Reply #7: They're not

[Ravenseye]

They used to be, and one could argue that they still are better because of 'intentions', but those don't go very far.

Reprisals against civilians, whether it's rocket attacks on Haifa, or bombs dropping on suburbs of Beirut, are unforgiveable.

There are those that argue about "who started it" when that question truly has roots over a hundred years old and more. Who started it doesn't matter anymore. Otherwise it validates any number of horrific actions. Just because you were attacked first and are responding, doesn't mean you can use any means necessary including attacking civilians.

There are those who argue that Israel is hitting military targets and the civilians are just simply casualties of war. The problem with that, in my mind, is that Israel is doing large scale damage to civilian areas, knowingly. They aren't precision strikes. They are bombing civilian locations like the airports, in order to prevent people from escaping, yet killing plenty of civilians, and destroying enormous amounts of infrastructure.

Israel can't just sit back and let Hezbollah poke at them with a stick, shoot rockets at Haifa, and kidnap their soldiers, but it's a back and forth. Both sides have been picking and fighting at each other for so long that everything is a reprisal. If that's the case then a civilized country that doesn't wish to terrorize people, would find a different way to fight Hezbollah rather than bombing civilian areas in Beirut filled mostly with people who just want to live their lives.

So really I think while the Israelis come from a position which could grant them a much higher moral position, I think their tactics strip that away from them and bring them down to the level of terrorists themselves.