Sure. They are crack shots those Hamas fighers, aren't they?

They managed to aim for a school 20 kilometers away, while trying to avoid Israel's military eye, with a rocket that has nil guidance control outside of "point and shoot".

They "fire at schools for years, on purpose" you say?

Bullshit

Not to forget that any mention of a possible bias in favour of Israel creates backlashes of "conspirationist theory".

You say it's bullshit. But Israeli schoolchildren in Sderot have different experiences.

Have you seen pictures of the parties they throw when they hit one? The media won't show you these things. Presumably it would be racist.

If you fire a rocket towards a city containing no military installations, you ARE aiming at civilians.

I was myself a student in a school when rockets from Hizbullah hit it. For you it's "bullshit", for me it was reality.

But isn't it weird that those practices and tactics are only ever criticised when the IDF uses them? Can you name an Arab army or even terrorist group who is regularly criticised for keeping civilian casualties to less than 25%? (Or can you even name an Arab army or terrorist group that even has any sort of mechanism or practices to achieve such numbers?)

The IDF's "political masters" are the Jews, aren't they?

When I was in Iraq and on my way south, a Peshmerga (Kurdish militia) lieutenant told me, while holding me for two hours at a checkpoint (for which I do not blame him), that I was to his knowledge the first Jew in the region since the 1930s (he was wrong but close) and that I should tell anyone my religion further south.

And I was a student at the University of Haifa when Hizbullah shelled the city (and the university).

A friend of mine, a student rabbi studying in Jerusalem, also travelled to the Negev to meet Sudanese refugees from Darfur whose villages had been erased from the face of the earth by government-supported militias.

And while I was in Iraq Kurdish officials showed me one of Saddam's secret police headquarters, the holding cells, the torture chambers, a gallery of pictures of gas attack victims (civilians, women and children), and a rope from Abu Ghraib formerly used to execute non-Arabs en masse.

Books do not tell us those stories yet, generally. And if anybody dared to write a book about these things, be sure there will be death threats against the author (and liberals will accuse him of racism). A few books about it have been written, but the authors need police protection now.

I am not aware of any author who wrote a book about the "evils" of Israel, even if he makes them up, needing police protection from angry Jews or the Israeli government.

Living in a Muslim country doesn't help you understand the problem. You need to be a victim to understand. The Germans who lived in Germany under Hitler also didn't understand the problem. They honestly didn't know (or didn't want to know) what happened to all the Jews and Gipsies who had suddenly vanished. Similarly some people in Arab countries slowly realise that there aren't as many Jews and Christians (or, in the case of Sudan, non-Arab blacks) around as there used to be. In the case of Iraq the Jews were attacked and fled in the 1930s and 1950s (while Iraq itself was allied with Germany in 1942). The Christians are now fleeing north into the Kurdish region.

Now, I have lived in Germany. I grew up there. I can tell you that many people have pretty much the same opinion about Israel as Hitler had. And the stories about the Jews are still the same. Plus it is still accepted as a given that what an Arab says is the truth and what Israel or the IDF say must be viewed with at least some suspicision, to be fair.

Did you know that during the entire invasion of Gaza ALL the news originated from Arab sources? Israel doesn't release anything to the press, except for the odd video showing terrorists shooting from hospitals or boobytrapped schools. But do news sites report all these things as FACT or as "something Hamas claimed"? Are IDF announcements treated likewise as fact? If they are, wouldn't the media constantly contradict themselves?

Living in a Muslim country as such won't help you understand the problem. But try being a Jew or a Massalith or a Kurd or a Berber in an Arab country.

You would understand.

Are they less dead because the weapons are not as accurate?

This really boggles the mind.  We should excuse murderers and terrorists because they are disadvantaged?  I know that is the liberal thinking with common criminals, now it is the thinking with genocidal maniacs.  Indeed, before 1933, liberals must have shed many a crocodile tears for Adolph Hitler since he just had pop guns and Molotov cocktails to kill his enemies with.  Hardly accurate, so who could blame him for killing a few of his followers in the deal?

Show me a liberal crying over a dead Jew and I show you a liberal who is on his way to becoming a conservative.

It never occurs to the so-called "pacifists" that Hamas do not have to fire rockets at all in the first place.

The ONLY reason for Hamas to fire rockets was to kill Jews.

Israel left Gaza, the border were open, the world was giving Gaza money (G-d knows why the world rarely gives money to peaceful hungry people in Africa instead), and Hamas fired rockets.

_Peace_ is when only Jews or other minorities die.

Although yes this Link is 'pro-Israel' I think it is enlightening to how these children live. 

Leauki, isn't it interesting how Israel is condemn for being careful to minimize damage because civilians are hurt but little condemnation about Chamas carelessly hurling rockets in a general direction with no idea where it's going to land or hurt? 

To me it is very clear that Israel is going after a targeted group (Chamas) where Chamas is just wanting to hurt people (ie civilians). 

Cikomyr, ask yourself why you are condemning those that are trying to protect now only their civilians but also do their best to minimize civilian casualties in the land of their foe.  

They have an idea where the rockets are landing. Why does everybody think that these things are random?

The terrorists are not idiots; they are well-trained experts.

(Although the Hamas police are not. They really are idiots. Just a few weeks ago they found a bomb somewhere and brought it INTO a police station filled with weapons and ammunition to defuse it. It blew up, adding to the number of Arab casualties in this war.)

Leauki, I didn't say they were completely random.  I stated they are pointing in a general direction but don't really know specifically where it's going to land.

I think they know where they are going to land.

They are meant to go down at the same sort of places the suicide bombers target. It would be folly to assume that Hamas sends suicide bombers into schools but don't intend their rockets to strike schools.

Hamas have mathematicians and military experts too.

Which country?  Just cause you lived in one doesnt make you an expert on them all.  I said most muslims. 

If ya think its so safe for pagans in muslim countries lets try something. Make a t-shirt full of pagan symbols, with a picture of Cernunnos, and in bold native lettering have it proclaim you worship the Horned One. Then travel to several countries with it on and then you can show us how safe it is. Take lots of pics!

I keep proposing the following bet to liberals:

I will walk through Tel Aviv looking like a Muslim Arab (Israeli security at Ben Gurion ALWAYS mistake me for an Arab anyway*) wearing a t-shirt with an Arab nationalist ("Palestinian") flag on it.

In exchange my liberal opponent, who believes that Israelis hate Arabs while the Arabs are peaceful people with no hatred for Jews, will walk through any Arab city looking like a Jew, wearing a t-shirt with an Israeli flag on it.

He who survives longer wins.

I noticed that there are more liberals who are convinced that Jews hate Arabs but not vice versa than there are liberals who would actually risk having their ideology tested by reality.

I have of course seen Arabs wearing such t-shirt walking through Israeli cities. It's a common sight. I'd be perfectly safe. I am usually perfectly safe, because my world view matches reality. Even in Iraq I knew in which city and to whom I could admit what my religion was and where or to whom I could not.

*Seriously, every time I leave** the country they question me for about an hour***; asking me which synagogue I go to, what the last holiday was I celebrated, what the next holiday will be, and why my passport doesn't match my accent. To avoid future problems I got a second distinct passport so I can keep Israeli and Iraqi visa stamps separate.

**I assume I am whiter when I arrive than when I leave. I don't look very Arab unless I just spent a few weeks in the desert sun.

***Note that this is still faster than security checks at Heathrow (London).

I'll see if I can answer this test.

Do it in Israel and people will think you are an idiot. Some will find it funny. In some parts of Jerusalem people will throw rocks at you. You will note that the people throwing rocks are anti-Zionist Haredi Jews.

Do it in Iraqi Kurdistan and people will treat you with hostility (because you are promoting paganism, which is a big no-no in Muslim countries) and many will laugh at you (as they would at Hindus). But you would be perfectly safe.

Incidentally, a "horned one" (actually "two-horned one") is mentioned in the Quran. It was a righteous king that Jews had a high opinion of: Cyrus the Great of Iran.

The strikes have gone into the fourth week now and over 1000 Palestenians have been killed: one third of them women and children. The real problem for the Palestenians is that their cause has been hijacked by the Islamic millitant and terrorists who use the festering issue to crate bad blood. It is difficult for anyone, after the Mubai carnage to be on the same page as the LeT, Jaish, al-qaeda Hammas and sundry such organisations. The carnage perpetrated by Israel in Gaza is condemnable, but such is the hatred for Islamic terorists that because the Palestenian causehas been hijacked by Terrorists they get no sympathy from the rest of the world.

Anyone reading my blog over the yearts would know that I am in favor of a two state solution and an honorable peace between Israel and Paletine. For this to happen the Palestenians must stop looking to other islamic terrorist organisation for hep and succour.

Israel is using excessive forcw but what else is the option when Hamas rockets rain down, The argument that 1100 Palestenians killed in 3 weeks and only 5 Israelis killed in 10 years of Hamas rockets makes Israeli respone dispropotionate, cannor be accepted becaust the Hamas has the intent if not the ability to inflioct heavy casualities.