so why talk to them? (haniyeh and/or abbas). you might as well talk to the village donkey.

Gee, now isn't this surpising.... NOT. I said it earlier today, a ceasefire will only last as long as it takes to get more ammo. Oh well, as long as they are only killing each other and leaving us Israelis alone, all the better. How come the U.N and E.U isn't trying to stop the killing?

Or in muslim extremist double-speak: "Fatah must capitualate, or else."

say or agree in Mecca. It's about what millions of people do on the ground every day. And they have consistently done the wrong things for themselves and others since the attack on Tel-Hai in 1920.

B"H The whole bunch should get a pilgramage to Mecca. Then at least there is peace of 1 week or so until the festivities are over. There is a peace plan. Everyone living in Gaza and East goes to their mandatory pilgramage and the Saudi King funds it. Then he will have the necessary sovereignty to impose order and sort things out. Otherwise the mahem continues.

to guide opinion

B"H The editor of YNET actually edits articles. I have had many submissions deneid and many accepted. Such is the life of a charity writer. It has its ups and downs, but it feels more professional that way when you actually get your valued submission not publshed and the one you felt was mediocre makes the press. Micha, start your own online paper and then you can be editor. I might even submit something. Then you can keep my writing off every here and there also.

Bloody stop whingeing and deal with issues. .. and get over yourself. I think the rest of us would agree. As far as supporting terrorism of any kind (look up definition of terrorist, note that Israel as a State with uniformed forces is NOT a terrorist organization), is out of the question. -Terry Mathis

arafat never stopped the terror because he was the one behind the terror. he could have stopped if he wanted, but it gave him to much pleasure from the power of the so-called struggle.

I had to laugh at the article "We don't deserve a state" in the Jerusalem Post online: Quote: "Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA-funded daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, said he was concerned that the fighting would tarnish the image of the Palestinians. "Tens of millions of people now look at us as worthless gangsters with no values," he complained. " http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359774215&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Does the UN sleep through the deadly spats between Muslims.....and reappear when it involves a Jew? They don't seem to be doing much to stop the Muslims from killing all the little children in the Gaza Strip. They aren't screaming in the press about innocent children being killed. The U.N. had no problem howling about the Israeli Lebanon War last summer. Where are they now? Where's the reporting about destroyed families? It only seems to be an atrocity if it involves a Jew or the Israeli Military. Selective Judgement.....the United Nations in a nutshell. Run by Muslims....for the Muslims....The United Nations.

Reality Check , World

Honestly! The palistineans have mortally humiliated themselves in the eyes of the world! How can ANYONE expect peace from these bufoons, if they're at each others throats? best part is...no more blaming Israel! Remember folks, Israel has officially left the Gaza picture as of Summer of '05. israle has done their part. Therefore, any and all violence that occurs afterwards is solely due to the palistineans. Let 'em kill each other out, who cares!

I'm not holding my breath. They will continue to fight and fight and fight. That Arab adage of "me and my cousin against my enemy" should be "me and my cousin against me and my cousin."

Genocide-- I don't think that massacring thousands of people could still be regarded as self-defense the way you put it.. Deir Yassin wasn't the only massacre committed by Israel if you are capable of justifying Deir Yassin as an act of "self-defense" where would you categorise Tantura massacre? 48 people and an unborn child were killed in Qfar Qassem "by mistake"?? Deir Yassin massacre is taught in Israeli schools because it is seen by Israel as retaliation and not as a crime.. I agree with you that not ALL Arabs are targeted by Israel.. those spared are Arab Israelis (since they are regarded of demographic importance to Israel) otherwise I see Palestinians either killed, displaced or forced to live under siege.. all those acts do mean that Palestinians are targeted by Israel and that there is an attempt of ethnic cleansing.. Sabra and Shatilla-- again I will remind you that the Christian Phalanges were responsible for this massacre but Sabra and Shatilla were under Israeli blockade when the massacres took place and the checkpoints were Israeli checkpopints.. Qana-- the presence of civilians near a military target does not make the military target immune but in the case of Qana there is a military target (which is not definite) near a civilian community.. in this case there are many other ways to attack this target.. the IDF shouldn't just bomb the place altogether knowing the large numbers of residents living there.. it could have been targetted by a ground operation for instance.. I do see that that the Roman Empire has committed genocide against Jews and I definitely regard the the Holocaust as an act of genocide but this does not justify Israel's massacres against Palestinians!! why should they pay the price?? when Jews were expelled from Arab lands the reason was the establishment of the JEWISH stae of Israel.. and in here there is a very big difference between "expelling" Jews from to what they regard as "their homeland" and expelling Palestinians from their land in order to establish the State of Israel.. expelling Arab Jews had benefitted Israel.. while expelling Palestinians benefits only Israel!! I do see that expelling Jews was a mistake since I think Arab Jews would have helped a lot in the peace process.. yet I wouldn't compare it to expelling Palestinians.. Palestinian refugees are not given the right of return war or no war.. in fact this point has been delaying peace for years.. so they are FORCED to transfer to another group.. which boils down again to genocide.. I've got to go now.. I've had a very long day filled with lectures :( .. have a good day :)

A few clarifications: Firstly, I wasn't justifying Deir Yassin as self-defense. I was calling it a localized act of retaliation, in order to distinguish it from genocide. BTW, it is taught in Israeli schools as an example of disproportionate force, in other words, as something NOT to do. Secondly, just because an event (like Kassem) was a mistake, doesn't mean that it wasn't tragic. I'm not trying to talk down the pain. But INTENT to harm a population indiscriminately is a key aspect of genocide. Kfar Kassem was mistake that revealed a problem in IDF operations (aka curfew at all costs). That problem was IMMEDIATELY RECTIFIED to prevent any such mistakes in the future, exactly because there WAS NOT the intent to wipe out the village's population indiscriminately. I also think your use of the terms Palestinians vs Arab Israelis is confused. During the 40s, Arabs in the mandate did NOT choose to be called Palestinians because of the concept of umma; the term Palestinians was adopted by Arab refugees from the mandate AFTER the war of independence, to distinguish them from Arab-Israelis who had remained and been incorporated into the state. Therefore, any targeted genocide against Palestinians (whom you claim are the primary target) by Israel would be something that took place post-67 in the territories. However, none of your examples fit such a scenario: The victims in Deir Yassin (and other towns you name in 1948) were Arabs at the time of the fighting, not yet delineated as Palestinians. Kassem was a village in Israel, therefore the attack was on Arab Israelis. Qana was against Lebanese. Therefore, the only thing that remains to try and paste the genocide label onto Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians, based on the examples you gave is the refugee issue, checkpoints and collateral damage. None of these three issues constitute genocide. (to be continued...)

As I said, the refugee issue, checkpoints and collateral damage do not constitute genocide. 1. collateral damage is UNintentional and, as we said before, INTENT is the key aspect of genocide, so collateral damage cannot be considered genocide. 2. Checkpoints are inconvenient but they are present for security reasons, not for discrimination reasons. 3. Refugees. True, Palestinians don't have the right of return, but neither do Arab Jews and while their presence may have helped Israel, they, too, have received no compensation for the lands (and often fortunes) they were forced to leave behind. UN res 194, as such, refers to both Arab and Jewish refugees. Displacement is a very common phenomenon during wars and does not constitute genocide unless the refugees were deliberately chased away. In this case, given the fact that the majority of Arabs fled without seeing an Israeli soldiers, that many Arabs (not yet Israeli-Arabs) were encouraged not to leave, and that Arab leaders often were the ones encouraging the Arabs in the mandate to leave, Arab migration east/north/south during 1948 cannot be considered a genocide.