Tadpol, you are bigoted stupid and evil. 

Doctors have a duty of care to their patients that supersedes everything else. Hence, for example, doctors can prescribe the pill to teenage girls without her parents knowledge or consent.

No, there are a whole world of possibilities in between doing nothing and killing civilians.


If Israel did not punish the Palestinians there would be a peaceful place called Israel now, as well as a peaceful place called Palestine.

So is it your belief that in a democracy civilians are a legitimate target for military operations? If we were to apply that across the board it would also justify 9/11.

Also, Realityman, I have read over some of your earlier posts (which, I must admit, I skimmed first-time round).

Firstly, there is no evidence that Hamas have actually violated the ceasefire. Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade have fired rockets, but not Hamas. Hamas has so far stuck to its word, unless you are suggesting that it was really them firing the rockets. But you would need evidence to back up such a claim, rather than just innuendo.

Secondly, Hamas cannot be expected to confront (with force, presumably) other militant groups who are on their side. That is simply not a realistic demand.

Thirdly, one passage from one of your quotes says:

“Also on Tuesday, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic-language daily, quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying that if the smuggling of weapons into Gaza does not cease, Israel will consider the cease-fire agreement violated, and will be forced to respond militarily. Hamas has said it will not stop smuggling weapons.”

Here, Israel is the one threatening to end the ceasefire. Presumably, Isreal is free to continue importing arms while Hamas must stop smuggling bottle rockets (or whatever it is they are using now) – hardly a fair or reasonable demand.

This passage, from another report, is also interesting. I note that it wasn't one of the bolded passages:

“Since the Hamas takeover, more than 400 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and seven Israelis have been killed in tit-for-tat fighting....“

This too is interesting: “in a text message sent to reporters, [the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade] said "the truce must include the West Bank and all sorts of aggression must stop",“ which sounds reasonable enough to me, even though I deplore the way they highlighted the demand.

Also, to suggest that the bulldozer incident is a terrorist attack is highly disingenuous. We had a rather similar incident in Irealnd with a bus not so long ago – one woman was killed – but it was not a terrorist incident. In fact there is no evidence to connect the bulldozer driver with terrorism. Since he was executed on the spot by Israeli police we will never know.

Finally, I have seen no reports about whether or not any negotiations are taking /have taken place. Are they? If not, why not?

An occupation would be OK in the short term if Israel could do it without murdering a bunch of innocent people. But they have never done that and have no intention of doing so. Israel punishes the Palestinians for voting for Hamas, and everyone knows it.

Agreed.

It won't happen, unless they discover oil in Zimbabwe.

The problem is that Mugabe's death would not necessarily bring an end to the junta. His Zanu-PF party is the only armed group in the country and I can't see them giving up power and return to democracy. The best chance of that would be if there was a power struggle within the junta.

An alternative to military intervention might be for the west to arm the opposition to Zanu-PF and allow them to sort it out for themselves.

Military intervention is the only solution. Sanctions cannot work since Mugabe doesn't care about his people.

It's big news over here (in Ireland).

For most people, the threat of prison is enough of a deterrent. Those for whom it isn't usually don't consider the possibility of getting caught, or don't care because their urges are too strong (there are treatments for this). Thus, the death penalty is no more of a deterrent than a lengthy prison sentence.

Countries that don't have state murder of criminals also have low crime rates. There is no deterrent effect of capital punishment whatsoever.

There's no need to be triumphalist.

I wonder how long it will be before this is trashed.

Ok, here's a question: from a Mormon point of view, what precisely is wrong with polygamy?

The answer to what?