8 Children Killed in Israeli Attack

[Rogan Josh]

In a successful bid to kill a Hamas terrorist, the Israeli military has targetted a Palestinian block of flats from the air.

15 people were killed including 8 children.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, congratulated his forces on the air strike, which he described as "a great success".

When interviewed on the news this morning an Israeli govt spokesman said that they had no idea that there would be Palestinian civilians in an apartment block in the middle of the night....

Do any of you think that this was justified?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2145267.stm

[BeBMan]

Hey, my thread was the first!

[Rogan Josh]

Yeah, sorry - I think we must have crosss-posted.

[Dominikos]

Fighting terror with terror is no way to move forward in resolving the conflict in the Middle East.

You don't fight for peace. You peace for peace!

------------------
~Dominik - Lord of the Putumayo~

[Urban Ranger]

Of course this is not justified. To me this is simply terrorist attack, regardless who carried it out.

[Sirotnikov]

Hey Gnu himself said that as long as one targets militants it's ok if civilians get in the way. Only he said it about the Israelis.

Anyhoo this is sad.

[Sirotnikov]

The militant Palestinian group Hamas has confirmed that the leader of its military wing has been killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential building in Gaza City.

Sheikh Salah Shahada was among at least 15 people killed, including eight children, in the missile attack.

That's the target.

At least we target terrorists.

[Roland]

"At least we target terrorists."

Is it ok for Palestinians then to target extreme right Israeli politicians like a certain (IIRC tourism) minster ?

[Shiber]

Re: 8 Children Killed in Israeli Attack

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
When interviewed on the news this morning an Israeli govt spokesman said that they had no idea that there would be Palestinian civilians in an apartment block in the middle of the night....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2145267.stm

The Israeli govt. Spokesman is a moron. Really. And this is all because such nominations are made of political reasons rather than professional reasons.

As for Sharon congratulating the attack, I'm sure he said that before the news of the unnecessary casualties came to his knowledge. He's not a heartless murderer, despite what the Pals may tell you. Yes, he may be brute sometimes but he's not a cold-blooded killer.

P.S. Just to set things straight I'm a moderate left-wing and I'd rather see the head of the Israeli Labor party in the prime minister's office than Ariel Sharon.

[Roland]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Tuesday that the IAF air strike which killed the head of the Hamas's military wing overnight Tuesday was a "great success" but expressed regret over the deaths of 14 other Palestinians in the attack, while the United Nations and European Union condemned the strike.

"We of course have no interest in striking civilians and are always sorry over civilians who were struck," Sharon told cabinet ministers at a government meeting on the economy.

"But this operation, in my view, is one of the great successes and of course demands that we will all be on full alert (against further attacks by Hamas). We cannot reach any compromise with terror, terror must be fought."

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=189886&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0

So in short: We don't strike at civilians, but if the die who cares.

[Kropotkin]

Well, Palestinians are not real people anyway in the eyes of the Israeli goverment.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by Roland
"At least we target terrorists."

Is it ok for Palestinians then to target extreme right Israeli politicians like a certain (IIRC tourism) minster ?

No, because they are politicians, not militants. They may make horrible racists remarks but after all, it's a free country. AFAIK they're not members of any militant groups* nor do they intentionally incite violent riots like the arab Knesset (Israeli Parliament) members do.

Israel doesn't hurt Palestinian politicians as well, as long as they stick to politics.

* We had a group called Kah which desired Knesset representation but was disqualified from the Knesset by the high court of justice because they were carrying out undemocratic acts (I don't know much of the details but I think they were involved in terror acts against Israeli arabs). Other than that there are no right-wing parties which could be proven to be linked with terror in Israel that I know of.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
Well, Palestinians are not real people anyway in the eyes of the Israeli goverment.

IMHO what you are saying is unacceptable. Please back up your arguments instead of throwing racist remarks and flamebait at people.

[Kropotkin]

No, I've yet to see anyone of the Israeli goverment show remorse for the suffering of innocent palestinians in their anti-terrorist operations. If you think that's racist that's your little problem.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Of course this is not justified. To me this is simply terrorist attack, regardless who carried it out.

I wouldn't call this a terrorist attack. Terrorist attacks are meant to strike fear and terror into the hearts of civilians, while this operation was not meant to do so. Though you could argue that Israeli air strikes do strike terror in the hearts of Palestinians, this is not the real goal of those missions.
You can however say that this air strike was illegitimate because it killed innocent bystanders (which I would completely agree with you on), or because Israel has no right to kill Palestinian terrorist leaders (which I won't), but stick to proper terminology and don't call this operation an act of terror.