countries act in their own self-interest and will stop even allies if they acting against those interest. Saudi has had several differences with US's policy in the middle east. they're still allies though. and both acted in their own self-interest without seeking the approval of the other, nevermind that even if they did and had disagreement still worked towards their own end goals.
The US is an empire by power projection and influence, not a literal empire in the classical sense. it can't actually dictate to most countries what it can or can't do nearly as well as past empires once did. and that doesn't mean it's necessarily inherently evil either, in fact i'd argue the Uni-polar world with the US being the sold superpower is a better world then a world where it's Russia or China is calling the shots...
Should probably sit down one day and read through the Wikileaks leaked documents, you'll find even the allies have disagreements and all the dealings they do. but the one thing you'll notice almost across the board is that each party is rational and acting in their own self-interest.
@sibu_xgamer - It seems to me that whenever anyone wants to bring up international law, they don't tend to read the fine details. Arabs (and i am one of them) really like to bring up international law against Israel, they bring up UN Resolution 242, but then negate to mention that on top of Israel pulling back from the captured '67 territories, that Israel is to have strong defensible borders.
At it's narrowest point between West Bank and Mediterranean sea it is 9 miles. That is indefensible for any army. Now there can be a security arrangement reached between the new Palestine and Israel but if anyone has bothered to watch Arab or Palestinian TV in Arabic you'll come to find that they're really not even interested in Israel existing in the first place. Which then goes on to negate UN Resolution 181, which the Arabs acted against in 1948 waging the war against the new Israel and in which Israel ended up winning and increasing it's territorial hold. the 1956 war and UN Resolution 242 essentially made 1967 borders the internationally recognized borders, which are greater then what was given in 1948 original partitioning.
International Law only seems to apply when people want them to be applied.
If your talking settlements then I agree, I think they're illegal and i don't buy the Israeli argument, but again, it's been decades and the problem largely been on the Arab side, they have to come to terms that an Israel exists, i think the Arab leaders know it and accepted the reality. the Arab on the street however it's a very very different story. the issue of Right of Return will need to be a mixture of Arabs taking them in, Israel taking some in, new Palestine taking some in, and international body taking them in.
so it's not like the Arabs are super ideologically strict about international law. in fact i'd ask and welcome you to come to any of the 22 Arab states and tell me that they're all like Sweden when it comes to human rights, and we are much more humane in modern warfare then Israel with it's nasty leaflets, phone calls and roof tapping warnings. in Syria they do helicopter barrel bombings, which i hear is a blast in the neighborhoods...
I even often hear from friends in Bahrain that they won't respect Israel until they can treat their Arab Israeli citizens better. this coming from Arabs - like myself - who couldn't say a negative thing to our leadership or the clergy without losing our jobs and being thrown in jail for 20 years. remember even in glamorous fabulous Dubai, you can't say anything negative about the city without getting jailed. the same group of friends that don't recognize Israel's right to exist demand that Israel take better care of the Arabs then the Arabs take care of themselves?! the irony is lost on them....
A Saudi human rights lawyer recently went to jail for 15 years for the crime of inciting public opinion...
The problem for the Arabs in the end with Israel, especially the Palestinians when negotiating. is that the Arabs are in no position to threaten Israel physically, it's a nuclear powered nation, many of it's weapon system are positively future-war like. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen are on fire, Egypt is teetering on bankruptcy and has a smaller GDP then Israel does (and keep in mind Egypt is 80 million people vs Israel's 7 million) and a FAR higher poverty level, Lebanon is Belgium with a cancerous growth called Hezbollah. the Palestinians are helpless militarily-speaking, the Gulf states are at the moment largely insulated thanks to high-oil prices and can manage stability despite internal problems and threats from Iran. Everyone else in the Arab nation is either too far away or too small to matter.
So militarily it's impossible to threaten Israel physically, not to mention watch how the international community would react to wiping out a UN member state (same as what happened with Kuwait).
and it turns out, you can't negotiate Israel out of existence either....
But the Arab persist in this notion of eradicating the state, and no Palesitnian leader has the gall to share Jerusalem, accept limited and multilateral right of return, and land swaps based primarily on the 1967 borders. in fact some in the PLO consider this path to peace as only a temporary stepping stone to eradication of the state.
So while i think the Israeli settlements are illegal and need to be pulled back. keep what i said in mind whenever you think the Israeli leadership whether left or right wing, is being a dick in negotiations. y ou don't speak or understand Arabic, what they tell you in the West is not always the same what they say in the Arab world.
I can tell you when they say "Palestine from the river to the sea" they're not talking just West Bank and Gaza, but all of it....
If after reading all this you still wanna argue that i'm wrong, then i suggest you
it's Al Jazeera footage so they might of wanted to take it off the air because it's their footage. and they're playing a very hard propaganda campaign on both their Arabic and English channels whenever the Gaza conflict comes up. If i find it again i'll post it.
In the mean time the IDF made a strike on one of the entrances to the tunnels, in the tunnels they use them for storage of rockets and munitions, as well as hidden launch pads (kinda like an ICBM lift off from underground). well when the IDF made a strike it set off a massive chain reaction of explosions.
@alim298 After just ONE Houthi rebel raid on a Saudi patrol in Saudi - killing 2 soldiers and injuring 11 others was enough to bring Saudi into the Yemeni-Houthi war.
Israel was under constant bombardment of rockets in 2014 and near constant in 2013 . Hamas is like that Ret@rded kid pulling on the fur, ears, nose, and tail of a dog then suddenly being surprised when the dog bites back after an immense amount of patience has been spent.
People.. do just a tiny bit of research before opening your yaps on conflicts. even a wiki search will provide more then enough supported and cited evidence.
@thebest31406 - I know this might blow your mind, but the vast majority of countries don't require US approval when acting in their own self interest.
The US's Arab ally Saudi Arabia began a military campaign against Houthi rebels in 2009 with Operation Scorched Earth did'nt happen because USA gave the green light. they didn't wait for approval because Yemen is an explicitly Saudi issue that they care about and continue to be.
The US has to apply pressure that is usually very public in order to get countries to do anything, usually stopping things like ceasefire or to do things like hold diplomatic meetings or actively recruiting nations to join them in the coalition of the willing like Iraq War 2003.
It's more like Liechtenstein gone suicidal with Austria over lost lands from 60 years ago. Austria puts a blockade on it to prevent it from bringing any further harm on it, seeing how Liechtenstein is hell-bent on fighting Austria. then as Liechtenstein goes to war by constantly firing rockets or attempted cross-border raids - is suddenly confronted with the partial force of Austria and is now crying foul because of the extremely unfair military advantage Austria wields over Liechtenstein. it's so bad that it's neighbor Switzerland (Egypt in this analogy) has joined in making the blockade more effective until Liechtenstein decides to come to it's senses.
The people of Gaza end up suffering in the end, for the political goals, ambitions and decisions made by their elected leadership.
Iran is moving towards developing nuclear weapons, they voted for Ahmadinejad, still means US and international crippling sanctions apply until Iran figures out nuclear weapons might not be a super great thing to have or to be going for. They voted for Rouhani later on but the nuclear issue has not been resolved yet, hence sanctions stay in place.
@HoolaHoopMan: shhh don't be spoiling the narrative now. everyone knows the Palestinians are only treated as the social underclass in Israel only. not their beloved Arab neighbros.
The reason i'm withholding judgement on the hospital is because Al Jazeera English was making mention when it first happened that the area has been 'mostly' quiet of fighting. and i've noticed they're using a ton of weasel wording in their coverage that i don't trust them to give the full version. Meanwhile we got this:
Hamas firing from civilian places:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3yy7O5Zvo
Hamas firing from homes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfbjO2WznEk
Hamas placing Grad rockets next to a school (imagine if this got blown by an aircraft missile, the story would of been school attacked not rockets placed next to school):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u57yxd753f8
Mortar shots from UN school for boys in Beit Hanoun (from 5 years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXXUOs27lI
Hamas stores weapons underground in their maze of tunnels (made with concrete Israel provided to assist in their reconstruction) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMzLCJyevCk (Al-Jazeera Arabic link)
When IDF strikes it, sometimes sets off chain reaction explosions from underground -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn2Vee_N8SM&list=UUawNWlihdgaycQpO3zi-jYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O114V9PdmM&list=UUawNWlihdgaycQpO3zi-jYg (because if they blow up the ambulance, it wont be that they went after Hamas guys... it'll be they blew up the ambulance - Terrorists Use Ambulance for Transportation in Gaza
Under the 4th Geneva Convention Protocols under article 53: "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or co-operative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations."
also under Article 3 : decree that both POWs and civilians should not be “used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.” "
what do you think Hamas is doing putting weapons staging sites, storing areas in, under and around civilian areas, then telling the people to stay in their homes.
civilian deaths are inevitable in urban warfare. but i think i made my point abundantly clear. nobody focusing on the combat on the ground. everyone at the hospitals, and Hamas/Islamic Jihad have disappeared from the coverage.
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