Originally Posted by Osem

I don't think it's easy to make Israel out to be the 'devil' in all of this. It's not easy for me - it's with great sadness that I find myself forced to condemn them! Many of my friends were brought up, like me, to be sympathetic to Israel's plight and, if anything, tended always to portray the other side in that fashion. What's changed now it that Israel has gone too far and when people like these start to turn their backs on Israel it's evident that the Government of that nation has not only lost the PR battle, it's lost the plot and is now scraping the barrel of means by which to wipe people out. Time after time contributors to this debate have pointed out that Hamas are far from innocent but that fact does not excuse mass slaughter and the sort of goings on which happened in the former Yugoslavia where even innocent, men, women and children in UN safe zones were murdered. Last night I heard an interview with a Palestinian doctor on the BBC. 16 of his family had just been killed whilst sheltering in a school which they'd been taken to after their homes were destroyed by Israeli bombs! Apparently UN representatives had insisted it'd be safe and (IIRC) had notified the Israelis but they still destroyed it! How many Jews in Israel can make such a claim other than those who suffered directly at the hands of the Nazis? Is that the level the Israeli government has descended to?

Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo

Very well said. Your views are echoed by a lot of people I have spoken to, who were originally very pro Israel throughout the history of the region.