Bob

You think we're the'yre masters? They have a large degree of autonomy, as it is. We don't want to be their master. Every inch of involvement we have with managing the Palestinians is an inch we don't have managing ourselves. And it costs money. And it costs lives. And it costs energy. Unfortunately, it's necessary given the threats we face from these people. They need to so "submit" to our basic national rights. Since you did me the courtesy of paraphrasing my comments, albeit dishonestly and inaccurately and stupidly, allow me to return the favour. Although I will rephrase your statements properly: IOW: Palestinians should continue their "struggle" and "resistance" against the Zionists. Since their ridiculous demands are oh-so-realistic.

It's funny that you're suggesting we didn't read the article, when you just said you didn't have time to read it. It takes about five minutes to read that brief op-ed. The op-ed was also painfully thin and devoid of details. He could have, and should have, written a far more detailed expose of why he changed his mind and gone over the false allegations in the report that bears his name. I guess Goldstone is too busy to actually spend more than an hour on such a matter.

Nobody's happy that civilians were killed. They were killed, though, because of Hamas. The blood of all the victims of Cast Lead is on the hands of Hamas and its subsidiary terrorist-affiliates. All the Palestinians need to do is lay down their arms, renounce violence, recognize Israel as the eternal Jewish homeland, and join in negotiations to find out what sort of progress they can make towards their autonomy and perhaps eventual statehood. Their commitment to "resistance", however, comes with consequences. Israel cannot sit idly while its civilians are being attacked simply because Palestinians civilians may be killed in actions of self-defense. Lastly, I an highly skeptical of Palestinian declarations of civilian statistics. Moreover, being a child doesn't mean one wasn't a legitimate military target, given that we know children are utilized in the terrorist infrastructure. It's sick, but it's reality. At the end of the day, Cast Lead still didn't achieve its objectives, as Hamas is still fully operational and conducting terrorism. Israel, unfortunately, never hits its enemies hard enough because of deference to anti-Israel political pressures.

Why are you pretending to even care about the Goldstone Report? You were probably screaming "war crimes!" accusations against Israel long before you ever heard his name, and you will continue to do so. The reality of Israel never intentionally targeting civilians as a matter of policy has always been there, regardless of what reports and "fact-finding missions" have to say about it. The Goldstone Report simply gave you a talking point that you believe reinforced your dishonest and ignorant anti-Israel positions. Don't worry, there are plenty of "reports" out there you can use as false support for your lies. For the fiscal conservatives in here, bear in mind that many people participated in the production of this report, and were all paid out of the UN's purse "international public servants", as it were... As if there wasn't any real work to be done with that money.

Israel was right not to cooperate with the UNHRC "fact-finding mission", knowing full well exactly what the UNHRC is all about (anti-Zionism). Moreover, the individuals charged with managing the report have well-established records of anti-Israel perspectives. Hila Jilani, as self-proclaimed "human rights defener" and Desmond Travers, the token alleged military expert. Hila Jilani makes no secret of her anti-Israel perspective, and has made statements and delivered lectures that reveal her massive ignorance of Israeli history and the security challenges Israel deals with. Beyond that, she is completely oblivious to the history of Israel's conflict with the Arabs that has brought us to where we are today. The same is true for Desmond Travers, who has a history of misrepresenting Israel security issues prior to his involvement with the Goldstone report. Goldstone himself should've known better. How a Jewish man of prominence who considers himself a man of justice could willingly become a part of the anti-Israel apparatus that is the UNHRC is beyond me. Goldstone is beyond redemption and will always be outcast from the Jewish community for the damage he did through his irresponsibility. The most important thing for many people to realize is just how offensive it is to Israel and the Jewish people to suggest that there is some sort of policy where Israel specifically targets civilians. Israel has suffered thousands of injuries and casualties since 1948 in its efforts to reduce civilian casualties. Don't forget that there is a draft in Israel, and it's pretty much been there since day one. That doesn't mean that everyone goes to the army, as there are many avenues through which someone can have an exception made or not be eligible to serve. It does mean, however, that a much higher proportion of Israelis know much more about Israel's military conduct that most people in most other countries know about their own militaries. And we know that Israel goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Israeli know this because they've served, because they've been there, or, simply because we talk to each other. It is particularly egregious that all the Israel soldiers who have served, are serving, and will serve take great risk upon themselves (I would argue too much risk) to reduce civilian casualties, doing door-to-door searches and exposing themselves to a waiting and treacherous enemy rather than simply destroying buildings. The irony of course being that our enemies operate out of a completely different playbook. Goldstone became complicit with our enemies by attempting to draw moral equivalence between the moral conduct of the IDF and the treachery of Hamas and the other terrorist Palestinian terrorist organizations. Unfortunately the damage has been done, as many ignorant people blindly trust the UN and its affiliates without being aware of just how politicized these organizations are in an anti-Israel manner, where countries like Libya and Iran are given equality to the USA and Canada. What needs to be done is a delegitimization of the UN given its current systemic problems. Average persons need to be made aware of how absurd the UN and its affiliates are, and how empty its "resolutions" are.

Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes. The thing I really want to show you folks is an attached Associated Press photograph in a BBC article regarding this story. Check this photo out, am I the only one who thinks it looks very fake? Here's the artcle. As far as Goldstone's recent recantation of his ridiculous and incredibly damaging allegations, it's too little too late. A man such as him should have known better than to participate willingly in such a facade from the anti-Zionist UNHRC. The methodology of the report itself left a lot to be desired. Everything was based on Pallywood, and accepted at face value. Also, I was shocked that the BBC actually ran this story. Anyways, do you folks also find that AP photo incredibly fake? It seems to obvious to me that the foreground was superimposed on the background. Another example of dishonesty in the the media running with the typical anti-Israel agenda.

I was mostly joking. I agree, but of course the devil is in the details. Not entirely, there are non-economic components to globalization regarding culture. These components are not always the result of economics. Moreover, free trade isn't always good economic policy for certain parties. I wish that was true, but country's can often make decisions based on simplistic ideology. States are certainly not always lead by leaders towards their best interests. For example, if Israel was offered membership in NATO, meaning that if it was ever attacked all other members of NATO would come to its defense, would you really reject that based on an anti-globalist sentiment? The tangible benefit of henceforth being safe from attacks by Israel's hostile neighbors would be the main consideration. Other countries are presented with other tangible benefits to joining such organizations, whether related to security, economics, or diplomatic influence. Well, you're making a big assumption with that last statement. There are non-economic factors at play, however, that work directly against this increased conglomeration in many ways. It's obviously a big and complicated subject.

Are you serious or are you joking?

I knew it - deep down you're a communist. Without going into details, I reject most of what you've said. I don't think unification/consolidation of varying peoples is a natural phenomenon or unstoppable force of nature that we can expect to continue growing. I would credit increased globalism to certain ideologues in positions of power push for these objectives. I'm not Alex Jones fanboy, but there are certainly disturbing trends with respect to increasing consolidation in certain economic and political arenas. In other words, I don't think there is some small group of men sitting around a table orchestrating these things, but when men of power have these political leanings, they advance this process. Sometimes it's ok, and sometimes it's not. As an aside, I view Obama as a President who is inclined to largely agree with this mentality, or at the very least, he's much more inclined to be an "internationalist" than those who've come before him. He's one of the many who view the world "international" in a positive light.

There's a big difference between going to a special-interest school and being "segregated from mainstream society". Would you say the same about kids going to private schools or kids going to exclusive extra-curricular activities? If they want to do it, let them do it. I'd just hope they'd be careful with public funding, and by "careful", I mean perhaps giving them nothing and letting them fund their special desires on their own.

I completely disagree. Children don't NEED to go to schools with diversity for any purpose. If they do go to mixed schools, fine. If they don't, that's also fine. I'm also unsure that going to more diverse schools make someone less likely to be unjustifiably prejudiced/racist. Lastly, children get socialized outside of school, as well. Your perspective would also oppose home-schooling and private schooling for specific minorities/ethnic/religious groups.

I think it has little to nothing to do with performance. Public schools are filled with minority children who perform well. That doesn't mean I'm opposed to the idea on other grounds, though. If there are enough black families out there that want a more "afrocentric" (I am not sure exactly what that means, to be honest) education for their children, all the power to them. I'm not sure about giving them public funding, though... at least not more money than these kids would otherwise be receiving with some honest and fair math - which is very difficult to do, given that many public educational expenses aren't entirely made (rightfully so) on the basis of volume of students.

Apparently the UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan (what a shocker, he's not an Afghan and doesn't speak their language or know anything about the country in which he's working!) agrees with GostHacked. Although I can't find a quote from him directly blaming the Reverend from Florida, here's something he did say, "The demonstration was meant to protest against the insane and totally despicable gesture by one person who burned the holy Quran". Inferring for what he said, this Yahoo! article suggests that Staffan di Mistura blames the Florida pastor for the murders. So do quite a few other media outlets carrying this Associated Press news blurb. Check this out: "...as many as 3,000 demonstrators who overran the U.N. compound, which was protected by Afghan policemen and six U.N.-hired Nepalese guards. The crowd overpowered the guards - who are instructed not to shoot into crowds of civilians, even if they are threatening - and the police were not able to stop them, he said." What a crazy bunch the UN is.... From the same story at Forbes. Here's some more wisdom from this "Special Envoy to Afghanistan" (again, this man has absolutely no credentials to do this job) - "Those who entered our building were actually furiously angry about the issue about the Quran. There was nothing political there." I guess this man isn't bright enough to grasp scenarios where religious "values" and politics overlap and feed off of one another. Just wow.

We see it in virtually all of his posts. Maybe he thinks he's slick when he tries to draw parallels between the US army and the Taliban terrorists? Or the IDF's conduct with that of Hamas? He's a one-trick pony, and I think his pony has a broken leg.

Exactly.

You know, most of the things you say make absolutely no sense.

We think God is in a box?

What in the world are you talking about? Who's excluding who?

Exactly. I lost patience with bud a long time ago. Literally every post he makes is filled with misrepresentations, just as he's misrepresenting this video in this most recent sequence of posts. He's certainly one of the most dishonest people to post in this forum. As far as the video is concerned, it should be seen as an example of how different things are in Israel when compared to Canada and the USA, from top to bottom. It's a much more informal country and culture, much much much more down-to-earth than is generally the case in Canada and the USA. Although I'm not a huge fan of Netanyahu, it's always endearing to see politicians simply be real. It humanizes them. Yes, I've seen the videos of American Presidents and Canadian Prime Ministers getting their shmooze on with the locals, but it doesn't seem the same. Maybe they really do have the cameras off when they have more intimate meetings with ordinary folks and we never get to see them in their comfort zone.

Here are the innocent civilians the left is always so concerned about in Afghanistan. Perhaps these are the same innocent civilians that were tortured in Aghan custody after being captured on the battlefield by Canadian soldiers? I think these are the guys who gave eyewitness testimony to Richard Colvin, the and the same people that Ujjal Dosanjh is so concerned about when maintaining Canada's international peacekeeping reputation. - image from Qur'an-burning protests claim more lives

Do you really think that had this Reverend Riffraff not burned the Koran that these people (or other people) wouldn't have been killed? These Islamists will always find something to blame to justify their acts of mass murder. These terrorists have been murdering people long before Reverend Riffraff came onto the scene. If it wasn't Reverend Reiffraff, it'd be something and/or someone else.

I know exactly what you mean. For the most part, in-touch North American Jews should be able to see distinguishable characteristics.

Also, are you we supposed to trust Hamas and other terrorist organizations with their reports of who is and isn't a civilian when they give us their official casualty numbers?

I just recently discovered this intellectual. She argues, correctly in my view, that foreign aid has many detrimental effects to recipient countries (or territories, in the case of the Palestinians) that are almost wholly dependent on financial aid.

Also Jonsa, it's pretty infantile of you to state that I think "all Arabs should leave" or that I am a Baruch Goldstein fanboy or Kahanist. I never said such things or held such sentiments, and you're just trying to smear me in the same way you accuse me (incorrectly) of labelling people anti-Semitic unfairly.