Stand Up Against the war in Gaza.

CEASE FIRE NOW!

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This war is inhuman, unnecessary and harmful. Nothing good for Israel will come out of it!

The killing of hundreds of Palestinians and the destruction of the infrastructure of life in the Gaza Strip are abominable acts. Those who hope to reap electoral profits from them are greatly mistaken.

A ground invasion will cause even greater harm, destroy what is left in Gaza and cause many casualties " Israelis and Palestinians, soldiers and civilians.

If, after hard battles, the Israeli army will succeed in conquering the ruins of Gaza, the result will be, at most, to drive Hamas underground and to increase their influence both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.

The attack, which has already deepened the hatred, will

AROUSE the entire civilized world against us,

RAISE all over the region a new generation that will hate the State of Israel even more,

INCREASE the impact of Hamas,

UNDERMINE even more the position of peace-seeking Palestinians,

PREVENT Palestinian unity, without which there can be no peace.

On behalf of thousands of Israelis who have demonstrated in the streets of Tel-Aviv within hours after the start of the war, we demand:

* To stop at once the attack on Gaza!
* To propose - and to maintain - a cease-fire that will include the end off all violent actions by both sides, a real opening of the border crossings and the termination of the blockade against the population of the Gaza Strip.
* To start a dialogue with Hamas. Hamas is an integral part of Palestinian society and the Palestinian political system. Without their participation, all negotiations and agreements are meaningless.

I am tired of the war cheerleaders who are still pushing three lies that are as despicably wrong today as they were 50 years ago.
- Violence of one side or the other is justified.
- Violence is effective and will lead to a better life for the people of one side or the other.
- On side or the (being subhuman) is incapable of peace.

Stand Up Against the war in Gaza.

....We in the peace camp include many wonderful men and women who confront the army every week in the fight against the wall, who monitor the checkpoints, who refuse to serve in the occupation army, who fight against the occupation in dozens of ways.

But while we stand and protest, the settlers rush ahead. Sometimes I have the feeling that the dogs bark and the caravan moves on " and I am not content with being the dog. We chase the mosquitoes, but the swamp that produces the mosquitoes gets bigger and bigger. The swamp is political. Only a political force can drain it " a force that can confront the ruling powers, influence the decisions of the government and the Knesset.

That is a historic failure, and we bear responsibility for it. We have to think anew, examine everything we have done up to now and find out where we went wrong. Why did we not succeed in convincing enough of the young, of the oriental Jewish community, of the immigrants from Russia, of the Arab community in Israel, of the moderate religious sector, that it is possible to bring about change, that indeed we can?

Why did we not succeed in touching the heart of the young generation that is disgusted by the politics they know? ....

Peaceful Solutions, Initiatives and International Conferences:

Article Thirteen:
Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. "Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know."

Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?

"But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah." (The Cow - verse 120).

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:

"The people of Syria are Allah's lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation."

Hamas won't make peace. The current hawkish government in Israel won't make peace. They are both pushing their people in to worse and worse violence and hatred. We should ditch this course of action

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Wednesday blamed Palestinian divisions for Israel's onslaught on Gaza, a reflection of U.S.-allied Arab governments' anger at the Hamas militant group.

Saud al-Faisal made the comments at an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital, convened to try to put together a joint response by the deeply divided Arab nations to the Israeli offensive, which has killed more than 370 Palestinians and sparked outrage across the Middle East.

Pro-U.S. Arab countries " Egypt, in particular " have come under heavy criticism in widespread street protests, as well as from Iran, Hamas, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, for allegedly not doing enough to stop Israel or help Gazans. Officials and pro-government media in Egypt and Saudi Arabia have responded by blaming Hamas for provoking Israel and accusing the militant group of being a proxy promoting the power of regional rival Iran.

The first step is to stop the justification of violence.

ebrown p wrote:

The first step is to stop the justification of violence.

the Palestinian people of Gaza and elsewhere have right to defend themselves against Zionist attacks.

Israel has no choice but to defend themselves.

the Palestinian people of Gaza and elsewhere have right to defend themselves against Zionist attacks.

Defense of ones self is justified and effective.

This certainly does not mean it needs to bomb civilian neighborhood (they could have limited themselves to military target). And this most definitely does not mean it needs to continue the harsh economic sanctions that are impoverishing every citizen of Gaza irregardless of their political stance.