Let's talk about Israel and Palestine...

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

But we want to minimize deaths. Israel believes that too.

That assumption is not borne out by facts. Israelis, in general, probably want that. But Likud clearly has a 'kill then all' or 'send them back to where they come from' attitude. Same attitude was even observed in 1950/60 US Southern states.

For every 30 dead Palestiniians, only one Israeli dies. That is bad. Yesterday, big news was one Israeli child died. Where was the report that said four Palestinians children also died that same day? Peter Jenning was very blunt about this. We Americans do not get balanced reporting from both sides.

In this latest conflict, four Israeli children have been killed. In the meantime, about 500 Palestinian children have been killed. Why is that good? Racist?

Even the UN has cited Israel for bombing or shelling locations they were told repeatedly (in one case 17 times) as UN safe zones.

Unfortunately, too many want to paint all Israelis and Palestinians in the same color. Most in Gaza were not Hamas and were not supporters of Hamas. They regarded Hamas as occupiers. If Israel really wanted to end this conflict, then their strategy is to separate Hamas from the rest of Gaza residents.

But Likud is an extremist organization. To increase power to extremists, make it impossible for moderates to exist. And so Israel makes no distinction between Hamas and any other Palestinian. They routinely kill or maim any Palestinian since that increases support for extremists - makes peace all but impossible.

If you do not separate Likud from other Israelis, then you have played right into the propaganda of extremism.

Again, a Saudi foreign minister said how to eliminate the problem. Ignore Hamas. Negotiate with moderates and others who are the only hope of peace. That is obvious to anyone who really learned from history in general and history of this region in particular. But that means Likud may see another event similar to what happened in the Sinai.

Likud was very clear about this. Never again. Their extremist agenda is obvious. God gave them the West Bank. It is only time before Israel takes it all as god has decreed. That is extremist rhetoric. No way around that reality.