Israel Broadens Bombing in Gaza to Civilian Sites

[Scootaloo]

93. You're not doing a great job of proving him wrong, glacierbay

For one, you skipped over Israel's 1957 invasion of Egypt. Which tells me either you didn't know about it (in which case you're hardly qualified as 'informed') or you deliberately airbrushed it out of the narrative (which makes you disingenuous.)

1948: Ever heard the phrase, "it takes two to tango?" The Arab states attacked Israel, yes. Was it just some random, "RARGHBLARGLEWEHATEJEWSBECAUSEARABSALLHATEJEWSRARGHBLARGLE!" deal as is very often asserted? No; Israel wasn't sitting around minding its own business, its paramilitary forces were engaging in assaults against Arabs both within the "Jewish"-designated areas of the Partition plan, and against the northern "Arab" sector. That is, Israeli forces were already conducting the sort of ethnic cleansing the world had seen just the year before, during the India / Pakistan partition (incidentally, both plans concocted by the British...)

1967: Saying "The Arabs attacked!" requires Arabs to have been flying Israeli planes, and the Israelis to have been in Egyptian tanks. Now, if you want to argue that Egypt has a sovereign right to launch preemptive strikes when it feels like it, go ahead; I just hope you don't bitch about George W. Bush doing the same thing thirty-six years later. Also, read up on the part the Soviets played in this one, it's rather fascinating to realize just how much of the "Arab-Israeli" conflict is actually stemming from the superpowers seeking dominion over the Suez canal! (in fact both the US and USSR stepped in in 1957 to keep the canal out of the hands of "lesser powers" - France and great britain, by Israeli proxy)

1967 sets the stage for the next two you bring up; the "War of Attrition" and the 1973 war. How does it do so? Well in 1967, Israel captured the Sinai and Golan Heights, correct? Both the wars that followed, were attempts to reclaim that territory. In the War of Attrition, the Egyptians were shelling Israeli forces in the Sinai... which was still Egyptian territory. That's not "starting a war on Israel," that's "fighting an occupying force." In 1973, Egypt and Syria (or formally, the United Arab Republic) launched offensives to try to reclaim the Sinai and Golan Heights. Again... attacking an occupying force.

Imagine that... Wars are slightly complicated things!

Also, your use of "The Arab nations." You know that there are actual individual nations there, right? Only a relatively small number of which have actually been involved in war with Israel?