Blogging Tory "Gay and Right" Fred gets a little stiffy over alleged Hamas war crimes:
Irwin Cotler itemizes their crimes...
Hamas is committing at least six violations of international law, Cotler explained.
"First, the deliberate targeting of civilians is in and of itself a war crime," he noted, referring to the Hamas rockets fired at southern towns for eight years
Deliberate targeting of civilians? You mean, like this?
UN Gaza headquarters shelled by Israel
The U.N. compound struck Thursday houses the U.N. Works and Relief Agency, which distributes food aid to hundreds of thousands of destitute Gazans in the tiny seaside territory of 1.4 million people.
"I conveyed my strong protest and outrage to the defense minister and foreign minister and demanded a full explanation," said [U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon], who arrived in Israel on Thursday morning from Egypt.
It had only that morning become a makeshift shelter for 700 Gaza City residents seeking sanctuary from relentless Israeli shelling, U.N. officials in Gaza said.
Luckily, that's different, since it was Israel that was doing it. That makes it OK.
6 comments:
Maybe the UN shouldn't do any more anti-Israel resolutions - for the sake of the Palestinians, I mean.
How does anyone actually know that Hamas is deliberately targetting civilian infrastructure in Israel. My understanding is that even the best rockets that the IDF has are extremely inaccurate even over short distances, as evidenced by the UN School strike, so consider the problems of hitting a military patrol or recruiting officers over a distance of 26 or so miles with a qassam.
Well, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used seem to indicate that hamas doesn't care if civillians are hit...either that or they know nothing about the weapons they're using.
The post makes a great point though even if the author totally missed it...the government of Israel and Hamas organization are both full of douchebags.
Cheers
The UN needs to pull out and be disbanned. NATO should go in... Yes, the US would be biased in favour of the Isrealis... Us Canadians however, can not forget that those useless douche bags targetted and killed a Canadian during the Lebannon war. There is no mistaking that the IDF knew exactly who they were shelling, not in this day and age. If I can drop a 60mm mortar on a used tire 1km away, they can do betteer with guided ordinance (assuming have 3-5 rounds to fire... I would need to adjust.)
No, I do not like Hamas either... But the IDF, as far as I am concerned is no better. Certainly not given the current facts.
Zach says: "Well, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used seem to indicate that hamas doesn't care if civillians are hit...either that or they know nothing about the weapons they're using."
I agree, if you are saying it does not excuse the launchings of rockets that may kill civilians, but the key word I always hear is 'deliberate' or 'intentional'. Hamas does not care where their missiles strike, showing a lack of concern for civilians but no deliberate targetting of civilians, while Israel does know where their's strike, there is just a lack of concern for any in the area.
Is it more moral to shoot rockets knowing you will hit the target and innocent people will be killed or is it more moral to shoot off rockets in the hope they will kill someone?
I thnk both are equally as reprehensible though I would tend to favour the Israeli even if only ever so slightly because I understand that extremist militants use civilian shields to their advantage both as a military and public relations strategy.
The bottom line however is that both sides have what amounts to a disturbing demonstration of their lack of compassion for human life. Neither side is big enough to take lessons from peacemakers like Ghandi and be the peace maker.
Peace is often a painful proposition and in order for it to come about, much has to be lost. It's simply up to one side or the other to decide whether gaining peace and the losses that come with it is better than the losses that come with seemingly endless fighting.
True heroes do not respond to aggression with further aggression and then expect violence to end. True heroes take punches to the groin, baseball bats to the shins, punches to the gut and terrible beatings before forgiving their attackers and offering a hand of friendship. I don't see any of that in the middle east and so I don't see peace. I also don't see any honourable actions to support.
It's pretty sad.
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