Quoting Obama in the Knesset

[JudyInTheHeartland]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1208/Quoting_Obama_in_the_Knesset.html

Obama has been silent, as Harry and I write today, on the Gaza attack, but he's a looming figure for the players on both sides.

This from Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the floor of the Knesset:

"Obama said that if rockets were being fired at his home while his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything he could to prevent it," Barak told the plenum.

The defense minister said that Israel is engaged in a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas in Gaza.

[GarbagemanLB]

1. Both sides are in the wrong, and I hope Obama has the ability to knock heads on both sides.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Agree. nt

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Amen!

You've got that right, brother!

[Cha]

23. Yeah.

I hope so..because something needs to happen.

[DesertFlower]

2. obama is right.

those rockets get fired into israel every day. the blame lies with Hamas.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. ahem.

what of the tunnel?
what of the settlements?
what of the thousands arrested and held without charges?
what of the assassinations carried out by Israel?

to use US missiles against 1.4 million stone throwing prisoners - that is inhuman, uncivilized, and a war crime.

[DesertFlower]

9. gaza was given up to the palestinians

and what did israel get in return? daily rocket fire, and yes stones. stones can maim and even kill. did you know that a palestinian woman threw acid into the face of an IDF officer?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. there are no winners, just corpses and assholes with blood on their hands.

unfortunately, condi and george have truly made the whole region even more dangerous.

[DesertFlower]

11. it was bush's idea to put Hamas

on the ballot. he knew they were a terrorist organization. this administration has done nothing in 8 years to promote peace. bush made one visit to the region and that was about 8 months ago.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. it was Israel's idea to create Hamas in 1988.

They armed, trained, and pushed them to attack and undermine the PLO. Geez, I wonder how that worked out. Probably as well as the US creating the Taliban to fight the USSR, eh?

[DesertFlower]

13. wrong. israel did not create hamas.

http://www.ujc.org/page.aspx?id=64336

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2007/09/myth-israel-created-hamas/index.shtml

[ChairmanAgnostic]

15. gotta love that revisionist history when it bites Israel in the ass.

Yeah, sure. Right. uh huh. yeah, tell me another one.

Except, I recall the 80s and 90s, and Israel's posturing, support of and creation of Hamas. I can understand Israel's dilemma. Embarrassment, regret, and worse, now that their pet fighting dog turned on them. I can understand them setting up faux sites with bad and deliberately wrong information. Heck, they do that all the time. Then again, so does the US, unfortunately.

I also remember thinking that Israel would regret their moves in the late 1980s. Well, guess what.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

24. yet another cite showing Israel's actions re: Hamas creation:

HAMAS was formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is a Sunni Islamic organization which was established at the beginning of the first Intifada, (December 1987) by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Hamas is dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian State that encompasses Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The Hamas believes in the establishment of an Islamic theocracy over all the territory of the land of Israel, "from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River". Paradoxically, the formation of Hamas was encouraged by the Israeli government, which saw the new group as a religious competitor to the generally secular Palestinian nationalist groups.



http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas.htm

[Phx_Dem]

20. Yep, and now is all up the Israelis to make nice with the terrorists.

If the Israeli's are expected to make nice with people to constantly terrorize them and call for their complete destruction, it kinda makes you wonder why all the people on this board calling for Israel to make nice, don't do the same with Rick Warren. Hamas makes Rick Warren look like Mr. Wonderful.

Gays and progressives, why don't YOU make nice with your enemy before calling on others to do so?

[Kalyke]

29. And Israel was taken from the Palestinians and given to the (now) Israelis.

Want to keep going down history lane?

The I/P mess is exactly why governments shouldn't rule using Biblical prophecy.

[Phx_Dem]

18. Stone-throwing prisoners? Hamas has been lobbing

rockets into Israel, from Gaza, the territory that Israel conceded to the Palestinians.

Israel has every right to defend themselves from these fucking terrorists -- and I include Palestinians since they elected the terrorists to govern them. Yes, Israel is much much stronger than Hamas, but Hamas has always known that and they don't care. They lob rockets and when Israel retaliates, they cry like babies, as if they did nothing wrong. Hamas is a terrorist group. Plain and simple.

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. If you poke a bee hive with a stick, you are going to get stung

What kind of reaction did the terrorists expect?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

28. which terrorists? The Israeli ones or the Hamas ones? Hard to tell the diff.

both are equally at fault, except that Israel gets bigger explosions because the US supplies it with missiles and jets.

[Freddie Stubbs]

31. The Hamas terrorists who were sending missiles into civilian neighborhoods in Israel

[ChairmanAgnostic]

33. Oh. those mortars that kill no one? Compared to the US jets, shooting US

missiles, into civilian areas, killing 500, and injuring thousands? Shades of the war crimes in Lebanon, where Israel dropped illegal cluster bombs in civilian areas, targeted ambulances and hospitals, and killed off civilian water and electricity supplies?

Tell me, which terrorists are worse? Theirs or ours?

[Phx_Dem]

17. Agreed. n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

25. ay yay yay

fascist bullshit.

[bunnies]

4. Its wretched of them to be using Obamas words to justify what they're doing.

When or if Obama comes out in support of these killings then they are welcome to say as much. Until then, its dishonest tripe. :puke:

[firedupdem]

5. Exactly! Disgusting! n/t

[rucky]

16. The quote could apply to the other side just as easily.

in fact, that's how I first read it.

[On the Road]

8. I Don't Know the Context of Obama's Comments,

but that logic could be just as easily used by Hamas.

[Avalux]

14. "Everything to prevent it" means more than dropping bombs.

Until Israel is able to accept that Palestinians deserve their own land and Palestinians are willing to stop their aggression, there is nothing BUT bombs.

[firedupdem]

19. Have they started robo calls yet? n/t

[Upton]

21. Israel is just trying to justify the murdering of civilians

they have become nothing more than a terrorist state.

[GarbagemanLB]

30. and what of Hamas, a group that has been firing rockets into Israel constantly?

Are they innocent?

[Elidor]

32. Riiiiight. So we'll put you down as one of those in favor of collective punishment

Because there's really no other conclusion to take from your strawman: It's okay to kill non-combatants as long as someone in their neighborhood is guilty.

[depakid]

22. I hope Obama has the fortitude to lay down the law with Israel

and cut off funding or use other appropriate "sticks" -or carrots.

Not only are their recent actions grossly disproportional -to the point of being war ci mes, but will end up just like the invasion of Lebanon.

More to the point though- the situation is adversely affecting the US economy, at time when we can least afford it- which makes reigning in Israel and getting the parties' to the table a US national security interest.

[Sensitivity]

27. Israel's decision to be the first to "test" Obama signals profound disrespect

I don't know how Obama can take it any other way.