Israel/Palestine Thread

I guess it's something. Be nice if they stopped sending recon flights to Israel to help with the genocide though

I read a book written by a sniper in a British regiment and he talks about a spotter who would stand on a roof opposite their camp and direct mortar fire. It would wind up the sniper team because they knew what he was doing, but as he wasn’t armed as far as they were concerned he wasn’t a legitimate target. They had no doubt what he was doing, because as soon as he emerged, mortar fire would come in within minutes and he would leave when it finished, all the time being on his mobile phone.

when it was clarified by the UN command that he was indeed an active combatant and therefore a legitimate target, they put a bullet through his head, so technically a camera could be a target if it was spotting for Hamas. That said, there is an order of magnitude difference between a sniper taking someone out and using four bombs in a double tap strike on a hospital. That is pure terrorist tactics, pretty much the way the PIRA hit the Paras at warren point. Hit the first target, wait a few minutes for more people to turn up to help and hit them as well, maximising the loss of life. it’s **** barbaric.

@Tony EH

It doesn't really have anything to do with "acting". It can be about taking a position. Take us, for example, we took a position (correctly so) on what Israel has been doing in Gaza and Palestine as a whole. There's nothing preventing other EU member states from doing that. However, too many EU member states have simply sat on their hands for the majority of two years while people have been slaughtered and have said nothing.

His criticism was partly of the EU for its inaction (i.e. not member states or their leaders) - a "lethargic response".

https://www.rte.ie/news/middle-east/2025/0827/1530508-ireland-president-gaza/

I don't buy this crap of "pushing the envelope" or, in other words he's "overstepped the mark" which is another bullshit term you often hear bandied about by people who just don't like him or what he says. That's all bollocks…

All of that "pushing the envelope" tripe usually comes from people who are just uncomfortable about what he's saying, because it happens to be a fact that they don't want anyone taking about purely because it interferes in their own petty political leanings and wants.

I am glad you said "usually", because it is not always the case. This is just social media/internet argument black and white logic.

People criticise Higgins (who is my political team) for "overstep(ping) the mark" → therefore they are on the other "team" from me, and of course they are just doing it tactically and dishonestly as they want to him to stop saying stuff they don't like or agree with. If the President was on their "team" and saying things they agreed with, they would not give a damn!

IMO directly criticising government policies, the EU, the policies (e.g. defence/security) of other EU member states should not be part of his role. He should not be able to say whatever he likes (which seems to be the way during this 2nd term). Even if majority of Irish people agree with what he says when he does that (edit: and even if he's correct!!), it's still not good, and doesn't make it right.

He's entirely correct to be speaking out about what's happening in Palestine and I don't, for a second, believe that the likes of Mary Robinson would remain quiet on the issue either.

On Gaza he's basically echoing the govt. policy from anything I've heard so that is safer ground.

The bottom line is this, Michael D. Higgins is entirely correct in his comments about Palestine…and that tends to get up the noses of certain types.

Agree there!

Yes. Hamas rejected them because Bibi refused to agree to a process to end the war as part of any deal. Bibi did the same in March because he wanted to stay in power, so both acted out of self preservation in refusing to accept deals. The Genocidal language by Smotrich and others in the Israeli Government didn't help matters either as it suggested that even if Hamas surrendered Israel would continue with the plan to forcibly remove Palestinians from gaza regardless.

Well if they avoid answering the question( which we see a lot of on here ) it is an admission in itself that the poster can't defend it, but they just can't bring themselves to condemn it publicly either

Settle down petal. I never said it was legitimate.

Just remember, in Blanchs world, the IRA were the most evil people on earth, 2058 people killed(722 civilians) over 30 years, but the IDF killing over 63,000(God knows final tally) in less than 3 years and razing Gaza to the ground is all ok and totally justified. You couldn't make it up.