Please show what is propaganda. Feel free to analyze and report on each point made in that article. I won't hold my breath.
I'll do it.
"Israeli citizens have been under the threat of daily attack from Gaza for years."
Palestinians have been under harsh Israeli occupation for 60 years
The old two wrongs make a right fallacy, apparently in the eyes of this guy any sort of occupation (and I won't argue the validity of his claim concerning occupations) is immediate justification for Hamas to target Israeli civilians, use children as human shields, and set up artillery near UN safety zones, schools, and hospitals knowing the IDF will be forced to retaliate. Anything for the resistance right?
"Only this week hundreds of missiles and mortars shells were fired at Israeli civilian communities."
Only one in 500 Qassam rockets causes a fatality. How many thousands of Israeli bombs, missiles, rockets, grenades and tank-shells have been blasted into the crowded city and towns of the Gaza Strip by Israel’s high-tech weaponry?
He ignores the point that missiles and mortar shells
are being fired into Israel and usually at civilians and instead goes on to basically say "well the death-toll isn't equal so it isn't justified". And sadly this is an argument I see alot from the anti-Israeli, pro-Hamas groups. Apparently they think war needs to be nice and symmetrical and Israel should only seek to kill an equal number of people that Hamas kills each day. Which is a, frankly, insipid idea especially when you consider that Hamas really doesn't give a crap about their citizens.
Futhermore, Israel does typically have more high-tech weaponry which usually is a given that it will at least be
more accurate. Hamas is firing indirect weapons indiscriminately anywhere they can, usually deliberately targetting civilians. This tells me that Hamas doesn't care if they hit an Israeli patrol or an orphanage, a dead Jew is a dead Jew to them.
"Until now we have shown restraint. But today there is no other option than a military operation."
The only legitimate option for Israel is to end the occupation and withdraw behind its 1967 border, as required under international law and UN resolution. Israel has been killing Palestinians at the rate of 8 to 1 since 2000, and children at the rate of nearly 12 to 1 (B’Tselem figures). This is somebody’s idea of restraint?
Israel has made territorial concessions to nations who have agreed to peace. Since 1967 they've withdrawn from both the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Evidently this man believes that these problems can be solved overnight, as if there weren't any issues until after Israel claimed these territories. I don't trust B'Tselem's figures for that matter, something about including combantants in with civilian causualties seems off with me. Their figures including minors killed by Israelis also doesn't factor in enemy combantants using those children as shields. I suspect their numbers would be much lower if they stopped including children forced to be human shields and would also cease referring to armed enemy conbatants as civilians just because they were never given the opportunity to fire their weapons.
"We need to protect our citizens from attack through a military response against the terror infrastructure in Gaza."
Self defence is not a right exclusive to Israel. Palestinians have an equal right to protect their citizens from the terror tactics of Israel.
There is no evidence that the Israeli government engages in terrorism against the Palestinians, and if there is e did not cite any. There is a wealth of evidence, however, suggesting that Hamas engages in terrorism or in the least permits terrorism against Israel.
"Israel left Gaza in order to create an opportunity for peace."
Israel never left Gaza. It still occupies Gaza's airspace and coastal waters and controls all entrances and exits.
Sounds like standard procedure for leaving a previously hostile area known for its terrorist acts.
"In return, the Hamas terror organization took control of Gaza and is using its citizens as cover while it deliberately targets Israeli communities and denies any chance for peace."
Hamas was voted into power as the legitimate government of Palestine. Israel chose not to accept the people's choice, which amounted to a denial of their human rights, and immediately set about obliterating it.
This is a red herring and a blatant lie. Earlier he admitted Hamas was firing rockets into Israel and now he is pretending otherwise so claiming this is simply because Israel dislikes the government voted in power doesn't follow. This also ignores the perfectly legitimate point that Hamas
is using its own civilians as cover!
"We have tried everything to reach calm without using force. We agreed to a truce through Egypt that was violated by Hamas, which continued to target Israel, hold Gilad Shalit and build up its arms."
Try talking. The Israelis' ongoing siege and economic blockade, begun shortly after Hamas was elected early in 2006, was never going to generate calm. And why is Shalit considered more important than the 9,000 Palestinians abducted and held prisoner by Israel? As soon as a Hamas government was formed Israeli troops arrested 8 Hamas ministers and 20 other parliamentarians, making the work of government impossible.
This begs the question why did Israel do those things? This is dishonest reporting and clearly being spun to make the Israelis look as bad as possible by oversimplifying the issues and painting everything as black and white.
"Israel continues to act to prevent humanitarian crisis and to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians."
Every agency operating in Gaza has warned of the deepening humanitarian crisis and protested about the starvation and suffering, especially of children many of whom show evidence of stunted growth.
There is a simple solution to this, stop mortar and missile attacks into Israel and agree to peace talks. Israel isn't going to agree to anything so long as Hamas is launching rockets into Israel, and as much as I hate to say it Gaza brought this on themselves when they voted for war.
"The responsibility for harm to civilians lies with Hamas."
Not according to the Fourth Geneva Convention
I'm pretty sure the Geneva Convention also mentions using children as shields, I think they would have frowned upon that. This is too broad a statement to really respond to anyways.
"Hamas is a terrorist organization, supported by Iran, that does not represent the legitimate national interests of the Palestinian people but a radical Islamist agenda that seeks to deny peace for the peoples of this region."
Hamas was the popular choice of Palestinians at the last election. It is entitled under international law to take up arms against an illegal occupier and invader. If it is supported by Iran, so what? Israel receives mega-support from the US. When it comes to terror, it is Israel's conduct which fits the US definition of terrorism so perfectly - see Bush's Executive Order 13224, Section 3 -http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/terror/terror.pdf
This guy has a problem with vague statements. Apparently he seems to think democracy is a magic shield against terrorism and because Hamas was democratically elected it could not possibly be a terrorist group. As if people can't vote for terrorism. They have every right to take up arms against invaders, they don't have a right to fire on civilians or take children as shields.
I'll have to cut this short as I don't have enough time right now to comment on every part of the article.
