Dueling protests over Gaza shut streets, force homeless from accustomed spots on the Common, change nobody's minds

Hamas and Bibi pretty reprehensible, you've got to face some facts on this one. You can go on about how Hamas is "bombing the hell" out of Israel but the truth is--now and for the most part--the ones dying are Palestinian civilians. Israel has one if the world's most sophisticated defense systems and powerful militaries on earth while the folks in Gaza are essentially trapped and completely powerless. The numbers speak for themselves--when Netanyahu decided to up the ante, literally one Israeli had been killed vs hundreds of Palestinians, mostly civilians--woman and kids. Now what? 25 dead Israeli soldiers and thousands of dead and injured civilians. It's just not justifiable, in the name of "self-defense" or anything else. And you're saying that they're putting civilians in harm's way--where are they supposed to go? There's nowhere safe. They can't leave. There are no bomb shelters. Even the hospitals are getting bombed. And sorry, but when, as a nation, you decide to bomb hospitals because you think there's a chance your enemy may be launching (mostly useless, harmless) rockets from there, then something has gone terribly wrong.

Israel is losing the moral high ground fast when it's roof knocking and blowing up apartment complexes because one unit might belong to a Hamas leader. Hell, from the independent reporting coming out of Gaza, it seems like anyone with a distant cousin is being made an example of. Severn degrees of Kevin Bacon isn't kosher in war.

That's terrorism. And Israel is no more right than Hamas there.

It be like someone bombing the neighborhood Remy Sr lives in to make a point just because he has a shit bag son.

Then they would have a bit more compassion for the people of Gaza and Palestine in general, now wouldn't they?

...you should have known that. Look, I'm not Jewish, I just think the situation is a friggin train wreck. Hamas, for all you want to say about them, wants to push Israel into the sea. They are a violent terrorist organization. Thousands of missiles, if they could aim them, goodbye Iron Dome.

A long read, so maybe too long for a bumper sticker, but full of information:

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20140720.aspx

" So far Israeli warplanes have hit over 2,500 targets in Gaza and 44 percent of these strikes were against rocket launchers. Hamas has fired over 1,400 rockets at Israel so far, and would have fired more if Israeli bombing and artillery had not destroyed over a thousand rockets on the ground. Over 60,000 reservists have been mobilized and thousands of these are now operating inside Gaza.
Over a thousand air strikes were aborted because too many civilians were in the area. "

Hamas is capable of a lot of noise, but if this is an attack on Israel, it's not going according to any rational plan.

"I was thinking about him the other day, looked him up and discovered he was an atheist."

Maybe the Middle East could use a good dose of if not atheism, at least a little agnosticism.
Oh, and some calm.

..real hope for figuring out a solid and eventually amicable future for all parties 'went south' when some superstitious nutjob shot Yitzakh Rabin.

It might come back some day, who knows.

My old Tufts aquaintence, Mouin Rabbani aptly notes that, Gaza, after all, is about the size of metro Glasgow in area. It's not like it's going to be doing any sea push back any time soon.

: ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ He was not speaking metaphorically: it later emerged that the Israeli defence ministry had conducted detailed research on how to translate his vision into reality, and arrived at a figure of 2279 calories per person per day – some 8 per cent less than a previous calculation because the research team had originally neglected to account for ‘culture and experience’ in determining nutritional ‘red lines’.

This wasn’t an academic exercise. After pursuing a policy of enforced integration between 1967 and the late 1980s, Israeli policy shifted towards separation during the 1987-93 uprising, and then fragmentation during the Oslo years. For the Gaza Strip, an area about the size of Greater Glasgow, these changes entailed a gradual severance from the outside world, with the movement of persons and goods into and out of the territory increasingly restricted.

The screws were turned tighter during the 2000-5 uprising, and in 2007 the Gaza Strip was effectively sealed shut. All exports were banned, and just 131 truckloads of foodstuffs and other essential products were permitted entry per day. Israel also strictly controlled which products could and could not be imported. Prohibited items have included A4 paper, chocolate, coriander, crayons, jam, pasta, shampoo, shoes and wheelchairs.

http://interviews.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18633/israel-mows-the-lawn,

a high tolerance level for freedom of speech, even though it only applies to Government freedoms and it's his blog.

So go to whatever anonymous place you hide in and be shocked alone. Oh, Adam apparently went there and took pics. Your opinion is welcome. Cheap shots aren't.

It would be nice if Adam started filtering out anonymous posts with appalling spelling and grammar, but it's his blog after all.

For my two cents I'm impressed by the fact that I literally get no indication from his post of what "side" he is on. Many of us do prefer to take the facts about this agonizingly complex conflict as they come and not declare that we support one "side" or another unequivocally.

So kill people for how they voted?

Their government has declared war on their neighbors. And by war, I mean calling for the total annihilation of Israel, and has taken actions towards that end. No country would ignore that, and simply hope their shield alone would protect them.

In contrast, I'd like to bring your attention to the PLO-run West Bank, which is currently not lobbing thousands of missiles into Israel, and also isn't being invaded. See, it is possible for Palestinians and Israelis to co-exist.

The Gazans voted for Hamas, and now they have to deal with the consequences. Very unfortunate, very sad, but also very inevitable.