The Great Experiment

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by ManM

It's just that the situation appears to be a bit different when you take into consideration who Israel is fighting against. Hostages are taken for the purpose of extortion.

Hostages are taken by the Israelis too, they have arrested half the Hamas cabinet, do you seriously think they are gonna charge them with anything? They are abducting Palestinians by the dozens and holding them without charge (inside Israel, another violation of the Geneva Conventions).

What you characterize as "resistance" is often violent action against innocent Israeli citizens. Just as easily as you say it doesn't matter what Palestinians are doing, I could say it doesn't matter what Israel is doing. However, demonizing one half of the conflict doesn't help when it comes to understanding the underlying motives.

What Israel is forcing the Palestinian population to comply with does matter. There is a difference between trying to steal land from the Palestinians and trying to force them into behaving civilized.

That is just my point though, isn't it? The US and EU calls whatever the Palestinians are doing terrorism and is forcing them to recognise Israel (what you describe as "behaving civilised"), in blatant contravention of the Geneva Conventions. Who is doing the demonising here? What you characterize as "trying to force them into behaving civilized" is often violent action against innocent Palestinian citizens and always collective punishment.