You got it, various Israeli governments' self-defeating policies.

Take back Gaza. Cheaper and easier than any other option. Gaza is Jewish land.

The hype and rhotoric coming from Israel about the Hamas government is appalling. Israel is obviously looking for a justification to re-invade Gaza and destroy the peace process once again as they always do. Hamas is doing just fine in Gaza, and as soon as the occupation of Gaza is truly over (i.e its skies and borders open and its airport and ports rebuild), I'm sure Gaza will prosper and perhaps even beyond Israel considering what Israel has done to its neighbors. Then pehaps the Palestinians will buy a few Nimitz Class carriers and/or Trident nuclear subs, but until then, stop the hype for crying out loud.

"Gaza is Jewish land." What'd you expect to happen after the Romans booted you out, the land would just stay empty and wait for you to come back 1000 years later??

They are fully prepared to confront all of Hamas' gunships, destroyers, escort carriers, submarines, amphibious, nuclear cruisers, aircraft carriers, corvettes, zodiacs, dinghys, rubber rafts... The problem is that Hamas can't F'en swim!

HAMAS NAVY PROGRAM 1. Since we have no boats all maneuvers will be performed on land in the desert. 2. However, since this is the HAMAS navy, all Mujahadin El-Miya (sailors- water soldiers) will be obligated to wear life vests at all times. 3. The HAMAS special ops underwater diving team will also wear masks, fins, air tank, bouyancy compensator, and weight belts during their "dry sea" desert operations until someone can provide us a boat. 4. The HAMAS intensive naval training will include a 20 km race by elite HAMAS navy divers around the perimeter of Beit Hanoun in full scuba gear enumerated above in #3. including fins. 5. HAMAS first aid training will include mouth to mouth resusitation taught by the Mujahadin Jamilat troup who escaped the Israeli encirclement of the mosque in Beit Hanoun last summer. They will be dressed once again in their special escape clothing. 6. Until we get boats we will be installing masts and sails on our camels to simulate the boats we expect to receive. 7. The HAMAS navy weaponry will include state of the art laser guided Soviet harpoons. 8. The sailors will be fed a nourishing diet of Popeye brand spinach to keep them strong and healthy although Oliveoil will be required to wear a full Burqa at all times.

Israel should control the situation around her and ensure that those surrounding belligerents such as Hamastan is demilitarized. Hamas navy should not be allowed to develop. Unless this kind of situation is controlled now, it will lead the Islamist-Jihadists to be further emboldened to launch attacks on Israel. A scenario would develop to conflagration where Israel would have to do a 1967 on them. Since Arab Islamist-Jihadists have short-term memory and have a history of miscalculations, and possessed with Jihadism, a full blown conflagration at a later stage would be inevitable.

my god, man do you hear yourself? are you so naively stupid? it's such a shame. aren't you embarrassed to write this here?

yes, we have come back and you'll just have to get used to it. look what we have built on this land? aren't you proud of your neighbors. now, if only you had our standard of living, you'd love life too.

you are hillarious!!!! good to find humor even in nowadays political mess. thanks for making me laugh my chops off. have a great day.

I heard Hamas is building really big catapults. The plan is to toss people high into the air, at which point they will shoot their ak47s at Israel. The landing, however, will be not be soft.

#13 - The above information is highly classified. P{lease do not divulge. Ma'ah Salame, Meir Elazar (aka Ahmad Cohen)

In the 70s and 80s, it was the IDF that provided a check on the Soviet Navy in the Eastern Med. It was an open secret during the War of Attrition that the IDF confronted Soviets flying Egyptian plans and manning Suez missile batteries - and was willing to take them out. The IDF was bold, and proud, and willing to pay the price. Today, they're concerned about Hamas' so-called "navy". Many missions are scrubbed, or abandoned while underway, due to fear of casualties. The leadership is intimidated by the likes of Rice and Dayton, afraid to tell them no, and offers concessions to the nation's enemies even before being asked. Syria in last year's war was effectively granted immunity - and in public, no less. Israel's leadership - political and military - needs to recapture the boldness and self-confidence of that last generation or all will be lost.

Before you criticize my country, fix the bridges in your country.

They better guard their "ships" well. The IDF is cis gonna get them. I hope they got spare oars {:-)

It must be horrible to lose your brain so sudenly. Have you read the UN report just yesterday claiming that Gaza is in danger of being totaly dependend on foreign aid? You say "GAza is doing just fine" yet another mind bogling statement from you. Just fine you menat by killing anyone which does not agree with them, no food, water etc. Gaza is dump, no mater what you do for it it will always be dump, thats not because of Israel or anyone else but the leadership of Gaza, it does not care for a single life in Gaza, the only reason the leadership is there and fights to stay in power, is to collect the billion of dollars in aid meant for its people, but deposited into private bank accounts. They will never have a country until they realize that its there own leaders that prevent them from having that so called dream. The average person on the street in Gaza knows this, however will never speak publicly about it, since it would be the last statment he or she makes. That my dumb friend is Gaza Realilty.

And what do you expect: that Israel go back to the Palestinians after they have been booted out?

been there. Better yet why don't you tell us how far you can trace your family back on the Jewish land. I'll bet your family came when jobs were created by the Jews at the turn of the century.

No one ever has to mandate us with any justification for getting into Gaza and cleaning up their purulent mess. You should know by now that the country you were talking about which Hamas wants and has been dreaming about is measured up by them beyond Gaza and should include Yaffo and Haifa. That simply won't cut it ! That is why,if IDF must get into Gaza, to put them in the right proportion, to temper them, to restrain their criminal nature and, if necessary, to crush them, IDF will do it without any hesitation. And, surely, without asking for your permission ! If you had the faintest idea about Islamic psychology and Middle Eastern everyday life you would have taken your cynicism and shove it somewhere else.

Hamas have ships of the desert they dont need spare oars

The fighting spirit that once existed in Israel died with Oslo since then all problems have been solved by politly asking the terrorists what they want and giving it. There would be no Entebbe rescues today instead the terrorists would be permited to lead and Israel would follow and play by terrorist rules. The kind of willingness to take a risk like sending jets to Iraq and blowing up Saddams reactor isnt there today the politicians would be saying what will the rest of the world think of us if we did something like that ,, the UN might pass another resolution condeming Israel. Instead the politicans would go to the UN negotiate indefaintly while Saddam built his bombs. If the 6 day war build up was happening today the Israeli politicians would sit back and say lets wait for the arabs to make the first move at least that way when we fight back we can say we were the victims. The culture of vicimisation and the idea of a peace process has replaced the courage and wilingness to take whatever action nececary to defend Israels interests even if that does mean giving Israel a bad image abroad.... having a good image has become the priority. Olmert agreed on a ceacefire, Israel stops its millitary action in exchange no rocket attackd from Gaza. The rockets were falling within hours but Olmert did nothing about it for months because he wanted to be able to say look we are keeping to our part of the bargin and we want to make peace... image was more important than secuirity. Its all about concesions from Israel to terrorists rather than hurt the terrorists so Israel can play the nice guy that just wants peace even at the expsense of secutrity. There probably wouldnt even be an Israel if todays generation of politicians were running things when the arabs attacked they would say lets make some kind of compromise.

Your photo is at most a warship and maybe just a gunboat. It is certainly not a battleship, which is a large capital ship equipped with heavy artillery.