cease fire, how long will it last?

[quasi-modo]

I am thinking the groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not going to cooperate

[CrAz3D]

Maybe 2-3 weeks

[Falcon[anti-yL]]

I'd give it a week before they start killing each other again.

[Forged]

My vote goes for a week.

[Adron]

I think a 17 year old palestinian boy is going to get drunk and throw a rock at a tank late one night. Then Israel will drive in a dozen tanks and blow up some houses, and everything will be back to normal.

[CrAz3D]

I think a 17 year old palestinian boy is going to get drunk and throw a rock at a tank late one night. Then Israel will drive in a dozen tanks and blow up some houses, and everything will be back to normal.

Serves the kids right to have his house blown up.  I personally like the Singapore beating of the kid that spray painted the cars...YAY!

[Arta]

I think a 17 year old palestinian boy is going to get drunk and throw a rock at a tank late one night. Then Israel will drive in a dozen tanks and blow up some houses, and everything will be back to normal.

Yeah

[quasi-modo]

Oh crap... I feel the inevitable Israel is / is not a terrorist state debate coming on.

[Hazard]

I think a 17 year old palestinian boy is going to get drunk and throw a rock at a tank late one night. Then Israel will drive in a dozen tanks and blow up some houses, and everything will be back to normal.

I love how stupid this is. Its like you think that the Palestinians do nothing to warrant the Israeli response.

It depends on what happens with the leaders on how long it will last. Hamas has already said that they will not follow the order of the new Palestinian leader.

[Grok]

I think a 17 year old palestinian boy is going to get drunk and throw a rock at a tank late one night. Then Israel will drive in a dozen tanks and blow up some houses, and everything will be back to normal.

I love how stupid this is. Its like you think that the Palestinians do nothing to warrant the Israeli response.

It depends on what happens with the leaders on how long it will last. Hamas has already said that they will not follow the order of the new Palestinian leader.

Get past his trolling and you will see he is acknowledging that the Palestinians are provoking the Israeli's to respond with disproportionate force.

[Hazard]

So its Israel's fault that they're crushing the Palestinians? Like maybe the Palestinians aren't asking for it, in fact begging for it by targeting strictly non-combatants?

[quasi-modo]

I think a 17 year old palestinian boy is going to get drunk and throw a rock at a tank late one night. Then Israel will drive in a dozen tanks and blow up some houses, and everything will be back to normal.

I love how stupid this is. Its like you think that the Palestinians do nothing to warrant the Israeli response.

It depends on what happens with the leaders on how long it will last. Hamas has already said that they will not follow the order of the new Palestinian leader.

Get past his trolling and you will see he is acknowledging that the Palestinians are provoking the Israeli's to respond with disproportionate force.

I like that word disproportionate. How is is disproportionate? Honestly, using an armored vehicles is the sane thing to do to protect your own men from the enemy.

[Arta]

Disproportionate is bulldozing houses in the process of 'searching' for tunnels and weapons. Disproportionate is shooting unarmed children for running in the wrong direction. Disproportionate is shooting journalists with white flags in the midst of their attempt to leave a patrolled area.

Quite comprably, disproportionate is conducting suicide attacks on Isreali civilians, and blowing up busses full of schoolchildren. The difference is that Isreal is an industrialised, westernised democracy with a military and a chain of command, instead of a bunch of terrorists with some other people vaguely in charge, perhaps excerising some control, but not nearly as much as a government has over its military.

Put it this way: When terrorists kill civilians, it's awful. Nonetheless, that's what terrorists do, so it's not entirely unexpected. When the military of a country kill civilians without cause, as has uncontrivertably happened on more than one occasion, that's worse.

[quasi-modo]

Disproportionate is bulldozing houses in the process of 'searching' for tunnels and weapons.

I also like how you put quotes around searching . The tunnels were a major problem, think of a better way to do it. Keep in mine searching every house would put the troops in danger and be less effective. Also the houses that were bulldosed were not houses like you and I live in... they were more like tents / temporary settlements.

Disproportionate is shooting unarmed children for running in the wrong direction.

The palestinians encourage children to run into the line of fire, and in front of tanks. They have a whole propoganda campaign to encourage them to do it. That way they can make Israel look bad.

Disproportionate is shooting journalists with white flags in the midst of their attempt to leave a patrolled area.

I have read nothing about this.

Put it this way: When terrorists kill civilians, it's awful. Nonetheless, that's what terrorists do, so it's not entirely unexpected. When the military of a country kill civilians without cause, as has uncontrivertably happened on more than one occasion, that's worse.

You act like Israel's military just goes after civilians. I am not going to say none die, but Israel does not go around shooting civilians. Half the time people are running into the line of fire and sacrificing themselves so the finger can be pointed at Israel so I would hardly call those people just innocent civilians.

[Arta]

I have read nothing about this.

James Miller. He was shot by troops in gaza who claimed that he was in the direction of gunfire. This is lies. On the website created to campaign for an enquiry into his death, there was a video shot by one of his colleagues that showed the entire thing. James miller was murdered - pure and simple - and the IDF has done nothing about it. Unfortunately that website seems to have gone down now. The BBC page mentions some other similar incidents. HBO made a documentary about it called Death in Gaza, which I've not seen, but would be interested in watching.

BBC story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2997525.stm

Google cache of the website, showing a timeline of events: http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:2UzGbE1hiGYJ:www.justice4jamesmiller.com/timelines.htm+%22James+Miller%22+justice&hl=en

I tried to find another copy of the video but no luck.

I don't really want to discuss this because the entire topic just makes me angry. The behaviour of both sides is equally bad, but Isreal is a modern country. It should know better than to allow its military to murder civilians and shoot children. When these things happen, as they inevitably will occasionally, it should hold people accountable, and yet it never seems to. Half the time, the IDF are just as bad as the terrorists they claim to be hunting.