Americans Divided on whether Israel's actions against Hamas justified.

That's tremendous progress imo. Once upon a time, Americans were overwhelmingly supportive.

I think the idea of Israel doing what it needs to do to stop a threat to their country is completely justifiable. Killing innocent civilians is not. I'm not saying the Hamas aren't doing the same.

This one is from the Pew Research Center:

Hamas Seen as More to Blame Than Israel for Current Violence

It's interesting that in the Gallup poll, more women and minorities disapprove of the bombardment while White men support it.

I think killing innocent civilians is not good if they have problem with the government they should fight with government.and more over they are causing threat to their own nation,Americans should not involve in this matter as this is personal.

Thank You

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I don't think there is a yes or no answer....

I don't like the wording of your poll. Are actions against Hamas justified? Sure. Are actions against the people of Gaza justified? Absolutely not.

This.

Killing innocent civilians is not justified no. Sadly, Hamas is purposefully putting Israel in that situation so they can use the dead civvies as props. It's not an accident so many civilians are being killed in this operation, it's a calculated strategy of Hamas to get as many civilians killed as possible.

Hamas also inflates civilian deaths by counting their own members as a civilian.

Does it really matter when something like 96% of all deaths since 2005 are Palestinian? Even if Hamas is horribly inflating their members as civilians, i don't think it warrants the rather nonchalant approach that Israel has toward killing Palestinian civilians.

Nice way to rationalize. Hamas has a nonchalant approach TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE and you don't say shit about that. How can another country care when Palestine doesn't even care for itself? If you treat your own as fodder....don't point fingers when others see them the same way.

And when you have an overwhelming force, it is your duty to be the better person. When we went into Afghanistan, we didn't go around bombing the entire country looking for Al-Queda. We took our resources to fight and attack a terrorist organization as needed.

Israel's keeps just saying "but what choice do we have but to kill a bunch of civilians in the process" as well as "they keep setting up traps to kill more civilians." Wow, thats a little weird that they seem to keep falling into the traps over and over again. How careless of them.

That entire region would be better off a giant glass crater.

Any and all countries have a right to target areas where weapons are stored and/or being fired.

Afghanistan is not a super densely populated tiny spit of land.

Damn...should have caught that myself. Yes, the question does imply that Israel is primarily targeting Hamas when the number of killings suggest otherwise.

That is because half of Americans listen to Fox propaganda.

@seahorse123: who's propaganda should we listen to?

Find the truth, it is hard to find.

A tip: Don't listen to mainstream media.

Americans are divided on most things.

i laugh at anybody who would even give "hamas" anything a second of reasonable thought.

No, of course their actions aren't justified. Let's keep in mind that the majority of Israeli casualties have been militants, where as the majority of Palestinians killed have been innocent civilians... most of which were children and women.

We can sit here and try to justify Israeli war crimes all day but the fact remains that Hamas is using homemade rockets to protect the most densely populated area on the planet against one of the strongest armies in the world.

And yes I said "protect" because if we look back to the beginning of the conflict, Israel was the one who began the incident and are the ones who constantly break ceasefire agreements... it's Hamas' duty to protect the land which they govern, and if it were the US army firing rockets against aggressors and oppression I know most of the hypocrites here would not say a word or give me this "hamas is a terrorist organization" rubbish.. until they kill a fraction of the amount of civilians that Israel has murdered, you can keep your double standards to yourself.

#IstandwithIsrael

@mm551144: hamas' duty, lol. protect the "palestinian people", lol. the land "they govern", lol.

@udUbdaWgz1

Yes..yes..and yes.

Enlighten me, oh arrogant one.

Hamas and Palestine are two different beasts and it's even subjective between them.

The way i see it in my opinion. Israel's actions against Hamas is justified. before the operation has started. after the IDF found the teenagers dead not far from where they were kidnapped after all that Hamas started firing rockets. Israel didn't start the aggression, Hamas did and Israel did what they must do to defend their nation, its citizens from these terrorists. then yes the IDF did air strikes but you know those civilians deaths weren't the fault of Israel. it's been proven that Hamas told the people of Gaza to stay in their homes and die as martyrs. but dying for what ? Hamas's extremist beliefs. the IDF sent out notices and told the people of Gaza to flee for safety but Hamas told them to stay and im sure those people were scared badly not knowing what to do and if they were to listen to the IDF they could be killed by Hamas. and also its been proven that they use their population as human shields for them. yeah Hamas are a bunch of cowards that had so many people dead for their actions. in all the IDF did what they can to save lives but Hamas... nope they don't give a damn about the civilians at all. The Israelis and Palestinians won't be at peace until Hamas is gone for good and that right now is far from it happening ....

First and foremost I DO NOT SUPPORT THE ACTIONS OF HAMAS. Now can someone please provide evidence that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields. Please. Because according to Amnesty International (https://www.amnesty.org/fr/library/asset/MDE15/021/2009/fr/9543003e-8282-4a1c-b4c9-bfc4743dc131/mde150212009eng.html), Human Rights Watch, independent international journalists and and the UN, they found ZERO EVIDENCE that Hamas does so (note: link to Amnesty actually refers to Operation Cast Lead but Israel used the "Hamas hides behinds civilians" card then too). I swear the claim essentially blames the Palestinians for their own deaths and to say Israel isn't intentionally trying to kill Palestinians is BS. Going by the Goldstone Report, the UN found that the Israeli military op. dubbed "Operation Cast Lead" was designed to humiliate and terrorize a civilian population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Fact_Finding_Mission_on_the_Gaza_Conflict#Accusations_against_Israel) and it's not the only time in recent memory the IDF has targeted civilians (refer to Lebanon http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/lebanon0907.pdf). Also someone please tell me where the hell Palestinians are supposed to flee to? That place is a f****** war zone; there's nowhere safe to go when Israel is targeting hospitals, schools, mosques, etc. Once again to those who say Hamas is the source of the troubles of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; there's a little something called Israeli apartheid you may want to search up. #NoJusticeNoPeace #Sorryforthemess

lol

here's a fun recent example of france24 inadvertently capturing rocket launches from shifa hospital:

I'm unable to load your vid pie but is the second video on here the same (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/03/dont-use-me-reporter-admits-seeing-rocket-fired-from-gaza-hospital-then-blasts-pro-israel-media-for-quoting-her%E2%80%A8/)? Like I said I don't support Hamas' rocket fire but that does not excuse Israel's radical use of force given that the Iron Dome neutralizes most of the rocket fire anyway.

@mm551144 "most of which were children and women."

For the life of me I will never understand why people put so much emphasis on this part. Like, is a man's life somehow less valuable that you feel the need to distinguish between "women and children" and "men"? Would it matter less if the lives lost were men?

hamas, if you do not want to get bombed. stop firing fucking rockets into isreal.

jesus, it's not that complicated.

Of course Israel is justified to stop the terrorist actions of Hamas.... however, by doing so they are killing many innocent civilians, which is of course a terrorist action in itself, so a big no no. I can sympathise with the Palestinians, but in my opinion, Hamas is a terrorist organisation which is bringing the Palestinian people more harm than good.

The violence has to stop though, but I don't see it happening in the near future.

you can either sit back and let the islamic terrorists kill you, or you could make a stand and fight back. I fully support Israel against the terrorists, shame on those who believe we must talk to the terrorists and ask for peace. There is no such thing as peace with them, they are barbarians and need to be dealt with. No one likes violence, but as long as they are around, violence will be an everyday thing. Obama and the world should be supporting Israel, not by joining them on the battlefield, but for helping the world clear out the trash in the middle east and other parts of the world