Israel-Gaza: 'We are at war', says Benjamin Netanyahu

Is there another Jewish country that has looked after a minority?

You’re also forgetting the facilitation of the formation of Israel in your limited questioning.

For hardline right wingers and Benjamin Netanyahu, October 7th was Christmas,Hanukkah and Kwanzaa rolled in to one; they knew they could unleash hell unchecked and ride the crest of that political wave for a long time. For a country that was founded out of extreme hate, they sure learned how to replicate dehumanization.

I made a comment on the soccer pages of this site which was removed because it wasn’t the right forum, perhaps here is the correct place for it?

The comment was echoing a comment I heard Labour TD Aodan O’Riordan make on the Tonight Show on Virgin Media recently.

We need to treat this Israeli government like the way the Apartheid regime in South Africa were treated in the 1970’s and 80’s. They should be boycotted. Sports teams shouldn’t play against them. Artists, musicians and bands shouldn’t perform there. Economic trade should cease with them until such time that they start to behave themselves in a remotely humane manner. An all out boycott of Israel across the scale throughout Europe and eventually shame the US into agreeing with the boycott of Israel and the ostracising of them due to their horrendous genocidal behaviour in Gaza.

The boycott of Apartheid South Africa worked. Time to implement a similar strategy on this Israeli regime.

A lot of wishful thinking in this post. We’ve been here before when Israeli political leaders like Rabin attempted to forge a lasting peace settlement in Israel/Palestine. He and Arafat facilitated by Clinton went a long way towards a sustainable settlement. Rabin was assassinated soon after. Facilitating and enabling one shower of extremists over the other isn’t a solution.

Is thieving Palestinian farmland and homes on the West Bank and giving the Greenlight to Far Right Zionist thugs to murder and thieve under the protection of the IDF your version of "Holding out the Hand of Peace"??

You’ve gone from one post full of wishful thinking to the next post full of despair. We need the international community, the Americans and the EU to be the adults in the room. The old carrot and stick approach. Incentivise Palestinians to not elect hardliners like Hamas, same with Israelis but that’s not been happening.

Israel turned Gaza into an open prison causing resentment and anger and Palestinians to look to hardline responses. The situation was just ignored. Israel should have faced rebuke from the international community like South Africa did under Apartheid. They should be facing boycott for bad behaviour and incentives for better behaviour. Instead they’re welcomed into European culture and sport, the opposite should be happening until they’re prepared to try to find peaceful solutions. Palestinians may make noises about wanting all the land of Israel but they’re being offered no carrot to accept less. As bad as Biden has been if he loses the next election then you’ll have further reason to despair.

One can only hope for the impossible and that is Biden to win the election. Biden is weak but Trump will provide Netanyahu with free reign. It's all very worrying.

I suppose we all have hope for a peaceful solution but we despair because deep down, we all know there is extremely slim to no chance of a peace. Innocent people will just continue to suffer and children of tomorrow will ultimately always pay the price for our failures of today.

The comparison to an 'open air prison' is false. Although, there were limitations on people and goods coming from/to Gaza, this was required when fighting an entity such as Hamas (in my opinion). It was the nature of the beast Israel were fighting. Israel priority is the security of their own citizens so trying to to live with a terror entity on their doorstep was/is very challenging. Especially, when the world will always blame Israel for any poor quality of life Gazans experience but give Hamas a free pass. Considering the billions that has been provided in aid and spent on a terror machine, not the people it was intended for.

Any country in the world would put same limitations if they effectively had an ISIS existing on their border with the intention to kill as many of their civilians as possible.

As I said earlier, there is no level playing field.

It seems Israel are expected to care more for the Gazans than their own governing entity do. If Hamas really cared for their own people, release the hostages. Stop the bloodshed amd hunger. Surrender yourselves.

I believe Israel do fight according to international law. You might ridicule that opinion, but I truly do. If Hamas uses hospitals, schools, mosques and UN facilities to store and fire weapons then Hamas have effectively made these buildings a legitimate target, according to international law. I also believe Israel has a lot of intelligence to counter any arguments re illegal war crimes. They just choose not to show the worldwide public.

The west bank is definitely a flash point and a complete failure in Israeli policy.

Gaza as a test case has failed miserably. But PA certainly look like they could potentially be a partner in peace in West Bank.

Israeli public in general do respect the Palestinians and want a peace. Most are also willing to relinquish land in order to obtain peace. The current government not so much and the settlers - not at all.

We need new leadership in Israel and the eradication of Hamas. What happens next is up to the powers that be.

Anyone who isn’t calling for a Hamas/Palestine surrender is giving them a “free pass” and is on their side in my opinion.

You'd have to explain when Israel held out the "hand of peace", as a brief reading of history will show that all they ever have done is rob more land from Palestinians, lock up & torture more Palestinians, kill more Palestinians ...

Any time the Palestinians have tried to act reasonably Israel has spat in their face. Every "negotiation" was simply for window dressing, and always intended to get the Palestinian leadership on the back foot, ably aided by the USA, and as we have seen recently, by Scholz. Who by the way has given Israel carte blanche to murder every Palestinian they want to (while apparently trying to re-establish the third reich, by stealth rather than by force of arms - consider the map of Europe under the Nazis with a map of the EU today).

I prefer George snr comment re Iraq War 1, when he said “this aggression will not stand”. I only remember that because of The Big Lebowski.

It’s been said since October 7th that this is exactly the response that Hamas wanted. They were willing to put Palestinian people’s lives at stake, to draw out this response from Nethanyahu who I believe was partially responsible for Hamas coming to power in Gaza IIRC. China, Russia and others know that this conflict is one that what was called “the west” are divided on.

The plight of the people in Gaza is horrendous. There is no excuse for the Israeli offensive and I’d go back to my first point on this that they should face the same type of sanctions that Apartheid South Africa felt which pressurised them into finding a more humane solution to their problems. Sanctions and ostracism re cultural and sporting relations. It worked in improving the way South Africa as a country acted it will work with Israel.

I can be a supporter of Israel and it's right to exist and defend itself while also recognising the plight of the Palestinians.

Ultimately, peace is the only answer.

I don't believe Gaza was an open air prison and I've explained my reasons. I also do not believe Israel is wholly to blame for the huge loss of life in Gaza, or that a genocide is being committed.

For there to be a genocide, one must prove the IDF are specifically targeting civilians. They are not. The IDF are targeting terrorists, arms storage facilities and launch sites. If Hamas are hiding, storing or launching from, in or near a hospital, school, place of worship or a U.N facility, it is them who are not adhering to international law and it is them who have made that place a legitimate military target. That is the law.

If Hamas build tunnels to hide in under a civilian population, Israel have every right to destroy those tunnels. That is the law.

Hamas are fighting a war in a way I've not seen in my lifetime. Cowardice comes to mind. The IRA for all their faults, never hid behind, within or below women and children to maximize the death toll and use their deaths as part of a strategy to garner international support and condemnation of the enemy. This is exactly what I'm seeing unfold in Gaza.

Hamas can end this tonight. The only entity with the power to end this tonight is Hamas. No civilised person can ask Israel to retreat and ceasefire while Hamas are still holding 132 of their innocent civilians against their will.

You say 'No civilised person can ask Israel to retreat and ceasefire etc etc. I can and do ask Israel to do that. And I am as civilised as you are.The war cabinet in Israel have stated more than once that the release of the hostages will NOT halt their genocide in Gaza. They intend continuing whether or not the hostages are released. Only Israel can stop the fighting instantly. Lord knows surely their revenge/blood lust/desire fro punishment has been satiated by now. They will never undo the hatred their behaviour has engendered worldwide amongst reasonable people.

In the scenario you project the killing of the hostages by Hamas would end the assault. Does Bibi want that?

I'd argue that you are not a civilised person. If you were you would understand, what Hamas perpetrated on October 7th was a turning point in this decade long conflict. It was heinous in the extreme, brutality the likes of which the world has not witnessed since the medieval ages. And if that was your mother/father/son/daughter/sibling being held in Gaza, you would do whatever it takes to get them home.

Many may disagree with how Israel are going about it, but Hamas would never negotiate on a level playing field without force, a 'noose' around their neck if you will. Which is why Hamas only hope is the international outcry and pressure on governments from around the world to call a ceasefire.

Let me spell it out: A ceasefire without hostage release is an Israeli surrender.

That cannot be allowed to happen after what we all witnessed on Oct 7th.

Of course, Hamas need to surrender too. If South Africa have referred Israel to the ICJ then it is obvious to one and all the perpetrators of October 7th are war criminals. They all are. As I've explained above, holding hostages, storing weapons and launching attacks from/within hospitals/schools and mosques is a war crime in itself.

Anybody who supports or 'understands' why children were burned to death or women were gang raped with their breasts cut off and then shot in the head while still being raped and corpses violated strewn across roads and communities does not have an ounce of compassion or is civilised. They show it openly for the Palestinians but nothing for those poor souls who perished in the most inhumane and undignified manner on October 7th. Gang rape and the burning of children is NOT resistance.

So yes, you definitely need to recalibrate your moral compass.

If you’re seriously interested in a lasting peace settlement then you won’t be getting hung up on words like “surrender”. Releasing the hostages would be part of a ceasefire arrangement. Your use of that word reveals that you’re not serious about a workable peace agreement and process. That failed mindset is the root cause of the problem.

Haha! I don’t think Israel are looking for love or respect from the Palestinian terrorists.

What Israel needs to do is to put the terrorists in a position that they can’t or at the very least are afraid to attempt another Oct 7th event ever.