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US and EU ban airline flights to Israel after Hamas rocket lands near Tel Aviv airport
The United States Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, is prohibiting US airlines from flying to Israel's international airport in Tel Aviv for 24 hours, after a rocket fired by Hamas militants in Gaza landed nearby, damaging a house and slightly injuring one Israeli. European airlines quickly canceled their flights as well. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesThe answer is simple: Israel should obliterate the areas used and other areas that could be used to fire these rockets against Israel.
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 12:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Time to take the gloves off once and for all.
Considering some of the people involved, you might well be getting your wish.
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 04:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Here’s Naftali Bennett, Minister of the Economy: “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”
Then there’s this rather surprising accolade from Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feigin :
“Hitler was an unparalleled military genius. Nazism promoted Germany from a low to a fantastic physical and ideological status. The ragged, trashy youth body turned into a neat and orderly part of society and Germany received an exemplary regime, a proper justice system and public order. Hitler savored good music. He would paint. This was no bunch of thugs. They merely used thugs and homosexuals.”
Moshe, incidentally, has been banned from entering the UK on the grounds that his activities might “foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.”
And last but by no means least, there's Ayelet Shaked MK, forrner Director of Netanyahu's office: The mothers of the Palestinian dead ”should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.“
Some with long memories might note the resemblance of Ayelet’s remarks to the considered opinion of Connie Lynch of the Ku Klux Klan following the 1963 bombing of the 16 Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama, in which four young black girls were killed: ”They're just little niggers ..... it wasn't no shame they was killed. Why? Because when I go out to kill rattlesnakes, I don't make no difference between little rattlesnakes and big rattlesnakes, because I know it is the nature of all rattlesnakes to be my enemies and to poison me if they can.”
Since Sept 2000, when Sharon made his ill-considered visit to the Temple Mount, there have been 8600 deaths caused by Palestinian-Israeli violence. 95% of those are Palestinian. In the last three weeks 155 children have died ( 900 wounded ).
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 05:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'd say the gloves came off a long time ago.
The headline shoulf be corrected. According to news, British Airways is still flying to Israel so it seems unlikely that the EU has banned flights.
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 06:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@2. Are you making a point of your own or just giving excerpts? The MOST important things to remember in this contest between Israel and arabs are (a) history and (b) facts.
The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were where Israel is now more than 3,200 years ago. The Merneptah Stele proves that. What shall we call them? Hebrews/Israelites/Jews occupied that land for centuries. They objected to Roman rule. In response, in 70 A.D., the Romans decided to wipe them out. One of the first acts was the destruction of the Temple. Many of the people fled. But some remained. Over the following years, arabs moved in. It's called squatting. In many of the places that the Jews fled to, they were persecuted, expelled, murdered. Culminating in Hitler's Holocaust. After WW2, the world decided that the Jews had suffered enough and should have their homeland back. It wasn't a problem, the area was under British control. But the thieving arabs didn't like it. So they waited until the day after Israel declared independence and sent FOUR armies. Seems as though they believed that their old nazi masters and their new soviet masters would enable them to win. They lost! And, as we all know, what a party holds at the end of an armed conflict belongs to that party. So Israel grew. And the arabs kept attacking. Israel set aside the Gaza Strip for those arabs who didn't want to live, peacefully, in Israel or go to Jordan as decided by the UN. And the arabs kept attacking. Now we have the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, because the arabs won't stop. Now, whose fault? If the arabs didn't have this idea that they can destroy Israel. Why would they even try when they were only squatting anyway? Let's look at the cult of islam. Who wants to rule the world? Think on.
@4
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 06:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That's funny. That's not what David Ben Gurion said :
“
Were he an Arab leader, David Ben-Gurion once confessed to the Zionist official Nahum Goldmann, he, too, would wage perpetual war with Israel. “Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them?” he asked. “There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country.”
”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/books/review/Margolick-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I make no apology for being anti-Arab, which is really anti-Islam. The sooner these medieval Islamist murderers are killed the better for the rest of us.
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 07:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Better them killed than my family in the UK by our homemade jihadists whose immigrant parents sowed the seeds of our destruction when they came to colonise our country simply because we thought like all modern people that we could all exist together. How wrong I was in believing Islam to be a religion of peace: it is a way of death. So be it.
The deaths of westerners caused by these mentally defectives have shown that ALL affected nations need to remove these people before their birth rate results in THEM ruling OUR country.
I personally would give them the same choice that they give us: renounce Islam or go and join Allah and your paedophile Prophet Mohammad, faeces and urine be upon him, we will provide the surgically sharp swords so favoured by these cretins to behead their ‘enemies’. Any recidivism should be met with lethal injections direct into the carotid arteries.
The Israelis warned the Palestinians in the affected area that they were going to deal with Hamas and they should leave instead of submitting to being Hamas’ shield. Many left as shown by the photographs (accompanied by bleeding heart comments against Israel) and those that stayed have only themselves to blame for the deaths of their children.
Yes, some of you will be horrified by my post: I hope that your friends or family are not at risk because of your delicate sensibilities, mine won’t be if I have my way.
@6
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 07:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Your post is a good example of the bloodthirsty racism driving current events. But at least it's honest. For the most part the narrative I'm being invited to swallow is the biggest load of horseshit since the invasion of Iraq, or indeed the Argentine claim to the Falklands.
At least the Venezuelans are safe from stray missiles anywhere in the world when taking flights.
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 08:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Because there are practically no flights out of Venezuela anymore. Maduro hasn't paid the $4.3 billion owed to the airlines who have since been bailing out of the country.
This messiah obviously saw all this coming and took these steps to keep 'his' people safe at home in the Socialist Paradise.
The man's a genuis. Obviously.
(You think I am joking but don't be surprised when something similar shows up in the Chavista controlled media soon.)
@ 7 HansNiesund
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 10:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Your post is a good example of the bloodthirsty racism driving current events. But at least it's honest.”
I am not inviting you to swallow anything, just go and check the facts for yourself.
Neither Israel nor Hamas are racist: they cannot be because Islam welcomes ALL peoples into is medieval pact with the devil irrespective. Black, white, pink, brown, whatever. There are black, white, etc (you get the idea) Jews.
Please consider this statement, which I believe portrays the problem in a nutshell:
“If Hamas gave up violence completely and lay down its arms there would be lasting peace in the region: if Israel put down its arms there would be no Jews in the region.”
The ONLY humans mixed up in Islam that I have immense sympathy for are the females born into this awful “religion”. Do yourself a favour and check out what it is to be a young girl or woman born into Sharia Law and decide for yourself if what I post is “the biggest load of horseshit since the invasion of Iraq, or indeed the Argentine claim to the Falklands.”
I don’t know where you live but I missed being a victim of the London bus bombing purely by a small time shift in my itinerary and I have no wish for members of my family to be caught in this feudal Jihad (holy war) and not be so fortunate as I.
@9
Jul 23rd, 2014 - 10:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let's call it sectarian then.
Israel hasn't been asked to lay down its arms. It's been asked to refrain from bombarding a captive civilian population. I'm supposed to believe this is being done in a moral manner. This is what I mean by horseshit. And now I'm told Hamas rockets are no big deal after all, certainly no reason to stop flights into Ben Gurion.
Members of my family were in the underground on 7/7 and 21/7. I’ve narrowly missed an IRA effort myself. Yet there was never any question of unleashing the RAF on Free Derry to take out those f*****s. I'm glad about that.
Dov Lior, a rabbi from the West Bank settlement Kiryat Arba, recently posted this Halakhic ruling:
“The Torah of Israel guides us in all walks of life, private and public, on how to behave during war and also how to keep moral standards.
The Maharal from Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew – A.K.), in his book Gur Arye, clearly writes that… in all wars the attacked people are allowed to attack fiercely the people from whom the attackers came from and they do not have to check if he personally belongs to the fighters.
Therefore, during war the attacked people are allowed to punish the enemy population in any punishment it finds worthy, such as denying supplies or electricity and also to bomb the whole area according to the discretion of the army minister and not to just simply endanger soldier’s lives but to take crushing deterrence steps to exterminate the enemy.
In the case of Gaza, the Minister of Defense will be allowed to instruct even the destruction of Gaza so that the south will no longer suffer and to avoid harm to our people who have been suffering for so long from the surrounding enemies.
Any kind of talk about humanism and consideration are moot when speaking of saving our brothers in the south and in the rest of the country and bringing back quiet to our country.”
Apart from the target, I can’t see a blind bit of difference between this and a fatwa from bin Laden.
@6 ChrisR
Jul 24th, 2014 - 07:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0“I make no apology for being anti-Arab which is really anti-Islam”. There are plenty of Arabs who aren't Muslim's, some are the descendants of people who were Christians before Islam even existed.
There are Jews who have lived in Iran/Persia for centuries. They could have returned to Israel if they wished a long time ago. They haven't because they like it where they are now. And no-one is trying to convert them. And they can consume as much alcohol as they want. No sharia law for them.
As to rest of your musings: there are many other things Israel can do to secure it's peace without shelling one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. Some Gaza residents did indeed move from what they believed to a dangerous area only to be killed in what they thought was a safe area. And the children who were killed whilst playing on the beach - what made them worth killing?
The ultra-orthodox Israeli Jews, who are spared both taxation and service in the IDF, are driving this agenda for reasons that have less to do with security and more to do with power. They as culpable as Hamas militants in the death of both innocent Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.
@2,5,7.10. Hans
Good posts.
@ 10 HansNiesund
Jul 24th, 2014 - 01:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Let's call it sectarian then” OK, but you missed the point about the phrase.
I am pleased that you and your family escaped being hurt during the actions that you quote.
A pity that Hamas stopped many of their own people from moving away as Israel warned them to, as usual.
@ 11 Heisenbergcontext
“for being anti-Arab which is really anti-Islam” and that is the point, the Islamists!
“There are always exceptions: there are plenty of Arabs who are not Muslims” yes, but they are outnumbered by the millions who are.
We can all quote exceptions but that just deflects from the real problem: Islam.
You live in Australia: try living in Bradford or Bedford or Leeds or Stoke on Trent and then you will have firsthand knowledge of the difficulties the real English people have to contend with.
That is partly why I support Israel.
@12
Jul 24th, 2014 - 01:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry, but I can't see how the bombardment of civilians in Gaza does anything to help community relations in Bradford or Bedford or Leeds or Stoke on Trent, except insofar as it provides further encouragement to religious nutters.
Speaking of which, check out Israel's Deputy Religious Services Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, who has maintained earlier this year that the souls of all Jews are higher than those of Christians or Muslims or anybody else.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Ben-Dahan-must-go-336815
Not that this represents the views of all Jews, or all Israelis, but you can see this mentality playing out in current events in Gaza, and more generally in the systematic attempts to dehumanise the Palestinians of which I provided some more illustrations earlier.
The worst of it is, some of these nutters have access to nuclear weapons.
@12 ChrisR
Jul 24th, 2014 - 03:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Islam, or religion generally, has never been the problem. The problem lies in peoples insecurities and vulnerabilities and the ease with which powerful institutions and individuals can exploit resentment and injustice - real or imagined. ANY belief system - religious or otherwise can be used thusly.
Post-war the aggression towards Israel and the West generally was framed in the language of nationalism and political ideology. It wasn't until the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that Islam became the main inspiration for radical action.
I've known a few muslim's over the years and the one that impressed me the most was an Uigar women from China. She hated the Chinese - with good reason - but loved living here where she could practice her religion free of state interference.
I had to respect her because she simply commanded respect. Her boundaries, her values - all were clear cut, completely honest and without any subterfuge. She was nobody's doormat. And the source of her strength was her religion and her devotion to her God.
@ 13 HansNiesund
Jul 24th, 2014 - 07:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“The worst of it is, some of these nutters have access to nuclear weapons.”
Quite so and the reason I am sure that in the medium future the Arabs (Muslims), et al will be nuked out of existence. Unfortunately the nuclear fallout may affect the Israelis and perhaps others.
@ 14 Heisenbergcontext
I too have known a few Muslims that I have no problem with EXCEPT when they start fidgeting about the Quran and how it isn’t really “death to Kafirs”, and the women realise “their place”, etc.
Your experience with the Uigar women from China was interesting but I am sure there are many thousands the same: it is the millions of ‘true believers’ under Sharia Law that worries me.
I bet the Chinese woman would have been just as strong minded given a western start in life without the need of the delusional crutch that is religion.
@15
Jul 24th, 2014 - 10:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm sure as we've seen it'll all be done with profound humanitarian concern for the innocent.
@14
Jul 24th, 2014 - 11:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Islam, or religion generally, has never been the problem. The problem lies in peoples insecurities and vulnerabilities and the ease with which powerful institutions and individuals can exploit resentment and injustice - real or imagined. ANY belief system - religious or otherwise can be used thusly.”
Thus proving that ORGANISED< ESTABLISHED religion is aggressive and destructive, Christian religion included.
FGM?
“A top UN official quoted from a statement saying that Isis wanted all females aged between 11 and 46 in the northern city to undergo the procedure.”
Admittedly there is doubt that about this now, but it IS part of Sharia Law. How would you feel about a female member of your family having her genitals mutilated without her consent in the name of religion?
In Iraq, people are being given the choice of convert, or, quite literally, being 'put to the sword'!
Of course, the sword is put to them!
Enough!
@15 ChrisR
Jul 25th, 2014 - 07:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0We've debated this, and similar issues, on a number of occasions. It's reasonable to assume we're never going to agree. So be it. I'll just add that there were no Uigar's in this part of the world 40 odd years ago when the woman I spoke of was born so I think you'd lose that bet and in any case I've rarely seen that degree of serenity and moral authority in secular, western women of the same age.
@17 Ilsen
During the years I was obliged to attend church ( Anglican ), I never once heard a single exhortation that unbelievers should be forcibly converted, beheaded, exiled or harmed in any way at all. The only negative emotion I experienced was boredom and a frustration that I was sitting on a hard wooden pew listening to stuff that had no practical application to my life when I could've been outside hitting a cricket ball, kicking a footy or fishing yabbies out of a creek. Using your logic I think this proves that religion is a peaceful, tedious way of spending an average Sunday morning.
I haven't put any effort into researching female circumcision but I am pretty sure that it predates Islam. I'm also pretty sure it has never been part of Arab culture, and that there is nothing in the Koran which advocates it.
Is your question rhetorical or do you actually expect an answer? If it's the latter the only reason I can think that you would enquire is if you believed I was an advocate of this practice. I can't imagine why you would believe that and I can't be bothered replying to it. Assume what you wish.
The motivation behind female circumcision is simply a desire to control women's bodies. Using religious rhetoric is just a way denying the fear behind those beliefs.
We do the same in the west. We call it hard core porn and justify it as 'freedom of speech'. Of course you might argue that suffering a prolapsed rectum from being repeatedly sodomised is preferable to being separated from a clitoris and I certainly wouldn't disagree with you...
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