Olmert, a borderline personality, is bringing Israel to a complete state of collapse. Olmert must be made to leave before it's too late!! Israel has never been so compromised by it's own PM! Delusional Olmert must go!

What an immensely stupid and misguided government we have. Shame on them. They should resign today.

According to former Public Security Minister Uzi Landau "Every time there is a terror attack, we react to the attack itself... We have to change our way of thinking. The solution must be based on ensuring that the terrorists realize that they will gain nothing diplomatically by their terrorism... Our military action against them must concentrate on their leaders, from Ismail Haniye and down to the terrorists in the field. We must also act in the areas in which they smuggle weapons." To understand what Hamas wants : http://xrl.us/bktwe

While your analysis is one of extreme bias, and let us all remember we are all bias, i will attempt to portray the facts. 1)Israel refused egypts request to increase troops on the border (they are limited as of the camp david accords) 2)Israel asked egypt to close the border to impose the seige on hamas as well so that israels policy of the siege does not fail, after all if the israelis besiege from a side and the egyptians dont, then whats the bloody use?! 3)Egypt opens the crossing unannounced on humanitarian occassions to allow the red cross, UN, UNICEF and red crecent to enter. 4) Egypt has proved some good results in preventing arms smuggling recently as Tel Aviv itself has said (article in the ynet) and Barak and Mubarak themselves said that smuggling is done by sea. 5) Hamas hated egypt cause they arrested their terrorists and after the breach they prevented many attacks. The proof: No attacks or infiltration after the breach.

Certainly this latest chance for peace must not be allowed, as without the ability to steal from, starve and oppress millions of innocent civlians, Israel would lose it whole purpose and the Zionist 's lies and falsehoods would would be exposed . The leaders of Israel need war to stay in power and to keep Israelis in fear and to use as a cover for the massive corruption that lines their own pockets.

Cease fire today or invasion someday........ Hesitation follows hesitation..... This catch 22 situation reminds us the following story: "It is midnight...mother wakes father saying that she hears someone in the house...Father is old and afraid...He asks his teenage son to see what is happening...His son shouts from another room...Father, I have just caught a thief...Father is relieved to solve the problem without endangering himself...He says to his son...Bring him here...The son replies...He does not want to come..The father is now frightened again...He says to his son...Let him go...The son replies...He does not want to go.." ...Gaza is a bone in our throat.... Our actual PM is like that old father trembling in his bed, unable to act decisively.

BUt falls short of laying the blame on the true source of these decisions....The people dont decide, like the article implies...its OLMERT that is destroying Israel and making these suicidal decisions just to retain his position!! He should be thrown in jail for treason, along with any other politician that tries to harm Israel for his own selfish needs.

Since Oslo (& arguably, the "peace" treaty with Egypt), we make one foolish move after the other, one strategic mistake after the other, one blunder after the other. I would actually go further - to the very foundation of the State. By historical accident, a strange twist of fate, the early Zionist movement was dominated by secular socialists which laid the foundation for many of the problems we now face as a nation. While I don't deny the great achievements of the early Zionist movement nor the achievements of our early leaders, we have to recognize as well that their ideological orientation had many unfortunate consequences, not least among them the dysfunctional political system they established & bequeathed to us, albeit with good intentions. And here we come to the crux of the matter. The left has good intentions, lofty ideals, appealing rhetoric. Unfortunately, they don't work. Back to the matter at hand, our truce with Hamas is just another mistake among many. It is the product of what our political system has produced - an assortment of unprincipled, self-interested, unqualified, inept, incompetent, political hacks whose decisions in no way reflect the national interest. And, we are the fools who tolerate this system, by our apathy, complacency, & quite bluntly, our rather low level of understanding on the subject of political organization. Until we fix the system, we can expect just more of the same. This is not about any particular politician, nor actually about right, left, or religious, but about a systemic failure to produce quality political leaders who are accountable to the electorate.

Why do you insist on using photos of these benign looking Palestinian children when it's the adults who are the issue because they've been waging a campaign of terror against Israeli civilians ever since the disengagement from Gaza? It's images like these that have become a bulwark of the public relations offensive against Israel, and the Palestinians (thanks to help from the sycophantic international media), have been doing an outstanding job of winning the propaganda war without any help from Ynet. If you want to use photos of innocent children with big sad eyes, I'm sure there are plenty of them in Sderot where they're having the crap scared out of them every single day.

Egypt threatened Gazan to use live arms fire against any infiltrator, even civilian.

Only one mistake. Israel's "pulverization" by Gaza was not since 1967. Israel was doing well, with full control and wonderful villages blooming in Gaza. The First Intifada was won under Ahrens and Shamir in 1991 with minimal Israeli losses. Israel's pulverization in Gaza began under the Oslo accords when Israel allowed 100000 armed fighters (together with their families) to enter Gaza.

Israelis politicians have been behaving like stupid braindead people, not looking for Israelis security. They are more bothered about Arab leaders views.

Egypt sends every day, together with weapons, a lot of members of Muslem Nrotherhood to Gaza promissing them good life in Tel Aviv if they fight Israel in Gaza. This is from Egyptian newspapers and no secrete to anyone. This way Egypt can get rid of some "Muslem Brothers". The mistake will cost a lot of lives after Olmert is gone.

Hamas says openly that it will use a cease fire to arm itself and prepare for the next round, and they will do this again and again with the ultimate stated objective of 'liberating' israel for themselves. it is really naive to believe that in these conditions this cease fire is 'the latest chance for peace'. i would support real peace very strongly, but it is hard to imagine a real peace negotiated when one side does not believe that the other has a right to exist, which seems to me to be a starting point for any negotiations of that type.

What part of 'GAZA pat of Palestine" and belongs to the Palestinians...doesn't Israel and especially Israeli's understand? It's not part of Egypt..and further more..Palestinians want to remain in their homes on Palestinian land.. Just because Israel would like to cede Gaza..doesn't mean it will ever happen....

This is a good and correct analysis. But why is it over? Can not Israel soon say. "The truce is over. It has not worked. Therefore full closure is the only way to force cooperation. Egypt, it is your turn now. Take your people back. Our answer must now be even more disengagement. Electricity cutoff in 1 month if Shalit not released."

EdithAnn - Please be aware of the following FACTS. 1. Before 1967 Gaza WAS a part of Egypt. 2. Egypt refused to take it back in 72, but as losers should have been forced to. 3. The vast majority of Gazans' relatives are in Egypt, not Israel. 4. The language spoke by Gazans is the Egyptian Arabic dialect, not English or Hebrew. There is no "Palestinian land". Egypt and Jordan used to have Gaza and parts of West Bank. The lost it in a beliigerant war they started. Does that mean some thugs there have any "right" to it???