Israel Declares War

Well, we've been over this before.

Israel will continue to target legitimate, military, Hamas targets... as prescribed by International Law.
Israel has long since warned civilians in the Gaza Strip to leave the areas that they are targeting... and continue to give advanced warnings. Also, the citizens have been aware of the lawless practices (war crimes) of Hamas, They know that they are both in harm's way as well the risks that they take, by choice, when they stay put.

I also don't think that, in general terms, people are attacking peaceful demonstrators (demonstrators for cease-fire)... I have heard reports that demonstrations that were not peaceful and openly "pro Hamas" and "anti Israel" did experience "push back" by folks on the other side of issue.

While I hate to use this word because it sounds pretentious, have you ever considered that you tend to use "histrionics" in your presentation?

War crimes are being committed (by both sides), therefore Hamas must be allowed to survive and thrive.

Sorry.....you lost me there.

I don't think that it's the mindset of Hamas, et. al, that civilians will shield them from any physical attack. Rather, it's more of a psychological maneuver that hopes to elicit reactions not unlike your own... an outcry from peoples of other nations that all attacks should cease because of the possibility of civilian casualties.

People who argue this is the cost of war are woefully uninformed of the history and moreover have lost there moral bearings.

I will be honest and say I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I really do try to understand people's points though. I'm not sure who disagrees Palestinian civilians are being used as human shields. It's clear that they are but it doesn't deter or change anything. Israel will still bomb Gaza regardless of the amount of civilians they kill in their pursuit of "targeting" Hamas.

I also don't know if you're referring to me as the "expert" or someone else. I just have a belief/opinion. I am prone to error and not afraid to admit as much. I'm no expert.

You are very sharp, you see through this situation more clearly and have escaped the post WW II propaganda.

This speak of people losing their moral bearings reminds me of the Albert Pike letter from 1871.

"The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the 'agentur' of the 'Illuminati' between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion. We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time."

Gotta second this! Smoke is very sharp, and is seeing through the propaganda that most of the others have just swallowed hook-line-and-sinker, like gullible catfish.

Do you think they need to use 2,000 lb bombs?
The innocent lives are not in proportional to the number of Hamas being killed.

So it is quite obvious that the IDF is not really all that concerned about precision, they have been wanting to rid Gaza for a long time.

Did you know that it was Israel that broke the 2008 cease fire?

You address this issue as though the inhabitants of Gaza are on equal ground.

The lens should be like the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and the uprising in the ghetto against the Germans.

Seems like the people of Palestine (Arabs who were both Christian and Muslim) are expected to be in submission as they were terrorized out of their homes in 1948.

So they are supposed to suffer in silence for 75+ years.
Have the Jews not worked ever so hard to garner compassion/sympathy for what they have experienced?

And of course the attacks should cease! This is genocide, these are children that are being killed, over 4000+

People who argue this is the cost of war are woefully uninformed of the history and moreover have lost there moral bearings.

You may believe that Israel broke the 2008 cease-fire,

Also, they haven't really hit any hospitals, like Hamas did awhile back.

Now, I think this is remarkably naive.

I don't think it matters about "equal ground"... when somebody attacks you, regardless of their weaponry and competency, an attack back, with all force necessary, should be expected without question.

So then Hamas can attack back, the PLO can attack back, the Jews in the ghetto can attack back against an oppressor?

You might want to conflate the present matter at hand with all the things previous, but that's silly, IMHO.

With this kind of mindset, everybody, in every nation should give up the land that they currently occupy and immigrate back to the lands of their ancestors. But wait!!! If we do that, we'd be displacing the people already there... so, maybe we should all just lay down and die in order to not disenfranchise others!??

This is so sophomoric.

Exactly this. What these people who defend warcrimes are not grasping is that they are also justifying terrorism. If might makes right, terrorism is a legitimate weapon of warfare. But they just can't understand it.

This speak of people losing their moral bearings reminds me of the Albert Pike letter from 1871.

"The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the 'agentur' of the 'Illuminati' between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion. We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time."

So then Hamas can attack back, the PLO can attack back, the Jews in the ghetto can attack back against an oppressor?