VDKMS
1. You can't even both ways. Israel wants to be the aggressor AND the victim. And as you point out its not exactly a fair contest, with fully armed Isreali troops on one side and unarmed Palestinian civilians on the other.
Palestinians are not unarmed. They have thousands of rockets, AK47's, RPG's and even laser guided Kornet anti tank weapons.
2. That's Legalese technobabble to avoid admitted guilt. Those Treaties could be interpreted a number of different ways, although its interesting that nobody else in the world accepts the Isreali interpretation of what was really meant in 1967. The world accepted opinion was the lines drawn up in 1967 was the border, you wont find too many outside Israel who would disagree with that today.
Most treaties can be interpreted differently, especially when there are translations involved. As I said before, not all international laywers thinks the same about that. We'll have to wait until there's a peace agreement to know how all that turns out.
The 1967 borders that the international community agrees on are in fact the 1949 borders of the Armistice Agreement.
But more to the point, there is simple logic. When you evict at gunpoint the local people living there and install your own people in their place is THEFT in any persons common dictionary. And its a matter of record that is precisely what happened. It was THEFT when the Germans did the same exact thing to the Poles in what once was Eastern Prussia 1939 (and Germany didnt recognize the Polish border either) and its still theft today.
Not all Arabs (Palestinians) were evicted at gunpoint. No one can give the exact figures because they were never recorded. There were people who stayed, left before the ware (some informed about it others not), left because of the ware, expelled. Others returned.
About the theft. The Jews did not attack. They were attacked by Palestinian irregulars and several Arab armies. Only a few years after the massacres of WWII they had to fight again for their survival. Ever thought what would have happend to the Jews if they would have lost the war?
The Treaty of Versailles included : All German properties in foreign countries are confiscated. Did France or other allies gave those properties back to the Germans? After WWII etnic Germans living in eastern europe were expelled and their properties confiscated by the Russians. Is that also theft?
3. I am talking about the violence that took place in December 2008 - January 2009 which some people call the 3rd infidata.
No problem
4. Again, the common excuse of war criminals to justify their actions. The Japanese and German made the same claim when they were butchering Chinese and Slav Peasants in the 1940s, (they couldn't tell the difference between civilians and partisans). that didn't fly then anymore than it does today. The allies hanged them for it.
You cannot compare the atricities by the Nazies and the Japs with the Israeli and Arab ones.
Moreover, there has been more than one instance of IAF pilots refusing to carry out airstrikes on civilian targets because they viewed such attacks as war crimes. So when you got members of your own military refusing to carry out orders because they fear they might be committing atrocities what does that tell you about the government that orders such attacks?
The Israeli army has radars that can more or less pinpoint where a Palestinian Rocket or mortar was fired from. Within hours a retaliation (mostly by planes) follows. If the pilots see that it is a pure civilian target they will not attack. Just as Nato pilots did in Libya. Of cource mistakes can and do happen.
If Israel wants to inflict civilian casualties on purpose then there would have been far more casualties.
5. In 3rd world countries run by despots, yes. Not in any civilized country. Even in America, a deliberate and reckless attack on civilians specifically ordered by the White House would almost certainly result in an impeachment charge against the President no matter who he was. You don't use a cannon to kill a mosquito, and that incident I mentioned was criticized around the world (including by President Bill Clinton) as a reckless heavy handed response.
Protocol I, Article 52, defines a legitimate military target as one “which by [its] nature, location, purpose, or use makes an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.” Any attack requires that it be justified, in the first place, by military necessity. However, no object may be attacked if damage to civilians and civilian objects would be excessive when compared to that advantage. And if there are doubts whether a normally civilian facility is contributing to military action, the object is presumed to be civilian.
To the Israelis the killing of that leader was propably worth the civilian casualties.
6. And do you know how they became brainwashed into doing suicide attacks? Its always because they were desperate and pissed off. I have seen articles about how such candidates are recruited. Sane, happy people don't become suicide bombers. The recruiters are ALWAYS people with nothing else to live for, and when you have been living under occupation for 40 years there are a lot of candidates. If life were better of the Palestinians they wouldn't be lining up to be suicide bombers.
I guess you have never seen Hamas' promotion videos featuring armed children? If you think that recruiters are allways people with nothing else to live for then read this article:
Child suicide bombers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Most suicide bombers in the Middle East are chosen as teenagers, “educated,” and then sent off to perform their duty when they are in their late teens or early to mid-twenties.)
7. The Serbs commanders like Gladic and Milosevic. They committed terrible atrocities but they didn't go whine on TV about how bad the Croats and the Bosnians were acting as a justification. They killed far fewer Civilians in total that the Isrealis (estimated at 1.5 million since 1948) have and they have been tried and convicted in La Hague.
Where in the hell did you get that figure of 1.5 million killed?
From 1948 until 2009
14.500 Palestinians
and Israelies were killed. Look here
Fatalities 1948-present and more detailed (including attacking Arab armies) here
Mid-Range Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century
