Israel Is Wrong

Forfeit by Pro so rebuttals are directed at round one only. Summarization of ArgumentsAs highlighted, history would suggest that the ongoing conflict was in fact not initiated by Israel. Even before large-scale Jewish immigration, Arabs (though of course, not all) within Palestine began riots in populated areas such as Jerusalem and then initiated events such as the Hebron, Jaffa and Safed massacres. The majority of this was led by Haj al-Husseni (the mufti), someone from an extremely wealthy background and whose domestic interests (such as small ownership of land/property) were not threatened by any future incoming migration. Because of his new political interests, he became an admirer of and also asked to receive the assistance of Hitler in "solving the Jewish elements" in not only Palestine but all other Arab countries. When Israel did eventually become a state, it experienced a year long war in which it was forced (because of invasion of Israeli territory, and repeated threats) to defend itself and eventually won. Because territory lines drawn up by the U.N were only armistice, the settlements that currently exist within Israel are technically not "illegal". Rather they are merely on disputed land that has not formally belonged to a sovereign entity since the Ottoman Empire.After its War of Independence, Israel still continued to face intermittent terror attacks--as it is still doing in present time. Sometimes such attacks from individual or small groups of persons acting alone and, as many cases show, on other occasions they were militant organized attacks. The next prominent terrorism group to be established was the Palestinian Liberation Organization--that is now known as Fatah. A group that was created by Yasser Arafat, and began by launching terror raids against Israel in 1965. A year after in 1967 the Six Day War started, primarily because Syria had decided to mobilize its troops against Israel and because Egypt has closed the Straits of Tiran, a hugely important shipping area for Israel. Both classify as an "act of war". Evidently neither armies were dissuaded from initiating war again, as both Egyptian and Syrian attacked Israel in 1973, while Yom Kippur was being celebrated. Other Arab nations such as Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, and Kuwait assisted aided these armies with financial assistance and military support. Libya in fact contributed $1 billion to Egyptian army and provided expensive weaponry. Despite the fact that a number of ten countries were involved and the obvious military superiority, Israel still managed to eventually secure a victory, if not a very close one. As with the Six Day War, terrorist groups still began to form and Israel still continued to be targeted. While Fatah is still an acting organization, and current has current governance of the West Bank, it is now Hamas that is Israel's main issue in terms of conflict and neighboring terror groups. I'll state once again that all conflicts concerning have been initiated and prolonged (example, refusal and rejection of ceasefire) by Hamas. One of the ideological starting points of Hamas is: "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, May Allah Pity his Soul)."Here we have a "martyr" of Hamas explicitly stating that Islam will eliminate Israel. Which of course, involves the provoking of war and killing of civilians. The Hamas Charter also goes on to state:"This is the Charter of the Islamic Resistance (Hamas) which will reveal its face, unveil its identity, state its position, clarify its purpose, discuss its hopes, call for support to its cause and reinforcement, and for joining its ranks. For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah's victory prevails. Thus we shall perceive them approaching in the horizon, and this will be known before long."Rather this is not referring to Israel in its name, this one simply states "the Jews", which categorizes not a country but an entire group of people. Drawing again to Article 51 of the UN Charter which confirms Israel's right to self-defence when under attack, therefore contradicting your resolution of Israel being "wrong". Clearly it is not legally wrong in defending itself, so how else exactly is it wrong? Seemingly, the sense of wrongness is your opinion only. Now I'll allude to previous statements by Pro. Rebuttals"Listening to Netanyahu's defenders in the media (and that is pretty much all you get as objective reporters are yanked off the air), I'm struck by how Americans are indoctrinated into ignoring the most significant fact about Gaza."This statement is undermined by the fact that Nentanyau does indeed have his share of critics, in America and elsewhere. There's also no evidence provided to suggest that the American population is indoctrinated into ignoring the most, or any, significant fact about Gaza. "That is the cause of the "war." Yes, Israel has the "right" to defend itself but Palestinians have the "right" to resist occupation."Gaza is not occupied. In fact, it has been a Palestinian controlled area since 2005 when all Jewish citizens were withdrawn. Likewise, I have also clarified that that territory lines in other parts of Israel (such as Jerusalem) are only UN armistice, so therefore, no land is "occupied" illegally. "At the time Ariel Sharon withdrew the settlers, when the Palestinian Authority was still in charge of Gaza, he refused to coordinate Israel's withdrawal with Abbas who, despite his pleas, was not even told when the pullout would take place. Abbas wanted to ensure that the militants (who he effectively subdued in the West Bank) would not seize control. Sharon refused and the militants took over."Do you have any additional evidence to support this assertion? If Abbas had wanted to fully ensure that no militants took over, as leader of the Palestinian Authority he could have. Israel did as it was advised by withdrawing from land and handing it over to Palestinian control. The fact also remains that Hamas was elected by the residents of Gaza themselves. "Ultimately Gaza separated from the West Bank and Israel was free to enter Gaza at will, killing or imprisoning whoever it considered a threat, and, in the process, hundreds who weren't. Militants launched rockets at Israel and Israel responded, disproportionately as always."Once more, no proof is presented. Because Gaza belongs to Hamas, Israel is not free to enter Gaza at will, and the only people whom are imprisoned or killed are militants who show an active threat. The response to rockets and missiles being fired at civilian targets is not also disproportionate, the issue is that civilians are assimilated with militants. I'll also point out that there is nothing credible to suggest that there was any definitive knowledge of what happened the three Israeli teenagers that were kidnapped and killed. Hamas in fact later confessed to the murders and the culprit was caught by Israeli forces. "They are supporting Netanyahu for one reason alone: ethnic solidarity."Evidently you're unaware that Nentanyahu receives a considerable amount of criticism by Jews worldwide and by those in Israel, not for the reason that you'd likely think, but because that they believe he is simply to indecisive when responding to rocket fire and most recently: the threat of underground tunnels to Israelis in the south. The claim that questions listed in round one are not available to congress/media is also fallacious. Media criticism and coverage very suggests otherwise. [1.] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...{2.] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk...