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You were wrong about the quote. I gave a quotation from an interview given by Ismail Haniyeh to Haaretz in late May of this year. You also overlook the fact that the quote by Rantisi is 2 years old and Rantisi was assasinated quite a while ago. He was a former leader but Haniyeh is the current leader of the Hamas government. What it does prove, however, is that even back in 2004 there were signs of a willingness to compromise by Hamas. So the quote only undermines your point even further.
As for drivel’s remark, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are not recognized as being part of the state of Israel. Legally speaking, the only people with a legitimate claim to the West Bank are the Palestinians, so they are the rightful owners. You probably think that Israel is entitled to keep the West Bank but your opinion doesn’t matter because the law says that they’re not.
If France had been awarded that 2nd penalty it all would have been so much different. Italy didn’t really deserve to win but France were unlucky and Zidane had a moment of madness. Funny how little incidents have such large impacts i.e. Saha picking up a yellow against Portugal and missing the final. He would have come on for Henry instead of Trezeguet. C’est la vie.
It’s the end of the road for France, Zidane is gone, Thuram and Makelele will go too. You can’t see France winning anything again until the new Zidane is found. It all seemed set up to be a golden swansong for the French old guard but it wasn’t to be. The last time Italy won the world cup was in the backdrop of a major corruption scandal in Italian football. “La forza del destino” triumphed over “la force du destin”, Italy’s destiny was the greater.
Once again you’re ignoring the facts. Yes the military wing of hamas has been involved in many acts of terrorism but can you say the same thing about the social wing of Hamas? So to call it a purely terrorist organisation is far too simplistic. You also say the actions of the IDF are completely unconnected to violence from the Palestinian side. Take a look at saturday’s events when a residential property was hit by a shell or a missile from the IDF killing 3 civilians (including a woman and a 6 year old child) and wounding several others. Do you honestly believe that things like that have no effect at all on the level of hostility towards Israel and the willingness to carry out acts of violence? No person in their right mind could believe that.
As for the impossibility of Hamas making any compromises, this is a quote from prime minister Haniyeh taken from an Israeli website, “If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, peace will prevail and we will implement a ceasefire for many years,” he told Haaretz. “Our government is prepared to maintain a long-term cease-fire with Israel.” Clearly this contradicts your claim that Hamas would never accept the 1967 borders. The willingness to compromise by Hamas was even reported in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498851330&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)
I still notice that you can’t bring yourself to say that the killing of palestinian civilians and other abuses are wrong. How do you define “a terrorist murder of a soldier”? If there’s a gun battle between the IDF and Palestinian gunmen how can it possibly be murder? They are combatants so it can’t be murder. A suicide bomber attacking a military target in a conflict is no different to a japanese kamikaze pilot it does not violate any of the rules of war.
As for your final point, the proof that it is utter nonsense is that Israel had countless opportunities to make peace with Fatah governments led by Arafat and Abbas and not once did they ever offer to end the occupation of Palestinian territory. Even Colin Powell didn’t view the deal offered by Ehud Barak as a viable proposition.
I guess your opinion of the cowboys/pioneers in the USA is that they were defending themselves from acts of terror against Indian terrorists. Was there are vast amount of difference between what the native americans did against invaders who were stealing their territory and what palestinian militants are doing? I think not.
Germany will win 3rd place and France will win the final.
You seem to be arguing for the sake of arguing. You’re making things up to suit your argument and ignoring everything else that doesn’t suit your argument. Quote the post where I said Hamas was not involved in terrorism and the post where I supposedly said they primarily target military targets. You can’t because I never said those things. Anyway, if you define terrorism as attacks on non-combatants then clearly Israel is guilty of terrorism too. You could say that the scale of Israel’s terrorism is much larger than Hamas’.
The idea that Hamas could never compromise is nonsense considering that the PM has already suggested a willingness to compromise by offering a truce if the occupation ends and by offering an acceptance of the 1967 borders. How can you say that this is not a compromise?
As I already said, the story about Saddam is disinformation because he was giving money to the families of “martyrs”. Over there, a martyr is considered to be anyone killed by the Israelis or killed while attacking Israelis. Even British civilians have been called “martyrs” after being shot and killed by Israelis. Some people take liberties with the translation from Arabic to English and translate the arabic for martyr as “suicide bomber” which is not an accurate translation because even a 3 yr. old baby can be called a “martyr”. So the money was not just going to the families of suicide bombers, the majority of donations were most likely going to the families of non-combatants since more civilians die than suicide bombers.
I do not condone attacks on either the arab or Israeli civilian populations. They are violations of the 4th Geneva convention and therefore unacceptable. However, do YOU condemn the killing of palestinian civilians by the Israeli military and all other human rights abuses? You seem to be avoiding this question. You say Hamas’ objective is the destruction of the state of Israel but one could equally argue that Israel’s objective is the destruction of the palestinian government and the annexation of all of the West Bank. So what’s the difference? At the end of the day it is the Israelis who are imposing themselves on the Palestinians not vice-versa.
Destiny seems to be on France’s side (as long as Barthez wipes the butter off his gloves).
As for Rooney, he stamped on the guy’s balls. Even if ronaldo hadn’t been playing that day he still would have got a red. The ref even said Ronaldo had nothing to do with the decision.
There have been some great games from the last 16 onwards:
2nd Round
Argentina vs Mexico
Portugal vs holland (because of all the drama)
Brazil vs Ghana (because Ghana outplayed Brazil at times)
Spain vs France1/4 finals
Germany vs Argentina
Brazil vs France1/2 finals
Germany vs Italy
Those were all entertaining football matches in my opinion. The last 3 that I mentioned were cracking games.
It’s true that events in Iraq, afghanistan, iraq, etc. lead to the alienation and disenchantment of young muslims, but to attack London because of it was just idiotic. How stupid must those bombers have been? It was a completely futile and irrational act. So many lives destroyed for no valid reason at all.
God save us all from politicians and terrorists, 2 sides of the same coin. It reminds me of the Bob Dylan song “With God on Our Side”. They both believe they are in the right so they go around causing mayhem everywhere and its always the innocent who pay the highest price.
When did I ever say that Hamas was not involved in terrorism? All I said was that attacks on Israeli military targets are not acts of terrorism because they are combatants. If attacks on soldiers in a conflict equates to terrorism then all war is terrorism.
You say Hamas could never compromise but they said the same thing about Arafat and the PLO. We have even seen the Palestinian PM offer a recognition of the 1967 borders which would be a de facto recognition of Israel. That sounds like the possibility of compromise to me.
You seem to be hell-bent on pointing out all the Israeli casualties but you don’t seem to care that 3 or 4 times as many Palestinians have been killed including women and children. Explain to me how shooting a 13 yr. old girl 20 times can ever be justified.
You also dismiss the idea of persecution fuelling the violence when this is the explanation given by the militants themselves by the general palestinian population, by the rest of the islamic world and by experts on the mideast. I’ve also given you examples of cases that corroborate this fact including the case of Wafa Idris, a paramedic whose trauma and injury caused by the Israeli military flipped her out and turned her into a suicide bomber. You can’t deny the facts in front of your face.
That story about Saddam is just disinformation by the Israeli government that a lot of people swallowed hook line and sinker. It’s true that Saddam gave money to the families of some suicide bombers but what you and the Israelis fail to mention is that he was giving money to the families of any palestinian killed in the conflict. He was giving money to the families of innocent civilians too. It was a public relations exercise just like the mass weddings he held. The suicide bombers aren’t motivated by money, it’s nonsense to assume that they are. Just like the propaganda that parents strap bombs to their children. It’s disinformation and the fact that so many people believe it proves my point about Palestinians not being able to influence the American public. The pro-Israel lobby are so effective at getting their point of view across that a lot of people are misled about the real facts on the ground, especially people in the USA.
This idea that Israel is simply fighting a war against terrorism is a load of crap too. Building settlements has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. When the IRA started their armed campaign did we start building settlements in the Irish Republic? How many times did we carry out airstrikes on Ireland? How many incursions did we launch into Ireland? Remind me which strategy has had more success, the Israeli way or the British way? Didn’t the IRA say they wouldn’t lay down their arms until their was a united ireland? Seems like negotitations do work then.
You really must be having a laugh if you don’t believe there is any persecution or murder going on by Israel in the occupied territories. Read human rights reports by any NGO. Even the Swiss government has criticized Israel for its human rights abuses and you can’t get much more impartial or neutral than switzerland.
You say there’s no alternative but to report non-violent protests if the violence stops but the news companies can just ignore those type of protests. Non violent protests get ignored all the time even in this country. Occasionally you get news reports about organisations such as Seeds of Peace but mostly the activities of the non-violent and the peacemakers get less news coverage than the activities of the Israeli war machine and the other men of violence.
You also said that Palestinians could refuse to work for Israeli firms as a protest but you’re looking at the issue from an English perspective. The Palestinian economy is not in good health and there is a lot of unemployment. People need to feed their families and if the only option they have is to work for an Israeli firm then they will do it.
I’m not advocating violence by the palestinians as a viable strategy or a way to end the conflict, but they do have the right to self-defence and the violence is inevitable in the absence of any peace process or any real hope of better things to come in the future. No amount of peaceful protests will replace the effect that meaningful negotiations will have.
