So why exactly is Israeli slaughtering protesters?

[Kuciwalker]

An Israel Defense Forces investigation into the violent clashes on the border with Israel revealed on Monday that troops had been limited in their use of sniper fire, only firing a few live bullets at the protesters trying to breach the border.

[Dinner]

To compare yesterday the Syrian government killed around ~35 unarmed protesters which adds to weeks of killing of unarmed civilians with an unknown number dead but probably at least several hundred if not a thousand people killed. Why no thread on that? Oh, but we do have a thread for Israel, right?

[loinburger]

You want us to give Israel the same treatment as we give to a repressive dictatorship? Fine with me, let's cut all funding to Israel and while we're at it let's stop treating it as though it were a democracy. Then the headline will read "Another Middle Eastern dictatorship has no respect for human life (good thing we're not supporting them, right?)."

[Jon Miller]

But it is a democracy, for citizens of Israel.

I am not saying that Israel is right in this situation.

But you and others are really being completely unreasonable in this thread, Loin.

Which makes me less and less upset when Israel is in the wrong.

JM

[Jon Miller]

I would say, for example, that the US is a democracy which acts in a worse manner..

JM

[Dinner]

You want us to give Israel the same treatment as we give to a repressive dictatorship? Fine with me, let's cut all funding to Israel and while we're at it let's stop treating it as though it were a democracy. Then the headline will read "Another Middle Eastern dictatorship has no respect for human life (good thing we're not supporting them, right?)."

No, but I'm comparing how hundreds if not a thousand get killed in outrageous situations and we don't even get a thread about it here but a couple of folks act like complete ********* and suddenly some people want to rake Israel over the coals. Seems a double standard to me.

[loinburger]

But it is a democracy, for citizens of Israel.

Of course it is, which is why it's disgusting when they kill unarmed civilians and are then defended by apolyton's Israel lobby. When Syria kills people for no good reason all we can do is roll our eyes, because short of a bloody uprising the citizens of Syria have little say in their government's atrocities. When Israel kills people for no good reason we can ask why we're supporting them and why their citizens tacitly or overtly support the regime in power.

[loinburger]

No, but I'm comparing how hundreds if not a thousand get killed in outrageous situations and we don't even get a thread about it here but a couple of folks act like complete ********* and suddenly some people want to rake Israel over the coals. Seems a double standard to me.

It is a double standard - we expect democracies to behave reasonably, but we have diminished expectations for dictatorships.

[loinburger]

I would say, for example, that the US is a democracy which acts in a worse manner..

And we start threads about the US when they do something stupid/evil. We don't for example say "why are you starting a thread on how the US uses 'enhanced interrogation'? China does the same thing!!!"

[Dinner]

It is a double standard - we expect democracies to behave reasonably, but we have diminished expectations for dictatorships.

That's all well an good but that's not really what we're talking about. I'm talking about Israel takes some pretty reasonable and restrained actions yet some folks here jump all over them while Syria kills hundreds to thousands and not even a thread. Israel protecting it's borders hardly seems worthy of condemnation to me since the offenders were being complete ********* yet orders of magnitude worse done by neighbors doesn't fire anyone up? Even if we assume we expect less from dictatorships we're seeing WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY worse, not just a little worse, out of Syria and Libya and no one seems to care. Even with diminished expectations surely there is some point at which outrage kicks in? Meanwhile the outrage against Israel is on a hair trigger; so much so we're talking much more of a double standard then simply diminished expectations for dictatorships.

[ZEE]

.

[loinburger]

What's also at issue is personal culpability. My taxes are going to support Israel's actions, but they're not going to support Syria's actions. They're going to support 'enhanced interrogation' in the US, but not in China. So the scale is not all that relevant - when Syria hits Serb or Rwandan proportions then I'll start asking why the UN doesn't intervene, but until then the cure is worse than the symptom (as we've found in the intervention in Iraq); likewise until China starts hobbling prisoners there's not a lot that can be done about their 'enhanced interrogations.' But when Israel kills a few dozen people or firebombs a few villages, or when the US waterboards a few hundred prisoners, I ask why I'm being made to tacitly support these actions, and what can be done to eliminate that support.

[giblets]

Not true. Citizens get to vote and Arabs make up 20%-30% of Israeli citizens. The West Bank and Gaza have never been part of Israel and they have their own Palestinian Authority which runs it's own elections or rather did until Hamas executed everyone who was politically active in Gaza who didn't support them. Read up on it, they were literally throwing Palestinians off of roof tops, dragging them behind cars, or simply executing Palestinians who didn't support Hamas. That's a Palestinian problem not an Israeli problem since Israel pulled out of Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority doesn't actually exercise sovereignty, or else the israeli settlements in the west bank wouldn't have been expanding for the last several decades. Do the palestinians have any say over what israel does with the west bank? No. **** you with your "read up on it" crap.

[Hauldren Collider]

The PA exercises substantial sovereignty. It doesn't exercise full sovereignty, but the people in Palestine have probably about as much sovereignty as the people of Guam or even Puerto Rico.

[Docfeelgood]

Of course it is, which is why it's disgusting when they kill unarmed civilians and are then defended by apolyton's Israel lobby. When Syria kills people for no good reason all we can do is roll our eyes, because short of a bloody uprising the citizens of Syria have little say in their government's atrocities. When Israel kills people for no good reason we can ask why we're supporting them and why their citizens tacitly or overtly support the regime in power.

Don't you get it? are people just like you, so full of political correctness they can't just come out and say it?
Nobody gives a fuk about those desert animals.