defend Israel on this one if you can

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1223-03.htm

They stopped to collect her sister and mother and set out for the Hussein Hospital, 20 minutes away. But the road had been blocked by Israeli soldiers, who said nobody was allowed to pass until morning. "Obviously, we told them we couldn't wait until the morning. I was bleeding very heavily on the back seat. One of the soldiers looked down at the blood and laughed. I still wake up in the night hearing that laugh. It was such a shock to me. I couldn't understand."

Her family begged the soldiers to let them through, but they would not relent. So at 1am, on the back seat next to a chilly checkpoint with no doctors and no nurses, Fadia delivered a tiny boy called Mahmoud and a tiny girl called Mariam. "I don't remember anything else until I woke up in the hospital," she says now. For two days, her family hid it from her that Mahmoud had died, and doctors said they could "certainly" have saved his life by getting him to an incubator.

just a few bad Israeli apples eh?

But you knew that was the appropriate forum and decided to engage in some blatant flamebait in GD, right?

I don't defend the Occupation period, though I avoid hyperbole like accusations of genocide, and I'm not so blind or stupid as not to be able to recognize prose that's written to inflame rather than to inform.

and what goes in other forums, based on your sensibilities?? I've seen literally thousands of threads that could be assigned to "appropriate" forums over the 3 years I have accessed this site...

sake. They're not my rules. They're the DU rules. I suggest you acquaint yourself with them.

that perplexes me. Your pills....

<snip>

Due to continuing problems, discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues is limited to the Israel/Palestine forum, and is governed by a special set of rules which are available in that forum. If a discussion is primarily about US policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, it is sometimes allowed in other forums. Discussion of other Middle East issues is also sometimes allowed. If a thread is on a different topic, but later goes off-topic and becomes a discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues, the moderators may move the thread to the Israel/Palestine forum.

less people will see it.

and that would be moved to the lounge.

I/P is not designed to hide the subject of Israel, Palestine and the Occupation. It exists because it's necessary to erect a structure that lends itself to real discussion. Posted out here, the conversation quickly degenerates into some of ugliest shit you'll ever see on DU. If you care about the issue, the I/P forum provides a framework that, although imperfect, is far preferable to the brawls that occur in the less structured envionment of GD.

It's not a conspiracy. It's common sense.

and simple and I ignore all their so called justifications. In a real world they would all be locked up as war criminals.

and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Darfur, Sudan, Somali and, oh, I forgot, Iraq and Palestine where factions are killing each other with relish.

No suffering there, none at all.

US weaponry and economic aid (though most of its citizens are doing very well). Billions and billions of dollars through the years.

is your assertion that all the troubles in the world need to be solved before we can discuss whats going on in israel? or is it just an argument tactic?

If a discussion is primarily about US policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, it is sometimes allowed in other forums.

The discussion is about whether we, as US based website forum members, can discuss our governemnet's support for such I>P actions as seen in the OP.

I speak as someone who has witnessed the behavior of Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. Acting humanely is not allowed. The point of the checkpoints is humiliation.

The point of the checkpoints is Iraeli security, which they place above most other things, including at times not allowing access to non-Israelis. I don't like it, but its their border and their call, and not just happening in the west bank.

But of course you knew that.

I rarely, if ever, go into the I/P forum because as I recall, it gets pretty nasty in there. Consequently, I would never have seen this. Just from me, thanks for posting it here. It needs to be seen, flamebait or otherwise.

From what I can see of it here, this is indeed indefensible.

Bake

I/P does not get nastier than GD. In fact, it's less nasty.

Due to continuing problems, discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues is limited to the Israel/Palestine forum, and is governed by a special set of rules which are available in that forum. If a discussion is primarily about US policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, it is sometimes allowed in other forums. Discussion of other Middle East issues is also sometimes allowed. If a thread is on a different topic, but later goes off-topic and becomes a discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues, the moderators may move the thread to the Israel/Palestine forum.

best,
wakemeupwhenitsover
DU Moderator