Originally Posted By BLISSS

Who's talking about the Palestinians? I'm talking about every single ARAB country surrounding it.

Originally Posted By BLISSS
Take a look at a map of the middle east.

[ www.middle-east-map.com ]

Isreal is that tiny little yellow part on the left hand side beside the Mediterrean.

Originally Posted By v.2-1
During a zombie outbreak, a wave of undead storming the Gaza strip and beyond's not gonna give a flying fuck about geographical and political motives, a brain's a brain, no matter how hateful and resentful it is so Palestinians, Israelites, arab, jewish, chistians, men, women, all will have to finally put their retarded differences aside to survive.

Originally Posted By BLISSS

I don't know if the Jews saw themselves as "guests" in Palestine, isn't that their homeland from way back or something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel">en.wikipedia.org ]

The modern State of Israel was declared in 1948, and traces its historical and religious roots to the Biblical Land of Israel, also known as Zion, a concept central to Judaism since ancient times. Political Zionism took shape in the late-19th century Europe under Theodor Herzl, and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 formalized British policy preferring the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people. Following World War I, the League of Nations granted Great Britain the Mandate for Palestine, which included responsibility for securing "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". In November 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem. Partition was accepted by the Zionist leadership but rejected by Arab leaders, and a civil war began. Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 and neighboring Arab states invaded the next day. Since then, Israel has fought a series of wars with neighboring Arab states, and has occupied territories, including the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, beyond those delineated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements.

Originally Posted By SCREWHEAD

Imagine you've got a friend that's down on his luck.. he's got abusive parents, leaves, but has nowhere to go, so after a talk with your roommates, you let him sleep on your couch for a bit so that he doesn't have to live on the streets.

Originally Posted By BLISSS

Like I said, going to war is always a risk
Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win.
I do feel bad for the Palestinians that they have lost so much land. But if the Palestinians had had the upper hand the whole map would be green, so its a two edged sword.

Originally Posted By BLISSS

@ Screwhead: Illegal is a bit a ambigious isn't it? If the Jews have a claim to the land, and the Palestinians also have a claim to it, then it seems they are both entitled to live there

Originally Posted By BLISSS

Isrealis aren't Christian Recoil

Christian Zionism grows out of a particular theological system called premillennial dispensationalism, which originated in early 19th-century England. The preaching and writings of a renegade Irish clergyman, John Nelson Darby, and a Scottish evangelist, Edward Irving, emphasized the literal and future fulfillment of such teachings as the Rapture, the rise of the Antichrist, the Battle of Armageddon, and the central role that a revived state of Israel would play during the end days. Darby and Irving argued that portions of the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation predict when Jesus will return and how the final battle of history will take place.

Christian Zionists insist that all of historic Palestine -- including all the land west of the Jordan which was occupied by Israel after the 1967 war -- must be under the control of the Jewish people, for they see that as one of the necessary stages prior to the second coming of Jesus. Among their other basis tenets:

• God’s covenant with Israel is eternal, exclusive and will not be abrogated, according to Genesis 12:1-7; 15:4-7; 17:1-8; Leviticus 26:44-45; Deuteronomy 7:7-8.

• The Bible speaks of two distinct and parallel covenants, one between God and Israel, one between God and the church. The latter covenant is superseded by the covenant with Israel. The church is a "mere parenthesis" in God’s plan and as such it will be removed from history during an event called the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:13-17; 5:1-11). At that point, Israel, the nation, will be restored as the primary instrument of God on earth.

• Genesis 12:3 ("I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you") should be interpreted literally -- which leads to maximum political, economic, moral and spiritual support for the modern state of Israel and for all the Jewish people.

• Apocalyptic texts like the Book of Daniel, Zechariah 9-12, Ezekiel 37-8, I Thessalonians 4-5 and the Book of Revelation refer to literal and future events.

• The establishment of the state of Israel, the rebuilding of the Third Temple, the rise of the Antichrist and the buildup of armies poised to attack Israel are among the signs leading to the final eschatological battle and Jesus’ return for his thousand-year reign. The movement looks for the escalating power of satanic forces aligned with the antichrist that will do battle with Israel and its allies as the end draws near. Judgment will befall nations and individuals according to how they "bless Israel."

Originally Posted By BLISSS

Its a stupid situation granted, but no ones innocent

[ www.guardian.co.uk ]



Israeli soldiers admit 'shoot first' policy in Gaza offensive

Anonymous testimonies collated by human rights group also contain allegations that Palestinians were used as human shields


Israeli soldiers who served in the Gaza Strip during the offensive of December and January have spoken out about being ordered to shoot without hesitation, destroying houses and mosques with a general disregard for Palestinian lives.

In testimony that will fuel international and Arab demands for war crime investigations, 30 combat soldiers report that the army's priority was to minimise its own casualties to maintain Israeli public support for the three-week Operation Cast Lead.

One specific allegation is that Palestinians were used by the army as "human shields" despite a 2005 Israeli high court ruling outlawing the practice. "Not much was said about the issue of innocent civilians," a soldier said. "There was no need to use weapons like mortars or phosphorous," said another. "I have the feeling that the army was looking for the opportunity to show off its strength."

The 54 anonymous testimonies were collated by Breaking the Silence, a group that collects information on human rights abuses by the Israeli military. Many of the soldiers are still doing their compulsory national service.

Palestinians counted 1,400 dead but Israel put the death toll at 1,166 and estimated 295 fatalities were civilians. Ten soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed.

Israel launched the attack after the expiry of a ceasefire designed to halt rocket fire from Gaza and crush the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the coastal strip.

Witnesses described the destruction of hundreds of houses and many mosques without military reason, the firing of phosphorous shells into inhabited areas, the killing of innocents and the indiscriminate destruction of property.

Soldiers describe a "neighbour procedure" in which Palestinian civilians were forced to enter suspect buildings ahead of troops. They cite cases of civilians advancing in front of a soldier resting his rifle on the civilian's shoulder.

"We did not get instructions to shoot at anything that moved," said one soldier. "But we were generally instructed: if you feel threatened, shoot. They kept repeating to us that this is war and in war opening fire is not restricted."

Many testimonies are in line with claims by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations that Israeli actions were indiscriminate and disproportionate.

Another soldier testified: "You feel like a stupid little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them. A 20-year-old kid should not have to do these kinds of things to other people."

The testimonies "expose significant gaps between the official army version of events and what really happened on the ground", Breaking the Silence said.

"This is an urgent call to Israeli society and its leaders to sober up and investigate anew the results of our actions."

Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, said: "Criticism directed at the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) by one organisation or another is inappropriate and is directed at the wrong place. The IDF is one of the most ethical armies in the world and acts in accordance with the highest moral code."

An IDF spokesman told the Ha'aretz newspaper: "The IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organisation would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalised testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication."

An internal investigation by the Israeli military said troops fought lawfully although errors did take place, such as the deaths of 21 people in a house that had been wrongly targeted.

Originally Posted By RECOIL

I didn't say they were. I said the state of Israel receives massive financial and military support from Christian Crusaders in the US. These fundamentalist nutjobs believe that the Jews returning to Israel is the fulfillment of some Biblical prophecy. So they are really eager to throw money at Israel and help them destabilize their Infidel neighbours.

Originally Posted By RECOIL

not even children?

Originally Posted By BLISSS

As far as I know, Isreal is the only country in that region to have complete freedom of religion.