 5th grade. A 6th grade boy, named Billy, started pestering/bullying my son in little ways on a daily basis. This went on for 1 1/2 years. Finally one day, Billy pushed his luck one too many times. My son flew off the playground equipment he was on, shedding his coat at the same time, and whipped Billy all over the playground. My son would not let up and was relentless until he made a believer of Billy.
Someone alerted the Principal, who stood at the door watching, and told me later he was rooting for my son because he'd watched him put up with this for so long, but was ready to intervene if it looked like one would really get hurt.
Billy never bothered my son again after that, but actually wanted to be friends. No one else bothered my son either.
The "proportionality" doctrine gives the agressor control over how much they want to risk and, as a result, makes war more rational and likely. You'll notice that they had one doozy of a war after 1907 because they thought war was something that could be controlled and used as just another policy tool. There wasn't so much proportionality during WW2, where cities were firebombed, nuclear weapons were dropped on civilians, and unconditional surrender was demanded. You'll notice that there weren't any world wars after that.
Attempted Moral Equivalency - One of the evil tools of the left.
More outside interference in the war process...
I respect upfront anti-semites more than the covert “moral equivalency” anti-semites.
Moral equivalency is morally bankrupt.
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