What is your background/interest in the Middle East?

[Lipush]

I think Israel has quite clearly shown how an invading army should treat civilians, during cast lead Why should you expect to be treated any differently?

What you know about the way the IDF treated civilians is only from what you hear and see on TV. You think all that is shown on TV is 100% true?

 

[P F Tinmore]

I watched a documentary on Palestine about ten years ago. It was the most disturbing thing I have seen. I couldn't sleep that night. Until that time I never knew about the conflict. Since then I have read everything I could find.

Which documentary was that?

I don't remember. The sad part is watching the news and it is like Groundhog Day. It is the same thing over and over.

One Palestinian friend of mine used to live in Hebron before Israel gave him the boot. Somehow he got to to the US, became a citizen, and owns a local store. However, his wife and two pre teen daughters live in Jordan and for some stupid political reason they are not allowed to come to the US. He goes to Jordan two weeks a year on vacation to see his wife and daughters. It is a sad story, indeed. Of course broken families is not uncommon for Palestinians.

 

[Jos]

Colonel Richard Kemp, Retired, now earns money by giving speech's

 

[docmauser1]

I think Israel has quite clearly shown how an invading army should treat civilians, during cast lead

Indeed, it was an excellent example, although had Israel behaved like some libyan gang of thugs now, it would've had much less problems.

 

[Lipush]

I watched a documentary on Palestine about ten years ago. It was the most disturbing thing I have seen. I couldn't sleep that night. Until that time I never knew about the conflict. Since then I have read everything I could find.

Which documentary was that?

I don't remember. The sad part is watching the news and it is like Groundhog Day. It is the same thing over and over.

One Palestinian friend of mine used to live in Hebron before Israel gave him the boot. Somehow he got to to the US, became a citizen, and owns a local store. However, his wife and two pre teen daughters live in Jordan and for some stupid political reason they are not allowed to come to the US. He goes to Jordan two weeks a year on vacation to see his wife and daughters. It is a sad story, indeed. Of course broken families is not uncommon for Palestinians.

Wish you could remember what i was.

As for your Palestinian friend, it seems to me that life in the USA is always better than in the MidEast. Sad that wife and kid left behind, but, well, those things happen.

 

[JStone]

Colonel Richard Kemp, Retired, now earns money by giving speech's

Jos


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Vp642ERhM&feature=related]Sound-Effects - Crowd Laughing - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Jos]

I think Israel has quite clearly shown how an invading army should treat civilians, during cast lead Why should you expect to be treated any differently?

What you know about the way the IDF treated civilians is only from what you hear and see on TV. You think all that is shown on TV is 100% true?

The Press where not allowed into Gaza?
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLUJ4fF2HN4]Israeli TV airs Gaza doctor's pleas after children killed - ENGLISH SUBTITLES - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JStone]

Former Gazan Nonie Darwish, Human Rights Activist, Founder, Arabs For Israel An Arab-Made Misery - WSJ.com

International donors pledged almost $4.5 billion in aid for Gaza earlier this month. It has been very painful for me to witness over the past few years the deteriorating humanitarian situation in that narrow strip where I lived as a child in the 1950s.

It is Hamas, an Islamist terror organization supported by Iran, which is using and abusing Palestinians... While Hamas leaders hid in the well-stocked bunkers and tunnels they prepared before they provoked Israel into attacking them, Palestinian civilians were exposed and caught in the deadly crossfire between Hamas and Israeli soldiers.

Both Israel and Egypt are fearful of terrorist infiltration from Gaza -- all the more so since Hamas took over -- and have always maintained tight controls over their borders with Gaza. The Palestinians continue to endure hardships because Gaza continues to serve as the launching pad for terror attacks against Israeli citizens. Those attacks come in the form of Hamas missiles that indiscriminately target Israeli kindergartens, homes and businesses.

And Hamas continued these attacks more than two years after Israel withdrew from Gaza in the hope that this step would begin the process of building a Palestinian state, eventually leading to a peaceful, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There was no "cycle of violence" then, no justification for anything other than peace and prosperity. But instead, Hamas chose Islamic jihad. Gazans' and Israelis' hopes have been met with misery for Palestinians and missiles for Israelis.

Hamas, an Iran proxy, has become a danger not only to Israel, but also to Palestinians as well as to neighboring Arab states, who fear the spread of radical Islam could destabilize their countries.

Arabs claim they love the Palestinian people, but they seem more interested in sacrificing them. If they really loved their Palestinian brethren, they'd pressure Hamas to stop firing missiles at Israel. In the longer term, the Arab world must end the Palestinians' refugee status and thereby their desire to harm Israel. It's time for the 22 Arab countries to open their borders and absorb the Palestinians of Gaza who wish to start a new life. It is time for the Arab world to truly help the Palestinians, not use them.

 

[Lipush]

I think Israel has quite clearly shown how an invading army should treat civilians, during cast lead Why should you expect to be treated any differently?

What you know about the way the IDF treated civilians is only from what you hear and see on TV. You think all that is shown on TV is 100% true?

The Press where not allowed into Gaza?
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLUJ4fF2HN4]Israeli TV airs Gaza doctor's pleas after children killed - ENGLISH SUBTITLES - YouTube[/ame]

I know the story about the doctor's family. Sadly, it was a big screw up from our side, and there is no point trying to go around that.

However, I was speaking in general. the media is known for mostly taking one side, and going on with what gives the mejor scoops. It changes sides like socks. Media hardly tells you the full picture most of the times, and at many times, it changes the facts.

If you want to know the truth, you have to speak to the people. When people speak to the Palestinians, they should also speak with Israelis in the Gaza vecinity, victims of Palestinian terror etc. That's the only way to get to the truth.

 

[JStone]

Egyptian-American Tawfik Hamid: Gaza Solution Is In The Hands of Palestinians

If Hamas had stopped pounding Israel with its rockets, Israel would not have launched its attack.

After Israel launched its military attack on Hamas military installations in Gaza in response to repeated attacks on Israeli civilians, the Arab street wasted no time in demonstrating with passion against Israel. In Europe, many Westerners also took part in the protests. As an Egyptian Muslim now living in America, I ask myself why the Arab street and its supporters in the West never show similarly strong response against Islamic terrorists who target innocents worldwide and explode markets full of predominantly Muslim civilians in Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, etc. When you consider that the Israeli attack killed some 400 mostly Hamas militant in the first four days, the passive attitude of the Muslim world against the terrorists represents extreme hypocrisy. If it truly cared for Muslims' lives, it should have demonstrated in the same numbers and with equal vehemence against the Islamists who murder hundreds of thousands of their fellow Muslims, not to mention the Hamas slaughter of rival Fatah members - women and children included.

The Muslim world and the Europeans who support the demonstrations against Israel must stop the biased reaction that blindly and reflexively supports the Palestinians and villifies Israel. Those who demonstrate against the military campaign on Gaza must realize that if Hamas had stopped pounding Israel with its rockets, Israel would not have launched its attack. If the Palestinians focused on building their society rather than destroying those of others, the whole region would enjoy peace and flourish. Should Palestinians recognize the right of Israel to exist, end terrorism against Jews and nurture a sincere desire to live in peace, they would end their suffering. The solution now is simply in the hands of the Palestinians - not the Israelis..
Gaza solution is in the hands of Pale... JPost - Opinion - Op-Eds

 

[Sunni Man]

Honestly speaking, I simply asked that question because while many people died, I care mostly for the Syrian children. Because children are children.

Ironic how grieved you are about Syrian children.

Yet, right in your own back yard Palestinian children are murdered by the IDF storm troopers almost daily.

And you unabashedly applaude their homicidal actions.

 

[eots]

What you know about the way the IDF treated civilians is only from what you hear and see on TV. You think all that is shown on TV is 100% true?

The Press where not allowed into Gaza?
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLUJ4fF2HN4]Israeli TV airs Gaza doctor's pleas after children killed - ENGLISH SUBTITLES - YouTube[/ame]

I know the story about the doctor's family. Sadly, it was a big screw up from our side, and there is no point trying to go around that.

However, I was speaking in general. the media is known for mostly taking one side, and going on with what gives the mejor scoops. It changes sides like socks. Media hardly tells you the full picture most of the times, and at many times, it changes the facts.

If you want to know the truth, you have to speak to the people. When people speak to the Palestinians, they should also speak with Israelis in the Gaza vecinity, victims of Palestinian terror etc. That's the only way to get to the truth.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qkqzdgL3wo]Dr. Seuss - The Butter Battle Book - Part 1 of 2 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

Which documentary was that?

I don't remember. The sad part is watching the news and it is like Groundhog Day. It is the same thing over and over.

One Palestinian friend of mine used to live in Hebron before Israel gave him the boot. Somehow he got to to the US, became a citizen, and owns a local store. However, his wife and two pre teen daughters live in Jordan and for some stupid political reason they are not allowed to come to the US. He goes to Jordan two weeks a year on vacation to see his wife and daughters. It is a sad story, indeed. Of course broken families is not uncommon for Palestinians.

Wish you could remember what i was.

As for your Palestinian friend, it seems to me that life in the USA is always better than in the MidEast. Sad that wife and kid left behind, but, well, those things happen.

And for Palestinians it happens regularly. This is one of my favorite journalists. She also has a broken family.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5BDwEW6uw]Laila El-Haddad, Journalist, Author, Gaza Mom-The Autograph-09-21-2011 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JStone]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YVWk8qjsU8]Hamas Imposing Sharia Law In Gaza - YouTube[/ame]

 

[SAYIT]

I think Israel has quite clearly shown how an invading army should treat civilians, during cast lead Why should you expect to be treated any differently?

You conveniently make Saigon's and Lipush's point. That millions are killed elsewhere and all fools like you can do is spew your mindless hate for Israel.
In November 2008, 180 Fatah "freedom fighters" put down their weapons and crossed into Israel from Gaza. They did not fear for their lives which they volutarily placed in the hands of the Israelis, nor were they slaughtered (as would have been the case if the roles were reversed). No, their wounds were treated and they were provided with safe passage to the West Bank. The difference between the two sides is like night and day. You simply refuse to see the wart on your nose.

 

[Jos]

Israeli military investigatorshave ordered an end to a probe into the deaths of 21 members of a Palestinian family during the 2009 military offensive on Gaza, saying there was "no war crime committed."

The al-Samouni family members and others died when a shell hit a Palestinian residential building. It was one of the most controversial incidents of the offensive.

One of the surviving family members, Maysa al-Samouni, told CNN in January 2009 that her family and other families were ordered by Israeli soldiers to move from one house to another until dozens were cramped in one building, which then came under fire.

"The first bomb wounded three and killed one," she said. "We called for ambulances, and then another bomb hit and lots of people -- at least 30 -- were killed, including my husband, mother-in-law, and uncle."

Other witnesses CNN spoke to at the time said Israeli soldiers were in the area and it wasn't until the following day medics were allowed in to evacuate the wounded and the dead.

Israeli military closes investigation into deaths of 21 family members - CNN.com

According to accounts by family members, on January 4, 2009, the first day of the Israeli incursion in the Zeitoun district, the Samouni clan were ordered out of their houses (most of them were later demolished[1]) by Israeli soldiers and told to gather in a nearby home. They were forced to move again to another building, with over 100 members in one home. On January 5, Israelis began demolishing the wall of the house. According to eyewitnesses, when one of the occupants went to alert the Israeli soldiers that people were inside, including women and children, the soldiers began to shoot at the house. After a short lull, the house was shelled and hit by missiles fired by the Israeli Air Force, severely damaging the building and killing and injuring the occupants.[4]

A total of 49 members of the Samouni extended family were killed, according to The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian newspapers, reporting from Zeitoun, while Newsweek divided the number killed into 29 family members and 19 others. Articles in Haaretz say just 21 family members were killed, and do not mention other deaths. A large number of the dead were women and children; the Telegraph reported that the dead were, "mostly women, children and elderly". It was reported by Haaretz that Givati Brigade commander Col. Ilan Malka, operating from a remote war room, and misinterpreting images captured by aerial drones, had concluded the house harboured combatants, and ordered the air force to strike it twice with missiles

Zeitoun incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1NCyAK3rDA&feature=related]Israel is Sorry, it's a Mistake - YouTube[/ame]

 

[SAYIT]

I don't remember. The sad part is watching the news and it is like Groundhog Day. It is the same thing over and over.

One Palestinian friend of mine used to live in Hebron before Israel gave him the boot. Somehow he got to to the US, became a citizen, and owns a local store. However, his wife and two pre teen daughters live in Jordan and for some stupid political reason they are not allowed to come to the US. He goes to Jordan two weeks a year on vacation to see his wife and daughters. It is a sad story, indeed. Of course broken families is not uncommon for Palestinians.

Wish you could remember what i was.

As for your Palestinian friend, it seems to me that life in the USA is always better than in the MidEast. Sad that wife and kid left behind, but, well, those things happen.

And for Palestinians it happens regularly. This is one of my favorite journalists. She also has a broken family.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5BDwEW6uw]Laila El-Haddad, Journalist, Author, Gaza Mom-The Autograph-09-21-2011 - YouTube[/ame]

PRESSTV? Really? And you wonder why no one salutes your camel crap?

 

[SAYIT]

Honestly speaking, I simply asked that question because while many people died, I care mostly for the Syrian children. Because children are children.

Ironic how grieved you are about Syrian children.

Yet, right in your own back yard Palestinian children are murdered by the IDF storm troopers almost daily.

And you unabashedly applaude their homicidal actions.

Camel crap from a Sunni man. What else is new?

 

[JStone]

Colonel Richard Kemp was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Military Division, on 25 April 1994 in recognition of his intelligence work in Northern Ireland in 1993, and was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery for service as a commander in the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994 He was promoted Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), Military Division, in the New Year Honours 2006


Colonel Richard Kemp...

I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.
Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.

The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.

The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.

Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.

More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas’ way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.

Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX6vyT8RzMo]Goldstone Gaza Report: Col. Richard Kemp Testifies at U.N. Emergency Session - YouTube[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

Wish you could remember what i was.

As for your Palestinian friend, it seems to me that life in the USA is always better than in the MidEast. Sad that wife and kid left behind, but, well, those things happen.

And for Palestinians it happens regularly. This is one of my favorite journalists. She also has a broken family.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5BDwEW6uw]Laila El-Haddad, Journalist, Author, Gaza Mom-The Autograph-09-21-2011 - YouTube[/ame]

PRESSTV? Really? And you wonder why no one salutes your camel crap?

Stuff it, dude. Laila El Haddad has more honesty in her little finger than you will find in the entire Israel government.