If I understand what you are saying, it's that 1.5 million people are being held hostage by 15,000 militants (even though Hamas itself claims a body of more than 100,000 members "ready to fight the Zionists")... then you could agree that part of an effort to help Israel and the Gazans, would be the direct targeting and removal of these terrorists from the region, which squarely includes Hamas. Now, in other postings you claim Hamas is the legal representation of the Gazans and are protected (despite the fact that PLO legislative law negates that fact when Hamas led a bloody coup). So, by your convoluted logic and blatant pro-"pally" agenda - Hamas can launch attacks on Israel but are immune from attacks back under a diplomatic basis. Though Hamas is in power through the majority of Gazans by vote, and support till this day, you claim Gazans are NOT responsible for the actions of their govt. You can't have it both ways. Either Gazans are responsible (as the world holds Americans responsible for THEIR govt), or Hamas is alone and can be targeted freely.

Previous you said: Why are you proud of a terrorist group that also attacked and killed innocent civilians not to mention the expulsion of Palestinian civilians from their homes and villages?

COVER THE TRUTH--OBAMA'S FRIEND BILL AYERS AND HIS WIFE BERNADETTE DEVLIN HAVE LED THE US STRUDENT GROUP THAT HAS CAUSED THESE RIOTS OT O BREAK OUT. WHERE IS OBAMA'S DENOUNCEMENT OF THEM FOR THIS?WHERE IS THE COVERAGE THAT PUTS IF TOGETHER?OBAMA OUT IN 2012!

Get with the program. I told the truth. You just don't like it. If these people in Gaza are starving, where do they get the energy for their continual protests, and attacks on Israel? And, if you want to be taken seriously, you will have to stop believing what you hear from the UN and the New York Times rag. You will also have to actually articulate your position, and defend it intelligently, instead of name calling. As for your worrying about Israel's PR , don't make me laugh. You were right about one thing though. The illegal occupation has to end. Get the muslim interlopers out of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, and send them back to the surrounding arab third world toilets, where they belong.

please produce any picture you have on the internet to show the starvation of gaza. i want to see with my own eyes the starvation of children. i want to see pictures of starving children mothers and men and women. produce them now. let us see also what you mean by your anti israeli propaganda. if you do not send pictures to show me and tghe rest of the world the starvation in gaza, i will take it to mean that you are nothing but a biggoted bs. don't bother answering me with words. i want to see the pictures you have on starvation in gaza. i mean babies starving like in darfur or ethiopea, moms with skin and bone on their bodies, men gaunt looking walking the streets. so far i see all gazans take part in rallies with their fat healthy looking wives and fat healthy looking children dressed in suicide belts and holding their fathers ak 47. these don't look too weak to me to stand up for hours and cheer. they all should be in a hospital dying from starvation if that is in fact what is happening there in gaza. produce pictures to support your claim or shut the heck up. hameed aboughaze, iranian

i actually visited the site on bbc that you recommended. i have not seen a single child looking malnurished. yes, i saw the destruction the idf caused because of hamas 13,000 rockets for over 5 years, but i never saw a single malnurished child. if you want to see malnutrition, visit web sites in south africa, in sudan, in yemen, in the congo and somalia and 100% in darfur. now, there is malnutrition where people, men, women and children look gaunt, skin and bones with flies on their faces, in hospitals dying of starvation. now that is a picture one can never forget. gaza children you say? look at their faces and realize that no one, i repeat, not a single person in tghose pictures looks even skinny, much less starving. you lie! hameed aboughaze, iranian

"...1.5 million people are being held hostage by 15,000 militants" Incorrect. Israel is collectively punishing 1.5 million Gazans to make the turn away fro resistance to occupation. Israel helped create Hamas as a counter-weight to Arafat and they have only existed for about half the occupation. Hamas, in two elections, encouraged by the Bush junior administration, won in free and fair elections a right to participate in the government. When Bush junior was pushing these folks to accept democracy, and Rumsfeld was saying things like "sometimes democracy is messy", the US and Israel promptly did everything in their power to thwart that election. The lesson about "democracy" to the Arab Street suddenly became clear. In the Middle East. "democracy" would only be accepted if it did not contradict Israeli or American foreign policy. That, and your warped allegations are a major part of Israel's current PR problems.

The pot does indeed like calling the kettle black, it would seem. Israel did not create Hamas, though it received some support and donations, much like many other non-violent Palestinian organizations back in the day. Then Hamas chose to become part of the armed segment of Palestinian society, collecting political brownie points and furthering its grassroots prestige in accordance to how mane Israelis (with an active focus on non-combatant civilians and suicide bombings in crowded areas) the organization managed to massacre. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, itself a regional radical organization that has slowly grown in both support and power as the old pan-Arab Nationalism waned. It holds some of the most rigid and violent interpretations of Islam, and sees the violent liberation of Palestine (read: the complete destruction of Israel) as a holy Muslim duty. Hamas won the free Palestinian elections. It won on a platform of curbing Fatah corruption and destroying all Israeli presence. Some political observers tend to artfully sidestep the latter, even though Hamas said it publicly enough, and never really shirked from their manifesto. And yet both Israel and the international community, US included, gave Hamas ample chances when it won the elections. All the organization had to do was recognize past agreements signed by Palestinian leaders - and that, by and large, only really meant recognizing the existence of the state of Israel and foregoing its terrorist attacks against Israelis. Hamas refused. It would not abide by past agreements, stating that they were irrelevant. It would not recognize Israel, as the stated purpose of Hamas was to destroy Israel and populate it solely with Palestinians, with a clear focus on Palestinian Muslims. Then it set up parallel armed organs to those of the PA, calling them official parts of the PA, while continuing its attacks against Israel and Israelis. It was an elected government, you say? Great. That has a consequences. That means it's not just 15,000 militants, but rather the elected government of a national group. And that means they, the national group in question, end up facing the consequences of their elected leaders' actions if and when said leaders start hostile operations and break diplomatic agreements in their name. Hamas effectively declared war on Israel, time and time again, so it and the Palestinians who elected it got what they were asking for - a war, in the same Gaza that they had supposedly liberated and still claim as occupied at the same time. Here's the thing - they had their chance. They failed it. They chose the path of war, and got locked out by their immediate neighbors, who were not interested in being affected by the armed forces in Gaza. As for claims of collective punishment... Gaza isn't occupied territory anymore, no matter how many times Palestinian lobby groups try to redefine the meaning of the word "occupation", as there is no foreign military presence in Gaza. launching armed offensives against both Israel and even Egyptian border guards wasn't exactly the best way of preserving the Palestinian interest in this case. Claims of collective punishment are largely irrelevant - Hamas is the elected government and sovereign ruler of Gaza. As an independent region, it chose to break off diplomatic relations, make use of armed force, artillery and rocket attacks, cross-border raids and extensive terrorist operations, which prompted the closure of all its borders by its immediate neighbors. If the Palestinian populace in Gaza is interested in that situation to change, they had better inform their esteemed rulers that their policy of "resistance" at the expense of the civilian populace isn't the brightest idea, as neither Israel nor Egypt is likely to choose the fate and well-being of Palestinian citizens over their own.

One can speak of facts easily, but the real credibility of facts is by who is presenting them. Simply claiming numbers about the situation in Gaza is disingenuous, especially when you find out it was Hamas that provided that data. There were facts of the Jenin "mssacre" like >500 civilians dead, but that turned out to be a lie. Facts presented by anyone with an agenda are not facts are all, but an opinion using manipulation to support it.

You cannot speak about the Haganah, a group born from the inability (or unwilligness) of Brits to provide protection amid the purposeful increase in Arab violence, without talking about the years of targeted racist attacks on Jews led by Al-Husseini who's sole purpose was to rid the area, not just of Zionists, but of all Jews. I am very proud of the Haganah for fighting back against these racist elements. I am equally proud that the groups they did target were not specifically civilians (as Arabs did) but those who either joined Arab violence or supported the violence - both are conditions that exempt them from civilian protected status under the Geneva Convention. You were not there at the time, so anything you say is purely conjecture, and based upon the names of authors you've cited recently, your claims are highly biased. I tend to lean towards the words of the Arab leaders themselves for the truth - commanding Arabs to leave their homes so their armies can decimate the Jews and take their wealth, and the lie fo Deir Yassin which caused more people to flee than anything the Jews could have done (per BBC interview in 1990s). As I recall, you still cite Deir Yassin as a massacre and fail to accept the testimonies of actual residents from the town that refused to corroberate the Arab lie, which is on file at Bir Zeir University in Ramallah. Help yourself to some knowledge.

Taking my words out of context and tying to provide a new context to them is blatantly dishonest, and goes a long way to show how many holes your own arguments have. Though, how can I expect more from you in terms of honesty than your own ilk ever use? Manipulation of data to claim "facts", hiding behind pseudonyms, citing quotes that can't be proven or were taken from very biased sources, and resorting to name calling of people who disagree with you. Matty - YOU are the poster child for what's wrong with the Democratic party today in the US.

Speaking of your lack of credibility...one thing you fail to mention every time is the massive destruction caused by Hamas in Cast Lead. Hamas placed many IEDs that were huge all over the town. They expected to kill scores of soldiers. These bombs are so powerful that they could easily bring down an entire building. So I ask you Matty - where is your condemnation of Hamas for placing such large munitions right next to civilian homes, which could not be saved no matter how the bomb was detonated?? Luckily, the IDF knew of their location and detonated them ahead of time, much to the chagrin of you, BBSNews, and Hamas - to which I gladly snub my nose and smirk.