Dr. Alofs’s view is that Israel is mainly interested in starving Palestinians and therefore the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves. “Denying Palestinians protein,” indeed. Israel knows what Hamas is about even if Alofs does not and will do what it has to do to diminish Hamas’ ability to cause Israel harm. Sorry, doc, to inconvenience the Palestinians, those innocents who have no responsibility for their fate.

The job of geting rid of the HAYATOLLAS & side kik dworf is for the parsi ppl. and not for outsiders. The writing is on the wall AND it is going to happen. If not,WELL israel has the answer BUT it is a shame to take down the whole country for the sake of a handfull of criminals and idiots who take the litle monkey`s PROPOGANDA at face value. Most Iranians dont care about Israel AND the rest NEED TO GET A LIFE ( PUSSY CAT #28)

Some (but not all) of the 'details' you choose to ignore: Cast Lead was not a criminal onslaught but a long overdue response to the criminal actions of Hamas in bombarding Israel, especially civilian communities. Please provide details as to 1.when and where these millions of chickens, cattle and sheep were 'massacred'. [Animals are slaughtered, not massacred- you went over a little bit too much on that one] 2. Fisherman were captured and slaughtered? Dates? And which depredations? [To prevent them from fishing? This a bit too much as well.] Gazans need more defense from Hamas than Israel. The "actions" you speak of only happened in your dreams.

Gladly. The term "Palestinians" has always referred exclusively to the Jewish people -- both during the Ottoman Era and under the British Mandate. Arabs were always just called "Arabs." The term was co-opted by Arabs in the mid-1960s. The Jews are the true Palestinians. The Arabs who identify themselves as "Palestinians" are therefore ersatz "Palestinians." Your definition of "ersatz" is a little bit off. Think of "chicory" being ersatz "coffee."

if you don´t understand what Sarah means with ersatz palestinians,try to read GRAETZ or at least DUBNOV,you will find out who are the ORIGINAL palestinians

Even if he was a Marine. Maybe YOU would never use enemy ordnance, but the IDF has different doctrines. FYI, I was in a unit that used 122 mm Katyusha rockets and launchers captured from the PLO during the first Lebanon War within a month of their being captured. The IDF has a history of using captured weapons for both training purposes and in combat--the Egyptians deserted hundreds of T-54 and T-55 tanks that our Armored Corps used to train against in mock battles. Your knowledge of the IDF is about as scant as my knowledge about the back side of the moon. 5,000 planes? I doubt there are that many planes in the country, including El Al, Arkia and privately owned planes. Where do you get your information--on the back of a cereal box?

Ersatz also means 'fake' or 'imitation'. Look it up.

17# mr.benalof,do you know about the cost of buying transporting so much tonnweight of this expensive arms?for your information you could buy a lot of protein for the summe your friends paid for that stuff. Andi mihakfar

the Turkish multi-industry group Yildrim has acquired recently 20% of the maritime company that sent the ship.The turks had also been given 3 seats on the 10-member board of directors.

and as you say, "enjoy". I'm assuming Ynet rates higher than your "objective" Press TV.

and borders. This is in effect until "Palestinian" territories become a sovereign nation. I don't recall that happening yet - do you? While the Gazans may have fishing rights, they do not have the right to declare war on a sovereign nation and commit regular war crimes. Oslo takes a back seat to Intl laws governing war, which Hamas unilaterally declared in 2007. Oh by the way, Hamas also declared the Oslo Accords rescinded, so your point is moot anyway. If Gaza is under such onslaughter in which they need "weapons to defend themselves", they wouldn't have a positive population growth nor an 8% economic growth, would they? Nor appliances from Korea, food from around the world piled high in open-air markets, a brand new mall, and fancy cars and flat screen TVs.

THE IRANIANS AND ARABS DO NOT COMPARE. THEY WILL ALWAYS BE DISCOVERD. JEWS AND ESPECIALLY ISRAELIS ARE BRILLIANT. DO NOT MESS WITH HTEM. THEY ARE WATCHING. THEY ARE NOT NAIVE LIKE THE AMERICANS OR EUROPEANS. THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE DEALING WITH. THEY LIVE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. REMEMBER?

An assumptions and innuendos to maket short a lot's of crap,...

ad 1. When and where were these millions of chickens, cattle and sheep 'massacred' Answer: During the 22 day rampage in Jan. 2009. The aim of "Cast Lead" was to kill and destroy on a massive scale. It is known as the "Dahya Doctrine", referring to the devastation and mass killing in Beirut's southern suburbs. Dan Halutz, Israel's former chief of staff, called it "turn the clock back 20 years". Gabriel Siboni, a colonel in the reserves, set out the new "security concept" in an article he published two months before "Cast Lead". "Conventional military strategies for waging wars against states and armies could not defeat subnational resistance movements, such as Hizballah and Hamas, that have deep roots in the population. The goal instead was to use "disproportionate force", thereby "inflicting damage an meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes"... In short committing war crimes on a large scale. Cast Lead was not only about trying to kill Hamas fighters. There was an alarming proportion of civilians killed among whom were - according to al-Haq 355 children and 111 women. For every Israeli 100 Palestinians were killed. This tells you something about what kind of "battle" this was. Enormous damage was done to both Gaza's industry and agriculture. The legal organization Al Haq published "Operation Cast Lead: a statistical analysis" (available online) gives a lot of figures: 211 factories and workplaces destroyed. 6271 dunams of agricultural land destroyed, 131 greenhouses, 862 waterwells. The Journal of Palestine Studies (number 2 Spring 2009) quotes from a PA report (The Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstructin Plan for Gaza 20090-2010, submitted to a donor conference in Sharm al-Sheikh) gives a number of 35.000 cattle, sheep and goats killed and over a million chickens and other birds. The livestock perished in bombing and bulldozing operations. Ad 2 Read the report by OCHA/FAO: "Farming without Land, Fishing without Water: Gaza Agriculture Sector Struggles to Survie." (available online). This is required reading. It explains in great deal the depradations to which the Israeli navy is subjecting Gaza's fishermen. This report also features the killing by Israeli navy soldiers of two fishermen and the wounding of 12 fishermen (incl. one losing his arm). Since 2009 more than 300 incidents of confiscation of fishing boats and other equipment have occured. The fishing zone has often been reduced to barely 2 miles. Due to these ever-tightening restrictions catches have dwindled dramatically, forcing fishermen to take greater risks and in the proces becoming injured or even killed. Read the report!

Its mind boggling to me this in not mentioned on International News. This should have been mentioned even with everything going on.. Where are you CNN when the State of Israel has news? News that sheds light on how Arabs & Muslum Countries operate?? Why arent you showing this material? Where is the UN comments? Anybody have anything to say?? It just shows how important it is for Israel to continue to defend herself. Bigizz USA/ Israel

The European are not naive,but jjust to say they are selfish and they work like H $$K$ ES. European for arab OIL,GAS,money.etc,. shame on you europe selling your mother for money.

I will read those reports, thank you, keeping in mind you wrote them. You should also know (and do, I'm sure) that Hamas admitted that the number of Hamas fighters killed in Cast Lead was much closer to the Israeli figures than they first admitted, lowering the number of any others killed.

If you realize in the storty they claim they found "Persian(Farsi) Manuals" for the users when this was being shipped to an Arabic speaking population, hehe!!!! Come on guys :)

Iran is playing. A cool long term game as it incrementally weakens Israel.First, showed their tenacity in terror in Argintina and Lebanon, then Hizb Allah gave Israel a bloody nose and. More important made Israel a damaged good psychologically .Third, Hammas is gradually radicalizing the Palestinians to weaken Israel other notch.Fourth, the final push will be done by Iran to take the prize and be the master of the region . It is open secret that the West is no mood to put it a fight .