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Palestinians blow hole in border wall... to go shopping.
I know that this is off topic for Hacker News, but it was just too weird to let it pass.
- iamelgringo 19y agoI know this is off topic for Hacker News, but it was just too weird to pass up without sharing.
- mynameishere 19y agoI could never understand Israel with respect to Gaza. The closest I could come up with--Israel increases the pressure on Gaza to the near-breaking point, only to suddenly withdraw. At that point, they make a slight and subtle but meaningful advance on the West Bank. The West Bank, unlike Gaza, is economically and strategically valuable. But still...does it really take a blockade to do this?
- curi 19y agoIsrael's policy hasn't been entirely consistent in its aims. There are rival political forces which disagree. Just like US policies sometimes change after elections. But Israel has other factors making it difficult to be consistent, too. Specifically, variable international pressure, and inconsistent support from the US. The heart of the problem, which makes a policy difficult to agree on, is that on the one hand Israel ought to defend itself vigorously enough that zero innocent Israelis are killed by violent thugs. And on the other, Israel is under massive pressure not to do that, and not even the US will support Israel in defending its citizens enough to keep all of them alive.
- jorgeortiz85 19y agoZero innocent Israeli civilians killed is obviously a noble goal. But not at the expense of N>0 innocent Palestinian civilians killed.
- curi 19y agoSo suppose a criminal breaks into your house. And he's got a knife, and you're frail, so you better shoot him. Add more details if you want, so it's clearly justified self defense. Now add a reason that doing this kills the criminal's innocent son. He left his son tied up at home, and was planning to untie the kid when he returned, but he never got home, and the kid wasn't found in time and starved to death. Or the man actually was a good father, but he and his son were involved in a dangerous project, and he would have been fine, but now without his father's help, he is killed. So, defending yourself caused an innocent to die. But it wasn't wrong of you to do that. The fault lies with the criminal. He is responsible for getting himself shot by breaking into your house and trying to rob and murder you. And because getting himself shot is his responsibility, so are the consequences. He got his own son killed, not you. Agree so far?
- sgoraya 19y agoQuite possibly the stupidest argument ever made More innocent Palestinian children have died than all of the Israeli casualites put together Agreed? (If not, do a quick google search and you can compare #'s across several human rights groups)
- curi 19y agoYes, that is a fact. But, do you agree that morality is not a matter of counting dead people, and then declaring the bigger victim is in the right?
- sgoraya 19y agoVery much agreed - The nature of the conflict is such that both sides have legitimate arguments I suppose, but in my opinion, the IDF's actions border on war crimes - As a kid watching TV news many many years ago, an indelible image was left with me: A kid with a rock VS. a tank Anyhoo, back to hacking!!
- 19y ago
- Mistone 19y agoan oddly titled article - its amazing to me that there is international political pressure to quickly re-contain / restrict a group of people in need of basic food, supplies, and services.
- curi 19y agoI agree -- the international community should decisively deal with the problem of violent thugs in control of the Gaza Strip, and be done with it, rather than letting everyone involved suffer slowly, and then having to deal with it decisively at some later date.