Hamas controls the minds of the people. No military engagement will change that. They love Hamas!

This has all been tried and failed in the past will not work. My way is the best way in my opinion. http://ralphsrant1.blogspot.com/2008/12/gaza-rockets-and-invasion.html

Killing a few hundred people from a population of a million is meaningless. The Arabs killed 5% of the Jewish population in 1948 and the Jews still fought. Retaking Philadelphia will allow Hamas/Fatah to continue claiming that "Gaza is the biggest concentration camp in the world". The only choice Israel has to stop the rockets is to make Hamas/Fatah realize that they will lose something they care about. Israel should expand existing Jewish towns and build new towns. This is the only way to stop the rockets.

1. Invade with no concrete exit strategy; we're back to square one. One of the worst of all scenarios. Outside of the Philadelphia Route (PRt), staying is a formula requiring "nation building," guaranteeing failure. We don't have the resources to be the U.S. and even they still haven't ensured successful nation building. 2. Nation builders (re: Iraq): either "I destroy threat, YOU rebuild" or forget the whole idea. Too many Left Liberals believe they can "fix" Hamastan and Palistani hotspots in Yehudah and the Shomron. They cannot. It's up to Hamastanis and Palistanis to fix or fail their own selves. 3. Realize that soldiers manning PRt will be constant casualties, kidnapped. PRt must be respected and supported as a warfront for the foreseeable future. Another element essential to success: deterrence among the Arab populous. They elected and support their terrorist leaders. Women and children cross our border to attack with explosives and firearms. They are NOT "innocent civilians." If our civilians in Sderot and Ashdod, who ARE innocent civilians, must live in fear of raining rockets, the principle of deterrence requires that Hamastanis should continually live under a multiple of that fear. For every "dumb" rocket that lands outside of Hamastan, a multiple of "dumb" rockets must be launched in the direction of Gaza City and other population centers. "Dumb" rockets land where they land--putting fear into the entire population, any of whom could be hit... just like our civilians have been experiencing for years. The chances of a "dumb" rocket injuring is the same of them as for us. If they don't want us to launch rockets, the formula is simple: Don't launch rockets against Israel. Israelis have to cinch up, toughen up and kick the Liberal Left dreamers to heck out of government. We must NOT be "nicer" to our enemies than they are toward us. We must vanquish them and impose peace. Until then, dangerous Leftist delusions notwithstanding, there can be no peace. Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra'anana, Israel Israeli Orthodox Jew (Teimani Baladi Dardai) Advancing Logic as Halakhic Authority Welcoming Jews & non-Jews

Orientalists and Islamists swept under the rug all of the truths crying out to them from every document that they researched, from the pages of every Arab newspaper that they read. They told the nation just how peace-loving the Syrians and the Palestinians were, how their only desire was that the occupation cease and a small state be established alongside Israel; things which do not appear in any authorized or semi-authorized Arab-Islamic document. They did not report about that which was openly stated nor did they relate to what anyone could read on the MEMRI website: that the demand to end the occupation is just a pretext to separate Israel from the few strategic assets still under its control and hold it hostage to the kassams of Hamas and the katyushas of Hizbullah. They repressed the fact, which they knew better than anyone else, that since 1979, when the 15th century of Islam (according to the Muslim calendar) began, the majority of the Muslim world has been engulfed in the fire of messianic expectations. Today it is clear to everyone who is prepared to confront unadorned reality, and they are the majority of people in Israeli society with the wish to live, that we have to take advantage of the short period of time left to us to prepare the army for the inevitable next war. It is already on the way as described at : http://xrl.us/bi5de

The whole conflict must be seen in the wider perspective. Our enemies define the conflict, define victory, as our elimination. It is not just Hamas but the general consensus among Palestinians of all factions, the general consensus in the Arab world, & more generally, the consensus in the wider Muslim world. Say what you will, but this is only one front in an ideological war. It is not a local ethnic conflict, although that is one aspect certainly. There is a much wider war on many fronts, the ''hot-spots'' being at the borders of the Islamic world. This is the root of the conflict. If you define this conflict as a zero-sum game, this has consequences for policy. It removes all the assumptions upon which are based concessions, negotiations, agreements. It demands quite another strategy. Policy not based on a realistic definition of this conflict can only fail. And, the fact of the matter is that they have all failed in the past & will fail in the future.

All those alternative are good, but too much expensive and not sustainable in time. The best way to deal with Gazan rockets is just by artillery and rocket bombing the population centers, in the same way they do.

What you recommend makes sense. However, it will never happen under this government which is paralyzed and afraid to do anything. Would you trust Olmert to conduct a major operation? Even if it went well, pressure from the US and EU wouldl result in a withdrawal based upon empty promises and orthless guarantees.

Reasonable response: 1) Return the 5,000 rocket attacks with Israel's rockets and mortars 2) if they persist, destroy their infrastructure 3) if they persist, bomb the shit out of them so they become realistic and stop their idiocy.

Meaning that Israel will kick major ass, Hamas will claim victory but not dare to fire a single missile?

I mean no disrespect to the great state of Israel, but isn't this essentially what's been done several times already, to little effect? The "Palestinian people’s worldview, including that of residents of the Strip" has not moved in a manner favorable to Israel despite many years of exactly what the author recommends. Indeed, the opposite seems to have happened. It seems that one would want to seek a new approach rather than continue doing something that hasn't worked. Just askin'.