Do you need to be seen to take the side of Hamas or
white-wash their actions - after the many views you have
offered that clamour for the understanding of Hamas
acts of atrocities, while turning a total blind eye to the callous
attitude of Hamas in placing Palestinian lives in danger ?
As was mentioned before, it takes a great leap of imagination to
understand the purpose of your efforts to compare the
treatment of Jews in WW2 to be of any parallel to the
sufferings of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Why do you not compare the living conditions of the Palestinians
in the West Bank to the self-imposed pain and sufferings preferred
by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip - by supporting the Iranian
financed Hamas ?
Why did the Israelis not walled up the Palestinians in the West
Bank ?
Did Hamas make any announcement to Israelis when and where their
rockets and mortar shells will land ?
At least the Israeli had announced their intention and had given
the Hamas fighters time to move out of the intended target
area.
Did the Israelis prevent the Palestinians from leaving the
targetted area ?
Do you know that the Gaza Strip can be seen on the World Map,
while this little red dot can hardly even be seen ?
Yet this little red dot can accomodate 4.5 million Singaporeans
with enough space to move out of specific areas to allow a
gathering of 300,000 persons at any one time - who are you trying
to kid that the Palestinians are prevented from leaving a targetted
area, and have no place to run to avoid Israeli counter attacks
?
Have I been dehumanised, or have you allowed yourself to be
suckered by Hamas propaganda and allow yourself to think that
everyone is numbed and dehumanised by the supposed atrocities -
that are largely and purposefully self-inflicted ?
If you recogonised the legitimate claim of Israel to retaliate
against Hamas unprovoked and provocative acts of attacking Israel -
why did you not also extend that understanding by questioning Hamas
agenda of launching such attacks from densely populated Palestinian
areas ?
Why do you not question Hamas agenda in using their Palestinian
civilians as Human Shield to cover their cowardly acts ?
Did the Palestinian population in Gaza voted Hamas into
power, or did the Hamas politician decide to take matters into
their own hands and evicted from the Gaza Strip the legitimately
elected PLA Government of President Abbas - and unilaterraly
declare the Gaza Strip to be led by a Hamas Government ?
Amazingly, no Middle-eastern country has recognised this Hamas
Government except for Iran - who treat this Hamas Government as no
more then a political pawn.
If this is not another one of your acts of succumbing to
propaganda ?
You must be naive to expect Israel to give solace and
comfort to Hamas and the Palestinians population that remained
behind and give material and morale support to Hamas - when Hamas
has declared their objective of destroying the State of Israel
?
Is there any use for your seemingly moralistic statement in red
- when you have already succumbed to Hamas propaganda ?
It is plain stupidity to believe that Hamas or their
Iranian backers will have any means to destroy Israel.
Is the Malaysia-Singapore analogy flawed, when the intertwined
history of these two countries over the last 40 odd years have led
to the edge of a local conflict ?
Prior to the recently concluded Pedra
Branca issue, there were a few incidents which had resulted in
Singapore Coast Guard and Navy vessels rubbing hulls with the
Malaysian Navy and Police Patrol Boats.
The war of words in the 1963 and 1969 had resulted in racial
riots that spread across our state borders, and more recent events
had even the previous PM Mahathir on different occassions to have
been reported to be threatening to shut off the water pipes, bomb
Singapore, and even to unilaterally cut off the Causeway to build a
new link bridge on their side of the territories.
All these acts would have constituted Acts of Wars - and the
venom in the relationship had even permeated into the Malaysian
Armed Forces, which even had a senior officer - in the rank of
a Major - to contribute an article to one of their military journal
that promoted the poisoning of our resevoirs as the opening gambit
in any war.
If you believe that the MAF and the SAF are equally matched,
those who are more knowledgeable than you will probably excuse your
ignorance, but will not forgive you - if you are a politician - for
making any wrong gamble in any miscalculation due to your
ignorance.
It is just as well that you remain harmless in this Speaker's
Corner and indulge in all your speculations based on propaganda and
misinformation.
Such misinformation will be similar to the sudden publicity
given to the sudden discovery of oil and gas in the Gaza Strip.
Do you seriously believe that the Israelis do not have any
earlier knowledge of this event and willingly give up the Sinai
Peninsular and the Gaza Strip after a hard fought 6-Day War in the
mid-1960s - when oil supply was cut off that resulted in the first
ever oil crisis in the World ?
If the Palestinians have no where to run in an Israeli attack,
where do you expect the Palestinians in the tight Gaza space to
move to when the oil and gas in the Gaza Strip will need to be
exploited ?
Enough. Let me simplify this to some Yes/No questions.
Do I agree that Hamas should be condemned for launching rockets
into Israel? Yes
Do I agree that Hamas should stop the violence against Israel?
Yes
Do I agree that Israel has the right to self-defence when it
is attacked? Yes
I'm not siding with either side as you think I am. Because most
of you are either condemning Israel or Hamas, it results in an
unbalanced view. Let's see you answer some questions:
Do you agree that Israel has been enforcing a blockade on Gaza,
preventing food, fuel and medical supplies for most of the time
after Hamas won the 2006 elections? Yes/No
Do you agree that Israel has control over the Gazan borders?
Yes/No
Do you agree that a country which has no control over its
borders has no real sovereignty at all? Yes/No
Why does Israel treat the West Bank's Palestinians and Gaza's
differently? Well, for one, the Fatah government is subservient to
the Israelis. If Fatah ever dared to step out of line like Hamas,
the West Bank will definitely get invaded.
Why did Israel blockade Gaza after Hamas won in a democratic
election? Not Yes/No, but surely you can handle structured
questions.
"[Jimmy] Carter said that election
was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was
"shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah
ran multiple candidates for single seats.
Far from
encouraging Hamas's move into parliamentary politics, Carter said
the US and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, has sought to
subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the
reins of political and military power.
"That action was criminal," he
said in a news conference after his speech."
- Carter: Stop favoring Fatah over
Hamas- http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813074587&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Then, considering that the nature of both parties' weapons are
different, even if Hamas doesnt announce rocket launchings, like it
will, Israeli casualties from their rocket attacks pale in
comparison to the warned Israeli airstrikes. Does it really take a
lot of thinking to get the idea that the impact from thousand-pound
bombs is massively larger than homemade rockets? The death toll on
both sides already demonstrates that fact.
As I said, launching rockets into Israel is despicable. But, try
to put yourself in their shoes. If a foreign power was oppressing
you and your people, would you not resist? Saying that they
purposely launched rockets from civilian-populated areas (where are
there no civilians in Gaza?) is like saying that the Viet Cong in
South Vietnam purposely used their own people as a shield without
any scruples. Its not like they are foreign fighters. What would
you call ordinary Gazans rising up against a foreign power that is
invading their country? Let's say, a Gazan teacher has had
enough with tolerating Israel's inhumane treatment of Gazans and
decides to aid Hamas, his democratically elected government.
Israeli intelligence spots him and bombs his school. Was it his
intention to get the school bombed in order to get sympathy for
Hamas? I dont think so. Resisting against the Israeli occupiers was
his priority. Can you understand this?
Since you already admit that Hamas nor Iran could ever destroy
Israel, then why all the using "Destroy Israel" rhetoric from the
Iranians or Palestinians as justification for the bombing?
If you want to side with Hamas, then do you claim that Israel's
hands are clean? Yes/No
Do you agree that more people have died from Israel's attacks
than from Hamas' attacks? Yes/No
Do you agree that Israel was the first one to break the
ceasefire on Nov 4? Yes/No
This has already been brought up many times and people'll say
that Hamas broke it first by an ( implied passively aggressive) act
of contructing a tunnel which would have been used to attack and
kidnap Israeli troops and citizens. That's what was put out by the
MSM. Think about it, for a country which has been blockaded
and deprived of food, fuel and medical supplies, would they have
tried to break the blockade by getting supplies in through a
tunnel? Anyway, CNN has
already confirmed that Israel was the one to break the
ceasefire.
I cant emphasis this enough, but it doesnt seem to be expressed
well, probably because of much unconscious bias- it is wrong for
both parties to act in this way. But, overlooking the fact that
Israel has caused more casualties than Hamas would mean
acknowledging that Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli
ones. Instead of just condemning Hamas as "terrorist", which by the
way, is just a word to describe someone who uses a particular
technique of 'persuasion', why not look at the way Israel treats
the Palestinians.
Finally, I do not say that Singapore and Malaysia are
equally matched.
Do you agree that Singapore and Malaysia both,
have air forces, navies and land armies that are equipped to modern
standards? Yes/No
Do you agree that Israel is the Middle-East's superpower?
Yes/No
Do you agree that Hamas in Gaza has no air force or navy, and
has only guerilla land forces? Yes/No
I didnt know that there were oil and natural gas in Gaza till
the recent invasion put the spotlight on the Palestinians. I
dont know whether the Israelis knew or didnt know about this
either. Do you know? The article below states that it was
discovered in 2000.
Do you know that Gaza does not have oil and natural gas?
Yes/No
Similarly, do you know that Gaza has oil and natural
gas? Yes/No
Dont you think rejecting new information despite not having any
evidence to the contrary demonstrates a narrow mind?
It is precisely because the Gazans have a natural resource to
fuel their development that the Israeli attack is timed as such. Of
course, the Israelis do not want to allow that resource to benefit
the Palestinian people. If you're oppressing a people, would it be
in your interest for them to be lifted out of poverty? Would it be
in your interest for them to achieve the means to sustain their own
economy?
