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kangeikoAAARGH.
I know it's a mistake to stray from my safe little corner of the reasonable, sensible internets, but there I go again, into the territory of people who get their news entirely from Faux News.
Dear asshat. You are allowed to be outraged that Hamas and/or militants in Gaza are firing rockets into Israel. I, too, am outraged. The people getting killed are civilians.
You are not, however, allowed to paint Israeli soldiers are going around, peacefully distributing flowers and hugs to the mean Palestinians, who are EEEEEBIL and out to kill everyone, and Israel just wanted to be friends, look, they declared a ceasefire!! You are not allowed to completely ignore the growing evidence that indicates that something, if not many things, were not done in accordance with the Geneva Convention. (Worrying sign number one: the expelling of all foreign journalists. It followed worrying sign number 0.5, which I, and the rest of the world, missed completely: blockading all aid shipments to Gaza from November onwards.)
You can have an opinion. You can take sides. You can look at the facts, and decide that Israel has a good case for the conflict, and that we should wait to see the results of the investigation on the conduct of its army before drawing conclusions. That is all reasonable, and we can shake hands and return to our separate corners.
You cannot claim, however, that Israel is good and fine and perfect just because. That is not an opinion, that is dogma. Israel doesn't get a free pass to do whatever it wants just because. (The US doesn't either, btw, in case you were wondering. Just for the record, neither does France, Germany, Russia, China or the UK. No one gets to do whatever the fuck they want. There. Now we can all be insulted.)
(And most of the time, it's the same fucking people who think that funding the IRA is ok. The stupid, it breaks my brain.)
*
This follows on (but is not directly related to) from the stupid comments on the BBC website, arguing that the BBC shouldn't screen the DEC appeal for aid for Gaza because, if you can believe this, a similar appeal isn't being run for Israel.
Dead during the conflict:
- 13 dead Israelis, 3 of which are civilians.
- +1,300 dead Palestinians, the majority of which are civilians.
Percentage of population entirely dependent on foreign aid:
- Israel: 0%
- Gaza: +70%
For the record, the DEC is made up of 12 charities, the top experts of which work together to identify key areas around the world that are in need of emergency aid. Hence 'Emergency Appeal'. There was one for the tsunami, for Bangladesh, for Sudan, for the DRC, for many other places. Having identified those areas, they then put together an appeal.
The BBC is terrified that showing images of civilians hurt by gunfire will prejudice the coverage against Israel. The idiot's response to that is that, to be fair, the DEC should ignore the advice of experts, who were clearly using their PhDs for frivolous purposes, and have two appeals.
That's like having an appeal for Iraq, and running one for the US and UK.
*
Ah, I feel better.
ETA: Even more so for deleting their latest comment without reading. Srly, when the pinnacle of your argument is 'but you're mean!', that's when I stop caring.
I know it's a mistake to stray from my safe little corner of the reasonable, sensible internets, but there I go again, into the territory of people who get their news entirely from Faux News.
Dear asshat. You are allowed to be outraged that Hamas and/or militants in Gaza are firing rockets into Israel. I, too, am outraged. The people getting killed are civilians.
You are not, however, allowed to paint Israeli soldiers are going around, peacefully distributing flowers and hugs to the mean Palestinians, who are EEEEEBIL and out to kill everyone, and Israel just wanted to be friends, look, they declared a ceasefire!! You are not allowed to completely ignore the growing evidence that indicates that something, if not many things, were not done in accordance with the Geneva Convention. (Worrying sign number one: the expelling of all foreign journalists. It followed worrying sign number 0.5, which I, and the rest of the world, missed completely: blockading all aid shipments to Gaza from November onwards.)
You can have an opinion. You can take sides. You can look at the facts, and decide that Israel has a good case for the conflict, and that we should wait to see the results of the investigation on the conduct of its army before drawing conclusions. That is all reasonable, and we can shake hands and return to our separate corners.
You cannot claim, however, that Israel is good and fine and perfect just because. That is not an opinion, that is dogma. Israel doesn't get a free pass to do whatever it wants just because. (The US doesn't either, btw, in case you were wondering. Just for the record, neither does France, Germany, Russia, China or the UK. No one gets to do whatever the fuck they want. There. Now we can all be insulted.)
(And most of the time, it's the same fucking people who think that funding the IRA is ok. The stupid, it breaks my brain.)
*
This follows on (but is not directly related to) from the stupid comments on the BBC website, arguing that the BBC shouldn't screen the DEC appeal for aid for Gaza because, if you can believe this, a similar appeal isn't being run for Israel.
Dead during the conflict:
- 13 dead Israelis, 3 of which are civilians.
- +1,300 dead Palestinians, the majority of which are civilians.
Percentage of population entirely dependent on foreign aid:
- Israel: 0%
- Gaza: +70%
For the record, the DEC is made up of 12 charities, the top experts of which work together to identify key areas around the world that are in need of emergency aid. Hence 'Emergency Appeal'. There was one for the tsunami, for Bangladesh, for Sudan, for the DRC, for many other places. Having identified those areas, they then put together an appeal.
The BBC is terrified that showing images of civilians hurt by gunfire will prejudice the coverage against Israel. The idiot's response to that is that, to be fair, the DEC should ignore the advice of experts, who were clearly using their PhDs for frivolous purposes, and have two appeals.
That's like having an appeal for Iraq, and running one for the US and UK.
*
Ah, I feel better.
ETA: Even more so for deleting their latest comment without reading. Srly, when the pinnacle of your argument is 'but you're mean!', that's when I stop caring.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 09:36 pm (UTC)(Er, "this" being that person you're venting about, not you or your post.)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 09:56 pm (UTC)Srly.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 09:47 pm (UTC)I wish this could become law. I also love my own country to the point of tears, but I think it is very, very far from perfect. I am so tired of being called horrible things for disagreeing with what imperfect nations do. Disagreeing does not mean I hate.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 09:59 pm (UTC)The whole point of loving something is in wanting to make it a good thing, a shining beacon of something amazing, not by insisting that it already is, and all who disagree are evil and/or mean.
(She called me mean,
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 10:41 pm (UTC)::sends love and fortitude; not that you need the latter: you got that::
That said, I'm keeping my head down-ish about this conflict. As a German, I just - I can't help feeling more involved and less objective.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-25 12:08 am (UTC)So I ate toast and had tea and watched 27 Dresses. And I felt better.
That said, I'm keeping my head down-ish about this conflict. As a German, I just - I can't help feeling more involved and less objective.
All I was saying was that people shouldn't kill civilians. I didn't realise that was going to be so controversial! *shakes head* I think you made a good choice to stay out of it, there are some seriously crazy people out there.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-25 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-25 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 11:09 pm (UTC)Yes, that, exactly. Grrr.