No ceasefire until Gilad Shalit is free & back at home in Israel with his parents.

We can take it! Finish the job!

We started this job now lets finish it properly before we end it in favour of a UN resolution. In Lebanon it took a while for Olmert to get his act together but eventualy the IDF got the tactics right and given more time could have achieved something but instead Olmert lost his nerve and had Livni negotiate 1701. This operation has been going well so far now it depends on if we are going to get a good political result and the Egyptian one everybody is so enthusiastic about Olmert included does nothing for Israel to solve the long term problem.

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. Cities such as Ashdod, Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Gat are in Hamas-rocket range. Several Hamas leaders have declared: "We will strike beyond Beer Sheva…" More about Hamas and Gaza : http://xrl.us/bebh94

Al Fatah is more dangerous than Hamas even without rockets, but I am sure the leadership knows this already. Good work, just make sure they understand not to fire rockets into Israel, keep them intact.

Now that Hamas is trapped like rats, they want a cease fire. There should not be any cease fire until Gilad Chalid is freed and well, uncondional surrender and effective israeli control of the border. Why allow them to save face? Remember, defeat and humiliation is far worse to arabs that death. This would be a powerful deterent for Israel.

Egypt, while a friend caused this whole problem by lax inpections of the rafah border. Gilad's insights are arab bullshit peddled as changes in hamas. IDF should take the iniative, seize the corridor, arrange with others, dig a moat and drown any existing tunnels. Hamas should be disarmed of all rockets if they wish to continue. Israel will have trouble doing this so long as olmert is running things since he is afraid of bold strokes. Acually, Barak and ashkenazi saved his ass. He is trying but he screwed up the UN resolution , stammers and hesitates because at his core he is beset by fears. That's who he is. Livni is not afraid but comes off a bit slow. Barak so far takes some credit because he was methodical and comprehensive in his planning.IDF has now implemented some asymmetric gureilla warfare tactics in an impressive manner.Other powers will now study Isreal. You just don't go in as with hezbollah in 2006. Preparations have to be made and countermeasures need to be employed. IDF is the best military force in the area and is at least equvialent to England as a fighting force.Right now, Canada, UK, USA, Australia are doing most of the heavy fighting against islamic terror. Europe is a pack of cowards in particular spain,norway and france. Russia is a very good military force when they want to be but they play a double game which is dangerous since they have 35 million moslems with a high birth rate. So Russia has to return to Yeltsin realpolitics or it will be gobbled up by the moslem caliphate. Gilad is a fool and should stick to military matters-no politics please.

Israel must demand surrender, not a truce. A truce will only allow Hamas to re-arm again to fight another day. Hamas leaders must be deposed (or disposed) and all Hamas fighters must turn in their arms or be hunted down and killed. Hamas cannot be allowed to exist in any form- it's a cancer that will return. G-d Bless the IDF and may they rid the world of these beasts. And if a stray round hits Kuntar up north in Hezbollahland, all the better.

What kind of cease fire can Egypt broker when their national interest is to maintain the smuggling routes which add millions to their national income, and maintain opposition to Israel's existence through the cover of Hamas. Egypt won't even public admit the tunnels even exist.

We will NOT accept ceasfire unless you lift the seige. The longer your aggression goes on, the more surprises you will be dealing with. You started by saying you won't stop until you wipe out the resistance, then you want rockets to stop, now all you want to salvage is to stop smuggling. You cannot achieve anything from this aggression, we the Palestinians of Gaza are united with the resistance and you will be defeated, you will have to BEG for this to stop.

Israel can't achieve it diplomatically.

Salameh You need the ceasefire alot more than we do. How long can the residents of Hamastan hold out against the continued destruction of the place, soon there won't be anything left of the place. Of course as a political movement Hamas can't be defeated nobody ever believed it could. Even Nazi style facism are still around in the form of neo Nazis and other facist movements but the difference is whilst their political ideals are still around they are no position to do much more than paint swastikas on gravestones. Israel has plenty of bombs to keep pounding the hell out of the place. destroying tunnels and arms dumps. The Hamas fighters are dropping like flies while their leaders have gone underground .. now as willing to be shahids as the other men they sent to get themselves killed. Hamas will eventualy have to accept a ceasefire that isn't on their terms. As a military force Hamas has lost this one Also I would be interested to know if your in Gaza where are you getting the electricity to power your computer. I thought the electricity infastructure was smashed long ago.

A ceasefire before Israel reaches the sea in Gaza will be a failure for Israel and a victory for Hamas and rockets will be back - not that they have stooped yet

Your resistance will only last until Hamas feels its on its last leg and is in immediate danger of losing power. They dont care about you, your children, your people. All they want is the power. That is why they are willing to talk now. We will not talk, we will destroy hamas and anyone they hind behind. Listen to us when we say move because you might get caught in the crossfire.

I see, yes, it makes perfect sense. Israel impacts on the Muslim Brotherhood's parallel organisation in 'Aza, Hamas, to save the sorry corrupt butts of the Egyptian pharaoh. Well, what kind of victory is that? What kind of objective is that? It's all a lot of waste of blood and treasure, for what in return? I guess we the sheeple will never know.

In every time of crisis, Israel feels the obsession and compulsion to complexify rather than simplify the situation. Here we have Hamas, a gang of serial killers. We need to take them out bottom-up. We owe that to our wifes, children and relatives We know very much from experience 1) every time we did the job to the end we enjoyed security for quite a while and 2) every time we had an agreement with Arabs, Egypt included, we were dissatisfied shortly after as they did not live up to their word and/or they used any possible loophole to screw us. So why so much unnecessary and distractive thinking, keep it sweet and simple and just do the job to the end.

Syria should take a good look at what happened to Gaza and Lebanon and see that being friends with Iran and their ideology is the Road to Hell.

Salameh, you "the Palestinians of Gaza" and Hamas can take your "surprises" and stick it up my ass. How many times have you and Hamas threatened Israel since the start of the military operation? And how many times have these threats actually been met? Really, my mom scares me more than you do.

Abbas did not do this, Hamas did. So who is more legal. When a party act like this then they are not legitimate anymore. Democratic elections can be abused (try Hilter, Mugabe , among many) and when you act like the jungle - killing your opposition - you are no longer right in anything.

You write "We know very much from experience 1) every time we did the job to the end we enjoyed security for quite a while.." I challenge this assertion...what do YOU think Iranian agression is a response to? What do you think lead to the rise of Hamas? PEOPLE chose to follow them, to hear them, for a reason and I challenge your assertion that previous hawkish policies from the right have made you and your children more safe.. The American electorate thought taking the fight to Iraq would make us "more safe" We are just learning how wrong the assertion is. PE Obama will change this dumb policy and pull us out of the Middle East quagmire. Even as a "barbaric" American, the talk from you Israelis on here scare me SO much. Unbelievable. "just do the job to the end"?? Are you nuts? Overt actions like this offensive give too much propoganda to your enemies. You need less dramatic covert maneuvering. Amateurs, you all. You would be smart to remember what happened after WW1 when the Germans felt they got an unfair shake...when the rest of Europe acted as sore winners and thought winners didn't have to be fair and compromise with the losers...WW11 is what happened. Hell on Earth; you know that well. The Americans are getting tired of pouring money in to the middle east black hole. PE Obama will hear nothing about a war with Iran so don't try it.