Europe countries should join the BDS and boycott Israel

I clearly see your point of view, and I agree with some of it, but I disagree with major parts of it. I would also like to point out that I am not right-wing at all. I am a moderate who sides with the liberals on some issues and the conservatives on others. First of all, when a country is at war, there is always aggression from both sides, in this case, the Israelis and Palestinians. Both sides in this conflict have done wrong things. I am not justifying Hamas nor the IDF, I am just stating this as a fact of war. As for Israel warning the people in Gaza, there is a lot of discussion on whether or not they give sufficient warning. In this article in the New York Times, it is stated that "the caller said that everyone in the house must leave within five minutes, because it was going to be bombed." This article was talking from an objective standpoint about the people who didn't have time to leave, etc, but I would argue that 5 minutes is never enough to leave the house. Additionally, it doesn't make it ok to bomb civilian houses *no matter what* even if you give them a warning. They lose the place they live in, they lose all of their belongings, and they will be living on the streets until they can figure something out. You might argue that Israel is targeting Hamas, but in that case, why would you give them warning? It is illogical to give your enemy a warning of when and where you will hit because they will be able to stay one step ahead of you. There is no denying that Palestinian civilian houses were bombed and that Palestinian civilians were killed. But whose fault is it? Israel gave an insufficient warning that it will bomb Gaza, and as a result, civilians died. Hamas may have prevented them from leaving (which is obviously wrong) but to where? Gaza is surrounded by walls and the sea is patrolled by the Israeli navy. Even if they get away from their houses, which they lost forever, they will go near other houses that will be bombed. Even if they manage to get away from all of these houses, they will still be stuck in Gaza because Israel would not allow them into their land. The US doesn't warn civilians near ISIS that they will be bombed, and that is wrong, but that doesn't mean what Israel does is right. It is never ok to kill civilians, period. You said that most of the records of an Israeli hitting a Palestinian child first are fake and taken out of context, and that if any soldier does that they are punished. Fair enough, let's assume this is true. Is a child throwing rocks at soldiers punishable by being shot? Shouldn't a child, (emphasis on *child*) be punished by something less severe than getting shot? What happened to Juvenile detention centers? These punishments, especially to children (as you yourself stated) are illegal according to international law, because a child needs to be punished as a child and not as an adult. Sure, punish the children, imprison them, give them fines, etc. but do not kill them. The adults are a different matter. As for the media bias, I would totally argue otherwise. Israel is portrayed extremely well in the media here. Of course they report if a Palestinian child was killed or if Gaza was bombed, but they also report when Israelis are killed or when Hamas kills civilians. Objective reporting is reporting both sides, not one side only, and I think that is what the media does. Also, there is no question that the expanding settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are illegal under international law. Many leaders have called on Israel to stay within the 1967 borders, as did the United Nations in resolution 242, and as was part of the Camp David treaty, the Oslo Accords, and the Geneva Initiative. That is considered an aggression on the Israeli part (although I won't deny that the Palestinians didn't comply with some aspects of those treaties either, but no business is done with them anyways.) Finally, the BDS movement is more symbolic than to hurt Israel financially. Of course the United States will still continue to give Israel 8-10 million dollars of aid *per day* (2) and of course Israel will still be supported by many people. The BDS movement will never stop Israel and will barely hurt it financially, but it will make a statement. I agree with you that trade is good, and Israeli dates are tasty, probably strawberries too. But like I said, the BDS movement will barely do anything to Israel's economy. It is mainly there to make a point. You might argue that nothing like it is being done to the Palestinians, but I will say that no business is done with Palestine anyways, so there is no point for that. 1. http://www.nytimes.com... 2. http://www.politifact.com...