Quote:

Originally posted by Dave:
Dave, your use of the word "war" suggests that the Israelis are fighting a war aginst a Palestinian state.

This was an act against a terrorist (the member of a terrorist organisation, not a general of an army of a foreign power) within the territory of Israel, which resulted in the deaths of civilians ostensibly under Israeli sovereignty and the responsibility that this entails.

You're using an incorrect standard, to mask the fact that the Israelis, in killing a known terrorist, also indiscriminately killed seven children.

You say a just war has its costs. What about a counter-terrorist action? Can you imagine the outcry that would erupt if this had happened in the United States, and seven children were killed during a counter-terrorist operation



For me there is no distinction.

The Palestinian terrorism is for all practical purposes an army, and it is only an abstraction of semantics to look at this act as something other than the casualty of war that it truly is.
Since 1918 (the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the beginning of British Mandate rule, and continuing on through the birth of the Israeli state in 1948, and forward), this has been part of an ongoing war termed The Arab-Israeli Conflict.

I believe the call for a Palestinian state is a sham. The true goal is the destruction of Israel.

As we discussed on a prior topic, the total annihilation of Israel is the stated goal of the PLO's founding charter ( which, as you say, was amended out of the charter in 1998, as a condition of continued negotiations with Israel foir Palestinian statehood. Although the PLO has been proven, with evidence obtained in the Israeli raids of Rammalah and Jenin, to have fully participated in orchestrating suicide bombings. See the April 8, 2002 issue of TIME Magazine, page 30, paragraph 2. On CBS news, It was reported when Sharon came to Washington D.C., he personally handed George W. Bush a 100-page file of documents showing Arafat and other PLO members personally authorized suicide bombings and purchase of bombing materials ).
And complete destruction of Israel remains the stated goal of Hammas as well.