[Livia]

Originally Posted by MTVN

A more accurate analogy would be a paramilitary undercover group within the UK/British isles itself which also uses rockets and guerilla style warfare, hides amongst the general public and does at times target civilians.. And we did have that with the IRA. But our government didn't indiscriminately bomb large parts of Northern Ireland or carry out such brutal action on the ground.

A stat I read somewhere else:

28 civilian Israeli deaths from Hamas rockets since 2001.

34 civilian British deaths in Northern Ireland conflict since 2001.

Northern Ireland hasn't been firing rockets into the mainland all that time. It's not the same thing at all. Hamas fire rockets at Israel every day, indiscriminately, at residential sites, not military ones. There are always air raid sirens going off. It's only the fact that Israel's defence system is good that the Israeli death toll isn't much, much higher. So many people are armed in Israel, even primary school teachers to protect children against terrorist attack. That doesn't happen on the British mainland, so the analogy isn't a good one. I'm not saying Israel's reaction isn't extreme... it is, the loss of life in Gaza is appalling, no one could argue against that. But people seem to be under the impression that Hamas wouldn't bomb an Israeli school if they could get to it. If Palestine has the same kind of arms and equipment Israel has, the whole place would be a smoking crater.

Something's got to give... I can only hope they can come to some kind of peace agreement the way they have in Northern Ireland.