War Handwavium

So, the US House of Representatives, morons of history that they are, voted 344 to 36 to oppose the Goldstone report.

“The report was not written to talk about 12,000 rockets intentionally sent by Hamas to slaughter Israeli men, women and children, versus the Israelis trying in many respects to minimise the damage to Palestinian civilians,” Steven Rothman, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, told Al Jazeera.

Dude, there have been twelve thousand rockets only if you count all the rockets that have been launched since 2001.

And there was a cease-fire back in June of 2008, and all the rockets stopped. For several months, July 2008 to October 2008, rocket fire had come to an end.

ANd then Israel went and violated the cease fire. In November of 2008, Israel sent commandos into Palestinian territory and killed six Palestinians.

Israel had agreed to a ceasefire in June and then Israel invaded Palestinian land and killed Palestinians in November. That’s not how you follow a ceasefire.

Hamas rockets resumed after the cease fire violation in November.

Israel then launched Operation Cast Lead in December of 2008.

What moron quotes “12,000 rockets” without looking at the actual history? What moron counts 12,000 rockets launched prior to a cease fire agreement, ignores the months that Palestinians honored the cease fire, and ignores Israel violating the cease fire agreement?

Only a moron in public office in America, apparently.

And more importantly, the Goldstone report is a report on Operation Cast Lead. Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza. That military operation must follow international law. Just because someone launched a rocket from Gaza back in 2001, doesn’t mean Israel is justified in killing an unarmed woman and her child in 2009. It is still a war crime to kill civilians like that.

And that’s what the Goldstone report says, that Israel’s operations during Operation Cast Lead violated the rules of war, that Israel used the war to inflict collective punishment on the Palestinians, rather than launching the war to stop rockets.

If Israel wanted to stop the rockets, it shouldn’t have violated the cease fire that had been successful for the previous months. If Israel wanted the rockets to stop, it shouldn’t have launched a war and killed hundreds, possibly a thousand, civilians.

DUring Operation Cast Lead, some Palestinian militants fired rockets back into Israel. A total of 17 Israelis were killed during that same time period. During that same time period, Israel killed 1400 people, about 800 or so were civilians.

So, if the Honorable Moron Steven Rothman from New Jersey wants to quote 12,000 rockets spanning all the way back to 2001, then by all means, lets do a side-by-side comparison of all the Palestinians that Israel has killed since 2001.

I can assure you that every step of the way, more Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israelis, than Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinians.

Only a moron would compare apples to oranges, only a moron would take a three week invasion Operation Cast Lead and compare it to the last ten years of Palestinian militants.

A moron, or someone who doesn’t like the truth.

more details about the Israeli cease fire violation here:

http://www.warhw.com/2009/01/06/israeli-ceasefire-violation-november-2008/

article about the House vote here:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/11/200911320434191455.html