Comments on: What the AP doesn’t tell you, part 2

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:50:15 +0000

Perhaps Mindbullet believes that Hamas’ troops were civilians because they wore civilian clothes and not uniforms. That would be a violation of international law by Hamas. Mindbullet seems to be unaware that under international law (Fourth Geneva Conventins) the deaths of civilians being used as “human shields” for military targets is the responsibility of the power making use of them as human shields, and not the power attacking the military target where they are killed. That would be Hamas. Furthermore, I’d speculate that Mindbullet is unaware that placing military facilities in an otherwise protected site, such as a hospital, removes the protection from that site, by provisions of that same international law. Those were actions Hamas took in Gaza, so under actual international law Israel’s actions were not illegal, no matter how many civilians were killed when Hamas used them to hide its troops behind. I’d also guess that Mindbullet is unaware that Israel has an aggressive Judge Advocate General Corps in Zahal, that investigates all allegations of violations by Zahal troops and prosecutes those that prove to have evidence to back up the accusations. On the other hand Mindbullet may not care about any of that.

Of course when Israel is criticized for violating international law the accusers generally do not mean violations of actual international law, as enbodied in treaties or the traditional customs of such law. They mean some fantasy made up by academics or ill-wishers of Israel and the West, made up out of whole cloth for the most part, in order to use as a stick to beat Israel or America.

By: Herschel

Herschel — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:04:49 +0000

mindbullet, you seem to have conveniently forgotten the Turkish invasion of Northern Cypress and how that area was ethnically cleansed of Greeks and still remains occupied by the Turks to this day. Also, of the Kurds that are brutally suppressed and killed by the Turks daily because they want independence from that regime. I guess in your mind, the term â€œoccupationâ€ is only reserved for Israel, and not the other countries in the Middle East, and around the world!
If there is a “next time,” educate yourself with some world history before you spout your ignorance on this site!

By: Meryl Yourish

Meryl Yourish — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:22:45 +0000

In reply to mindbullet. Mindbullet, even Hamas admitted that more than half of the "civilians" were members of Hamas. Over 750 of the deaths were enemy combatants. But your choice of the word "murder" illustrates your mindset, so I'm not predicting any kind of rational response.

By: mindbullet

mindbullet — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:06:37 +0000

Um, Turkey isn’t illegally settling in Greece and didn’t just murder 1000+ Palestinian civilians 2 years ago.

By: Laurence Simon

Laurence Simon — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:55:50 +0000

I wonder if The Big Turkey can explain how firing rockets and mortars at civilian areas timed to coincide with kids traveling to and from school exactly “defending their land” ?

Hrm. Perhaps if the Greeks were to forget about border patrols and walls protecting their border with Turkey and just start lobbing explosives at Turkish schools across the border, The Big Turkey won’t have a problem with it?

Or if the Greek Cypriots were to start indiscriminately firing on Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus?

I suppose the Spanish wouldn’t mind Israel calling them a bunch of colonialists and imperialists, organizing a boycott of Spanish goods because of their colonial occupation of Moroccan territory on the African continent?

*cough*

Hypocrites.

-ls/cm