Okay, I suppose Israel can go on defeating Hamas forever--and that's precisely what it's going to have to do, if it permits Hamas to survive this war. Hamas has no other reason to exist than to attack and destroy Israel. If Hamas continues to exist, it will continue to attack. Nobody has ever neutered a scorpion.

"An international demand for the unconditional return of Gilad Shalit, in order to eliminate the legitimacy of future abductions." Eliminating the tunnels would probably be more doable.

Let us change our thinking. Rather than Israel molding its image into the "weak guy" that the world wants from us, let the world finally come to terms with the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. It is our G-d-given right to live here. This is our home. We do not have to be any more apologetic than that.

Israel is still "a weak and indulgent country" that only knows how to kill unarmed civilians from the sky or from tanks. Is this what you call strength? Is killing thousands of children and infants a sign of strength? Is grouping unarmed men and women in a house and then shelling them a sign of strength? Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza now and this should not go unpunished by the international community.

All I know is that hamas will be able (if not already) to strike Rehovot and Dimona-is that included in the endgame strategy?

First before disengagement from Gaza Israel did not have any rockets attack by those terrorisms and Hamas was not that strong too, in other hand because that wrong policy (disengagement from Gaza) thousands of rockets have fired to Israeli civilians and some innocent people have been killed and we went to another unnecessary war which that cost $ Billions plus life of some our innocent solder’s and still our passion is not better then the disengagement time, Second this war have given to Hamas more support and more popularities in the Muslims nations and in Judea and Samaria too, Third the day Jordan will be Palestinian State that will be our victory and our win and until that day we need right leaders and right policy too, Y net I hope it will be publishes and no more censors ship,

NOT with people like LIVNE and HER MINISTRY. She has sent ambassadors around the world that speak no English. The amb. in Germany does not speak a word of German. The amb. in Italy speaks German but no Italian. Can anyone tell me where her brains are????? They certainly are not in the right place. Look at who she appointed to the UN?????????????Maybe she's a professor but certainly not an intelligent one. LIVNE HAS RUINED the MFA to such an extent that it will take years to recuperate. But NO ONE says anything to her. The woman is over-rated and belongs AT HOME. Imagine if she does become PM. My bags are ready to be packed and I am encouraging my kids to leave. There is NO future here.

Hamas is the controlling authority in Gaza and determines what happens. First, Hamas should be crushed to the ground : the leaders as well as the common murderers should be eliminated. Not breaking the resistance force of Hamas today means that hundreds of thousands of Israelis will be brought within range of Hamas rockets later. A ceasefire agreement with Hamas means that we will soon receive a stronger, more protected, better-armed and better-trained Hamas. Diplomatic and locale arrangements with Egypt and/or the international community will come next, after the total political presence in Gaza of the Hamas doesn’t exist any more. About Hamas : http://xrl.us/beb96h

you cemented your image as killers all over the world. Bravo. You simply killed women and children, and successfully brutally cold-bloodedly done so! bravo idf! Israel today is a scared beast that does not know what it is doing! Syria and Lebanon has provoked you by small incidents so that you can start a war and give them the excuse to join in, but you did not dare and complained to the UN. You are the new arabs! Once these gutless spineless arab leaders are gone, you are gone! go IDF, go ... down ...

Before the twin towers were hit on 9/11, those planes were driving indeed by a group of unarmed men...Do you want to say something for them?

well.......if you consider killing the children and women in gaza shows the strength of israel !!!!!!!! this only shows the weakness of israel..what is so called deterence was never achieved . ...simply because this is a war od the cowards the only achievement in gaza is ONE ...the next generation will only know one thing...resistence and nothing but resistance against occupation

Most people of your kind talk.. Nothing usefull.. Talk is cheap and the victory is out there!

As long as Hamas fires rockets at our cities , the battle is still going on,so there is no win on the battlefield. This is the typical arrogance from secularists who control the media and the politics , who give their opinion lacking faith and understanding , what is realy going on here. Hamas and all the other Islam facists are just tools , to wake up the Jewish nation , to stop thier Hellenist ways and to do Tsuvah. They started with rockets, then knives , then pistols , then bombs , then homocidebombers and now missiles , so what is it going to take to wake up my fellow Hellenists ,an A-bom?

"(...) resistance against occupation." ??? Wake up!!!!! Israel left Gaza in September 2005. Learn from your mistakes and grow-up already!!!!!!

There is no way that a connection with only Gaza will work. A connection between Gaza and Israel is inevitable for the many workers and commerce that must take place. Israel is fooling itself if it thinks it can simply 'wall itself off' and pretend as if the 1.4 million Palestinians are not on the other side of the wall. That is a recipe for disaster. The reason Hamas and the extremists exists is for the very reason that there is a desperation and a feeling of being 'trapped' in Gaza. The way to diffuse this desperation among the people and therefore get rid of the extremists is to open the border with Israel. It should of course be well guarded but no isolate Gaza is incredibly foolish of the author to suggest and shows he knows little psychology or what psychological forces create the extremists to begin with. Hope is the antidote to extremism. The more free the Gaza residents feel they are and the more hope they feel they have that they are moving towards an independent state then the weaker the extremist elements become. People must understand how extremist mentality is created. It is created out of desperation and hopelessness. Walling Gaza off INCREASES this hopelessness and strengthens extremism. Taking walls down and opening up communication and dialogue and physical crossing for work and commerce INCREASES HOPE and DECREASES HOPELESSNESS therefore it weakens and eventually destroys extremists. In the end this is the ONLY way there will ever be a lasting peace.

"The home front is not crying out in the wake of rocket attacks, but rather, shows impressive endurance" Wahhaha, go to Gaza there you will see impressive endurance. I am suprised you even call what Israëli's do now endurance. Seems that even after almost a century, you still dont understand Arabs, in my mind I now know that we have to remove Israël, at all costs. This is how most Arabs feel. I repeat WE ARE NOT IMPRESSED BY YOU! If I would pick a fight with a 3 year old girl, I would have lost the fight even before I started it, but if the 3 year old girl kicks my *ss, then I am the biggest pussy alive. Hamas is not defeated, you will see, if Hamas was defeated, the IDF would have been in the center of Gaza-city, and why keep bombing if Hamas is defeated...

and Gilad is back home, Israeli has stopped the rockets and eliminated Hamas ... Jewish freedom and democracy is back to gaza ... are you drank or what ? did you see how many children and women were killed ? the Jewish people and worse then barbarians and yet talk about peace and continue to steel land form arabs and build settlement with racist jewish talibans sent in from all aorund the world, protecting them with the new berlin wall and yet poor little things feel victomized. morally sick Israel ... enjoy your democracy and thanks for creating the fututre generation of anti-Israeli's.

Israel has NOT yet won. Hamas is still shooting missiles into Israel daily, and still has a cache of even longer-range Iranian missiles capable of striking into the heart of Israel. Gilad Shalit is still a captive, and the Red Cross has made it abundantly clear that they will do nothing for him or any Jewish captive. Haniyeh, Mashaal, and the other thugs in their gang of murderers are still alive and well. The deported residents of Gush Katif are still languising in temporary housing, many of them without jobs or a future. Mr. Bechor thinks an international force, akin to the UNIFIL in Lebanon, will guarantee a de-fanged Hamas? Has he already forgotten that, thanks to either the ineptitude or collaboration of UNIFIL, Hizbullah has now TRIPLED its deadly weapons since the end of the 2006 war, raised a Shiite version of Hitler Youth of over 60,000 fanatics ready to sacrifice all to the cause of genocide, and cemented its stranglehold on the Lebanese government. This is what Mr. Bechor would like in Gaza? I doubt it. Hamas and Islamofascism are cancers that you cannot merely "trim" every now and then. They must be eradicated or they will keep growing back faster and faster. Let the Islamofascists - who so happily voted en masse for Hamas and who cavort in the streets when Americans and Jews die - be absorbed by their ever-so-concerned Muslim brethren in Egypt and Jordan, and let Gush Katif become a safe, flourishing and peaceful corner of the world again. Bring home Gilad ben Aviva Shalit on the shoulders of his fellow soldiers of Tzahal. Then and only then can we talk of "winning".

Bechor, Get real! You're only fooling yourself! The two-week long Palestinian resistance and the worldwide anti-Israel protests are proof of Israel's moral loss, strategic failure, and political suicide. How brilliant you are to consider the murder of hundreds of children, women, and unarmed men as a battlefield victory! That's the moral bankruptcy in Israel exposed to the world to see and condemn.

Same old worn-out slogan over and over again. So I suppose Israel is to blame for Hamas shooting rockets from schools and refugee camps, using the children there as human shields.

#21 Great tactic, everytime Israel tries that one, the Pals just use it to attack even more When there was no wall on the West Banks look what happened

there is saying less you know more you shout. If you want to believe and stick with your current opinion, please do. If you want to learn a bit and understand what is really going on, and how terrorist groups using media in war, and if you want to learn why Israel decided to start DEFENDING its own citizens then read and spend some time not only in big news channels. You can't find the truth in this big media theater. Ignorance is the biggest enemy, and here you are ignoring that Hamas is using civilians, babys, what ever takes, to make people like you to hate Israel and draw away the attention from self, who intentionally and systematically pouring blood of own familys, brothers and sisters. Doesnt really make you wonder when you see too many fathers crying lost of their children and they dont have even a scratch on them? Where were them? Why they not protecting their children if not taking to more safe place then with their own body? Why kids are running and playing on the streets? You know, you and the rest like you really can keep being ignorant, because people who asking questions and trying to find the real truth, are not among you.

I think Israel has learned its lesson in 2006, that is why its trying hard now not to lose this war or else the goal for which this state was established will fade away ,and it will become a JOKE where their friends in USA won't be able to rely on them anymore. Just face it people ,your army is going crazy ,your soldiers can't find Hamas militants that is why they're bombing everywhere and using illegal weapons trying desperately not to drown in Gaza's mud !!!!