I am Groot

This is like saying "I fully support the allies in their war against the Nazis, but I can't support their killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians" The sad fact is you cannot fight a war and not kill civilians. Particularly an urban war in a crowded, built up area. And you know that they do this becaaaaauuuuse....? Because Hamas says so? I don't think Hamas is a very reliable source. Nor anything affiliated with them. Indiscriminate? I don't think Israel is indiscriminately bombing anything. All their bombs are targeted at their enemies. Since Hamas deliberately locates itself in and next to hospitals, schools and mosques the Israelis have little choice. And they HAVE sent people in directly to fight Hamas. You have seen the videos, I'm sure. And why shouldn't they avoid their own casualties even if it means more deaths of enemy populations? The West has done so in every war. We certainly did it in WW2 and Korea and Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia certainly does so in Ukraine.

But Islam contains an entire political structure governing criminal and family law, how governments must operate, etc. As such, it is as much a political ideology as a religion.

You're right. There are 916 holders of the Nobel prize. 216 Are Jews. Not bad for a group that makes up 0.2% of the world population. On the other hand, 24% of the world's population is Muslim and a whopping 16 Muslims have won the Nobel. Anyone calling for a ceasefire is supporting them. You don't care about a bunch of Muslims killed in a war. Tons more have been killed right next door in Syria. I did a quick search to find your posts bemoaning the deaths of people in Syria and what did I find? I find you defending the Syrian regime doing the bombing!

I'm not a Trump supporter, dummy. I'm also not an open-border supporter. I do not want more impoverished people coming here we have to support with our limited tax dollars and put up in our limited housing and provide medical care to with our limited healthcare.

Canada is, at the moment, bound by its signature on international treaties to give a hearing to anyone who comes here and says the magic word: asylum. These treaties are incorporated into our law and will be enforced the Supreme Court. BUT... they were signed back in a larger world, where a refugee was someone who escaped from behind the Iron Curtain, or defected from a foreign embassy, or perhaps some people being hunted down by some tyrannical government due to their religion or political affiliation or ethnicity. There weren't all that many. But now the world is small. And everyone in the third world has a cell phone and internet and can see how much life is better up north. Now people come here as economic migrants, but all they have to do is say the magic word and we have to let them in. And they stay. Under Trudeau, we have an 85% acceptance rate for anyone applying for asylum. He and his government have expanded the definition of the term to the point where almost anyone qualifies or can qualify by lying. If you say you're gay or bisexual, for example, and are from any of a hundred or more countries, including any Muslim country, you can stay. Needless to say we can do nothing to verify the claim. You don't have to have any documented evidence of persecution, either. Just your word will do. I mean, we granted refugee status to a pair of Japanese lesbians. Not because they faced persecution by the government but because they were discriminated against in Japan. Given this, the numbers have climbed from 15k when Trudeau took over to almost 250k last year. It may surpass 300k this year. All of these people, or 99% will stay. Even the ones we turn down will mostly stay as we have no ability to find and remove them. Enter Trump, stage Right. It takes 44 months to get through refugee claims now and reach a decision. What happens if Trump actively tries to deport the estimated 11 million illegals in the US? How many will come north? Lots, likely. There's also 500,000 Haitians in the US legally on protected status. Trump has said he will remove that, which he will. How many will come to Canada? What do we do when the time to process a refugee claim claims to 5 years? 6 years? 8 years? And while here they put down roots, get married and have kids. Now we can't deport them. Do we want the already far too high 250k to become 500k? 750k? The whole asylum system desperately needs to be reformed, the criteria drastically shrunk, and the process sped up. And then we need detention facilities for those who apply. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ministers-urged-to-explain-how-they-will-prevent-a-surge-in-asylum/

No. The UN is not the League of Nations. The UN is an antisemtic organization. There are 50 Muslim states in the UN, one-quarter of their membership. Some of them are oil-rich, and slip what to them is less than pocket change to the poorer countries to vote their way on anti-Israel resolutions. You think Peru or Guatemala or Gambia give a damn about the middle east? They'll easily take the money! And by the way, I bet the UN hasn't made a similar resolution demanding Arab states compensate the 800k Jews forced out of their countries in 1948 who went to Israel.

The way the West let its military forces deteriorate after the Soviets broke up does not leave a lot of weapons ready to be shipped off the anyone. We all know what shape Canada's military is in, but most of Europe has been in roughly the same shape.. Europe, excluding Turkey, could not stave off a Russian attack without US help. They have few ground forces, and their stocks of artillery, tank shells and missiles are very low. Canada has almost none. All of them have put in big orders but it takes years to start getting supplies. All the arms companies are building new factories and putting on new shifts at existing ones but it takes time. More to the point, Israel's military and its stockpiles are better than anyone in Europe has. It's that basic. The only ones who can give them anything they want are the Americans.

What the Arabs never mention is some 800,000 Jews were forced out of surrounding Arab countries around that time, too. Israel took them all in and gave them citizenship. The Arab states refused to take in the Palestinians who were their co-religionists, who had the same language, history, culture, values and ethnicity as they do. Mostly it was because they loaned money to the leaders who then didn't want to pay it back.

Since 1966, thirteen Israelis have been awarded the Nobel Prize, the most honorable award in various fields including chemistry, economics, literature and peace. Israel has more Nobel Prizes per capita than Germany, the United States and France. It has more laureates, in real numbers, than India, China and Spain. Your friends in Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran have tried to 'shut them down' and that hasn't worked out to well. You going to volunteer to go have a try? In a war between civilization and barbarism, I always choose civilization. I don't need some propaganda campaign to convince me of what is right. I don't have any difficulty recognizing the enemies of civilization.

Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel. Why wouldn't Israel have the right to respond? Because you don't like Jews? Russia has no battleships. It barely has a navy. It lost a lot of what they did have to Ukraine, who don't even have a navy!

Are you operating under the illusion, like these silly college kids, that this is the first time in history civilians have died in a war? I thought you more worldly than that. Civilians always die in wars, especially in urban wars. 350,000 in Yemen and counting and no one cares. 650,000 and counting in Syria and no one cares. Over 14,000,000 Sudanese forced out of their homes by fighting, hundreds of women committing suicide to avoid mass rapes, countless dead and no one cares. Over a million dead in Iraq. Tens of thousands dead in Libya. No one cares. How many civilians died when the Allies bombarded French towns and cities as they attacked? How many Italian civilians died when the British and Canadians were fighting their way up from Sicily with the Americans? How many died in Seoul when the Americans took it back from the North Koreans? What about in Vietnam? In Kuwait? Afghanistan? Israel is doing its best. What would you have them do? Just stop and let Hamas rebuild and rearm? What do you imagine an independent Palestinian state would be like? The Americans won't let them smash Iran's military, government or oil supplies.

Spare me. Most of those who fled Israel in 1948 did so at the urging of surrounding Arab states who assured they they'd be able to go back after they crushed Israel. Then they assured them they shouldn't dare go back or the Jews would murder them. Then they settled them in refugee camps but refused to accept them as citizens even after multiple generations. Too bad, so sad. The Arabs who stayed where they were didn't lose their land. They're now Israeli citizens. Do you know any period in history where an army took such are to not harm civilians that they contacted them ahead of time to tell them where they were going to attack next and told them to leave? Ever? Anywhere? https://www.newsweek.com/israel-has-created-new-standard-urban-warfare-why-will-no-one-admit-it-opinion-1883286

Huge numbers of Palestinians used to work in Israel proper. And Israeli businessmen were starting to move into the Palestinian territories to set up factories and other businesses to employ Palestinians. There were few checkpoints. Then came the Intifadah, largely targeting Israeli civilians, launching suicidal attacks at schools, restaurants, bus stations, planting bombs everywhere, stabbing old men in mosques and blowing up commuters on their way to work. Gradually, the fences and walls went up and the Palestinians found it harder and harder to get into Israel. The businessmen who had been setting up shop in Palestine territory left. I think the Palestinian territories would be vastly better place to live today were it not for the intifada and the terrorism.

Poland is a pretty damned strong supporter. So is Germany. The UK is still a supporter, though less now that Labour is in because Muslims vote Labour. Basically almost all right-wing parties in Europe support Israel while the Left often supports the terrorists. In the middle east, opposition to Israel has been toned well down by many Arab countries wary of Iran. Many, like the Saudis, Egyptians, and Jordanians are actually helping Israel under the table. The last thing they want is Iran extending its influence by getting an independent Palestine. They're also delighted to see Israel pounding Hezbollah. So are lots of Lebanese.

No, but if you see PEW research polls that show 90%+ of people in almost every Muslim nation hate Jews you get a pretty good idea of their cultural beliefs. And Arabs were slaughtering Jews before then, too, even when the British were still in charge. From Quebec, maybe. But Quebecers would just shrug if some other nation invaded Quebec and took over. Until, of course, they refused to force everyone to speak French anymore. Then they'd riot, be shot down in the streets, and surrender, as all good Frenchmen do.

It is when you criticize them for things they haven't done and ignore the actions of other states who have done much worse. If Israel was fighting the way the Saudis fought the Houthis in Yemen, or the way the Syrians, Russians and Turks are fighting and bombing in Syria, or how ISIS fought in Iraq and Syria there would be ten or twenty times more civilian casualties. As there have been in those countries. But you don't care about how many Muslims are killed by Muslims. You only care when Jews are involved, right?

Not now. Why would they? The Palestinians voted for a terrorist group that promised to destroy Israel. They launched the most horrific and barbarous attack on a Western country in modern history, showing us just what hate was in their hearts and souls. And they've promised to do it again as soon as they can until Israel is destroyed. If the Palestinians were given their full independence tomorrow Hamas would be in charge. They would import vast amounts of heavy weapons from Iran along with Revolutionary Guards to help them build up a large army and then launch another genocidal attack on Israel. This is not just speculation. This is what THEY say they would do. Why would Israel allow that? And in case you wonder, none of the surrounding Arab states want them to be independent either, despite their public protestations of sympathy.

The same as they do after going through schools run by Hamas, who teach them to hate Jews, who teach them the Jews stole their land, who teach them it is their duty to fight and die and achieve martyrdom to destroy Israel. You understand this is what they felt BEFORE the current hostilities, right? As demonstrated by how they acted like ravening rabid animals when they crossed into Israel. The glee they showed as they murdered children, and raped and tortured women. Gaza was not a prison. That's an Iranian talking point. No one in prison gets to collect thousands of rockets and missiles and tens of thousands of AK47s, RPGs and grenades. Even if they had independence they'd have to ask permission to go into Israel or Egypt. And it's not a 'homeland'. They never even thought of themselves as anything but Arabs until the Russians started calling them Palestinians in the 1960s. They have never been a country. They were just Arabs, the same as those who roamed through Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt until it was divided up into countries a hundred years or so.

That is not a problem. It has never BEEN a problem. If Israel had wanted to push all the Palestinians out of that land or kill them all off they could easily have done that sometimes in the last 75 years. They have not. No, bud. Muslims believe all that land is THEIRS and don't want to share. They believe Israelis are on their land. And the UN and other Arab states keeps encouraging Palestinians to think of themselves as 'refugees' despite having lived where they are now for several generations. Even the Chinese at one of those UN sites have sent video of Hezbollah setting up and firing rockets into Israel from just outside their base. Incoming fire sometimes goes astray. The UN are not peacekeepers and serve no purpose there. Their job was to disarm Hezbollah and they have been completely and utterly ineffective. They should just leave. Either we have international law as decided by multinational organizations like the League of Nations, or we have the law of might makes right. In either event, Israel has what it has.

How do we 'stop the spread of hostilities"? Because they all seem to be initiated by the Muslim hordes incited by Iran's fundamentalist terrorist government. Try and get the Jews not to fight back? The normal death rate of civilians in urban warfare is 10-1. That is, ten civilians die for every fighter. In Gaza it's more like 1-1. Israel is taking unprecedented steps to minimize civilian casualties, steps that damage its own efforts and cause deaths to its own soldiers. No other army in history has called ahead and dropped leaflets to let people know what area they are going to attack next.

I remember people chalking FLQ on the sidewalks outside our school. This was a grade school, mind. And whoever it was kept returning to do it again after the old one was washed off. We did not get along with the 'frenchies'. They didn't go to our schools and did not live on our streets or neighbourhoods. When we moved to Ottawa my mother said how great it was to hear English again on busy downtown streets. Then Trudeau came out with his bilingualism rules for the public service and tens of thousands of Quebecers moved here to take those jobs. And we still don't get along.

Shouldn't you be off hating Jews somewhere?

I suggest you look into Islamic beliefs before you say that.

Negative growth isn't good but it takes a while before it causes trouble. And in the interrum, we need to get people having more babies. To start, we need to ensure we have a society where young people can afford to rent/buy a house/apartments appropriate to raising children. And they need to be able to afford it and still have sufficient disposable income to then afford the cost of the child/children. So housing costs have to come down. And we're not going to do that while we're bringing in far more people than we can possibly build houses for. There is a shortage of people to build them, and a shortage of land to build them on without spreading cities ridiculously wide. We also need to create a society in which children are valued, in which having children is the thing to do, not avoid, in which, you'll pardon me, going childless is frowned upon, not celebrated as a 'lifestyle choice'. Because if you have the money and don't have kids it's selfishness. You want to enjoy material things and not give a damn about the health of society. And who will you be relying on to take care of you when you're old and ill? Where are the doctors, nurses, etc. to come from? The children of other people, of course. The government needs to strongly push an image of family that the left now calls old fashioned and passe'. Because as in everything else, the Left's view is one that damages society. They can't afford a place where they can raise kids. And they're not earning enough and don't have secure jobs. Government can do something to discourage the whole 'gig economy' and part-time jobs and encourage businesses to be more responsible. Because what's good for business is not always good for society. We have not had that for decades. The bureaucrats decide what THEY believe will be the right jobs and professions, but there's been a lack of communication with business and industry. And they've done a lousy job of checking those credentials, and especially, in making sure the people coming in can speak English well enough to get a job in their chosen profession. Taxi driver English does not get you a job in many professions where you're expected to be able to read, digest and write complex reports or documents. The answer to that is an interview with an immigration officer AND an online interview with a Canadian professional contracted by Immigration Canada who can quiz them on their experience and knowledge and then report back on whether that individual is likely to find work in Canada.