should america support Israel?

[Thumpalumpacus]

No, I didn't. I don't think killing a million or more Palestinians will bring about any sort of peace.

The policy I've advocated is to bomb until the enemy surrenders unconditionally. Get it straight before spewing your objections.

And additionally, you said that you find a million deaths acceptable.

Would you like me to dig that up too?

Are you implying that Hamas is made up of terrorists? You're not saying that, but it is a definite implication: more Israeli bombs, more terrorists on the Palestinian side, of which Hamas is one faction.

Of course I am. As I've said earlier, I'm not biased to one side or the other, and as I've said in another thread, I think Hamas' practice of stationing launchers in dense civilian population centers is an "atrocity" -- that is my choice of word. Additionally, launching rockets indiscriminately is terrorism, and an atrocity.

Of course, I come to that conclusion by thinking that all indiscriminate attacks are immoral ... not just those committed by Hamas.

I's not that I'm misinformed, it's just that I don't think it's relevant. You think it is relevant but you haven't proved your case.

You don't see the difference? Socially, the Germans and the Japanese each had strong governments right up to the end of the war which were able to project power into their populations through the medium of military police states, and cow any skeptical citizens into obedience through the implied threat of criminal punishment, amongst other things. Each of those countries had also the "benefit" of a populace given to obeying the government with little or no questioning.

Comparing the Palestinian Authority to such governments ignores the very real and very stark differences -- the polity in Gaza is deeply fractured, meaning that the government cannot control the extremists who would likely continue to act against Israel even after a million civilian deaths. The ability of the Palestinians to marshal organized resistance is very limited; however, the decentralized nature of their armed groups means that they cannot be controlled by Imperial Edict, or Unconditional Surrender documents -- unlike the Germans or Japanese. The former were very successful in commanding an end to fighting in their troops; the latter had more holdouts, but given the bushido code, it was a surprisingly orderly surrender.

By using Germany and Japan as examples, which have had more advanced society than the Arabs, you were implying the inferiority of the latter whether you intended that or not.

I didn't say that they were more advanced. I said that they were culturally different. Indeed, you here are for the first time introducing the concept of "more advanced". If that is how you read it, yourself, then own your own stereotypes. As explained above, that is not how I meant it.

If you read my point above, you will understand why what I said about "socio-cultural difference" says nothing about the Palestinians as a people. Assuming I am a bigot from a point that you clearly did not understand is uncharitable. Saying that you think the Japanese and Germans had more advanced societies is a fair point insofar as they had tighter governmental controls -- and in no other sense.

Subconciously, you believe that the Palestinians are inferior, incapable of understanding that more hostilities brings on more punishment, and they will continue to fight to the last one, regardless of a policy "to bomb them until they surrender". That is the gist of your position. It's basically the position of many left-wing Palestinian apologists, which is exactly what you are.

No, I'm no apologist for their violence, nor do I have these "subconscious" thoughts regarding them that you, our esteemed Internet Psychologist®, seem to think. Nor do I think that they will all fight to the last man, but as I've pointed out above, there will be enough extremists to keep the coals stoked so that the hot spot will not, cannot, die down, so long as escalation is the only answer frfom both sides.

Now, let's see your capability for nuanced thought ... over to you.