@Squarepeg01:
Israelis killed and injured are a fraction of the Palestinian victims.
Palestinians don’t have F35 fighter planes carrying massive bombs. They are unable to import arms due to the blockade by Israel and American puppet Egypt, so they are forced to make rudimentary rockets which rarely reach the target and are almost all blocked by the Iron Dome system gifted to Israel by American taxpayers.

@Shedonny: God, it’s like arguing with children on this site. What’s with this passive tense you’re using? ‘They are forced to make rudimentary rockets…’ Who is forcing them? Nobody. They are doing it themselves. Just live is peaceful co-existence with Israel and don’t try to stockpile munitions to attack it. That would end the blockade, problem solved.

@Squarepeg01: “peaceful co-existence” how can you have that when you a kicking people off their land and handing it to Jewish immigrants who are not even from the region. We seen that here in Nothern Ireland when loyalist gangs would burn catholic communities out of their homes, you are wasting your time trying to sell your zionist bull here.

@Daniel Muldoon: agreed. Loyalist thugs were doing that and they were wrong to do so. The question is, what was the appropriate response? John Hume chose the peaceful path and never deviated. Indeed, if the IRA had restricted themselves to defending nationalist communities, they might have had some justification for their existence. But they co-opted the civil rights movement and tried to fight an unwinnable war against the UK for some utopian dream of Irish unity, a totally different goal from securing justice in NI. At least they learned that their violence was getting them nowhere, though it took them 25 years to do so. Hamas have yet to learn that lesson.

@Donal O’Carroll: This is not about land, this is about never accepting that Jews can be allowed to live in peace in the region and must be driven out , and all the either uneducated or outright liars here who get their history from facebook take note this was already in place before the Jewish state was formed in 1948.

The Grand Mufti of Palestine

On November 28, 1941, the Mufti met with Hitler, who told him the Jews were his foremost enemy. The Nazi dictator rebuffed the Mufti’s requests for a declaration in support of the Arabs, however, telling him the time was not right. The Mufti offered Hitler his “thanks for the sympathy which he had always shown for the Arab and especially Palestinian cause, and to which he had given clear expression in his public speeches….The Arabs were Germany’s natural friends because they had the same enemies as had Germany, namely….the Jews….” Hitler replied:

@Squarepeg01: Israel has been oppressing Palestinians since the nabka….. Its been getting worse and worse over the last few years as Israel keeps taking more and more land out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and handing to the settlers. The International community stands idly by while ethnic cleansing goes on before there very eyes and they ignore it. Shame

@Squarepeg01: International news outlets disagree and pointed directly to Netanyahu instigating this as a power play.

@Squarepeg01: there is a lot wrong with your comment. These people are without any power and slowly being crushed in their own homes. Israel has two options. 1 – end the apartheid limbo of the citizens of WB and Gaza and just officially annex Palestine. 2 – return to a reasonable set of borders and end the illegal settlements, then allow Palestine to exist as a real state. Israel does neither and so it should be made suffer. It’s a country filled to the gills with right-wing religious zealots (especially the youth). BDS has to be made a serious weapon. The EU needs to get it in motion. The grassroots liberal USA needs to push hard for it. It is a bloodless weapon. The turn-a-blind-eye Jewish boomer “liberals” funding this and lobbying will die off eventually.

@David Bohane: Yawn bloody yawn..go on cal.me Antisemic lol..

This is murder..

@Squarepeg01: Your a troll hasbara shill account..I mean why should I or anyone else take you seriously..
Any jobs going at the Embassy?

@David Bohane: Driven out..ffs are u having a laugh.. Your use of English is suspect..spare me the silly history lecture re Hitler he is well dead.
Isreal has been expanding and demolishing Palestinian homes and houses..Land grabbing and torturing.

Listen the game is up..the youth of America see what is going on and don’t like it.

ICC are going to fry Isra Hell..

@Shedonny: Absolute lies

While the names and designations of specific missiles can be a bit confusing, Hamas has a huge inventory of shorter-range systems like the Qassam (up to 10km or 6 miles) and the Quds 101 (up to about 16km); bolstered by the Grad system (up to 55km); and the Sejil 55 (up to 55km). These probably make up the bulk of its inventory and for the shortest ranges can be bolstered by mortar fire.

But Hamas also operates a variety of longer-range systems like the M-75 (up to 75km); the Fajr (up to 100km); the R-160 (up to 120km); and some M-302s which have a range of up to 200km. So it is clear that Hamas has weapons that can target both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and threaten the whole coastal strip which contains the greatest density of Israel’s population and critical infrastructure.
Source BBC website

@Squarepeg01: everywhere is a civilian area in Gaza – why because Israel has them imprisoned in a huge prison.

@Squarepeg01: Isreal is at fault here. It’s leaders have allot to answer for.

@Squarepeg01: are you having a laugh or just trolling?

@Squarepeg01: yeah. Why don’t those pesky Palestinians just live quietly in the mass concentration camp Israel built for them after stealing their lands and homes. Sure didn’t we even give them a lovely new wall, control their water and electricity supplies just in case they get uppity.

@Donal O’Carroll: about time they stopped using kid gloves only one thing terrorists understand…

@Squarepeg01: the IRA didn’t need to
Learn a lesson, they taught unionism and British that only an equitable society with the right to self determination is the only peaceful way forward. That is what the GFA promises. And like the Zionists, elements of unionism and britian are attempting to destroy that also.

@David Bohane: The Zionist Jew manifesto from 1897 calls for the removal of all non jews from their supposed ancestral home. ( Theodore Herzl) and from that moment on they have been on a mission from god to execute their sick vision for the middle east.

@M Bowe: The GFA only came about when the IRA knew they were beaten

@Squarepeg01: rte on prime time incited a one sided view!!

@Squarepeg01: yes they did and they are wrong but exactly how many reached anything … then compare to what Israel is going in return, and how they have been treating them for years.. the difference in conditions? They should know better from their own history. They are both wrong but claiming defence is a joke

@David Bohane: why are they not as deadly at killing citizens as Israeli armaments? Reports of msny falling well short of target – within Gaza – which therefore belies the inference that they have a arsenal of deadly weaponry at their disposal.

@Joe Travers: History post WW2 has proved that if Israel takes a soft approach to those who aspire to wipe them out they will pay dearly . Foot remains firmly on the neck for self protection.

@Brian Lyons: your wrong I’m afraid. There has been an ongoing and systematic campaign to displace Palestinian people by Israel for decades since 1948. Try educating yourself and look at the rate Palestinian lands have shrunk since then. So first thing in the list is generations of oppression directed by Israel towards Palestinian people.

@Jointheclubtoo: call things by their proper names. There is no genocide taking place anywhere in Palestine. If there were we would see significsnt drops in Palestinian population, whereas in fact the opposite is taking place. So either the Israelis are inept at genocide or it’s not taking place and you’re just buying into the lies of the same kinds of organisations that try to convince us that black peopke are oppressed by white supremacists in modern America.

@Squarepeg01: When they are evicting people just because they are Palestinian, that is ethnic cleansing. Isreal has stolen land and only to give it to Settlers (Jewish immigrants) whose claim on the land are suspect at best. Also, this is going through Israeli courts which for Jewrulism is illegal since it is an occupied territory and should go through international courts. Isreal is breaking the law and expecting to get away with it. BTW you ain’t going to sell that zionist shit here in Ireland, we lived under similar circumstances under British rule. We know what oppression looks like, we have over 800 years of history to reference.

@Andy mc Laughlin: sorry correction, systematic oppression carried out by Jewish settlers.

@Daniel Muldoon: there’s the thing – Irish people always make erroneous comparisons with British colonialism in Ireland, which even on their own terms is incorrect. ’800 years’ is just a lazy way of eliding over the complexity of Irish politics over the last few centuries – from Irish and Norman adventurism, to the role of the Reformation in defining communities, the impact of the transition from monarchy to democracy on how the morality of empire was viewed, and lastly the difficulties in fixing the problems following on from the legacy of the Ulster Plantation. But SF team players just want to reduce it to ‘Brits bad, and the Irish are helpless MOPEs’. Well I don’t have a lot of time for people who see themselves as victims and don’t do whay they can to become agents in their own right.

@Andy mc Laughlin: I didn’t say anything about the long history…he is wrong…the airstrikes did not happen before the Hamas rockets…

@Brian Lyons: I think the long history is as relevant and maybe more relevant to the current conflict. At what point in history do you think that the Palestinians should wait so they can have equal rights and not live in fear of being evicted from their homes. Commentators with a limited knowledge of the entire situation that spread disinformation lending support to the American backed IDF are one of the reasons Israel are allowed to bomb these people with impunity. Day to day life for Palestinian people and how they are treated has left them with no choice. Similarities to this can be drawn from Ireland’s recent past where the struggles of the oppressed irish gave way to the uprising in early 1920,s that has given us the freedom of the Republic of Ireland we all enjoy today.

@Charles Coughlan: Excuse me if I’m wrong but the USA are not backing Hamas

@Charles Coughlan: nothing new here ? … except that is not ,by a long shot , the full story . The aspiration, desire , vow to…whatever…wipe Israel from the face of the Earth is the dream of most Arab Nations . So far Israel has upset those plans since the foundation of their state and successful retaliated without hesitation and have assured the Arab world that Jewish people will never again allow themselves to be subject to attempted annihilation .
Only through strength can this be taken seriously , otherwise they would be vanquished long ago.

@Squarepeg01: So who do you work for? The embassy or the IDF???

@Rochelle: You’re down as being on the Journal site for six years and you’re only now noticing that “it’s a very cruel and corrupt world to be a part of”?

@Squarepeg01: both should be able to get along .. no end to no one ffs.. what is wrong with people? Why do people never learn …

@Daniel Muldoon: 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab and have reached positions of prominence in Israel such as members of the judiciary, the Knesset etc. Do the other 80% have Jewish privilege. Yeah, probably. To keep Israel Jewish, it’s probably inavoidable. And the reason Israel needs to be kept mostly Jewish is because if Jews tried to live anywhere else in the ME, they would be killed.

@Squarepeg01: So are you saying not every Israeli citizen are treated equally?

@Brendan Barry: in basic rights, yes. In some areas, eg property rights, probably not. Israel is not in Europe. It can’t afford to blind itself to certain realities. It needs to stay majority Jewish or its Jewish population risks being destroyed.

@Squarepeg01: So it’s not a democracy and discriminated against its minority is that it?

@Brendan Barry: is every irish citizen treated equally in Ireland!!

@Squarepeg01: Good God peggy, read over that comment again. You make the same arguments as the crazy far right Jewish zealots.

@Victor Feldman: yes, to the best of my knowledge, please inform me of any injustices

@Victor Feldman: if you want to organise a March against equality in Ireland let me know. In the meantime the Apartheid Israeli government have been found out and confirmed by their own https://www.btselem.org/

@Dave O’Keeffe: I’ve seen and yes tragic but hamas fire rockets from civilian positions or bring them in as Human shields for propaganda purposes. They fire well over 1000 rockets in just over a day. It’s not Israels fault they use technology to knock them out of the sky. Very impressive that iron Dome. No doubt saved many innocent lives. Hamas thought with their build up they could over saturate the system and kill many innocents, they were wrong on that count and losing many of their leaders. No a bad thing. Just pity civilians in Gaza die with those monsters

@Tom Ripley: ‘hamas thought they could kill many innocents’, Israel knew they would kill many more innocents, including children and did it anyway. In years there will be monuments of remembrance for the Palestinians who suffered under the genocidal Israelis.

@BradysASAccount: I’m sure their will be monuments to those that died. Absolutely correct. However it won’t be about non existent Israeli genocide it will be like Omagh those that died as a result of terrorism and religious fanaticism.

@Tom Ripley: who interrupted a religious ceremony? Who systematically discriminates a different religion and evicts and has evicted members of said religion to plant members of their own

@Bill Bob:
Jerusalem is not part of Israel according to international law, so how can it be its biggest city?
That is why the Irish embassy, as well as those of the other EU countries, are in tel aviv.

@Shedonny: what are you talk about ?Jerusalem is a city in Israel!

@Bill Bob: Trumps peace plan encouraged Israel to increase evictions and expand settlements…. The only peace was for the Israelis, peace to do whatever they wanted

@Bill Bob: “Jerusalem is a city in Israel!” – only because 1/2 was captured in 1948 – the West Jerusalem, and and the other half, East Jerusalem, in 1967 was annexed by Israel.

For what it is worth Wikipedia says “The international community rejects the annexation as illegal and treats East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel”

Sadly the history of this conflict goes back to 1948 when the British Mandate of Palestine ended and the UN proposed a division of Palestine into Arab and Jewish States – that ended up in Civil war (sounds familiar) and continuous land grabs since.

It is hard to see a long term solution that is going to meet everyone’s needs outside of the creation of a secular state along the lines of the old Mandatory Palestine ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine)

Even before the 2nd world war the UK were trying partitioning “In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed a partition between a small Jewish state, whose Arab population would have to be transferred, and an Arab state to be attached to Jordan.” Whereas one of the Jewish leaders ” Ben-Gurion explained that partition would be a first step to “possession of the land as a whole”".

Nothing is ever simple and sadly people are loosing lives

@Daniel Muldoon: yes, Israel would probably do that if it could. It would also take over Judea- Samaria if it could get away with it. These are human beings we’re talking about not angels. But here’s a thought: one good way for the Palesrinians to stop further encroachment on ‘their land’ would be for them to agree to the by now mythical 2 state solution. There would be inevitable sacrifices and land swaps on both sides but there would be hard borders and the Israelis would be gone from Area A for good.

@Squarepeg01: Absolute bullsh#t. The Israeli authorities need to be put on trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity – ethnic cleansing and apartheid. As confirmed by numerous human rights organizations.

@William Bryan: And they will too, believe me

@William Bryan: And that… is the reason Israel stays strong … best form of defence etc… Arab war on Israel ended with Arab nations licking their wounds … as a normal person would say … they won’t try that again… but they did and they will do and Israel will show again and again that it is not for annihilation … ever .

@Cookie: no they are not. They are under the control of the democratically elected civilian govt, and respond as appropriate to acts of aggression on Israel. Hamas, on the other hand, were elected once in 2006 and haven’t given up power since. They routinely fire rockets into civilian areas in Israel and murder in the most gruesome fashion their own citizens who disagree with their policies as we saw in the 2014 conflict, when the bodies of so-called traitors were dragged behind motorbikes. A recent Hamas controlled court in Gaza ruled that women require the permission of a male guardian to travel, so there’s also their awful treatment of women to consider. That’s the side you’re pinning your flag to, but you go girl.

@Squarepeg01: First off, Hamas are bad. I think you can agree with that. A question though, do you have anything to say about the IDF killing children? I know Hamas use civilians as a shield. What do you think of Israel for shooting through that shield?

@Bill Spill: I don’t know the answer to that question. If it were up to me, I don’t think I could destroy those buildings. But that doesn’t make me more moral. Possibly, it just makes me weak. And since I don’t have anything at stake like the Israelis do – my family, my fellow citizens, my very country – I don’t have to make that call. Nor do I judge too harshly those who have been forced into a position where they did have to make that call by rational agents who had a choice on the course of action they took in response to the evictions in Jerusalem.

@Squarepeg01: It’s not weak to not kill children.

@Bill Spill: they weren’t trying to kill children.

@Cookie: team Israel here. ניצחון

@Cookie: right there with you !

@Tom Ripley: Troll your support elsewhere

@Ciarán FitzGerald: On a par with ISIS and Ak Quade

@Squarepeg01: They killed a lot of children. I don’t accept your ‘oops’ on their behalf. But you SURE are on their behalf, eh?

@Cookie: So you support Iranian backed Islamist fundamentalists

@Charmaine ☘ Irish: that’s insulting to tools!

@Squarepeg01: So this excuses the deracination and repression of Palestinians?