collectively try to destroy the Jews. This war has continued unabated for thousands of years now. Hey, why stop now, right? Enough with your garbage. Yes, Israel is doing this and this to destroy these arabs, and those and those. Look at the root cause. Stop trying to defend those who would have murdered, yes, murdered the Jews had there been no state of Israel. Easy to point fingers.

Since Israel left Gaza in 2005, the onslaught of missiles to terrorize Israel has never stopped. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and is sworn to destroy Israel. Border crossings close due to terror threats and attacks. Spare parts and building materials constitute part of the multimillion dollar per year business Israelis and Palestinians transact. They are not transported as humanitarian aid. Protesters at the Security Fence throw rocks and provoke soldiers in a military zone where they have no right to be. Ethnic cleansing is a myth. Israel was attacked by Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1948 prompting the Arab exodus which caused the refugee problem. The UN voted for Israel's statehood. Some rockets fired?? How about hundreds over the past year and over 3000 alone at Sderot. There are some separate roads for Israelis (Arabs & Jews) to protect them from Palestinian snipers and ambushes. One of my relatives was ambushed and shot dead in a work van on her way to work as a pre-school teacher at the beginning of the intifada, before these separate roads were built. Israelis are not in Gaza. Perhaps the grafitti is in Arabic. How would Israelis fire into refugee camps? Arrests are not arbitrary. The IDF seeks out those involved in acts of terror. Palestinians build their own schools and Israel does not prevent them from building schools, apartments or roads. Your posts are full of misinformation. So please spare your lectures on morality until you know what you're talking about.

Sadly you are very ill informed but not so surprising, as the States send over $8 million each day to support Israeli terrorism. (Direct aid + joint military projects etc) How many visits have made ? Palestinians cannot legally build their own schools, they are forced to build illegally, because Palestinians do not get building permits - I can show you the school and the destroyed road - I could answer more of your mis-information - but, I doubt if you would believe any of it - you are trotting out the twisted mis-information that many in Israel & USA wish you to believe. We could trade figures, quotes from Zionist leaders about their desire to rid the land of the Arabs etc etc. How many of the Refugee camps have you visited ? I have seen the bullet holes in homes, 4 nights in a row before my last visit to one Camp, there was indiscriminate firing down the street opposite the watch-tower - no target, just creating fear - and eventually, anger and hatred. Go and live in Gaza, and find out about real life - shortages, oppression, sonic booms from F16 planes. Visit Bethlehem, see the Wall and situation for yourself - travel around the occupied territories, find out about the laws which discriminate. If you go in peace, you will discover what a generous, hospitable, and patient people live in the West Bank - a fraction of the land that belonged to them before it was stolen - they would be happy to "share" with people of peace and goodwill. Women being forced to give birth at the checkpoints, many loosing the baby in the process were the reason that a group of Jewish women decided to take a stand, and daily face insults for monitoring the activities there - go walk through a checkpoint with a mother and child - watch the treatment they get - maybe as they try to enter a mosque for prayer - if you have walked in their shoes, you might understand better. I do not agree with violence, but I can understand what might drive some to react by throwing shoes or stones, when they have no other weapons against bullets, tear-gas, water & sewage cannons. Have an open mind, and think of 1.5 million people in Gaza - who were looked after by Hamas led clinics and social services - try to imagine life where you are forced to burn your furniture to boil water, to cook, to see - because no gas is available, there is no electricity for hours on end because the Power station was bombed - all I ask - try to imagine for yourself - and. no. I did not throw stones at the crossing - no-one did. We waited paitiently, with people who were trying to return to their families, with aid workers desperate to plan further support for familed torn apart by stress, illness because of lack of medicines etc. Try living on bread and tea for months on end - watching your children go hungry day after day - then maybe you will understand why people of conscience cry out for the world to see what is happening, and for EVERYONE's sake - work for justice and peace for ALL.

All the Arabs do is instigate and cause all the problems then we Israelis wait many months to respond to the attacks and all it takes is one Arab to fake cry to get pitty when clearly the world knows it's the Arabs fault.the Palestinians rightfully gave us the land back on paper because thwy wanted all of the middle east or nothing. So they need to shut their mouths move to the united Arab emerites were there's plenty of land and thats it. Don't start the fire and then not be able to withstand the heat.

I found your 8 million per day US foreign aid figure on a birdgage liner called Third World Traveler dated 5/02. This source is dated and not credible. Palestinians do not get building permits from Israel. Israeli Arabs are known for not to obtaining proper building permits then being very upset when structures are taken down. Tell me which specific road was destroyed by Israel and I'll look it up. The Palestinians were told by Zionist leaders they could remain safely in Israel. Those that stayed made Israel their home. The Jewish Virtual Library is a good source for historical information on Israel. Bullet holes in walls of refugee camps likely came from Palestinian guns. Did that not occur to you? Women giving birth at checkpoints is a shame. Too bad the Palestinians didn't use the billions of dollars given to them for the purpose of building their own hospitals and improving their infrastructure. You can thank the Palestinians for checkpoints and delays caused by terror attacks, many at the checkpoints. You must be joking if you say the Palestinians have no weapons, only shoes and stones. Do you think the 3800 missiles launched at Israel this year carried fairy dust? The 40 weapons smuggling tunnels destroyed by Israel were storage lockers for shoes? The weapons business in gaza is quite lucrative and operated by wealthy mafia type families. Many of the guns carried by your Hamas heros cost thousands of dollars per gun. There is no shortage of weapons in Gaza and the terror business is one of the most viable labor markets. Imagine how different life could have been for the Palestinians if they would have worked with Israel to end the conflict. Instead, they made life miserable for themselves and Israel because of their idiotic obsession with an armed struggle to destroy Israel. I recommend you take an honest look at what role the Palestinians play in creating problems for themselves. A bleeding heart approach to people immersed in self-destructive behavior only perpetuates the problem.

Just a thought... How long before we see Israeli Ministers slipping away under assumed names to South American hideyholes, to escape International Criminal Court indictments for war crimes ? How long before this week goes down in history as Gazanacht? By the way -- I'm a Jew too. Stanley Walinets, Co Durham

There are a lot of spineless Jews in the world who are willing to ignore terror against Israel. They also believe in a double standard that Israel has no right to defend itself. And if Israelis do defend themselves, they should first ask permission from residents of the UK.

Cynthia - My spine tells me Israel certainly has a right to defend itself. But does no-one else have that right? Look at it this way: someone comes and takes over the land you and your family's lived in for centuries. "We're entitled to do this," they say, "because God (take our word for it) told us several centuries ago that this is our Promised Land." So what do you do, Cynthia? Do you say "Oh, right, Big Brother - we're on our way." ? Or maybe you say "No - we've a right to defend ourselves too!" And, though you don't have the money they have or the wealthy backers they have over the seas, you do so, with whatever you can scrape together - home made or smuggled rockets, whatever. But they say "Right - we'll build walls round you, we'll let our people settle all around on your land, we'll stop your food and everything else coming in whenever we fancy, we'll stop you trading with the rest of the world (tho - and this is rather clever - we'll grow stuff on your land and sell it with labels that suggest it's your produce, so the world will think they're helping you! Clever, what?!)". So you keep trying to defend yourself, till they say "Right - bombs for you!" And that's it. "We've the right to defend ourselves," they say, "We're ISRAEL ! If you don't believe us, ask Cynthia!" QED.

Israel because a state under international law in 1948. Six arab countries immediately declared war on Israel and told the arabs to leave which they did. They weren't kicked off the land, they left their land to get out of the way of arab armies. Sixty years later they want to come back but it's no longer their land. The security fence keeps terrorists out of Israel and saves lives. Launching over 3000 kassams at Israel during the past year is not a form of defense. It is cold blooded Islamic terror. You would see this as terror if the kassams were aimed at County Durham. Your support for the Palestinians has blinded you from the facts.

Cynthia - Thanks for your response. I tried to 'Talkback' to you several days ago but it subsequently transpired my comment was either too long (it certainly was long), or it's facts were too uncomfortable for the website to accept -- which is sad, because after discovering this Ynet site, I was impressed with its open-minded attitudes... So there it is. If the site will allow me to recount very briefly what I was trying to convey, it was that I refruted, with evidence, your claimed information that the Palestinians had voluntarily abandoned their homes and land (under pressure from Arab states). The sources I quoted from included the standard study by Israeli historian Benny Morris (an academic sympathetic to Israel), "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem" (Cambridge Univ Press 1988) and "Righteous Victims" (New York 2001). He wrote about the 1948 battles over Etzion Bloc and Deir Yassin, Arab villages. He recorded that "Jewish atrocities" were "far more widespread than the old histories have let on. He quotes among many an Israeli soldier, an eyewitness of "the Ad Dawayima massacre" of 1948 and that soldier's horror at the "Nazi-like" behaviour of his commanders. He gives many examples, all of which suggest you should take a much more honest and open-minded approach to the history of this terrible situation Israel's policies have now landed us with. A final reference worth checking is a recent book by Norman G. Finkelstein, "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History"(Verso, London and New York). This is a highly detailed anmd honest examination of many facts and how they have been distorted to suit particular viewpoints. I'll say no more -- I'm probably already overstaying my Ynet space. I'll say only -- for God's sake, Israel's 'right or wrong' supporters, please consider the horrors we are committing and go back to being the humane and intelligent people we were once proud to be. Best wishes, Stanley Walinets PS: I do wish this otherwise excellently designed website would allow me to copy what I've written for my own records. But it won't -- or I can't find out how!