I missed you saying that. I'm a bit crook and only at DU on and off the past few days. Anyway, I disagree on the total blame thing. Both Hamas and the current extreme RW Israeli government are complete bastards who I detest. Hamas is totally to blame for the rockets they fire at Israel. Israel is totally to blame for every missile and bomb that they fire at Gaza.
Hamas knows they don't have the ability to do any great harm to Israel with those rockets, which are crude and basic. They also know that Iron Dome's going to take care of the vast majority of them. They fire them to get a response out of Israel. And in Israel there's a particularly stupid and hard-line RW government that's been itching to get into a fight. They respond with the equivalent of someone using a hammer to crush an ant. The response has been one where while Israel isn't deliberately targeting civilians, but doesn't care if civilians are killed in the process. I'm finding it particularly disturbing that they've hit UNRWA shelters which are sheltering displaced civilians after UNRWA has sent them the coordinates several times. I'm also finding it disturbing that Hamas has been the first to kick things off again after the cease-fire ended.
I have seen some posts discussing the views of Palestinians in the Middle East. Nobody likes them. Not as much as Israel does (the hatred from segments of the Israeli population is dehumanising and horrible), but the Palestinians as a whole are seen as a pain in the arse. Which is sad, because they deserve their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, and they deserve far better than what they're getting now...
= new reply since forum marked as read
