Who writes this junk? Send this guy to the unemployment line with Naomi Chazan!

ISRAEL WON. That is what we are hiding. Hamas needs to be exterminated from the planet. That is the other thing we are hiding. Another thing I'm tired of is armchair quarterbacks throwing around "phosphorous" like it means something. Go read what the convention says first. There are acceptable uses. Read up. For example on acceptable uses, see Israel. For non-acceptable uses, see Hamas.

We have the usual left wing conspiracy theorists parading as paragons of humanity. The rest of us know that Israel did not commit war crimes because it is against basic decency to do so and Zahal behaves, in general, as a paragon of virtue in a fight for simple survival.

for refusing to concur with 110 percent of the Israeli government's assertions on everything concerning it. Without a doubt, Israeli society has an unyielding trust in the government. That's not to say it is a bad thing and I dont find this triviality surprising in the least. What is troubling is that the Israeli people, in effect, have lost their independent way of thinking, have a lack of independent critical thinking on the problems facing them today. Rather, the government is basically telling them what's/who's good, what's/who's bad, what is going on, what isnt going on, etc and they concur with the government's rhetoric. This is a real problem and can potentially lead to Israel's demise due to an ill-informed electorate. Thus, it makes a mockery of the "only democracy in the Middle East" when 90 percent of a particular society is clueless of the realities and the implications associated with their continued reliance on the government for everything. The majority of Israelis have never been to the West Bank and witnessed the sufferings of the Palestinians. They dont even know how they are treated by the Israeli forces. They dont know of the humiliation Palestinians go through all the time, the abuse perpetrated against them, the constant violations of human rights the land-grab and water-theft policies, the daily killings of Palestinian civilians, the constant attacks against them by the radical settlers. They dont have the slightest clue and their government is what is preventing them from knowing the realities. Wake up Israelis. If you really care about your country, it's time you give your government a little shaking and get it on the right track. Both Israelis and Palestinians are part of the same one human race. The former is not more worthy than the latter and vice versa.

The reason Operation Cast Lead is the world's business is because it took a giant step toward World War III. Anyone who sees straight knows that Israel, not Iran, will start it. You murdered 1,100 civilians because they voted for Hamas, but some of them were babies too young to vote for Hamas. You overdid it to the nth degree. So we want to nail the bad guys, who in this case are not Hamas, but Israeli.

... when *smoke shells* were called for. The IDF never denied they used phosphorus, albeit in circumstances *permitted* under international law - something even the Red Cross confirmed during the conflict. Clearly the left don't care if they don't get the facts right, as long as their claims fit their vision.

We know if Israel committed wholesale war crimes 50000 Palestinians would have died in the war. The crime is Jewish life and the sentence is death. Get used to it. That is the world we live and while I want the IDF to fight as morally as possible, war is never 100%

Investigate Hamas not Israel.

i can clearly see how touchy you (people) are when you get portrayed for the monsters you've really become.

from your opinions its been deduced you haven't got who are the sides in this war, its a country (we are!! - israel) versus flanga's with improvised weapon, which shooting innocent civilians with out aiming at all "shoot to kill" no matter who... then nothing to hide, other countries (USA for example) must be slaughter them with atomic bombs... and i would justify it... they deserve the worst punishes ever and you dear blind opinion writer better keep to the reality

We have nothing to hide. We are preserving our right to defend ouselves. This type of micro inquiry sets a precedent-for the next war (which we unfortunately seem assured of). The world is watching every move we make while ingnoring numerous atrocities around the world. That's all this Goldstone cr-p means to me

Ok, I'm getting tired of all these armchair generals throwing around the words "white phosphorous" like they know what it is or how it is used. First of all, the white phosphorous that we use are artillery shells IMPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES. Second of all, the shells are labeled as "smoke". http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m825.htm Weight-for-weight, phosphorus is the most effective smoke-screening agent known, for two reasons: first, it absorbs most of the screening mass from the surrounding atmosphere and secondly, the smoke particles are an aerosol, a mist of liquid droplets which are close to the ideal range of sizes for Mie scattering of visible light. This effect has been likened to three dimensional textured privacy glass—the smoke cloud does not simply obstruct an image, but thoroughly scrambles both visual and infrared radiation, interfering with infra-red optics and weapon-tracking systems, serving as a protection for military forces from guided weapons such as anti-tank missiles. So if our troops are being fired on, do they not deserve the best smoke screen available?

is going to be a total failure. The IDF soldiers are going to be more concerned about politics rather than to fight a cruel enemy. You are one of those traitors that thinks the enemy can be defeated with hugs and kisses...the sad thing is that the next war you are going to be the first one to criticize the poor behaviour of IDF...Many thanks.

black september, so this just show you did come here to bash jews. thank you for clearing that up.

in ww1, and the gulf war and in gaza, jews weren't the only one to use it, it isn't jewish or Israeli invention.

TO MARWAN, AMMAN You are an imbecile hypocrite. The Israelis have become monsters? I didn't see you moaning & sobbing when Arabs murdered over a thousand innocent Israeli men women children & babies in suicide bombs on Israeli soil. People who wanted only to ride on a bus to work & school, eat in a coffee shop or just walk on the street were blown to bits. Whole families were slaughtered eating in a restaurant. Arabs were also killed in the bombings, but that didnt seem to bother you. Babies in their strollers, pregnant mothers. One pregnant mother & her four little girls were butchered in their car. Where were you then? And where were you when arabs fired missiles into Israeli populations for 8 years? Did you also cry & wring your hands then for the innocent victims? MARWAN OF AMMAN, you are a big fat hypocrite, and no one will listen to you now. I WONDER.....

Did anyone get hurt by it? How can our soldiers or American soldiers use it if if is so dangerous? Is it ?legal? Do other countries use it William Tecumseh Sherman the American Civil War general said that war is hell and war is cruelty and you cannot refine it. Poor coverage. No one knows if it hurt anyone.

And you people are innocent babes in arms.LOL.

WRONG. Israel did not "murder 1,100 civilians because they voted for Hamas" You in Seal Beach would allow your neighbours to bombard your turf for 8 solid years with rockets? No you would'nt. Cast Lead was in retaliation to the millions of rockets fired on southern Israel for 8 years.

Don't you live in coral springs? How do you know what's going on in the West Bank? Your statement is pure blood libel! None of it is true! Daily killings of PALIS!! Get a life will you! And Y-Net why do print Noor's and Gefen's dreck??? How low can you get?????

Hamas tried to negotiate a cease-fire that broke down in November by throwing rockets. Barak didn`t want to negotiate. Israel launched the war. Hamas fired its rockets knowing it may hit civilians. It`s true, Hamas doesn`t quite have the capacity to really hit military targets. It hasn`t shown it knows where military targets are exactly to back the assertion. Israel claims it didn`t intend to harm civilians but kept doing so daily (22days). Israeli civilians paid for it and so did Palestinians. Palestinian militants fired some 800rockets and mortar shells into Israel during the war, killing three civilians, wounding about 80. Israel used F-15s, Apaches, tanks and Bombs (dropped white-phosphorous bombs on civilians). About 1,400 Gazans were killed, many of them civilians and wounding about 5700. The UN commission: Israel targeted civilians, resulting in hundreds of deaths of children and women. Israel controls Gaza's airspace, territorial waters and does not allow the movement of people or goods in or out of Gaza by air or sea? Israel controls the flow of goods going into Gaza, including power and water?

It seems to me from the nonsense you write in your little "article", Assaf Gefen, that you're the one who has nothing else to do with your life than make the IDF look bad in front of the anti-Israel worl "community"! Where is the outcry over the 20,000 civilians the Sri-Lankan army murdered to eliminate a 1.000 Tamil Tigers, in approximitely the same period as Cast Lead? Do they not count in your perverted world view? Go, cry your crocodile tears for the ~500 dead human shields of Hamas somewehere else, will you?

hurt and interviewd were grown men over 18 posibly carry guns, weird isn't it.

Operation Cast Lead was an exercise by Israel (a nuclear armed country with the latest military weapons/machinery/etc) to shoot fish in a barrel (Hamas, a resistance group against the ongoing Israel occupation of Palestinian land who has homemade rockets and small/minor arms). It was an exercise in futility, Hamas is still in full power in Gaza, the rockets are still there, the only thing that was accomplished was the destruction of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza and the deaths of hundreds of civilians. It was a repeat of the Lebanon War; Israel bombed the civilian infrastructure and failed to remove or lessen the threat (Hizbollah/Hamas). If anything both Hizbollah/Hamas have increased in influence/arms/etc since they were last attacked. Where is the victory in that? Another thing to observe is the blind faith that some pro-Israel posters have in the IDF eg: the IDF are incapable of committing war crimes. These fervent deniers will reject any evidence or proof of IDF war crimes even when it is pushed into their faces. For example using innocent civilians as human shields is a war crime and the *IDF have admitted* using Palestinians as human shields on *1,200 occasions* over a five years period yet these self-ignorant rabid pro-Israeli posters will deny this fact even though the IDF has admitted to the illegal practice. To sum up: The IDF have committed war crimes in Gaza and elsewhere, Israel is trying to hide this fact by refusing to hold an independent inquiry, pro-Israel posters here are desperately trying to cling on to the fantasy that Israel/the IDF are blameless of any wrongdoing even though Israel/the IDF hands are soaked with innocent blood. Israel is hiding something, it is hiding the truth from itself.

"festivals that involve the killing of many Arabs". Up until this sentence, I was expecting to read something sensible and balanced. Yet this demagogic sentence, appearing in the beginning of this column, told me exactly where Gefen's ill-scented wind is blowing.

Zionists agree with Assaf Gefen. I think that Israel did no wrong, but perhaps Assaf Gefen is correct and we are hiding something? There is only one way to solve this: Barak, Olmert and Livni should immediately be sent for trial in the Hague. As Gefen says, if they are innocent they have nothing to hide. If they are guilty, Israelis will be happy to see them put behind bars because no one wants war criminals in power.

you run away from Israel we could care less y, you copy past everything and you conect events that happened in different years, your new state the USA send more troops to afganistan and they kill every mexican who tryes to get in the usa, your identity crisis is not our problem.

And the Arabs lost the same. Seems to be a theme for them. The facts are refutable. The UN Charter and the Geneva Convention both state that we have the right to defend ourselves from attacks period. We are allowed to use as much force as it required to stop these attacks (the last one was yesterday). And any and all casualties are the fault of the aggressor. As for your moronic claim that "Hamas tried to negotiate a cease-fire that broke down in November by throwing rockets." They are the ones that announce the so-called ceasefire that they never kept in the first place was over. Our only secret was the fact that we have never used enough force. That is the only real issue. We need to unleash the entire might of the IDF and put an end to Arab terrorism just as Jordan did.