Mycroft:
"So I take it that you buy the Hamas line that these two were just sitting around minding their own business when big bad Israel came along and arrested them for no reason?"
Who said they arrested them for "no reason"?
Israel takes hostages too. That isn't the "Hamas line", it's a matter of stone cold fact.
Taking hostages isn't "no reason", is a very compelling reason for them to kidnap these two individuals. Israel have done so repeatedly and often make prisoner exchanges on that basis:
http://www.counterpunch.org/assad07142006.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3426503.stm
The vicious little settler state has a long history of kidnappings as one Israeli refusenik testifies (as there was in Lebanon until they were booted out). They often use these kidnappings as bargaining chips to get what they want.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/677/677p9b.htm
If it isn't the return of captured soldiers, it is the further tailoring of national Palestinian politics to Israeli ends.
Now, of course they will be described as "terrorists", but this is no more and no less the case for practically every Palestinian in any Palestinian political group in existence, because all have had to fight Israeli aggression at one time or another. They can always claim that the people kidnapped were terrorists simply by virtue of what party they belong to.
This isn't a matter of believing the "Hamas line", I repeat, it is a matter of understanding Israeli policy. Of course you can believe what you like, but what proof have Israel ever presented that these men are guilty of anything? Where is their court case? Why are thousands of Palestinians held as "administrative detainees" with no trial, no evidence, nothing? Why should I (or you for that matter), automatically accept their guilt when Israel have done nothing to demonstrate it?
"So I take it that you buy the Hamas line that these two were just sitting around minding their own business when big bad Israel came along and arrested them for no reason?"
Who said they arrested them for "no reason"?
Israel takes hostages too. That isn't the "Hamas line", it's a matter of stone cold fact.
Taking hostages isn't "no reason", is a very compelling reason for them to kidnap these two individuals. Israel have done so repeatedly and often make prisoner exchanges on that basis:
http://www.counterpunch.org/assad07142006.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3426503.stm
The vicious little settler state has a long history of kidnappings as one Israeli refusenik testifies (as there was in Lebanon until they were booted out). They often use these kidnappings as bargaining chips to get what they want.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/677/677p9b.htm
If it isn't the return of captured soldiers, it is the further tailoring of national Palestinian politics to Israeli ends.
Now, of course they will be described as "terrorists", but this is no more and no less the case for practically every Palestinian in any Palestinian political group in existence, because all have had to fight Israeli aggression at one time or another. They can always claim that the people kidnapped were terrorists simply by virtue of what party they belong to.
This isn't a matter of believing the "Hamas line", I repeat, it is a matter of understanding Israeli policy. Of course you can believe what you like, but what proof have Israel ever presented that these men are guilty of anything? Where is their court case? Why are thousands of Palestinians held as "administrative detainees" with no trial, no evidence, nothing? Why should I (or you for that matter), automatically accept their guilt when Israel have done nothing to demonstrate it?
