No one here likes war...well maybe some people do, but for the most part, I believe Israelis want peace and quiet. The problem is that the PA, Hamas etc. have no control over these militias. They cannot and will not stop terror attacks against Israel. Hamas actually encourages this attrocity. As long as Palestinians are led by ineffective men and vote for terror groups, there is no other solution except miltary might. Israel has to defend itself...plain and simple. Every other country in the world would do the same thing. You simply cannot ask Isarel to keep waiting around until terror stops...it never will as long as Palis teach their kids to hate and keep this cycle of violence going.

First of all I appreciate you having a discussion and not tossing insults :P I didn't mean to compare Gaza & Iraq but rather simply suggest that we have all proven to ourselves that a military solution is not as clear-cut as it was during the "wars of all" against actual countries. If a terror group in Mexico attacked the US I am beyond confident the US would bring hell down upon Mexico...no doubt. My point is simply that unless you are fighting "Mexico" and not "Mexican groups"....the army won't and cannot finish it. Now I agree with you that there are elements in the Muslim world who have a true hatred for Israel and Im willing to agree that there are those who want nothing other then the death of Jews. HOWEVER, to say that they ALL want that is to say all Jews want an Israel up to the Euphretes river or that Jews run the financial markets....these are stereotypes that we are to afraid to overcome. This missile situation was brought and shoved down our throat. Honestly, we have made mistakes and contributed to the problem in the past but this, this had nothing to do with us. However, that doesn't give us the right to kill them all or generalize them all by saying they are all terrorists. Unfortunately, we are a piece on the global board of chess and we need to remember that. We need to remember that if we continue as is, we are all just going to kill each other and, quite frankly, there are a whole lot more Muslims in the world then there are Jews. We've been fighting forever; how can any of us believe that the same old invasion or the same old helicopter strike or the same old suicide bombing is going to change anything this time around? It's been a fun never-ending war but it's time for us all to grow up and be men about this. We both break international laws, we both terrorize each other's population, and we are both dieing. We both need to give in and make peace and if that means finding the "non two faced liars" then so be it. In all honestly, are you suggesting Israel doesn't have any two faced liars or that we have never disappointed the Palestinians with false promises? It's an ugly situation and it won't end through the barrel of a gun.

abbas is a weak leader that can't decide anything even when fatah was leading the palestinian people kassam continued !! hanye is the muppet of meshaal we all know that the decision maker are in iran and syria !! when do the palestinian people will understand that they must work for their own interest and not for countries that are seeking only to manipulate them and destabilized israel and the moderate palestinian !!

My friends, my post was not supposed to make you guys angry, on the contrary... i write over here so other opinions and options could be explored.... any how,.....i understand that Israel cannot sit still and wait for rockets to fall, no other nation will accept that, so why should you...and i my self think that the rockets should stop, and that they are harming all of us, not only sederot........i just want this insane cycle of madness to end......and i was merely taking about cost-benefits, and how it will fit in the bigger picture........ what is happening in gaza is very dangerous..... on so many levels...it is not hamas vs. fatah fighting.. it is a break of group from hamas, fighting a break off group from fatah....... this is a sign of things to come...... as dovedevan said, there are some external players here namley khaled mash3al and Dahlan, whom both want a share of the pie.... so what to do about this? well first let our side figure out how to fix this,,,,,,, and let them try to calm this down a bit.... after that, some serious efforts should be made to fix the problem of the rockets, and the whole situation over all. abbass is weak, and Haniyeh is weak also. together they are not.... that was the whole idea of the unity government which your government decided they did not want to deal with..........my point from all this is that history has proven that more violence will not fix it.. it is time to look for something else...... my respects to you both....

Are you an Idiot? You and your Hamas government are nothing but a bunch of fools. Hamas is destroying all chances for peace. I know for a fact that compared to the population as a whole, there is only a handful of Palestinians that support your stupid Hamas government. Hamas is doing nothing to support the people, they’re only hurting their own people. I thank God everyday I don’t live in an environment like Gaza…… I guarantee you that you're nothing but a coward individual that probably lives in the USA or another country.

Very good analogy! Trust me, not all Palestinians want you dead. Just a handful of radicals that believe if they die fighting, they'll get 75 virgins (or something)...... I'm 34 and hope one day I can travel to the Holy Land with-out conflict and we can all live in peace as neighbors (as you so eloquently put it).

Dear DR, I always value your talkbacks, but this time you're wrong. It is a bad time for us to strike and the reasons are obvious. We're just "pocking" them, nothing more. "Divide and control" is the right way of actions. Those man and wife, throwing rocks at you, they better hurt each other badly, before you strike at them. If you strike early, you'll not divide them, you'll unite them, e.g. you'll act against yourself. Israel had all the time in the world before the current events in Gaza, it will have its chance after them, but not NOW. I agree with #1 - not now. Apart from the whole world screaming of our aggresion, we'll have these murderers united against us instead of killing each other. Sorry for the argument...

I agree with you on many points, but the relaity is that Israel is threatened all the time. I don't believe we would be "terrorizing" Palestinians if they gave up terror. After all, Israelis and Palestinians lived together, peacefully for a long time before the first intifada. I don't foresee them giving up their terror and I don't foresee them getting a state anytime soon. It is a very sad reality...mostly for the average palestinian, but something has to change.

Well spoken, but Hamas is the one that did not respect the cease fire, they need to get control over their citizens and are obligated to do so. Israel responds to rocket attacks indiscrepently fired into civilian areas. A government has the obligation and responsibility to control the militias within it's border. Reverse your scenario. If the minutemen started shooting rockets across the border, the US government would put them in line, It's Hamas' responsibility as the official government to control their militias instead they encourage them, therefore they are at blame for harbouring and assisting, therefore it is country against country.

You finally wrote legibly (sort of) !! I actually understood you even though what's written is really bent . . .

Ryan, the reason there is no central Palestinian force is that in the early days of the Intifida we made quick work of Force - 17, which although was the "bodyguards" of Arafat was also practically the central force you are describing. Not to mention that we promptly trashed up their police bases. DR, I agree that Israel is always threatened and I think most people would agree with that. However, I think most people fail to realize that the other side is saying the same things that we are saying. The Palestinians in the West Bank feel "terrorized' because of what some of our soldiers do at the checkpoints and, generally speaking, the checkpoints themselves. The Muslim world at large feels threatened by the fact that we have nuclear weapons and they do not. The fact that we understand the checkpoints doesn't mean that they understand the checkpoints. That's not to say we must immediately take them away and leave the West Bank but what I am saying is that we cannot simply "rest our case" on the fact that we are threatened because the reality is that they feel as threatened as us.

..scoop up in their hands the burnt, charred remains of terrorists and proudly display them for the frenzied Death Cult crowd.

I agree with you, Abdel, that violence will not fix the problems the Palestinian people face, but you have to admit that Israelis have tried not to escalate the situation by not responding to the Qassams as long as they could for many weeks. However, they have an obligation to protect their citizens. The violence being perpetrated by Hamas has nothing to do with resistence; it is clearly an attempt to consolidate power and drag their enemy into a confrontation. It is a turf war with Fatah but also serves the dual purpose of baiting Israel into coming back into Gaza, where they think they can wage a Hizbullah-style war of attrition. If the israelis are smart, they'll stay the hell out of that hornet's nest called Gaza. The IAF strikes on terrorists are purely defensive and not meant for revenge on the innocent citizens of Gaza. I can say this because, if they were doing this just for revenge, they would be bulldozing all of Gaza including its citizens, who are sitting home afraid to come out in the streets because of the chaos caused by their "elected governement" (viz. the Hamas entity.)

1. Negotiations will not work; 2. Arabs want all of Israel and will never settle for less (their words, not mine.) 3. You have 2 choices; surrender or fight the war to win. It doesn't matter what you want, neither you, nor israel can make the Arabs do anything they don't want to do, not without totally defeating them in an all out total war. You way has been tried consistently since 1948 in one form or another, and it never worked. Arabs are pretty explicit in what they want, even your so called 'moderates'.

What have we achieved? Playing into there hands. Just look at the headlines in the overseas press.

Why didn't it all end in 67 then? We had nukes then, we crushed them all, we fired the first shot, we captured 3 times the size of the land we had before the war, and the world was shocked. So....if we do it again now it will work you are saying? You and people like you are against "negotiations" because you don't read through the lines. You read the news and see a journalist say "negotiations failed" and thus associate "negotiations" with "failure". Same concept between "total war" and "victory"....WW2 is different then what we are facing today so please do not compare them...its just silly. I am proposing creativity past what we are and have been doing for a long time. The way we have conducted war has not worked and the way we have conducted negotiations has not worked. We need to creatively re-approach the situation while admitting that we are to blame as much as they are.

What happened was nothing more than a proper response to Pali behavior. Barbarous behavior invites a barbarous payoff. If you launch rockets, expect rockets to return in your direction. Still waiting for the Palestinian people to escape from their own irrationality & pathology.

your talkbacks make a lot of sense, do you also post this kind of talkbacks in the Arab, Palestinian media? i hope you do, god bless!

i try just to understand what are the interest of the palestinian people to apply a policy that harming their interest only innocent people will suffer from this kind of policy !! gaza was supposed to be a first move in the path to peace you understand now that nothing will be possible as long as the palestinian will not put order in their anarchy ! hamas is like hezbollah they are the arm wing of iran and syria !! the best way to achieve peace is to destroy hamas and hezbollah to because they don't want any peace solution !!

And the U.S. has its own interests! We can't count on them, the EU or anyone else! Only on ourseves and G-d! And right now we have only G-d!

what it used to be. Would it be alright if we kept that staggering amount of gold & aid we give you on a yearly basis for ourselves?