Is Isreal overacting?

[Arminius]

1. It is more likely to work and easier to say simply, "No, we won't give into your demands," than to attack a third-party.

2. Israel is helping Hizbollah, believe it or not. What has been the world's reaction to this? Except for America, the world feels less empathy for Israel, and more for Palestinians and Lebanese than before this cluster****.

 

[BirraImperial]

I think Israel is totally justified in its actions. If they give in on this, it opens up a whole can of worms, becuase terrorists will kidnap Israeli soldiers every time they want something.

You can bet the terrorists are looking at what is going on right now, and thinking twice about kidnapping soldiers anytime in the near future.

Actually that's exactly what the terrorists want. They want Israel to be seen as agressors (which they pretty much are right now) to gain more support from the people of Lebanon and the Middle East. Or do you honestly think that bombing Lebanon back to the stone age is the solution to destroy Hizbollah?

 

[sysyphus]

As usual, it's not the people responsible for the problems who end up paying.

 

[happy_Alex]

@Urederra

No. you cited a single possible cause of the current crises , and I illustrated more complexity to the matter.

 

[GinandTonic]

You can bet the terrorists are looking at what is going on right now, and thinking twice about kidnapping soldiers anytime in the near future.

Really? I bet that of the three hundred dead one hundred max were terrorists. I bet that a hundred times that number have been made militant. If a hundred safe houses have been blown up, how many thousands of people will now render whatever assistance they can?

Would you lay down or fight back?

What Israile has done is surrender the moral high ground and make its opponents, military and political, stronger.

Once again, you cant bomb people until they stop hateing you.

 

[Urederra]

@Urederra

No. you cited a single possible cause of the current crises , and I illustrated more complexity to the matter.

OK. Then I convinced you. Now excuse me from reading any more of your posts on the issue.

 

[Urederra]

Once again, you cant bomb people until they stop hateing you.

Somebody mentioned it before, They already hate Israel before the bombings.

And that could also be applied to Haifa bombings.

 

[greekguy]

Terrorists? How about the bombing of the King David hotel in 1946? were they terrorists or people trying to liberate their homelands... sounds like hypocrisy to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

I'm going to reply to this once, if you bring it up again I'm not going to waste my energy debating this, since this is a 60 year old event.

The King David Hotel bombing was an act of terrorism by the terrorist group Irgun. The actions of the Irgun was not justified and I won't defend it. However, you'll find that Irgun was a very small orginization and I can't think of any other Israeli terrorist groups off the top of my head. In contrast, many Palestinian terror groups and Hezbollah have plenty of recruits and I could name several terror groups rather quickly based in the West Bank. Lastly, the Irgun was not supported by the majority of Israelis and was condemned as terrorism by the Haganah. The Pal. terror groups are supported by a majority of Palestinians and very few, if any Palestinans condemn the acts of Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. terrorism.

Hope this clears this up for you.

 

[GinandTonic]

Somebody mentioned it before, They already hate Israel before the bombings.

What?

As implicit in the statement. The question is how to stop the hatred, that there is hatred is one of the few things we can agree on.

 

[Kyriakos]

Imo Israel is commiting war crimes, and should be sanctioned by the EU.
It is at least good to see that the majority of Europeans are against its actions.

There is not a single reason to believe that its attacks will minimise the extremist reaction against it by groups like Hezobollah. If anything they will increase them, since now even more innocents are being brought to the conflict. Small children who lived the days of the bombing will have a very negative view of Israel anyway you slice it.

 

[Babbler]

I lean towards overreacting. From what have read, Israel and Hezbollah et al. are itching for a fight.

 

[Little Raven]

2. Israel is helping Hizbollah, believe it or not. What has been the world's reaction to this? Except for America, the world feels less empathy for Israel, and more for Palestinians and Lebanese than before this cluster****.

What are you talking about?

The EU, with the exception of France, is completely on board with what's going down. Especially Britain. Harper has made it clear where Canada stands. Even Egypt and Saudi Arabia have made public statements that place the blame on Hezbollah, even if they stop short of actually endorsing the Israeli actions.

What part of the world is upset about this?

 

[-0blivion-]

They are not overeacting in terms of launching operations against Hezbollah - they are a force in the middle east that is causing nothing but disruption and there methods are frankly not appealing to me.

They are however overeacting in the way they have launced operations. Bombing Beirut, full of Lebanese civilians, 25000 British Nationals as well as countless other nationals. It is quite a westernised city by standards in the Middle East. Beirut National Airport? Civilian Airport. A lot of dead civilians.

Nope, Israel should have dealt with this the old fashioned way; Covert forces/Special Forces dealing with Hezbollah on the ground. Hell, maybe Israel are doing this as well as the Aerial Bombardment.

However, Prime Minister Ohbert can't exactly speak on National TV about secret operations, so he has to do something tangible to appease the Israeli public and the World.

 

[Arminius]

What are you talking about?

The EU, with the exception of France, is completely on board with what's going down. Especially Britain. Harper has made it clear where Canada stands. Even Egypt and Saudi Arabia have made public statements that place the blame on Hezbollah, even if they stop short of actually endorsing the Israeli actions.

What part of the world is upset about this?

I'm not talking about Governments. I'm talking about people. Look at the poll results here:
Americam/Israeli: 19-4 Justified.
Arab/European/UK/Other: 22-6 Overreacting.

Even allowing for an anti-Israeli tendancy amongst this forum does not make up for the landslide of votes saying Israel is overreacting.

 

[Urederra]

What?

As implicit in the statement. The question is how to stop the hatred, that there is hatred is one of the few things we can agree on.

That goes both ways...

...or does Hezbollah have the right to hate Israel but Israel doesn't have the right to hate Hezbollah?

 

[Little Raven]

I'm not talking about Governments. I'm talking about people.

Ah, that would be the source of confusion. See, I was talking about relevant stuff.

 

[GinandTonic]

What are you talking about?

The EU, with the exception of France, is completely on board with what's going down. Especially Britain. Harper has made it clear where Canada stands. Even Egypt and Saudi Arabia have made public statements that place the blame on Hezbollah, even if they stop short of actually endorsing the Israeli actions.

What part of the world is upset about this?

Not public sentement. Blair is panned across the uk for being bushes poodle on this one. When the bbc is criticised on these boards for being pro palistanian, believe me they are far more ballanced than public opinion.

The right hate israil becouse they are a bunch of anti semites, and the left for being the oprensive warmongering imperialists.

Really, on this board Im slating israil, in the pub Im defending them.

 

[Kyriakos]

What are you talking about?

The EU, with the exception of France, is completely on board with what's going down. Especially Britain. Harper has made it clear where Canada stands. Even Egypt and Saudi Arabia have made public statements that place the blame on Hezbollah, even if they stop short of actually endorsing the Israeli actions.

What part of the world is upset about this?

It does not seem at all likely that a majority of EU citizents is in favour of Israel's actions. There was a very clear failure of the EU in the meating of foreign ministers last week to come up with a unified position on the subject (what else is new ). However traditionaly there is little positive sentiment for war in most countries.

I could see some possible false empathy in Spain about this (although ETA is not the same as Hezbollah) but other than that i would suspect that most EU countries have a majority of people who do not support this war.

In Greece, anyway, the oppositon has a very clear majority.

 

[Arminius]

Ah, that would be the source of confusion. See, I was talking about relevant stuff.

Point conceded. I have surrendered to the knowledge that governments don't change much, and now I concern myself with the hearts and minds of those misrepresented hoping one day for revolution.

 

[GinandTonic]

Ah, that would be the source of confusion. See, I was talking about relevant stuff.

The irony! Clutch my aching sides!

Edit - to explain, since this is not a war against a gov, saying the opinions of govs are whats important fantastically fails to grasp the necessities of the situation.