Hamas is more at fault for the current suffering of Palestinians than Israel.

Firstly, before I start with this debate, I would like to define some terms: Current Suffering should be defined as the suffering in the status quo; i. e the start of the new Israeli Military Offensive against Hamas At Fault is defined as the “cause” of this current suffering; the person inflicting the most damage. Etc. For the opponent to win in this debate, the opponent has to prove that Hamas holds more responsibility in Israel’s action in Operation Protective Edge. 2R1NRC: On the Creation of Hamas Israel deliberately created Hamas to fight against Palestinian Liberation Organization; not directly, but by the act of acquiescence. After the 1967 “Six Day War” with Egypt, Israel started to arrest and consequent dismantling of the secular Palestinian Liberation Organization; at this point, one must observe that the PLO is secular in nature, and adheres to the policy of Social Democracy and Palestinian Nationalism. Israel, in order to counter this, encouraged Islamic sectarian sentiments in Gaza; Ahmed Yassin, an Islamic Sheik, was benefitted by this. It is clear here that Israel still thought of the secular PLO as the main enemies; the Israeli Governor of Gaza in 1979 stated that “Fatah was our main enemy” [1] At this point, Yassin set up an Islamic Charity, in which the Governor of Gaza ignorantly stated that this “charity was set up for peaceful purposes only” It was more than clear what Yassin’s intentions were. Conflicts between both factions broke out; the situation was going too well for the Israelis. In 1984, the Israeli Governor arrested Yassin when they found weapon caches in his charity; however, Yassim stated that these weapons were going to be used against the secular Palestinians only. After Yassim’s release, Avner Cohen, a religious affair official, submitted a report warning of this growing Islamic movement. This report was ignored; the current situation was about to explode, as if it were lava from a long inactive volcano. [1] After an incident in which six Palestinians were killed by an Israeli drive, Gaza went up all in flames. In 1987, the words “Hamas” appeared on a leaflet for the first time; this leaflet was written by Yassim’s charity organization, which has so long been allowed and even supported by Israeli Agencies. [1] Firstly, we have to raise inquiries; Israel, whose hatred of Palestinians drove them to create disunity in Palestine, could have stopped the creation of Hamas if it had arrested Yassin and dismantled his charity. But they did not; ­did they, in this case, created Hamas indirectly? Secondly, why did Israel ignore reports of the growing Hamas threats? Avner Cohen, surveying the damage that his bungalow received from a Hamas rocket, recorded that “Hamas was an enormous, stupid mistake” Note that he was the same person who wrote reports to the Israeli Government regarding the development of Hamas. [2] The opponent allegedly states that Hamas was not the creation of Israel because they are already fighting each other in the 1980s. This is a vague description; notice that the Gaza then was still under de facto Israeli rule. Apart from that, the opponent concerns himself with mainly the affairs of the 21st century, henceforth ignoring all that came before the 21st century. Note that this contention is based upon the creation of Hamas, not the empowering of Hamas. Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, as the opponent states; this was Israel’s gravest mistake. 2R2NRC: Weapons The weapon analysis of both sides is necessary for the understanding of this argument to be complete. Firstly, we have to look at the Palestinian rockets; almost all rockets fired by Palestine are a Qassam Rocket. These Qassam Rockets are simple, but devastating. Propelled by a single mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate, the rocket carries a simple scavenged TNT charge; usually 10kg at most. These have a range of 9km only. [3] It is estimated that the Hamas and its fighting brigades, the Aal-Qassam Brigades, have fired 2,800 of these rockets into Israel. Israel has done a great job of protecting their citizens against this threat; since the introduction of this rocket, the Iron Dome missile system has been emplaced to fight this threat. The Iron Dome is a defensive missile system that shoots down short range rockets and long range artillery projectile; this system is very expensive, and has saved many Israeli lives. [4] With this said, we have to look at this from an Israeli perspective. Whilst Gaza launches homemade rockets at Israel, Israel launches attacks from F-16 strike fighter and possibly the A-4 Douglass. These two planes are one of the most feared planes in the modern world; the F-16 has an extensive armament, a very fast top speed, and flies at attitudes where few RPGs can reach. Israel has launched, from February, 1,300 airstrikes against Gaza and Hamas; keep in mind that when we compare the payload between the two weapons (the F-16 and the normal Qassam rocket), the F-16 has a payload of 7,000kg. With the F-16, Israel has also deployed missiles against the inhabitants of Gaza; in combination with the air-attacks, Israel has launched a total of 1,300 attacks against Gaza, most of these attacks from conventional weapons against innocent civilians. Gaza has launched, in return, only 2,890 crude rockets into Israel, most of which were shot down. The inhabitants of Gaza have no form of robotic missile defense against such a payload. [5][6] With this being said, we can conclude (with this opponent’s data) that whilst 42 attacks misfired, the devastation caused by this attack was not as much as the 1,300 airstrikes launched by Israel to deliberately attack innocent inhabitants of Gaza. Apart from airstrikes, Israel has targeted schools deliberately; it has so far hit seven UN designated housing areas! There is absolutely no justification for this; the last one hit with an Israeli attack sheltered 3,000 displaced inhabitants of Gaza, and killed 10 along with wounding another 35. So far, Israel has killed 2,000 inhabitants of Gaza, whilst the Hamas (not even the inhabitants of Gaza) killed three Israeli teens. [6][7] Israel’s attack are often launched without much precedent; Israel still has to account for the killing of many Palestinians, especially one several hours after the death of the three children, in which a Palestinian citizen was abducted and burned to death by Israeli forces. 2R3NRC: On Leadership This case will be a quick one; the opponent states that the Hamas teaches children to act in an unsatisfactory way. Well, two objections; Israel has caused so much destruction within Gaza that martyrdom was an act to defy injustice. The destruction as said before was in no way justified; but these suicide bombers have taken the struggle upon their hands, because the destruction of their people cannot be ever justified. Secondly, Hamas was indirectly created by Israel to fight against the secular PLO members, as stated in the first NRC. This was the reason why many suicide bombers decided to sacrifice their lives for the death of these “Israeli thugs” 39.9% of suicide bombings were carried out by Hamas, 26.4% by Fatah, 25.7% by the Palestine Islamic Jihad, 5.4% by the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, and 2% by other organizations during the Second Intifada, causing the deaths of 804 Israeli citizens as of 2008; however, within two month, Israeli attacks have killed 1,900 Palestinians. [6][7][8] 2R4NRC: On the Usage of Human Shields Conclusive evidence of human shields used by the Hamas is very, at best, slight; the IDF report of the “Urban Warfare” manual was a hoax, as the two 452x250 pixels was not printed on smooth background, yet the text was complete parallel with the book. The book was clearly not printed on smooth ground, but yet the curves, clearly visible in the picture, ends before the text. This was the picture of the manual; although the opponent may bring up more contentions to counter this, there is more than conclusive evidence of Israel’s usage of human shields against Palestine. The Israeli Defense Forces admitted in 2005 that 1,500 Palestinian citizens were used as human shields; although the Israeli Supreme Court banned such barbaric practices, there has been more conclusive evidence that this practice has not abandoned yet. In 2009, testimonies were released that show that Israel still used human shields against Palestine. [9] [10] Accordingly to one testimony: Close in on each house. The method used has a new name now - no longe 'neighbor procedure. ' Now people are called 'Johnnie. ' They're Palestinian civilians, and they're called Johnnies and there were civilians there who stayed in spite of the flyers the army distributed before it went in. One cannot be conclusive enough; there are more IDF testimonies that conclude that the practice of human shields did not stop after the banishment of the practice in 2009. I hand the floor back to the opponent. Citations: [1] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] online. wsj. com/news/articles/SB123275572295011847 [3] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [5] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [6] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [7] . https://news.vice.com... [8] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [9] . http://scgnews.com... [10] . http://news.bbc.co.uk...