Gaza Flotilla Stormed by Israel, Part 5

Unionist, you chose to insult  and name call, but you failed to address any of the points I made, either in this or any previous posting. I don't know which group you refer to as "my people (who) have survived so long...by learning to live with all other peoples, respecting them, sharing weal and woe with them, sympathizing with and supporting their struggles", but it most certainly is not the Palestinians, whose schools and children's television shows preach hatred; who mount terrorist attacks on civilians; and who subjugate and terrorize their own population. And, who of course, with more than half a century and a gazillion dollars still have not managed to build a functioning public infrastructure

LDW wrote:

Unionist, you chose to insult  and name call, but you failed to address any of the points I made, either in this or any previous posting.

That's right. I don't debate with computerized speaking points. I only namecall. Your comments about Palestinian ineptitude, repeated after 3 years, are racist to the core. I'm not calling you racist, because that's a feature of human beings, and the jury analyzing the algorithmic nature of your posts is still out.

What is really amazing is that you think you can come onto a progressive discussion board and defend these murderers and condemn their victims. Tell your programmers that you have failed. Ask them to turn on the debugger and see what went wrong. Human genius is unlimited. Someone should be able to re-program you so that you can successfully defend the indefensible.

LDW> A piece of advice based on recent experience. On a thread discussing some of the attrocities comitted by Israel, discussing attrocities (real or imagined) committed by other countries or groups is frowned upon as it is a distraction from the discussion at hand. I, personally, think there are valid criticisms to made of Turkey's treatment of the Armenians and Kurds, Hamas' rhetoric, etc.... but this is not the place for them. If you want to talk about them the best thing would be to start a thread specifically about those concerns or points of view. I can't promise that it will go well, but it would be better than posting them here.

Bear watching? Sounds like fun. I vote for grizzlies.

Please no one arm those bears. Their friends seem to be well armed enough.

LDW wrote:

It's a tried and true political manoeuvre: when times are tough, direct the population to focus its bile and hatred on an identifiable social or political group, and preach that the world would be a better place without them. 

I guess having nuclear weapons illegally is not as evil as maybe developing one. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6575A820100609

Hamas doesn't have enough arms to be a true democracy like Canada, the US or Israel.  

Hamas is an illegitimate government but the Karzai cabal is legitimate.  No corruption in the Afghan government. Only non US allies have corruption. Western allies have governance issues not corruption.

Quote:

...still have not managed to build a functioning public infrastructure

And what they did have just imploded of its own accord last January? 

Cytizen H - You suggest I take my comments to another thread, but the posters here are convinced that the Israeli blockade and the Israeli enforcement of that blockade are illegal, and I disagree. Without discussing the reasons for the blockade in the first place, and the motivations of those who seek to 'run' it in the second place, there is not a possibility of a real debate, only one long anti-Israeli screed, which I find unacceptable. 

I do not agree with everything the Israeli government says or does - most certainly not. But it seems to me that the Palestinian leadership, over the last 60 odd years, has taken every opportunity to make war, not peace. And it seems to me that Israel is called to a higher standard than any other country in the world for her actions. There is a political advantage to winning points on the 'Arab Street' for Turkey, and Turkey thinks they can maintain European allies and still forge stronger relations with Middle East allies by presenting themselves as champions of the peace activist movement. This new image can only exist if things like Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus are conveniently forgotten, and Turkey's political manoeuvring glossed over as humanitarian action.

There is a great hue and cry about starving deprived Palestinians, but the Palestinian elites live in luxury, deprived of nothing. And the Palestinian elites have about as much interest in peace as the Gin Runners had in the lifting of Prohibition, or as much interest as the Drug Lords of the world have in the legalization of drugs.

LDW wrote:

Cytizen H - You suggest I take my comments to another thread, but the posters here are convinced that the Israeli blockade and the Israeli enforcement of that blockade are illegal, and I disagree.

Defending the blockade is an indefensible position as far as I am concerned. The blockade of Gaza is collective punishment, and it is a systematic attempt to crush an entire people.

Kevin Neish was on The Current this morning. You can hear him by going [url=http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/06/june-10-2010.html]here[/url], then clicking on the audio at "Pt 3: Letters", and it starts at 06:38 into that section - about 8 minutes in total.