wat0n wrote:One difference is that Hamas has a policy of targeting civilians, Israel does not.
This is complete drivel. Israel knowingly drops high explosives on densely populated civilian areas. Mass civilian casualties are an inevitable consequence of this, as has been proven time and time and time again. To simply disavow any responsibility for the deaths it causes is so weak that I have a very hard time accepting that they even believe it themselves.
If the IDF was even remotely serious about its claim to try to minimise civilian casualties, it would adapt its tactics. It has shown absolutely no interest in doing so, because it fundamentally does not see Palestinians as human.
wat0n wrote:You can compare this to estimates of civilians killed, by perpetrator, for the Syrian Civil War where the Syrian government has killed most civilians during the war (by far), and has had much fewer civilians under its protection killed too, according to pretty much all available estimates and yet here we see the same people who whine about Israel lavishly praise the Lion of Damascus, the Liberator of Syria, or whatever other silly name they have for Bashar al-Assad, for his conduct during the war and this is despite the fact, too, that the Islamists are using tactics that are not all that different from Hamas', including mingling among civilians whether the latter like it or not. And here, too, we're talking about an order of magnitude higher as far as casualty figures are concerned.
The two situations are not remotely comparable. Syria is fighting a total war against an actual existential threat. Israel is bombarding an impoverished subject people who it has contained within a densely populated open air prison. A more accurate comparison would be the way the various colonial empires crushed uprisings against their rule.
wat0n wrote:Likewise, and just in case someone may say "b-but you are comparing Israel to Syria!!!", you should also find that NATO and the US in particular has killed more civilians in Afghanistan than pretty much everyone else and this compares with close to zero civilian deaths along NATO members happening after 9/11 specifically in response to the war.
If you think you're talking to someone who hasn't been a very vocal opponent of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, you are sorely mistaken.
Of course, it's quite telling that you are making a direct comparison between Israel's bombardment of Gaza and nakedly imperialist aggression against foreign countries by NATO. I thought the official Israeli line was that it is desperately fighting for its survival against a terrifying existential threat?
wat0n wrote:So tell me, why should I take the whining seriously at all?
Incredible. Scratch a liberal, etc.
You should take the "whining" seriously if you actually see Palestinians as human, or want anyone to take you seriously when you attempt to claim Israel has some sort of moral high ground.
"Perhaps you want me to die of unrelieved boredom while you keep talking." - Martin Luther