What a perfect piece of diplomatic reasoning. Truly excellent sample of a particular style of highly intellectual, abstract thinking and a wonderful illustration of why it's often better for leaders to be men of action and emotion than men of extremely high intellect. My God, one wonders if a man who thinks this way is able to feel anything as simple and healthy as simple rage! No, perhaps anger wouldn't be "prudent". Maybe it would violate international law. Good God, with men like this in charge we are doomed.

Great job Hamas - this will hopefully press the Israeli Gov to End Apartheid.

I don't see how a kassam has the ability to force the IDF to do anything? Particularly a large scale invasion of a civilian population living in poverty and despair. Notice how the author's true hatred comes seeping through as he plays the perennial 'victim' of virtually everybody....poor us, Gaza is picking on us, poor us, the Lebanese could attack at any moment, poor us, the international community blames us for everything, poor us. It's time we as Jews stand up for peace and draw a line in the sand; we won't be provoked by a select group of people into attacking a civilian population that we've effectively cut off from the rest of the world. There is a reason the international community gets upset; it's an abomination to do so.......Peace Now!

Unfortunately the head of this unit resigned because of lack of cooperation from the olmert chimpanzee court. There should ALWAYS be planned organized responses to ANY scenerio of the enemy. Instead Ollie is off trying to give the land away so he won't be called on to implement one of those responses. Those who voted for Sharon and the kadima party have no one to blame but themselves for this.

Your gov't is murdering you and more concerned with the life of your enemies. There MUST be a law that the citizens can charge this traitorous gov't with their callous and dangerous lack of protection. In fact, it is time to sue the oslo architects--who will forever have blood on their hands--and instead are made President of the country!! Insanity and murder rule the day. Please support www.jerusalemsummit.org They have a fair and humane solution to permanently rid yourselves of your enemies who forever will only accept total annihilation and the theft of all your divinely sanctioned land. Moishe Feiglin--rally the masses. They will come. G-d bless Israel

Israel's withdrawal from all occupied territories (i.e., within the 1948 UN chartered borders), followed by good faith support of a co-equal Palestinian state with access to the sea, and release of the 12,000 Palestinian men AND BOYS now imprisoned--will at once remove the whole logical basis for Palestinian resistance. Voila! Peace and security are possible.

yah!

So isreal want a rule of jungle then? Well, don't tell other countries that they are not following the rules. Wow. What a nerve!!!!

Hamas has split the Pal's on two different sectors and have beaten Fatah supporters while praying. Any More victories there will be no more pal's left.

defend itself,... except the jews...

Why is there not demonstrations all over the world condemning these attacks on Israel. All I hear is silence. But you just wait until Israel responds. The news media will be all over it with their lies about how Israel killed innocent civilians when in fact that is not the case. They consider these terrorists to be innocent civilians. I am wondr when Israel is going to turn these people into a burning sun.

before thev 1967 war, in which 7b arab armies attacked israel, there was no occupation. the west bank and gaza belonged to both jordan and egypt respectively. israel was not involved in any occupation of the territories and "palestinians" never ever voiced a need for an independent state. they never asked for an independent palestine prior to 1967. however, they continuously bombed and killed jews in israel before the occupation and before the 1967 war when there was not a single laqnd occupied from the palestinians. the plo, a terrorist organization under yasser arafat was born in 1964 and constantly targeted israelis on unoccupied land. can you explain that? why, when there was no occupation and israel didn't have the west bank, the gaza strip, the golan heights, why did they shell us, bomb us, kill us? you see, sir, it is not about land. this is where you are all mistaken. it is not about the occupation. it is about racism and ideology of islam and the fact that they refuse to have a jewish state in their midst. period! it is the arab countries that refused a partition while the jews took whatever they could get from thew mandate and the un prior to 1947. do not kid yourself. the arabs never ever wanted peace because they could never come to terms with their former jewish dihimis from arab countries (which comprised most of the immigration into palestine after 1946) living as free and determined people with a jewish independent state. it was a thorn in their back. and particularly, the fact that those dihimis that were so very abused and relegated to poverty and pogroms in the arab lands, finally managed to escape or were expelled to find themselves in a pure desolate barren area and to develope it to the incredibly successful country israel has become. i do not believe in the chosen people or the mighty god of israel in the israelis' success. it was pure self deretmination and geniuos coupled with extremely hard work and faith in their ability to create and build a home for themselves. arab mobs in any country have a history of killing jews, pogroms, putting them in ghettos and starving/beating/taxing them. the fact tghat they can't do this any longer and that the same people they hated for centuries realized their dream is their real NAQBAH. i hate to break it to you, but the palestinian situation is just a pure excuse by those villains in all arab countries to abuse these people so that they can destroy the jew.

After the summit it would be a good time to expel all palestinians from Israel's gaza strip territory. They can live in chaos in Lebanon or Jordan, these annoying rockets need to be halted once and for all.

I read a TB a few days ago that really thought out of the box. The poor of the arabs would love to be out of the fray and live normal lives. There are actually millionaires amongst arabs in Gaza, target them by bombarding them with paint dropped from planes. Every time a Kassam is fired, retaliate with paint on their property - they will soon get fed up and demand hamas stop being stupid. Hit the rich arabs homes and leave the poor alone. The poor may actually thank you for bombarding the people who disdain them. Bits of paint over the homes and cars of the rich surely are not classed as 'crimes against humanity' by the international community. Target the rich who are living off the backs of the poor who they are encouraging to die for benefit of the rich. Not too many of the rich elite are sending their offspring to 'die for the cause'. The only stipulation is that lead based paints from china are not used, that would be a true hazard to their health. Time for Israel to think out of the box, show the rest of the world how ludicrous the whole situation is that Israel will only be allowed to defend itself with paint bombs against terrorists that have never deviated from their long term plan of annihilating her. Good luck Israel,you certainly need it with the world dependent on arab oil.

Very clear analysis. I would like to make a couple of points One question I have, has to do with your final statement. "The government and IDF are merely waiting for more convenient timing." I do not think that there will ever be convenient timing. The international community will always scream at any action Israel takes. It makes no difference whether Israel makes a large response and takes it to completion, or an aborted response (due to international pressure). The long term perception in the rest of the world will be the same. The difference will be remembered by the Palestinians. Hamas will then know, that they cannot rely on the International community to bail them out. So, whatever action Israel takes, must end in a clear military victory. This will mean weathering the temporary storm of international condemnation. Stan

It is pointless to discuss Israel's options regarding Gaza and other major defense issues. I say this with great sadness, but the truth is that Israel is not free to decide on those options. The only options allowed are those determined by the United States of America. What normally appears to be the government's decision or the IDF's decision, is nothing more than toeing the line as set by Bush. What Israel does or does not do regarding Gaza is dependent on Bush's plan. And his plan is dependent on its own interests in the Middle East and also on what the Saudis consider appropriate. Those are the games played these days with the fate of Israel. So Israel has only two options: to bow to American pressure or to set itself free regardless of the consequences. The US has no friends in the Middle East. None except Israel, but it treats her with utter arrogance and disrespect. If Israel opted to stand tall and tell the Americans that there will be no compromise with the security and defense of the country, the US would have to understand and abide by that decision. There would be a price to pay, but so what. By choosing the path of submission, Israel is headed for destruction anyway, with an undefensible territory and a terror state next door. So it's only those two options that are worthy of discussion. To be free or to be humiliated by having a foreign state determine international borders, foreign policy, defense - in one word: everything. Fortune follows the brave and bold.