Here’s another one:

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, singled out the killing this week of up to 30 Palestinians in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, when Israel shelled a house where its troops had told about 110 civilians to take shelter.

Pillay, a former international criminal court judge from South Africa, told the BBC the incident “appears to have all the elements of war crimes”. She called for “credible, independent and transparent” investigations into possible violations of humanitarian law.

See if you can find some slime on her, will you? There’s a good chap.

Then perhaps you could have a crack at those Red Cross quislings …

Four exhausted children have been discovered cowering in a house next to the bodies of their mothers by staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which yesterday accused the Israeli military of “unacceptable” delays in allowing medics safe access to injured Gazans.

The Red Cross workers found the children, who were so weak they could not stand, sheltering next to the bodies of their mothers in a house in Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City. Another man was found alive, but again too weak to stand. At least 12 corpses were lying on mattresses.

Does the sheer horror of this scene touch you people at all?

Honestly: the Gaza death toll is nearing 1000, 40% of them children, with thousands more injured flowing into hospitals that can’t cope. You are all entitled to a view on the geopolitics of the assault. But would a little human decency be out of the question?

I hope you are still around, as you asked for the Catholic reaction to what Fr Burns did the other day.

For the record, I am absolutely horrified and ashamed that the 2nd in command in the Wellington diocese could do such a thing.

Here are link to two NZ Catholic blogs with reactions as well.

Dona Nobis Pacem ~ NZ Conservative
Season of Hope? ~ Being Frank

It’s elementary PR to determine precisely what the world press would do with such an issue. WP had to have been authorised at the highest levels, including the political. At some point in the authorisation chain and the IDF’s propaganda arm would be a part of that, the discussion had to have been made about what this usage would do to the IDF’s image. Not to mention the fact that the first politician who saw it would have a grand mal.

It’s obviously dynamite, to a child.

Equally obviously, authorisation for that must have been high.

So let’s see:
(a) is WP dynamite with a predictable effect on world opinion? Y
(b) is WP just available and commonly used any old time for your average common-or-garden tasks? N
(c) who would have to authorise its use? High military certainly, Politicians, almost certainly, at least the Defence Minister

Hmmm.

Dresses as a woman to escape consequences, how brave!

They all make me want to Vom.

Because these deranged crazies actually do want to kill us all!

Believe it.

This article, by Anne Bayefsky, originally appeared in The New York Daily News.

The United Nations war on Israel has never been on the back burner, and its feeding frenzy over Gaza is no exception. The Security Council has now held four sessions. The General Assembly has scheduled an emergency session for Thursday night, and on Friday, the UN’s lead human rights body, the Human Rights Council, will hold a special session to damn Israel.

To put this in perspective, the Security Council is the UN’s lead response to terrorism. After 9/11, the Security Council started convening as “the Counter-Terrorism Committee” or CTC. The CTC has never identified a single terrorist, terrorist organization or state sponsor of terrorism – because the Islamic chokehold on the UN leaves it without a definition of terrorism to this day.

The General Assembly has had 10 emergency sessions in its history. Six of those, including the 10th, have been on Israel, and the tenth has been “reconvened” 16 times since 1997. In other words, there is a permanent General Assembly emergency session on Israel. The same Assembly never managed to hold a single emergency session on the 800,000 people who died in the Rwandan genocide, or the 3 million who are dead or displaced in Sudan.

As for the “reformed” Human Rights Council, it is now holding its fifth special session on Israel. By comparison, the Council has held nine regular sessions on human rights in all of the other 191 UN states. In fact, over its two and a half-year history, the Council has condemned Israel more often than all other states in the United Nations combined.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that since Israel finally decided to defend itself against the 8,000 rockets and mortar shells directed at its civilian population over eight years, the long UN knives have been quickly drawn. In addition to all the meetings, which are now webcast for propaganda purposes around the world, UN officials have used their global platforms to vilify the Jewish state and to try to tie Israel’s hands behind its back. In one form or another, UN officials always manage to choke on the word “self-defense.”

From out of the woodwork come UN gurus from the myriad UN bodies which have Israel-bashing as part of their job description: Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967; Karen AbuZayd, Commission-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); John Ging, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza; Maxwell Gaylard, United Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO), Paul Badji and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process; and Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, World Food Program Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Right alongside those folks for the past two weeks have been the UN “experts” and agencies whose well-being – their stature and internal authority, re-appointment, promotion, pension, operational funding and institutional perks of all kinds – depend on being on the Arab side of all Arab-Israeli conflicts. These people include the Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator; the UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator (OCHA); the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; the Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures; the Executive Director, UN Population Fund (UNFPA); and the Director-General, UNESCO.

Together all of these UN actors have mounted a feverish chorus alleging that Israel has committed “wanton aggression,” “monstrosities,” “massacres,” and “crimes against humanity.” In each case humanized Palestinian victims are placed on one side of the scale, and a small number of Israeli deaths are set on the other. Evidently, the UN only started counting Israeli bodies last week. Left out of this phony “proportionality test” is the terror associated with every Hamas-driven attempt to cause more death and destruction. And it is politically incorrect in the extreme to mention that the blameless Palestinians freely elected a terrorist group sworn to killing Jews.

In short, Hamas has perfected a form of human sacrifice in the 21st century. It launches rockets from schools, uses ambulances as transport, hides behind women and children, and wears civilian clothing as camouflage. Palestinian civilian casualties are the Palestinian leadership’s weapon of choice. The only body still allegedly oblivious to this grotesque calculation is the UN. Asked about Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, UNRWA chief, AbuZayd responded: “I don’t know of these human shields being used… What I would say is that Hamas very much leave us alone; let me say, they respect us.”

The UN cacophony is not what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had envisaged for her swan song. She hoped to exit with a Security Council resolution that she rammed through on December 16th, against Israel’s wishes, praising her stillborn Annapolis initiative and bringing UN tentacles ever closer to their Israeli target by involving the Security Council more closely in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Which brings us to today’s situation. Every anti-Israel idea out there has one major goal – whether it is propagated by France, Europe, Russia, Egypt, or the UN. They all want in on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Solutions subject to negotiations between the parties? Israeli control over its own borders? Not if any of these players can help it.

The drafts of UN presidential statements and resolutions now being floated include one key element. Wrest control from Israel and diminish Israeli sovereignty. The drafts insert international players via calls to “provide protection for civilian populations” or “establish and deploy an international observer force.” Any such insertion of international actors will have only one result: to diminish the ability of Israel now and in the future to protect its citizens.

Israeli leaders must reject any formula that smacks of such a degradation of their inherent right to control their own destiny. And as for the United States, if President Bush is looking for an honorable swan song, it’s now or never. This is the moment to tell your Secretary of State, after her years of a vain-glorious search for approval from the international community, that Israel is not for sale.

For more United Nations coverage see http://www.EYEontheUN.org.

FFS, anyone but sick-in-the-head Israel-haters would call what Israel is doing; highly accurate highly surgical strikes.

I don’t know yet Phil, as I’ve said quite a few times above, I never analyse the results until the dust settles. I find too much unreliable propaganda on both sides tends to obscure the facts. I do think however that in the entire Israel-Palestinian conflict, perception matters. My reading of world perception is that ‘surgical’ is not the word most people would use. Israel was acting rather like a split-personality, when it did on the one hand, positive message-management things like phone calls, but then on the other, used WP in built-up areas. The point I made about that above, is even if you believe WP is for smokescreens, it’s not a good look and I bet there are alternatives available.

It’s like the IDF’s PR people took their hand off the wheel and that one enduring message sent by the use of WP, which is all most people will remember in 6 months, wiped out all their other efforts. How curious.

Reid says @ 3.16pm; “Yeah but why the fuck can’t people get this simple fact. Neither the US nor Israel ever showed any indication whatsoever they were serious about negotiating with Hamas”.

Hamas says; “We are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel – we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis”

Patrick, you’ve made a useful point for my argument, so thanks for that. How can anyone possibly still advocate this campaign was about stopping Qassams? The IDF is many things but naive is not one. They know Qassams will keep right on going. The Israeli politicians only hope they slow down a bit till after Feb 15. I bet however that no-one except a few school children in Israel, expects them to stop altogether. So why is it that some appear to imagine that this is what Gaza 09 was all about?

With the explosive current events in Gaza, the world needs to understand the roots of this eternal conflict, otherwise we are all kidding ourselves with hopes of peace.

For decades, Arabs had demanded that Israel end the “occupation,” and in 2005, Israel did so, disengaging unilaterally from Gaza. With their demands met, there was no ‘cycle of violence’ to respond to, no further justification for anything other than peace and prosperity. With its central location and beautiful beaches on the East Mediteranean, a peaceful and prosperous Gaza could have become another Hong Kong; a shining trade and commerce center. But instead of choosing peace, the Palestinians chose Islamic jihad. They rolled their rocket launchers to the border and started bombing Israeli civilians.

Understanding the reasons why the Palestinians chose violence over peace requires connecting the dots from the behavior of Muslim states back to the laws of Islam: Sharia. Mainstream Sharia books define Jihad as: “to war against non-Muslims to establish the religion.” (Shafi’i Sharia o9.0). Jihad is not just the duty of the individual Muslim, but it is also the main duty of the Muslim head of State (the Calipha):

“A Muslim calipha is entrusted to take his people into war and command offensive and aggressive Jihad. He must organize Jihad against any non-Muslim government, which prevents Muslim da’wah (meaning preaching and spreading Islam) from entering its land.” (Shafii Law o25.0 to o25.9).

Sharia law# o25.9 states:

“(When the caliph appoints a ruler on a region, his duty includes) if the area has a border adjacent to enemy lands, (he will) undertake Jihad against enemies, dividing the spoils of battle among combatants and setting aside a fifth for deserving recipients.”

Also:

“The Caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax provided he has first invited them to enter Islam or pay Jizya, the non-Muslim poll tax, (in accordance with the word of Allah Most High Chapter 9 verse 29).”

Zia-Ul-Haq, former President of Pakistan, said “jihad in terms of warfare is a collective responsibility of the Muslim Ummah.”

One of Islam’s eminent 20th century scholars, Sheikh Maolana Maududi said:

“Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and program of Islam regardless of the country or the nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of its own ideology and program … the objective of Islamic jihad is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish instead an Islamic system of state rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single state or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution.”

Some people seem to think that such laws are just historical relics, on the books but not in practice or in control of the minds of Muslims. But that is the kind of denial we cannot afford; these laws rule the hearts, minds and actions of a majority of Muslim individuals and states around the world today. These scriptures are taught, preached and promoted as the incontrovertible and eternal word of God and funded by Saudi petrodollars throughout the world, including Western nations such as the U.K. and the United States.

No Muslim leader can survive in a Muslim country if he announces the end of Jihad against non-Muslim countries and states that all references to Jihad in Islamic law do not apply today. Treating non-Muslim neighboring countries and individual as equals, with respect and in peace without trying to convert them to Islam, is simply against Islamic Law.

Muslim leaders who dare to go against this theology are called traitors and puppets of the ‘Great Satan’ West. That is a description that no Muslim leader wants to be labeled with. When president Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, he told his confidants that he knew he was signing his own death warrant. He understood that under Sharia he must have permanent war with non-Muslim Israel.

How can a Muslim leader or individual avoid the hundreds of Quran and Hadith commandments to Muslims to kill Jews and Christians? Q 9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah until they pay the Jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” Q 9:5: “Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them”. Q47.4: “When you encounter the unbelievers, Strike off their heads.”

A Muslim leader cannot face his devout Muslim subjects after making a decision to engage in friendship and peace with Jews. Mosques all over the Middle East, after all, recite Mohammed’s commandment to Muslims:

“The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!” (Sahih Muslim 41:6985, also Sahih Bukhari 4:52:177)

This Hadith, issued by Mohammad, makes a whole group of people illegal to exist. It was issued in the 7th century, not after the 1948 creation of the State of Israel. It is not a response to modern-day grievances; it is a permanent commandment.

Many Muslims claim that Arabs and Jews lived well together for many years before 1948. But that claim ignores the fact that Jews had to live as ‘dhimmies’ under Islamic Law and were never allowed to rule themselves separate of the Islamic Sharia. When Muslims were weak they often treated their dhimmi subjects well and ignored the commandments to kill, subjugate and humiliate them. But Jew hatred is intrinsic to Islamic scriptures that do not permit reformation under the penalty of death.

This is the real basis of the Arab/Israeli conflict: not a conflict over land or occupation, but a divine obligation to destroy neighboring (non-Muslim) Israel, where Jews are no longer dhimmis but are free to rule themselves. We cannot ignore the root of the problem in Muslim scriptures. That is the true force behind the hate and propaganda Jihadist machine against Jews in the Muslim world.

Some Muslims tell me that they don’t believe in Sharia and question why am I making a big deal about it. My answer is that Sharia is the law of the land in 54 Muslim countries and many Muslim groups are demanding Sharia in the West. In 1990, 45 Muslim countries signed the Cairo Human Rights Declaration which stated that Sharia has supremacy over the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Muslim world must look within to its sacred laws, scriptures, sermons, teaching and preaching, and reform the obstacles for peace that have condemned them to a permanent state of jihad. The non-Muslim world must have no illusions.

Nonie Darwish is an American of Arab/Moslem origin. A freelance writer and public speaker, she runs the website http://www.ArabsForIsrael.com.

As we observe a mounting and increasingly pervasive campaign to censure Israel for defending itself against the Hamas thugocracy, we are also witnessing a likely self-induced blindness among both elite institutions and ordinary people. The UN, the media, the NGOs and proliferating altruistic organizations, the European governments (with the exception of Germany), the intellectual panjandrums and a vast popular constituency appear utterly incapable of recognizing the obvious. Israel is in fact under no obligation to lend its support to its self-avowed enemy. It is under no imperative to provide Gaza—whose population elected Hamas by a wide margin and supports terror attacks against Israel by an even wider margin—with medical treatment, diesel fuel, electrical power and food shipments. The Geneva Conventions which assign responsibility to the occupying power for the welfare of the occupied people do not apply in this situation since Gaza can no longer credibly be described as “occupied.”

So the question needs to be asked. What other nation in the world heals and victuals its enemies, while at the same time allowing its own population centers to undergo relentless bombardment? What nation in its right collective mind would go on supplying sustenance to and serving its attackers’ energy needs? Russia, for example, is not under attack, yet even in a non-conflictual situation it has no compunction in cutting off Gas supplies to the Ukraine and threatening to do the same to Europe—in the middle of the winter no less—yet the General Assembly sits on its hands, Amnesty International is deafeningly mute, the streets are empty of protesters. Innocent people can freeze to death for all they care.

But Israel is routinely denounced for supposedly depriving its mortal enemies of food and material. Gaza, let us recall, is a hostile “state” which persists in trying to abduct Israeli soldiers, laying explosive devices at the border, sniping at Israel’s labor force and firing rockets daily at its civilian communities. But what is even more preposterous than such false and hypocritical defamation is the fact that Israel, apparently bowing to pressure or subject to some misguided sense of noblesse oblige, continues to act as Gaza’s fuel pump and breadbasket.

Whatever way we look at it, the situation is so absurd and self-defeating as to defy belief. The many “well-intentioned” peace outfits and most of the world’s governments have not seen fit to acknowledge the plain reality of the overall situation. To repeat: Israel is under no obligation whatsoever to cater to or initiate relations with another state or people. Such is the rule the Muslim nations have adopted wholesale vis à vis Israel . It is the assumption behind the anti-Zionist divestment campaigns of the Churches, NGOs, universities and trade unions, and, indeed, it is an axiom the “world community” has sanctioned for its own members, with the hypocritical exclusion of the Jewish state. This is a basic principle of the jus gentium: there is no legitimate compulsion for a competent authority to “do business” with or provide succour to those it does not wish to.

And thus there is no ethical, legal or political justification for imposing this responsibility upon Israel, especially as Israel has been under attack for years from the very entity it is expected to sustain and subsidize. Nevertheless, from the unreflected perspective of the rest of the world, Israel, which owes nothing to Gaza, must go on furnishing its adversaries with their stipulated requirements. Simply put, Israel is the victim of what we might call negative exceptionalism. Unlike any other country on the planet it must work against its own interests. It is as if there exists among its many enemies a shadowy, perhaps unconscious, realization that only one country in the Middle East is capable of defeating Israel, and that is Israel itself. And therefore, in the current conflict, it must be bullied and constrained to furnish Hamas with the ammunition, so to speak, that can be used against it.

That, I believe, is for much of the world what Gaza is all about. Against all common sense and natural law, Israel must be forced via moral condemnation and political pressure to feed, equip, endow and replenish Hamas and its Gazan electors until the Jewish state finally succumbs to a process of physical and military erosion, and becomes something other than a Jewish state. The world demands that Israel defeat itself in the absence of any stronger opponent in the region to complete the task. And Israel, at least up to now and despite its belated military response to continued Hamas aggression, seems perfectly willing to comply.

Here is a better analogy. Consider the Georgians in the USSR. They actually do want their own country, they are an identifiable race in their own right; they have lived where they live for centuries. But imagine if they were so hated by the Russians that they had always been treated as second class citizens, and the mixture of Russians and Georgians in any given territory was a recipe for strife; but imagine that the Russians had had the upper hand for centuries, most Georgians had fled and become a diaspora, and the Georgian remnant in the USSR occupied a much more limited territory than it once had. This is like Jews in Palestine in the 20th Century.

Imagine the UN mediating in the dispute and drawing up fair borders, based on where the majority of Georgians now live in Georgia; ignoring the original boundaries of Georgia in its past. This is like Israel; the Jews were granted only a small fraction of their ancient territory. Imagine the Russians immediately invading Georgia and wonder of wonders, getting defeated; and the Georgians ending up holding a little more territory than the UN had originally granted them. Imagine, too, Georgians from all over Russia, where they had been forcibly relocated in generations past, fleeing back to the new Georgia. Imagine a similar number of Russians fleeing from the new Georgia.

But imagine those Russians never being accepted as refugees BY RUSSIA; huge, resource-rich Russia; and being left to fester in refugee camps and Bantustans against the day when they will gain “the right of return”. Imagine Russia going to war again and again to try and destroy the Georgians, and failing every time. Imagine the Russian leadership ultimately signing peace treaties with Georgia, mediated by the international community; some of them end up assassinated by the more militant groups who disagree with making peace with Georgia. Imagine the Russian leadership, in those peace agreements, DECLINING the return of the territories that Georgia had won off them. This is what Egypt and Jordan did.

Imagine the whole of Russia, and their sympathisers in the world community, inventing a racial category that had never existed hitherto, to describe those RUSSIANS left within the borders annexed by Georgia. Let’s call them “Crimeans”. Let’s imagine those “Crimeans” continuing to fight against Georgia, which, although a tiny nation and much tinier than Russia, is very well equipped and defended, continues to suppress the “Crimean” uprisings; but after years of struggle and negotiation, withdraws from that even tinier area now described as “Crimea”; and leaves the “Crimeans” (who are all ethnic Russians anyway) to determine their own fate, and receiving more international aid than any other people in history, including from Georgia itself.

Imagine that even then, these “Crimeans” continue to conduct raids accross the border into Georgia, killing as many as a thousand Georgian civilians per year. This is the 2000 “Intifida”. Imagine Georgia then building a border barrier with strict security measures for all persons crossing it. The killings of Georgian civilians drops to nothing as a result. Imagine the international media going nuts at GEORGIA for causing the “Crimeans” so much grief, all the while that RUSSIA has totally closed its border with “Crimea” and gives it no aid whatsoever, apart from smuggled weapons and explosives.

Imagine the “Crimeans” launching crude rockets accross the border at Georgia, at a rate of dozens per day. Imagine the adjacent Georgians having siren warning systems and the populace several times daily ducking into blast shelters; their death rates being correspondingly low. Imagine years of this; imagine the civilians involved finally losing patience with their government, and it looking likely that they will elect a hardline government that will do something about it. The moderate government of Georgia, the most humanitarian government in the world, finally does something in the hopes that the people will not elect the hardliners in a few weeks time. They conduct the world’s most accurate ever “surgical strikes” on “Crimea”, taking out launching sites and armouries; the “Crimeans”, though, with one eye on world opinion, always place these in or adjacent to schools, hospitals, and densely populated areas…………

Like, what the allies did to Dresden in 1945, what the Germans did to Malta, what the USA did to Hanoi, and what the Russkies did to Kabul? And what Israel COULD do to Gaza if it was half as inhuman as its haters make it out to be?

FFS, anyone but sick-in-the-head Israel-haters would call what Israel is doing; highly accurate highly surgical strikes.

Consider the Germans use of V-1 rockets in WW2. They were nowhere near as lethal as an actual aircraft bombing campaign; weren’t very accurate, and didn’t actually kill many people. Very like Hamas’ rockets. But would it have been reasonable to expect the allies to leave that out of any peace agreement with Germany, or not do anything about it if Germany kept up those launchings in contravention of the peace agreement? Had they had the means to accurately take out the launching sites, would they not have done so, and had Germany based those launching sites in the middle of Dresden, who would we be blaming in the event of civilian deaths?

Abu Marzouq: “We have three conditions for any peace initiative coming from any state.
First, the aggression of the Israelis should stop. All of the gates should be opened, including the gate of Rafah between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Finally, Israel has to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
We are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel – we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
When others talk about a ceasefire, they are saying all military operations should stop.
But we are sending a message [by firing rockets]: “We will not surrender. We have to fight the Israelis and we will win this battle.”
We know we are going to lose a lot of people from our side, but we are going to win, inshallah”

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200918155333111890.html

Reid says @ 3.16pm; “Yeah but why the fuck can’t people get this simple fact. Neither the US nor Israel ever showed any indication whatsoever they were serious about negotiating with Hamas”.

Hamas says; “We are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel – we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis”

Reports are coming out of Gaza about the average people pissed off with Hamas stealing their kids to act as human shields.

Hamas may have been voted in by mistake, but they then qucikly eliminated all opposition.

But Hamas as the pseudo-government of Gaza did not instigate the resistance, but are rather an expression of it. They are a militant group who were voted into government, rather than a government that decided to act militarily. They don’t have an off switch for the violence, because they never switched it on in the first place. Hamas could turn around tomorrow and say, “We surrender! Hamas militiamen, put down your arms!” and Palestinians who want to fight for what they see as their stolen land or fight against what they see as Israel’s continued stranglehold on their people will say, “Well, fuck Hamas, then,” and band around some new group.

That’s what I mean about not being able to win an occupation the same way as you can win against a nation.

Gaza is not occupied and hasn’t been since 2005. They are apparently a self ruling area which is why it is valid to state that this is a war.

That’s a nation-on-nation war again. I’m asking about how one would count victory in an occupation. Let’s say Russia defeated Germany and occupied the whole of the country, taking its land by right of conquest. Some Germans continued to resist the occupation, targeting first Russian military targets and then, decades later, moving on to targeting non-military Russian targets.

This is not a perfect analogy for the situation of the Palestinians, but it’ll do for this question:

What would count as a victory for Russia in that occupation?

Average Kiwis have no idea that the majority of the MSM is left wing and therefore inherently anti-Israel. Even when presented with video evidence they refuse to use it claiming it has been doctored. Yes Reuters and co are quite happy to accept photoshopped pictures and Hamas/Hezbollah press releases as gsopel.

Wake up everyone and understand what is happening here.

I wonder if the UN should actually not be held responsible for the deaths in Gaza. By holding Israel to such impossible standards in war they have effectively endorsed the use of human shields by Hamas.

Let’s imagine that the allies had offered Hitler an honourable settlement late in the day instead of insisting on unconditional surrender.

Why Phil what a silly idea. The only counter alternative to unconditional surrender isn’t honourable surrender. To paint it as such is highly disingenuous.

BTW, perhaps you haven’t noticed, but some people already allege that the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is along the lines of the imagery to which you allude at 6:13.

A more counter-productive image I couldn’t imagine. I mean, Israel has already stamped its mighty foot, hasn’t it. So now, I assume, you’re suggesting it stamps it again?

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