Blame Israel and Hamas both for Gaza’s civilian deaths

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://972mag.com/blame-israel-and-hamas-both-for-gazas-civilian-deaths/93351/

The main outrage now, in the fourth day (Friday) of Operation Protective Edge, as Israel calls it, is the rising number of killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli airstrikes, mainly as a result of attacks on residential buildings where militants live or are thought to live.

Haaretz reported that the Palestinian Health Ministry said that of the 86 Gazans killed by Wednesday night, most were children (22), women (15) and the elderly (12). And that didn’t count the five members, at least, of the Ghaneem family in Rafah who were killed when their four-story building, home to some 30 people, was hit overnight.

As usual, the propaganda war between Israel and the Palestinians over civilian casualties goes like this: Palestinians accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, while Israel blames the deaths and injuries on Hamas and other militant groups for using the civilian population as “human shields.”

But the Palestinians’ accusation against Israel is false, while the Israeli claim against the Palestinians is partly false, partly true, but basically misleading. The main reason for the high number of Palestinian civilian casualties, obviously, is that an incredibly powerful air force is bombing the hell out of one of the most crowded, vulnerable places in the world – and the fault for that lies with Israel, whose punitive, often lethal blockade of Gaza, together with its military occupation of the West Bank, invites Palestinians to fight back. As in all its wars with the Palestinians since 1967, Israel is the aggressor in Operation Protective Edge.

[Viva_Daddy]

1. Israel has "the iron dome" and bomb shelters ...

...all paid for by US Taxpayers...to protect them. Palestinians have no such protection and have been herded into small enclaves where Israel can "shoot them like fish in a barrel".

Israel also have tanks, an army, a navy and an air force (again all paid for by US Taxpayers) while the Palestinians barely have a functioning police force.

Jews resisted the Nazi occupation of Europe and are rightly lauded for doing so. Jews also resisted the British occupation of Palestine, but they are OUTRAGED that the Palestinians continue to resist the Israeli military occupation of their land which has been going on for, what, 60+ years.

If Israel really wants peace, it's time to end the occupation and return land stolen from the Palestinians. Nothing short of this will do. The majority of Jews in Israel want peace. but so far their
"leaders" have refused to let them have it.