@djmikey in response to your points regarding Hamas breaking the ceasefire, I am fully in agreement with you. It is difficult to argue Hamas are acting in the best interest of Palestinian civilians by breaking the ceasefire. They acted wrongly, and it is no way helpful towards reaching a peaceful solution.

However I disagree with you second point regarding Hamas beheading citizens who do not comply to a specific religious background. I think you are confusing them with the Islamic group ISIS whom are wholly abhorrent.

In my opinion Israel response to Hamas is both disproportionate and indiscriminate, and historically represents other atrocities Israel has committed upon the people of Palestine.

For example
-Israel has rapidly expanded settlements across the West Bank + East Jerusalem and the number of Israeli settlers has doubled from 262,500 settlers in 1993 to over 520,000 today.

-Since 2000, over 8,400 Palestinians have been murdered.

-In 2008/09 Operation Cast Lead took place killing 1417, 313 of them children.

-In the last few weeks, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have led to the killing of 1712 people, 398 of them children. 25% of the population in Gaza has also been displaced.

-There have been over 28,000 demolitions of Palestinians’ homes, businesses, livestock facilities, medical facilities and other infrastructure vital to Palestinian life and livelihood in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Hamas kidnapped and murdered children, fact.

lets get some things straight here. Western Politics are calling Hamas terrorists.. humanitarians. Not, what you claim they are saying.

What is going on is war and in war, no matter how much you try to prevent it, collateral damage is inevitable.

Hamas started this, fact.
Hamas broke the first attempt at a cease fire after only 2 hours, fact.

Hamas was the first to open fire after the second attempt at a cease fire, fact.

Hamas has legislation and literature that openly states that there goal is the destruction of Isreal and anyone not Muslim, fact.

When you put a couple people on a screen and ask them to pretend like they are innocent.. naturally you are going to feel bad for them. What you dont see is the murder and beheading's going on to all citizens in Hamas that are not of that specific religious back ground. Bottom line, Hamas is the bad guys and Isreal is doing its best to defend its people from an open attack made by Hamas. Would you not retaliate to an enemy who just randomly started opening fire on your country and people?

I have only stated my stance on the issue once months ago, during the time a divisive troll was found on epicmafia, since then I have actively avoided discussing politics/religion or any other social issues on this site. Mainly because I am here to play a game and my views shouldn't have an impact on those who play with me. So in my opinion I am hardly forcing my views upon other people. My stance on the issue is routinely brought up by those accusing me of anti-semitism within games as opposed to myself bringing up the issue for no reason.

I feel after being called an anti-semite in a lot of games I join, i had to create this topic so I don't get drawn into being abused most games I join for being something that I am not.

You could possibly end the abuse by not stating your stance on the issue every day of the week. Though I do understand your concerns with the issue.

I believe that the land was a refuge for the Jews from from Germany during WW2, i don't even know if they are the real Jews. Regardless they were given shelter in Palestine,and the Jews slowly took their land away. The fact today Israel is ranked top 5 Military armed nation and is still scared of Palestine that is reduced to barely nothing. Is like U.S being scared of Congo. I don't say all Jew's are bad its just messed up that Government is killing so much innocent people and U.S or neighbouring Countries don't do anything. Conclusion is that the Government should be dismantled and the hidden Prisons nobody knows about should be shut down.

Hopefully people can read through this, refute any points I make that they disagree with and provide evidence for them. I am open to debate as long as it is not filled with slurs or insults.

Thank you

Shinchan

So here's something worth remembering, even if you want to ignore the social, historical and political context of Israel/Palestine (that Israel is a settler colonial state built on the expulsion and ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians which has taken more and more land and made concerted efforts to crush the chance of Palestinians ever becoming independent and self-determining); even if, unlike me, you buy the line peddled by many Western politicians and people on this website - namely that Israel is justified in its current offensive -- Israel is engaged in the abhorrent and illegal slaughter of Palestinian civilians, the destruction of infrastructure, homes -- literally everything, all whilst refusing to negotiate seriously or directly with the democratically-elected Hamas. And even if a ceasefire lasts, the truth is that a return to the pre-Protective Edge status quo would see the siege and blockade of Gaza remain, which sees Israel putting Gazans on a forced diet, controlling supplies of just about everything and denying freedom of movement. This, as well as the humanitarian crisis which has been provoked by this onslaught, and the thousands more refugees created are all conditions which Palestine has a right to resist against.

The Hamas charter of 1988 is often cited as a justification for general aggression against Hamas and Israel's ongoing refusal to engage in talks and negotiations with Hamas. However, it is worth also point out that the '99 charter of Likud advocates the illegal expansionism of Israel and settlement-building in Palestinian Territories and "flatly rejects" the establishment of a Palestinian state. (see: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/old/view_article_details.php?id=14772). That's the party of which Israeli PM Netanyahu is leader of.
Finally, the very nature of 'precision' when launching an onslaught of attacks on Gaza is pretty absurd. Gaza is 25 miles long, and 7 miles in breadth at its widest yet home to a population of 1.8 million. It is blockaded by Israel and Egypt. And what Israel has consistently demonstrated over the last 4 weeks is that nowhere is safe to seek refuge. As David Blair writes in the Telegraph: "about half of Gaza’s people are under the age of 18. No one fights in Gaza without maiming, killing, displacing or traumatising legions of children. This not a campaign waged in empty desert, mountain or plain [...] but a battle fought in narrow alleyways crowded with infants and families" (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidblair/100282273/you-learn-a-lot-very-quickly-in-gaza/)

Second, in cases where civilian areas and infrastructure is targeted, as Glenn Greenwald states: "If you say "Israel just bombed X", huge numbers of people are trained to say "but Hamas hid weapons there" w/o having any idea if it's true". And indeed, in cases where Israel has killed kids on the beach, people watching the world cup in a cafe, civilians fleeing and so on, it's easy to see that Israel's line certainly does not match the reality on the ground. Human Rights Watch has investigated Israel's action and found that repeatedly "the Israeli military has presented no information to show that it was attacking lawful military objectives or acted to minimize civilian casualties". In most of the sites of attacks investigated, HRW found "no valid military targets". Israel has also attacked hospitals. As Amnesty have noted, "there can be no justification for targeting medical facilities at any time". (http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/israelgaza-attacks-medical-facilities-and-civilians-add-war-crime-allegatio)

I am going to outline my views here and leave it at that.

Anyone who has seen the news, read papers etc will most likely have seen Israel present the case that its military operation is as precise as possible, and that where civilians have been targeted it is due to Hamas using them as human shields.

The 'human shield' charge falls into two classes: that civilians themselves are urged to stay in targeted areas to shield militants; that civilian areas and infrastructure are used to store munitions, to launch rockets etc.

Reporters working for the BBC (http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/07/jeremy-bowens-gaza-notebook-i-saw-no-evidence-hamas-using-palestinians-human), the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/gaza-hamas-fighters-military-bases-guerrilla-war-civilians-israel-idf), the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-the-myth-of-hamass-human-shield-9619810.html) among others have found no evidence that this strategy has been used in Gaza, whilst Amnesty International has vindicated this by claiming that it "does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks". Perhaps more crucially, though, Amnesty points out that "even if officials or fighters from Hamas or Palestinian armed groups associated with other factions did in fact direct civilians to remain in a specific location in order to shield military objectives from attacks, all of Israel’s obligations to protect these civilians would still apply" (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/017/2014/en/5b79b682-8d41-4751-9cbc-a0465f6433c3/mde150172014en.html)

muslims and israelites have been fighting for the last hundred years, why is this still news?

i am glad you made this.