"It is an all-out war against Hamas-controlled Gaza, and Israel is entitled, by any fair reading of international law, to do to Gaza City what the U.S. did to Berlin and Tokyo in 1945." I absolutely agree and I support Israel 100%. Nothing justifies the vile horrific carnage Hamas has inflicted.
Have you considered the risk of going into WWIII? Have you considered the risk of killing tens of thousands of Gaza civilians, and possibly more Israeli civilians as other middle-east actors engage? Have you considered the risk of losing your homeland forever? How do you know you'll win a broader conflict? China will side with palestine. Russia will side with palestine. Most of western Europe will side with palestine. London and most of Scotland already side with Palestine. Brazil isn't on your side either. The support for Israel is waning.
What is the end game? Total and complete isolation? Another two thousand year diaspora?
Perhaps if we post the photographs of the beheaded babies and disemboweled woman with her baby dangling by its umbilical cord a few minds might be swayed. Evil cannot hide. Your vision is corrupted by evil thought. Fuck China, Fuck Russia. Destroy Hamas. This is what happens in war. Bring in the heavy equipment and push the crumbled mass of building debris into the sea. Hamas like all terrorist are cowards. Sympathy for evil? Never. Destroy Iran's nuclear and intercontinental missile capabilities. The only way thousands of innocent civilians will die will be because of Hamas. It is an honor to die in the name of destroying EVIL.
If you are going to write something so blatantly anti Israel without knowing history, morality or even taking in the depth of this article by Dershowitz then provide a solution as to how Israel can survive when all Arab nations are saying death to Israel and well death to the US while Obama and Obiden support this.....tell me how do you propose that?....you are siding with terrorism and giving it permission.....i am against war of all kinds....but....i am also against barbaric acts which are all on the side of Hamas.....did you read this article at all .... did you get the depth of it?....i don’t think so....for you are siding with barbarism and terrorism....reread the article for whatever you would want to respond to my comment will have its answer in this article...
I don't think that person needs you to tell them their questions are "excellent".
And you didnt directly rebut any of those arguments.
Even if Israel wins a larger regional conflict, which is unlikely, then it will still be a phyrric victory. The country will lose international support. It will continue to isolate itself, as will America, and it won't stop Hamas or future terrorist acts.
You can eradicate every member of Hamas, and it wont save you from future terrorism. Hamas will regroup, other factions will form, other tunnels will be built. The only real solution is a two state solution. Palestine must have autonomy, and Israel must leave them alone. Bludgeoning the palestinian people into submission wont get you closer to a two state solution.
Making more enemies wont make you safer.
Israel just destroyed thousands of homes. Do you think the average citizen in Gaza will forget that their house was bombed?
An invasion is nothing short of insanity. Such actions only make Hamas stronger, not weaker.
Hamas wants to kill all Jews, not just in Israel, but worldwide. They are also intent on the goal of a world-wide Caliphate. Being nice to them won't appease them, any more than appeasing Hitler worked. A two state solution is impossible while Hamas exists. Their regime does not deserve the credibility and privileges that statehood confers
Hamas was just caught displaying a fake photo of a baby killed in Gaza. The baby was actually killed in the Syrian civil war. This practice "taquiyya" in the Koran. It means infiltrating the infidels for the sake of Allah. One should thoroughly distrust any numbers or claims by Hamas or the most anti semitic organization in the world, namely the UN
Excellent....thank you Sir.....as long as I have been alive I have seen the Palestinians being used as political pawns, not by Israel but by the Arab nations.....no one will take them in even now as Israel says to get out the innocent so that it can militarily defeat Hamas.......and with all the land they have in the Arab nations.....Egypt has a wall between it and the Palestinians and refuses to let any of them in.........Israel, for those who don’t know, is smaller than the size of NJ.......Jews have been there way before Mohammed was even born.....though Mohammed would be horrified at all this for he was a man of God.....and I believe passages of the Koran are being misused and abused by these political barbaric Muslims. (In fact this Jihad is really an internal war of the forces that are within all of us not an external war....it is a Jihad of purification of our souls not the killing of non-believers.........Not everyone who is a Muslim is like the barbaric haters of women and infidels but the leaders are.....the leaders who are making tons of money and live like kings.......it is like here in the US.....most people don’t want an open border but the leaders don’t listen to we the people who pay them.......It is so sad, but the Palestinians have been used to foment more and more hatred in the Middle East when peace could have easily been achieved decades ago.........as Golda Meir said “if the Arabs loved their children half as much as they hate the Israeli’s , we would have peace”......
Evil and leftists are winning the media war. Lies, misrepresentations, propaganda, inadequate volume of truthful news combined with the lack of education such as in the Palestine community. Evil is alive and well, openly flaunting itself globally. Hamas must be destroyed. Iran must be contained. Election and Border integrity must be assured or we are headed for civil war in America. We must end electronic, computer-based election systems. Trust has been destroyed. Teach your children well.
Sadly I have to agree with Prof. Dershowitz, but his defense of Israel's upcoming actions based on "any fair reading of international law" is a bit ironic if not hypocritical. Had Israel complied with international law in its dealings with the Palestinians in Gaza, this atrocity likely would not have happened. I would have more respect for Mr. Dershowitz had he taken Israel to task over that.
Hamas was not held to any law during last week’s civilian carnage, which continues as their women and children are held hostage, potentially as human shields. IDF does inform every civilian to get out out the place they intend to bomb. There’s a time for war, and a time to consider how it could have been avoided by those who remain.
Sorry there Mr. Harvard Professor, but Le May leaflets were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, warning civilians to evacuate, so that's not correct. Agree with everything else, though.
Hamas is a movement whose stated purpose is to fight against one and only one injustice. That perceived injustice is the existence of the state of Israel. Anyone who does not believe this should read the charter of Hamas and listen to their words.
The elimination of Hamas will make a two-state possible if Hamas is replaced by Palestinian leadership committed to peace and co-existence. That is what happened after the Nazis were defeated in WW2 and the regime that perpetrated the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was militarily removed. Japan has been a peaceful country since the regime that attacked Pearl Harbor was defeated. It is all about the leadership that will fill the vacuum.
Tom, regardless of any Israeli mistakes and wrongs, Hamas and the many Palestinians who follow their leaders would continue to hate Jews and Israel. They would wish them death. They would plan and receive weapons and funding, and they would pick a perfect spot for a massacre.
Where are the civilians supposed to go exactly? Egypt had their borders closed and is willing to open them if Israel allows in humanitarian aid. Also this double moral standard is in the case where Israel disregards civilian casualties which they had done with their complete siege which they have cut Gaza off from food, water or electricity (which the defense minister of Israel called for), violating international law and the Geneva convention, which they are recently reversing which would allow civilians to evacuate. If they do not restore electricity at least to hospitals, a lot of civilians are going to die from injuries/wounds from the bombings.
You have to consider the situation where Hamas are underground in tunnels. If that is the case, Israel is attacking civilian targets on the surface while missing the Hamas tunnels with their bombings
You can't dismiss morals or the Geneva convention/international law because of terrorism occurred.
You can’t use terrorism as an excuse for breaking international law or committing war crimes. Hamas committed terrorism but that does not justify collective punishment of Palestinians for the actions of Hamas
Did you even read the article......your comment is not based on the law or the facts.....read the article again and get the data before posting such an uninformed opinion...
"Pursuant to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 ICC Statute, “[i]ntentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts" https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jq32.htm
It justifies retaliation for thousands of dead, mutilated, raped and kidnapped as hostages. The lecture should be saved for those who committed atrocities last week.
Does international law or the Geneva convention allow collective punishment or revenge war crimes? It does not. If the Israeli government thinks that is justified to do such war crimes then they are war criminals no better than Hamas
"Pursuant to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 ICC Statute, “[i]ntentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts" https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jq32.htm
Egypt has not opened their borders and has been very clear that they will not allow Palestinian civilians in. This is pretty typical of the Arab world, which has a pretty impressive track record of giving the Palestinians the boot as they typically foment insurrection and try to overthrow whatever country they end up in.
This appears to be the one conflict in history where it’s expected to be conducted with no inconvenience to the civilian population. Add in the brutality and sheer barbarism of the terrorist attack, in addition to the fact that Hamas STILL has hundreds of hostages and is STILL firing rockets at Israel, and the calls for restraint from the Western smart set are almost unbelievable.
Israel bombs Hamas rocket fire sites set up amongst the civilian infrastructure? Apparently unacceptable. Israel calls for evacuation of northern Gaza to avoid civilian casualties? Beyond the pale, an atrocity on par with genocide. I cannot believe the number of articles I’ve read about the hospitals in Gaza being 24 hours away from shutting down over the last week, as if this is some sort of exceptional situation and ANY war is somehow able to be conducted in a way with no disruption to medical services.
Honest question, because I know your answer will be stupid: how do you propose Israel should have conducted the last 10 days? Please provide us your wisdom.
Edit: also, Israel has said they will allow aid in once the hostages are returned. Not sure why a territory that receives hundreds of millions of dollars of aid yearly from rich Qatari sheikhs still needs its neighbor to provide it water when it sits on top of a large coastal aquifer, but they can get their water back once they release the innocents they abducted.
Anything else other than breaking international law and the Geneva convention by withholding food and water from Gaza doing a "siege". How about special ops? They are just bombing away with no clear strategy and the missiles are not stopping.
How are they able to cross the sea? Do you see any boats evacuating people? Israel is bombing the Gaza strip but they expect the civilians to live their to evacuate immediately when they have nowhere to go. Gaza is one of the most impoverish areas in the world
I remember reading that the U.S. dropped leaflets before bombing Hiroshima, so I don't think your statement is historically accurate.
The argument is the continued development on the west bank, along with the draconian security checkpoints, has created a sort of apartheid. Some view Hamas as freedom fighters. Clearly, they are not freedom fighters. They want to see the destruction of Israel, they oppose the two state solution, but establishing a blockade that cutts off water to millions sounds more like genocide than defense.
Additionally, you have reports that Israel knew of the attack, and told the military to stand down for a few hours so they could justify a massive assault against Gaza later. It appears to have been a strategic calculation from some hardliners within the administration, which would correspond with the reports from victims that during the first few hours the police and military were nowhere to be found.
Regardless of the above, I'm of the opinion that Israel has made its point. It has retaliated. It has defended itself with overwhelming force. Gaza has been reduced to rubble. A ground invasion will only force Iran's hand, creating a regional conflict that could result in WW3.
That wont end well for Israel or anyone else.
90% of the civilians in Gaza have nothing to do with Hamas. They might sympathize with hamas, but they are not involved in acts of terror against israelis.
This is the time for cooler heads to prevail. Its time to call for a cease fire.
Just replying to your comment to me. Whether that person needed an atta boy, or not, so what? It was simply my thoughts, my comments. He or she can reply that he/she doesn’t need my positive reactions, and I’ll try to remember that. Simply puzzled.
Are all the hostages out, dead or alive? Are US hostages freed? After the carnage last week of thousands of Israeli civilians, it’s time to take Gaza back. Ceasefire is premature. I do wish that civilians were granted a way out. None of the Arab nations have granted them passage, nor the UN, nor the RedCross. The US has millions of unvetted new civilians.
"It is an all-out war against Hamas-controlled Gaza, and Israel is entitled, by any fair reading of international law, to do to Gaza City what the U.S. did to Berlin and Tokyo in 1945." I absolutely agree and I support Israel 100%. Nothing justifies the vile horrific carnage Hamas has inflicted.
Have you considered the risk of going into WWIII? Have you considered the risk of killing tens of thousands of Gaza civilians, and possibly more Israeli civilians as other middle-east actors engage? Have you considered the risk of losing your homeland forever? How do you know you'll win a broader conflict? China will side with palestine. Russia will side with palestine. Most of western Europe will side with palestine. London and most of Scotland already side with Palestine. Brazil isn't on your side either. The support for Israel is waning.
What is the end game? Total and complete isolation? Another two thousand year diaspora?
Perhaps if we post the photographs of the beheaded babies and disemboweled woman with her baby dangling by its umbilical cord a few minds might be swayed. Evil cannot hide. Your vision is corrupted by evil thought. Fuck China, Fuck Russia. Destroy Hamas. This is what happens in war. Bring in the heavy equipment and push the crumbled mass of building debris into the sea. Hamas like all terrorist are cowards. Sympathy for evil? Never. Destroy Iran's nuclear and intercontinental missile capabilities. The only way thousands of innocent civilians will die will be because of Hamas. It is an honor to die in the name of destroying EVIL.
If you are going to write something so blatantly anti Israel without knowing history, morality or even taking in the depth of this article by Dershowitz then provide a solution as to how Israel can survive when all Arab nations are saying death to Israel and well death to the US while Obama and Obiden support this.....tell me how do you propose that?....you are siding with terrorism and giving it permission.....i am against war of all kinds....but....i am also against barbaric acts which are all on the side of Hamas.....did you read this article at all .... did you get the depth of it?....i don’t think so....for you are siding with barbarism and terrorism....reread the article for whatever you would want to respond to my comment will have its answer in this article...
Your questions are excellent. It is a frightening situation for the world. However, Israel must defend itself, and do so without half measures.
I don't think that person needs you to tell them their questions are "excellent".
And you didnt directly rebut any of those arguments.
Even if Israel wins a larger regional conflict, which is unlikely, then it will still be a phyrric victory. The country will lose international support. It will continue to isolate itself, as will America, and it won't stop Hamas or future terrorist acts.
You can eradicate every member of Hamas, and it wont save you from future terrorism. Hamas will regroup, other factions will form, other tunnels will be built. The only real solution is a two state solution. Palestine must have autonomy, and Israel must leave them alone. Bludgeoning the palestinian people into submission wont get you closer to a two state solution.
Making more enemies wont make you safer.
Israel just destroyed thousands of homes. Do you think the average citizen in Gaza will forget that their house was bombed?
An invasion is nothing short of insanity. Such actions only make Hamas stronger, not weaker.
Hamas wants to kill all Jews, not just in Israel, but worldwide. They are also intent on the goal of a world-wide Caliphate. Being nice to them won't appease them, any more than appeasing Hitler worked. A two state solution is impossible while Hamas exists. Their regime does not deserve the credibility and privileges that statehood confers
Evil is permitted to exist when good men do nothing.
Hamas was just caught displaying a fake photo of a baby killed in Gaza. The baby was actually killed in the Syrian civil war. This practice "taquiyya" in the Koran. It means infiltrating the infidels for the sake of Allah. One should thoroughly distrust any numbers or claims by Hamas or the most anti semitic organization in the world, namely the UN
AOC posted that pic on X.
Excellent....thank you Sir.....as long as I have been alive I have seen the Palestinians being used as political pawns, not by Israel but by the Arab nations.....no one will take them in even now as Israel says to get out the innocent so that it can militarily defeat Hamas.......and with all the land they have in the Arab nations.....Egypt has a wall between it and the Palestinians and refuses to let any of them in.........Israel, for those who don’t know, is smaller than the size of NJ.......Jews have been there way before Mohammed was even born.....though Mohammed would be horrified at all this for he was a man of God.....and I believe passages of the Koran are being misused and abused by these political barbaric Muslims. (In fact this Jihad is really an internal war of the forces that are within all of us not an external war....it is a Jihad of purification of our souls not the killing of non-believers.........Not everyone who is a Muslim is like the barbaric haters of women and infidels but the leaders are.....the leaders who are making tons of money and live like kings.......it is like here in the US.....most people don’t want an open border but the leaders don’t listen to we the people who pay them.......It is so sad, but the Palestinians have been used to foment more and more hatred in the Middle East when peace could have easily been achieved decades ago.........as Golda Meir said “if the Arabs loved their children half as much as they hate the Israeli’s , we would have peace”......
Evil and leftists are winning the media war. Lies, misrepresentations, propaganda, inadequate volume of truthful news combined with the lack of education such as in the Palestine community. Evil is alive and well, openly flaunting itself globally. Hamas must be destroyed. Iran must be contained. Election and Border integrity must be assured or we are headed for civil war in America. We must end electronic, computer-based election systems. Trust has been destroyed. Teach your children well.
Sadly I have to agree with Prof. Dershowitz, but his defense of Israel's upcoming actions based on "any fair reading of international law" is a bit ironic if not hypocritical. Had Israel complied with international law in its dealings with the Palestinians in Gaza, this atrocity likely would not have happened. I would have more respect for Mr. Dershowitz had he taken Israel to task over that.
Hamas was not held to any law during last week’s civilian carnage, which continues as their women and children are held hostage, potentially as human shields. IDF does inform every civilian to get out out the place they intend to bomb. There’s a time for war, and a time to consider how it could have been avoided by those who remain.
Sorry there Mr. Harvard Professor, but Le May leaflets were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, warning civilians to evacuate, so that's not correct. Agree with everything else, though.
Hamas is a movement whose stated purpose is to fight against one and only one injustice. That perceived injustice is the existence of the state of Israel. Anyone who does not believe this should read the charter of Hamas and listen to their words.
The elimination of Hamas will make a two-state possible if Hamas is replaced by Palestinian leadership committed to peace and co-existence. That is what happened after the Nazis were defeated in WW2 and the regime that perpetrated the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was militarily removed. Japan has been a peaceful country since the regime that attacked Pearl Harbor was defeated. It is all about the leadership that will fill the vacuum.
Tom, regardless of any Israeli mistakes and wrongs, Hamas and the many Palestinians who follow their leaders would continue to hate Jews and Israel. They would wish them death. They would plan and receive weapons and funding, and they would pick a perfect spot for a massacre.
Hard truth, but true. God bless Israel and its citizens.
Where are the civilians supposed to go exactly? Egypt had their borders closed and is willing to open them if Israel allows in humanitarian aid. Also this double moral standard is in the case where Israel disregards civilian casualties which they had done with their complete siege which they have cut Gaza off from food, water or electricity (which the defense minister of Israel called for), violating international law and the Geneva convention, which they are recently reversing which would allow civilians to evacuate. If they do not restore electricity at least to hospitals, a lot of civilians are going to die from injuries/wounds from the bombings.
You have to consider the situation where Hamas are underground in tunnels. If that is the case, Israel is attacking civilian targets on the surface while missing the Hamas tunnels with their bombings
You can't dismiss morals or the Geneva convention/international law because of terrorism occurred.
The onus is on Hamas who did not heed any laws in their carnage.
You can’t use terrorism as an excuse for breaking international law or committing war crimes. Hamas committed terrorism but that does not justify collective punishment of Palestinians for the actions of Hamas
Did you even read the article......your comment is not based on the law or the facts.....read the article again and get the data before posting such an uninformed opinion...
You are wrong. My citations: "Israel announces 'complete siege' of Gaza, cutting its electricity, food, water, and fuel" (headline is from what the defense minister called for) https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-gallant-announces-complete-siege-gaza-no-electricity-food-fuel-2023-10?op=1
"Pursuant to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 ICC Statute, “[i]ntentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts" https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jq32.htm
In summary https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-are-the-laws-of-war-punishment-war-crimes/
It justifies retaliation for thousands of dead, mutilated, raped and kidnapped as hostages. The lecture should be saved for those who committed atrocities last week.
Does international law or the Geneva convention allow collective punishment or revenge war crimes? It does not. If the Israeli government thinks that is justified to do such war crimes then they are war criminals no better than Hamas
"Israel announces 'complete siege' of Gaza, cutting its electricity, food, water, and fuel" (headline is from what the defense minister called for) https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-gallant-announces-complete-siege-gaza-no-electricity-food-fuel-2023-10?op=1
"Pursuant to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 ICC Statute, “[i]ntentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts" https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jq32.htm
Egypt has not opened their borders and has been very clear that they will not allow Palestinian civilians in. This is pretty typical of the Arab world, which has a pretty impressive track record of giving the Palestinians the boot as they typically foment insurrection and try to overthrow whatever country they end up in.
This appears to be the one conflict in history where it’s expected to be conducted with no inconvenience to the civilian population. Add in the brutality and sheer barbarism of the terrorist attack, in addition to the fact that Hamas STILL has hundreds of hostages and is STILL firing rockets at Israel, and the calls for restraint from the Western smart set are almost unbelievable.
Israel bombs Hamas rocket fire sites set up amongst the civilian infrastructure? Apparently unacceptable. Israel calls for evacuation of northern Gaza to avoid civilian casualties? Beyond the pale, an atrocity on par with genocide. I cannot believe the number of articles I’ve read about the hospitals in Gaza being 24 hours away from shutting down over the last week, as if this is some sort of exceptional situation and ANY war is somehow able to be conducted in a way with no disruption to medical services.
Honest question, because I know your answer will be stupid: how do you propose Israel should have conducted the last 10 days? Please provide us your wisdom.
Edit: also, Israel has said they will allow aid in once the hostages are returned. Not sure why a territory that receives hundreds of millions of dollars of aid yearly from rich Qatari sheikhs still needs its neighbor to provide it water when it sits on top of a large coastal aquifer, but they can get their water back once they release the innocents they abducted.
Anything else other than breaking international law and the Geneva convention by withholding food and water from Gaza doing a "siege". How about special ops? They are just bombing away with no clear strategy and the missiles are not stopping.
Europe. They have absorbed millions of Muslims over the last twenty years. They can absorb 2 million more.
How are they able to cross the sea? Do you see any boats evacuating people? Israel is bombing the Gaza strip but they expect the civilians to live their to evacuate immediately when they have nowhere to go. Gaza is one of the most impoverish areas in the world
My heart breaks in pieces hat this was allowed to happen to our precious Israeli people, Jews, Arabs and so many others. All because of propaganda!!
I remember reading that the U.S. dropped leaflets before bombing Hiroshima, so I don't think your statement is historically accurate.
The argument is the continued development on the west bank, along with the draconian security checkpoints, has created a sort of apartheid. Some view Hamas as freedom fighters. Clearly, they are not freedom fighters. They want to see the destruction of Israel, they oppose the two state solution, but establishing a blockade that cutts off water to millions sounds more like genocide than defense.
Additionally, you have reports that Israel knew of the attack, and told the military to stand down for a few hours so they could justify a massive assault against Gaza later. It appears to have been a strategic calculation from some hardliners within the administration, which would correspond with the reports from victims that during the first few hours the police and military were nowhere to be found.
Regardless of the above, I'm of the opinion that Israel has made its point. It has retaliated. It has defended itself with overwhelming force. Gaza has been reduced to rubble. A ground invasion will only force Iran's hand, creating a regional conflict that could result in WW3.
That wont end well for Israel or anyone else.
90% of the civilians in Gaza have nothing to do with Hamas. They might sympathize with hamas, but they are not involved in acts of terror against israelis.
This is the time for cooler heads to prevail. Its time to call for a cease fire.
I don't think so. Hamas must be completely and absolutely obliterated or the horrors against innocent Israeli civilians will never stop and never end.
Just replying to your comment to me. Whether that person needed an atta boy, or not, so what? It was simply my thoughts, my comments. He or she can reply that he/she doesn’t need my positive reactions, and I’ll try to remember that. Simply puzzled.
Are all the hostages out, dead or alive? Are US hostages freed? After the carnage last week of thousands of Israeli civilians, it’s time to take Gaza back. Ceasefire is premature. I do wish that civilians were granted a way out. None of the Arab nations have granted them passage, nor the UN, nor the RedCross. The US has millions of unvetted new civilians.