True, this is really grim situation for Gaza people. Even then calling/texting residents to warn about attacks is awesome move of Israel, very underrated in media though.
Expecting perfection from a process largely performed by human beings is ridiculous. Of course there were legitimate shipments that were blocked by mistake and of course, there were those who were rightfully pissed when that happened.
I am sure that if no missiles were being brought into Gaza or if those missiles weren't used for killing Israeli civilians, there would be no blockade of anything.
What do you expect the Israelis to do? Just die? Oh wait, that is what you expect them to do.
Regarding the flotilla debacle, Israel offered to have the ships dock at Israeli ports, inspect the cargo, and transfer any legitimate aid through the land crossings.
The flotilla organizers refused this offer. Their purpose was not to deliver humanitarian aid, but to cause a spectacle drawing attention to the security restrictions imposed on the Strip.
Once the flotilla was diverted and the contents were unloaded and placed on Israeli trucks to be transferred to the Gaza Strip, Hamas refused to accept it. This humanitarian aid was apparently so urgently needed that Hamas decided they didn't want to lose face by accepting it.
Why does that seem contradictory? Gaza can be the aggressor, but Israel is much better armed. (Don't confuse shipping with getting by truck; they don't receive supplies by ship, but they do get plenty of supplies.)
"Their land"... if there is something that the Palestina and Israel conflict has remembered us is that nobody owns anything that they can't defend. The Americans killed the natives and then future generations don't think that it matters because they weren't directly involved in that; the same thing happens in this conflict that haves already many years in the making.
People entitle themselves to land for no logical reason; nobody thinks: "This country haves 40 million people an there is 7.053 billion people in the world; therefore we should only own a 176.325th of the available terrain"; never happens.
You are really changing the subject from aggression, but...
Let's say we have a dispute. You say I stole your house, and I say I didn't. Do you think a good way to resolve the dispute is to take pot-shots at my kids? Does it make it a better idea to take pot-shots if I have a machine gun and you don't?
As far as I can tell, defending Hamas is just insane, even if you really, really think Palestinians are abused by Israelis.
No, that's bunk. A more accurate representation is that my house is built on a plot of land that your ancestors had thousands of years ago. Your mates tell you that you can live there, so you come in and beat me up and kick me out and destroy all my shit. When I then try break back in, you shoot me and my family.
That's trivial to understand though. Hamas doesn't give a shit about Palestinian people. They are fanatics, why would they? Most of their weapons including medium range missiles is stored in civilian homes, mosques or other public places that less likely to be targeted. As a bonus points if such storage gets hit it's a breaking news for reporters who love to write stories about "Israel bombed mosque, 9000 children are killed".
Whether or not I disagree with it is irrelevant - HN isn't the place for unsubtle attempts to shift the tone of online conversation in one political entity's favor. I would probably object if a guy posted a submission and commented on several other submissions with links to some websites that claimed the Isrealies were all evil and hated Palestinians or whatever. Keep it to /r/politics.
But given the number (and impact) of pro-IDF groups whose explicit goal is to control the online Israel-Palestine debate through propaganda, stuff like this is particularly tiring. Every time conflict breaks out a bunch of kids start spamming unrelated forums with their crap.
Edit: Note that I'm not claiming the other side is innocent of this behavior, it may just be that I notice the Israeli stuff more/hang out on forums more prone to being exposed to them.
> More than 44 million hacking attempts have been made on Israeli government web sites since Wednesday
What constitutes an "attempt"?
What information is conveyed by the number "44 million"?
None, really, since we have no way of knowing how the counting is done. In fact there's not really any information in the article, except for "Hacking attempts increase when carrying out a bombing campaign", which probably shouldn't be too surprising.
Actually it's surprisingly underwhelming. Anonymous hit some small personal sites (a psychologist, some non-profits, a real estate agency, alternative medicine college) - most of which were back online within 30 mins.
The only government sites they've defaced were Israel's international aid agency (http://mashav.mfa.gov.il/) and some committee about restoring quarries or something. Compared to their incessant boasting that's pretty pathetic.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 72.1 ms ] threadWhile the civilian casualties are much higher on Palestinian side. And while it's Israel who blocks shipping goods and humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Actually, those aren't blocked. Well, unless you consider missiles to be humanitarian aid.
Should they just let Iran ship weapons into Gaza to be used against Israeli civilians?
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/middle-east/israeli-naval-force-b...
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/suffocating-gaza-...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/world/middleeast/11nations...
I am sure that if no missiles were being brought into Gaza or if those missiles weren't used for killing Israeli civilians, there would be no blockade of anything.
What do you expect the Israelis to do? Just die? Oh wait, that is what you expect them to do.
The flotilla organizers refused this offer. Their purpose was not to deliver humanitarian aid, but to cause a spectacle drawing attention to the security restrictions imposed on the Strip.
Once the flotilla was diverted and the contents were unloaded and placed on Israeli trucks to be transferred to the Gaza Strip, Hamas refused to accept it. This humanitarian aid was apparently so urgently needed that Hamas decided they didn't want to lose face by accepting it.
People entitle themselves to land for no logical reason; nobody thinks: "This country haves 40 million people an there is 7.053 billion people in the world; therefore we should only own a 176.325th of the available terrain"; never happens.
What is the point of civilisation if it fails to prevent suffering?
Let's say we have a dispute. You say I stole your house, and I say I didn't. Do you think a good way to resolve the dispute is to take pot-shots at my kids? Does it make it a better idea to take pot-shots if I have a machine gun and you don't?
As far as I can tell, defending Hamas is just insane, even if you really, really think Palestinians are abused by Israelis.
But given the number (and impact) of pro-IDF groups whose explicit goal is to control the online Israel-Palestine debate through propaganda, stuff like this is particularly tiring. Every time conflict breaks out a bunch of kids start spamming unrelated forums with their crap.
Edit: Note that I'm not claiming the other side is innocent of this behavior, it may just be that I notice the Israeli stuff more/hang out on forums more prone to being exposed to them.
What constitutes an "attempt"?
What information is conveyed by the number "44 million"?
None, really, since we have no way of knowing how the counting is done. In fact there's not really any information in the article, except for "Hacking attempts increase when carrying out a bombing campaign", which probably shouldn't be too surprising.
The only government sites they've defaced were Israel's international aid agency (http://mashav.mfa.gov.il/) and some committee about restoring quarries or something. Compared to their incessant boasting that's pretty pathetic.