little pebbles tossed one way with no one hurt no one dead

other side kills 200-300 and wounds another 300, all who had nothing to do with the little pebbles slingshot in

seems a mite bit unfair if you ask me.

Who died and allowed Israel to have nukes?
Seems hypocritical to me that Bush goes to 2 or 3 wars

and seems really rude that Israel on Christmas would do this. MF'ers that is what they are.

Take away Israel's nukes. Nukes kill. So does Israel. Women and children mostly are killed. Cowards is Israel if you ask me. Killing women and children
is being cowards.

Is there anything worth fighting and dying for?

If not your people...then what?
If not your family then what?
If not your country...you have none.

Self-loathing stops when family is attacked,
unless one assumes the contemplation of a coward.

Read it as you will.

So, because the Pal's are under-gunned, the Israelis should sit back and let them have at it?
.

Graham, you make some valid points (if your over the top hyperbolic style and factual distortions distracts from them), but while Israel has several serious faults lack of democracy is not one of them.

Graham, do you think that your gross twisting of the facts helps your case?

Israel has nukes but has never used them. Hamas has been firing rockets at Israel. Now I think that the Israeli response has been way disproportionate, they have killed many times the Palestinians than Hamas has killed Israelis. But Israelis have been killed.

If a gang were to start taking random gunshots at your favorite mall I would guess that few people would actually get killed or injured, but I bet that you would be pretty leery about going there, no matter how excellent your chances of surviving unscathed. So I can understand the feeling behind what the Israelis are doing, even if it hardly looks justifiable or likely to achieve anything good for them.

Countries act out their emontions, like pre-adolencents in an amoral mode, when they fail to establish and maintain mature, adult-level relationships with other Nations...

I see lack of functional democracy as a major fault in Israel and in the US...a functional democracy
produces a functional Consensus...

Why should that be so? What if most people of a country are not in the least interested in consensus? What if the vast majority are to the contrary interested in doing something to the people terrorizing them in their daily lives? Again, I am not defending the Israelis in what they are doing in Gaza, but in terms of democracy there are probably very few countries more democratic than Israel. In fact I think that at least in the way they elect their parliament and form governments they are literally democratic to a fault.

I've never been there...that is contrary to the impression I have of them...

That does sound like a pretty bizarre conclusion. Call me wierd but I don't think that the existence of power mismatches is the biggest problem inherent to violent conflicts in the world.

Well apparently there is no lack of people amongst both Palestinians and Israelis who would say yes to that, because many have been fighting and dying over the years, and killing.



And of course the person you fight and kill has a family too. So it goes.

in his mind, if its not his, they don't matter.They are not considered human beings to him, just objects

If Israel didn't have nukes, they would be cowering under the carpet

the old eye for an eye means never having to stop war

means killing will always go on

one side has to stop permanently

But with the Bush's doing something (supplying the weapons), one gotta use them otherwise who will pay for the CIA to continue?

Right, like the Isaelis dont live under constant threat from virtually every neighbor. Maybe the Israelis wouldnt have to treat the Palestinians in such a manner IF THEY acted properly. They will never get sympathy from the world community by launching rockets at Israel, that can be assured.

Israel is viewed quite negatively in the world, possibly because the poll was conducted less than six months following the Israel/Hezbollah war in Lebanon. On average, 56 percent have a mainly negative view of the country, and just 17 percent have a positive view, the least positive rating for any country evaluated. In 23 countries the most common view is negative, with only two leaning towards a positive view and two divided.

Unsurprisingly, the most negative views of Israel are found in the predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East, with very large majorities in Lebanon (85%), Egypt (78%), Turkey (76%), and the UAE (73%) having negative views.

Large majorities also have negative views in Europe, including Germany (77%), Greece (68%) and France (66%). Indonesia (71%), Australia (68%) and South Korea (62%) are the most negative countries in the Asia/Pacific region. Brazilians (72%) are the most negative in Latin America.

The two countries that tend to view Israel positively do so in modest numbers. Forty-five percent of Nigerians and 41 percent of Americans have positive views of Israel's influence in the world, while nearly one-third in each country has negative views. The Kenyan and Indian populations have divided views of Israel.

The rest of the world isn't having to dodge rocket's constantly.

only Iraq, Afghanastan and any place the mighty US and her schmuck allies want their oil

who are you kidding?

But then , you love guns, the bigger the better, so what value is yours?

The rest of the world isn't having to dodge rocket's constantly.

The rest of the world has not been under a brutal foreign occupation either. But they know one when they see one.

I understand your bias, which is why I discount anything you say.

Fine, but I am informed by the facts and you are not. Refute mine and I will take you seriously.

Try just one...
If the Gazans are not under occupation, what name would you give it that means something different?

Fine, but I am informed by the facts and you are not. Refute mine and I will take you seriously.

Try just one...
If the Gazans are not under occupation, what name would you give it that means something different?

You are an Israel hater...nuff said!

You are an Israel hater...nuff said!

So you admit to knowing no answers? No surprise.

I'm not sure Hamas qualifies as an occupying power, if it doesn't they're under self rule with no occupying power experiencing a counterattack for their repeated terrorist attacks via rockets intentionally murdering Israeli civilians including children. Had you claimed the Israeli embargo is inhumane and objectionable or the "settlers" who refuse to leave deserve no protection I would have agreed, but substantial misrepresentation like your patently false claim that Israel is an occupying power in Gaza requires a response.

I know that a nation is being attacked indiscriminately, and they are responding with force. If Hamas stops, then so will Israel. Makes sense to me.

Why would you say that? Israel has been continuously attacking the Palestinians for 60 years. How else do you think settlements are established? The Israel's keep taking their land, how would you have them respond?

Pelosi: US must stand strongly with Israel Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi issued a statement concerning the Israeli operation in Gaza in which she wrote that "When Israel is attacked, the United States must continue to stand strongly with its friend and democratic ally."

So you admit to knowing no answers? No surprise.

I understand your bias, which is why I discount anything you say.

You are an Israel hater...nuff said!

The outbreak of hostilities affects Americans, since al-Qaeda hit New York and the Pentagon in some important part over the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians. The airstrikes and large death toll also present a challenge to the incoming Obama administration, which may find peace-making more difficult now.

The UN Security Council held a special evening session on Saturday and issued a call for an immediate ceasefire. The attacks drew a furious response from the Arab world. Egypt, which has collaborated with Israel in blockading the Gazans, branded its partner's air strikes "murder." The US, which for some odd reason holds an irrational hatred of the Palestinians, branded the dead Gaza policemen "thugs" and blamed the massive aerial strikes solely on Hamas, the fundamentalist Muslim party that controls Gaza.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, outgoing president of the European Union, issued among the more measured responses: "The President of the Republic expresses his lively concern at the escalation of violence in the south of Israel and in the Gaza Strip. He firmly condemns the irresponsible provocations that have led to this situation as well as the use of disproportionate force. The president of the republic deplores the significant loss of civilian life and expresses his condolences to the innocent victims and their families."

Sarkozy "requests an immediate cessation of rocket fire directed at Israel as well as of Israeli bombardment of Gaza, and he calls on the parties to exercise self-restraint. He reminds everyone that there is no military solution to Gaza, and demands the implementation of a durable truce."

This statement, which I seem to be the only news source to present in full in English, seems to me to be the best issued by any head of state on this particular incident, and shames the insensitive and one-sided statement issued on behalf of the US by Gordon Johndroe.

Israel blames Hamas for primitive homemade rocket attacks on the nearby Israeli city of Sederot. In 2001-2008, these rockets killed about 15 Israelis and injured 433, and they have damaged property. In the same period, Gazan mortar attacks on Israel have killed 8 Israelis.

Since the Second Intifada broke out in 2000, Israelis have killed nearly 5000 Palestinians, nearly a thousand of them minors. Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another. Wreaking collective punishment on civilian populations such as hospital patients denied needed electricity is a crime of war.

The Israelis on Saturday killed 5% of all the Palestinians they have killed since the beginning of 2001! 230 people were slaughtered in a day, over 70 of them innocent civilians. In contrast, from the ceasefire Hamas announced in June, 2008 until Saturday, no Israelis had been killed by Hamas. The infliction of this sort of death toll is known in the law of war as a disproportionate response, and it is a war crime.

Lif'e a bitch. The Pal's put Hamas in power. They will reap what they sow. Keep kissin' their ass, RD.

This is only dispropotionate if it was an isolated incident. This has been happening for 60 yrs, its not disproportionate. Force is the only thing that they understand. Its irrelevant to me how many one side has killed over the other. Stop stirring things up!!! The Palestinians are under some delusion suicide bombers and rocket attacks is gonna help its cause. It wont, it will just tighten Israels grip over them and I really dont think they give two much a damn what people in Europe think. Its my belief there will never be peace in the region. The arabs dont want it frankly. There really is a simple solution to this whole problem. Make a binding UN resolution that make both sides give concessions and then make them enforce it. Failure to do so resoluts in world pressure being thrown against you. So that means is Hamas doesnt comply we send UN troops in to wipe their ass out. Problem solved.

I think a fifteen foot Gord standing silent and immobile at the border between Israel and Palestine would do the job. No one would want to provoke his raising his visor.

Juan Cole has just proven he's either a complete idiot or a pathological liar, the rocket attacks are clearly terrorism and Hamas is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, they're clearly excluded from the Geneva Convention protections as are all nations who harbor them because the need to protect against such attacks and retaliate disproportionately is recognized.

Juan Cole has just proven he's either a complete idiot or a pathological liar, the rocket attacks are clearly terrorism and Hamas is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, they're clearly excluded from the Geneva Convention protections as are all nations who harbor them because the need to protect against such attacks and retaliate disproportionately is recognized.