In Order To Be An Efficient Soldier When The Duty At Hand Is The Killing Of Civilians...

[sandyRoe]

...would it help if you considered the people to be killed untermensch?

[Gromit]

This is a missle eye view of the bombing of the same block or similar. Because it is a tall building, the IDF call it a Hamas watch tower when they posted it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz1pP93nX2U&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Gromit]

// Gromit, I can't see what hit the top of that building, but whatever it was didn't appear to do much damage. //

The IDF call it Roof Knocking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roof_knocking

The idea is that it warns inhabitants that the place is about to be bombed. Unfortunately in this case, the big bomb came about 6 seconds after the knock on the roof. Not really much time to ecacuate if you are on the 5th floor.

[humbersloop]

Don't think there's really much doubt about what's actually happening Gromit.

So, to go back to the op, it seems like Israel is collectively exhibiting "everybody hates us and we don't care" on a pathological scale, with absolutely no evident moral compass. It must be one of the most dysfunctional colonial powers that's ever existed.

The facts are they have a functioning state, a strong economy, international financial and diplomatic support and the world's fourth largest military machine. Events elsewhere in the Arab world means practically, it faces no existential threat as far as I can see, if it ever has.

The Palestinians, despite years of international talk, have been displaced, divided, blockaded and had their resources violently expropriated while Israel expands into the last of their land, which is destroying any faint prospects of either a Palestinian state or a two state solution.

It's in the Palestinians' gift to recognize Israel and it's in Israel's gift to create an alternative nation, both depressingly remote prospects. Although I was interested to see even Israel's usual promoters, however apologetically, can't excuse this time:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2703531/MAX-HASTINGS-Ive-loved-Israel-brutality-breaks-heart.html

[naomi24]

//Don't think there's really much doubt about what's actually happening Gromit.//

I do.

Your link doesn’t work, Gromit, and if the building in your second video may not be the same one, it's irrelevant. Sorry, still can’t see why anyone would train a camera on a very ordinary building unless they were expecting something to happen. Anyway, moving on….

[Gromit]

Naomi,

You should have gone to SpecSavers.

The missile is clearly visible in the video, not sure why you cannot see it streak in? . Here is a still from the video.

http://www.unclesamspress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/34424-thumb.jpg

Most CCTV cameras stare at nothing most of the time. This is clearly a static camera (not handheld or a phone). Seems likely it is a security camera watching that entrance.

[sandyRoe]

Is there a suggestion here that the Palestinians would blow up one of their own buildings at the same time much of the area is being raized to the ground by Israelis?

[jno]

there are various ways of killing enemies. You may have to convince your soldiers that if they don't do the killing they will be killed themselves, as is usually the case in battle. You may convince them their enemies are less than human - the Japanese seem to have done this in WW2 (though not the Germans, except for the purposes of the Holocaust). You may indulge in a lot of high-level bombing where the bomber never even sees the victim. Or you may use drones so there isn't a bomber at all.

[naomi24]

Gromit, okay, seen it now.

[humbersloop]

^^
//Don't think there's really much doubt about what's actually happening Gromit.//

To clarify. As in, I think there's general agreement the IDF has extensively bombed and shelled Gaza over the last nineteen days, resulting in 883 Palestinian and 40 Israeli dead and 160,000 Palestinians displaced.

It was a long post as it was.

[Hypognosis]

Wish I'd looked at the slo-mo vid Gromit posted 10:15 Sat 26th because that link now produces a page saying it is time expired :-(

This thread is no place for humour but here's another angle, featuring what might be the same block of flats, which I came across while browsing LiveLeak
http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=2a2_1406482408