Unlike those Arabist French, the Czechs have traditionally been our friends, since the end of the Cold War. One of the few European countries not to be overly influenced by Arabs or strong traditional antisemitism. My appreciation to this country began when during the height of the terrorist bombings in Israel, Czech president Vaclav Habel visited the Midrahov in Jerusalem, one of the places which were hit the hardest, and stopped there for a beer and to socialize with the locals. He is a true mensch. Can you imagine Jacques Chirac, or Sarkozy doing the same?

not many itseems, have the luxury of telling the truth but they do have the luxury of totally distorting the truth!! To begin with Gaza never ever belonged to those living there today. It was controlled by Egypt. When invaded, Israel fought back and in this fight, got Gaza from Egypt, who didn't really want it to begin with. So even if we did"occupy" it, which in itself is totally debate-able according to intl law, who is the country that we are occupying it from? And since there is no legal international definition for "terror", there is no legal law on how to fight terror and no law as to what is acceptable and what is not. If Gaza were a country of its own, our actions would be completely and totally more than expected. This the world doesn't know or understand, and neither do the palestinans. They have been raised on twisted lies which the young firmly believe. How can there be any hope for the future of a culture whose base is a one of lies? So what is the alternative? Sit around, allow rockets to bomb civilians, open the borders and allow terrorists to freely come in, and slowly or less slowly allow them to kill usoff until we are gone and they can move in? Or to complain? Would that convince them? Or to shoot a few bombs and then say, "Enough, we hope you learned your lesson now! We won't do anything more because that may be excessive!" I don't think so.

The title od article is untruthfull - we, common Czechs, don´t defend terrifying Zionist agression and occupation. We, vice versa, refuse and condemn it!!!!!

All bigots! (both sides) read the article and you will understand the position of the vast majority of Europeans.

We hate occupation and agression - especially; ane we are NOT your friends. You believe on tales, if you believe that we are friends of Zionist occupants - it is youyr great mistake!

I am glad our FM is one of few politics who is willing to say truth about this conflict. Isreal has right to defend itself, Hamas is responsible for this conflict. 2 Jane: If you mean that seriously, I am ashamed that we share same nationality. Here at work we (all Czechs) all have understanding for Israel's recent actions.

Israel don't worry about EU most of citizens love Israel mist demonstrators are arabs most governements are pro arab if we have an exception with the czechs welcome no solution without shalit back home

Please speak for yourself!!! You are a lunetic and not a common Czech, whoever that supposed to be.

Tell me in your own histroy who were bigger bigots, the Brits in the 1940s for fighting back against the Nazi onslaught or the Brits in the 1980s for fighting back against the Argentines. Just food for thought Mate!

Well, in this case I must support our FM. Hamas' actions preceding actual crisis are just insane. What more- using civilians as shields and developing weapon logictics in the midst of densely populated areas is just cynical disregard of human lives. I strongly support Israelis' determination to end the conflict by force if necessary. Jane's opinion is not so widespread here, in the Czech republic as it may seem. Some still remember operation Hassida from '48! Greetings to Israel!

You are very mistaken Czech's love Israel and believe in its cause. Secondly you probably not even from there so please do not use my countries name to make up nonsense.

I agree with Jane, most of Czechs don't defend these indiscriminate bombings of civilians. Israeli governement knows for sure that innocent civilians will be killed in those bombings, so there have no right to claim that they are not targeting civilians, this is pure collective punishment and breaching Geneva conventions...

And what exactly is the voice of reason? That it's OK for Hamas to fire thousands of rockets into Israel, terrify the population, traumatize our ciitizens, but it's not OK for Israel, finally and at long last, to stand up and defend itself? Haven't seen the tributes of sympathy and offers of help to our citizens under fire from the Hamas ever since they were handed Gaza on a plate, when, instead of building up their economy and infrastructure, they built tunnels to smuggle weapons and built rockets to kill us with. News for you Roy - no more shall Jews go like lambs to the slaughter; sorry to disappoint you on that one.

Why don't you condemn the Hamas missiles? They are deliberately targeted at civilians. Answer: Because you are anti-Israel bigots.

When the European appeasers sold them out to the Nazis. Now the same crowd of weasels would like to do the same to us.

"Schwarzenberg " his last name says it all. he is a JEW. no one is a friend of JEWS unless they have a common materialistic or strategic interest.

Shwarzenberg is one of the oldest and most exclusive family name in Europe (surely not jewish), open sometime an history book, you donkey.

Jane, indeed you are "common". Only a rather common, unintelligent person would set his or her mind so inequitably and one-sidedly. You may speak on behalf of your Israel-hating self, but not for the majority of your people. And if your government support and understands us, I guess that means your hateful opinion doesn't count much. Roy - your mandate in our country is over. Your country has very trivial significance to this region. Thus, the opinions of the Brits on the Middle East are just as meaningful and relevant as me protesting in the Daily Mirror's talkbacks, about Britain violating international offshore drilling regulations.

they were allways been wise, intelligent people. next month i gonna visit beautiful prague, where my family lived so many years. just hope i don't gonna meet Jane there... :)

...why people regard anti-Semites like you as boors, failures, and clowns. What, doesn't Mr. Assad allow you access to wikipedia???

glad to see that next chairman of EU openly calling Hamas responsible for war. in Gaza. Shalom from Holland

anyone can say they're from a particular country and then you go bananas over their response - assuming that they're actually Jane from Czech Republic and not Ahmed from Londonistan. Suckers!

anti-Semitic coment says it all. There is no other better way to illustrate the real you, I mean, the typical raw indiginous hatred of the Arabs towards towards Jews and Israel. I am sure that such blind hatred will kill you one day.

Czechs surely don't hate like that and we don't need their love or understanding. But if the Czechs do understand the very logic behind defending our lives, families and land, it is because they themselves have been tricked not once or twice by so many of their foes during their history (i.e. Nazis, Soviets,etc.) Czechs do not have to have sympathy towards us, they only have to be truthful to themselves and reality.

The Czechs paid the price once, they gave up land for peace and got nothing in return. They remember the lies of the Nazi press, the wild stories about the ill treatment of the Sudetengermans which were a pretext for Hitler's land grab. They remember.

OK, so is it right to build your army infrastructure among civilians and then claim that it's an act of terror when they die in attack aimed for these weapons and military command? In my opinion, this is EXACTLY what Hamas and alikes wanted to hear from the world. They sacrificed civilians long ago when they started to disperse their ammunition stores and command posts in urban areas. So you think that due to this fact Israel should leave them alone and give them free hands in attacking Jewish settlements? Sorry, but you must be dull at least.

I condemn the outrages carried out by Israel. Dropping hundreds of tons of high explosives on built up areas will kill large numbers of civilians. That is a war crime. Trying to justify it as defending Israel is patent nonsence. Do the Palestinians have a right to self defence by going into Israel and blowing up hundreds of Israelis? I think not, and the world would be outraged by such an act. So where is Israels morality?. Why is there such complacency in the face of a modern day war crime? History has taught us that evil prospers when human rights are subjegated to the will and ambitions of states. Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is at the root of the conflict and until their rights are respected there will be no peace in the Middle East.