Thanks for your award Robert, but I must humbly refuse, given the present company here, I am unworthy. The point I was trying to make is that if Israel would give the media full access to what is happening, surely there would be more of the truth about events getting out, rather than rumour, as was the case in Jennin. There the media were blocked acess for 3 days, while the "cleaning up" of events took place. When the media were finally given access, they could not come to any proven conclusions. In Cast Lead, the media were refused acess into Gaza, and were forced to report from outside the wire fence. Al Jazeera were allowed to be trapped inside Gaza with their reporters, and it is this that I watched from a hotel room TV for 24 days in Asia. And this is the point that Chris #5 was making-why not let the media film what you do (without getting in the road of course.) What is Israel afraid of? The media has access to every other battle in the world seemingly.

In Kosovo, NATO bombed for 3 months straight - 38,000 missions, created 850,000 refugees. Killed over a thousand people. NATO claims that they killed 10 civilians for each combatant. There is no proof that any combatants were actually killed. Where is the UN investigation for Kosovo? Do not tell me that NATO does not have high tech weaponry equal to us. Whereas the worst estimates that have come out is perhaps 3 civilians per combatant. That is the lowest civilian to combatant ratio in modern warfare. Considering that the population of Gaza is 1.5 million Arab occupiers and what 10,000 Hamas. We would have to kill at least 150 civilians per combatant just be at random. The number of civilian casualties would have to be above 150 to 1 if we had targeted civilians. Not even Goldblather claims that. The numbers don't lie we could not have been targeting civilians. As for a flour mill - presence of combatants negates it's protected status - that is international law - 4th Geneva Convention. Article 51 of the UN Charter gives us the right to defend ourselves and there is no such thing as UN oversight to determine if we are allowed to exercise that right.

accept the "Idiot Award". But rather than put the onus on Israel, would it not be more appropriate to investigate, analyze, describe and put emphasis on the Arab propaganda machine which works extremely well and which, undoubtedly, deserves more of your excellent emphasis?

Pretty much. I congratulate you on your perspecuity.

I did. No change. You are still delusional.

We don't just randomly shoot up flower mills, or shoot children for fun, despite what antisemites may want to think.

During the inquisition any picture, writing or talk of the world being anything but flat and the center of the universe was heresy, the crime of which was usually death. LUckily Columbus, and others were content to hold fast to their truth, regardless of the "rest of the world". And that is what you should teach your children. Yes, the whole can be wrong and Israel can NOT join them. Israel CAN be right. Is right and one day, as history has taught us, the truth will come out. Truth has no correlation or connection to the number of people who believe it or not. It is an absolute.

The emphasis here is on Israel to prove its innocense. Israel has the PR problem-not the Arabs.

to eventually be uncovered . Political correctness is an ugly thing .

The reason for keeping journalists out of Gaza during Cast Lead was because some couldn't be trusted not to inform Hamas of IDF positions and movements. Due to this none were allowed in. My guess is that if there's another showdown the same ban will apply

Fair enough Mark, but maybe they could adopt the system the US uses in Iraq. Better than nothing.

Because there is tons of evidence that families, like the ones in Sheik Jarrah, did not actually buy homes but just squatted on open land or homes stolen by Arabs and given to other Arabs. There's a mountain of documents that show the majority of "palestinians" were economic illegal migrants in the 1930s - coming from Egypt, Tunisia, Bosnia, Iraq, etc. As for the Stern Gang, Irgun - they didn't exist until years after Arab violence began to take lives of innocent Jews, and the British weren't helping a bit. Think of it this way - it was YOUR violence and racism that really caused Israel to be re-born, grow quickly, and become strong. So...thank you.

The IDF AG is absolutely correct - once a location is used for a military purpose, it loses it's protection. It's rather obvious at the biased nature of the Goldstone report because of the accusations it made - "Israel hit the flour plant to deny bread to Gazans". I would expect this from a fire-brand Imam or some some spin doctor on Al-Jazeera...but a supposed Intl lawyer? That's a pretty specific accusations of a very heavy nature. In a court of law, that is basically called libel unless it's proven, which Goldstone admitted clearly that it wasn't.

Hahaha - so please provide this excerpt of the phone message left by the IDF. Does it say "go back into the building" instead of "leave the building"? The IDF has full records of who it called, when, and the recording given (which was automatic, not by a person). That's already been presented...but good luck with your theory. It appears both your accusations and Hamas' which appears in Goldstone's report....are simply "dust in the wind"

The other side has only brought conjecture and rumors. Goldstone himself said he really had no facts that would hold up in a court of law. So, what are you trying to prove here...that Israel isn't accepting the rumors of people with an agenda. Gee...that seemed obvious.

...inside Gaza, myself, and millions of others watched the whole thing unfold live, even as the IDF was firing at the journalists. It just cannot be hidden from all of us who saw it. I was particuarly disgusted by the way Israelis treated the doctor who had lost three of his daughters due to the IDF's "precision fire". If the IDF was so precise, and every single target precisely chosen for maximum military effect, then how come the civilian infrastructure have been destroyed? It is illogical to believe the whitewash coming out of the IDF. The Goldstone Mission interviewed the Hamadan brothers, the owners of the flour mill, FOUR TIMES.

The Israeli investigators say they have photographic proof that the mill was accidentally hit by artillery in the course of a firefight with Hamas militiamen, not by air strike. So, it was by accident but they delivered "prior warning phone calls that the accident will happen". I think that Israel insistence on being accident by artillery shelling makes strong story than arbitrary bombing by air strike. The IDF released a video claiming to show evidence that Hamas had used a mosque, also in Beit Lahya, to store weapons, but an analysis of the video casts doubt on the claim; the secondary explosion in the bombed mosque was nothing but a second missile. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2AR2kgWBBY In July 2009, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a report stating that, "the IDF inquiry revealed that the mosque was not attacked at all.

you are THE BEST!!! THE MOST MORAL AND WE BELIEVE ISRAEL!!!

It is a well known fact that journalists were not allowed into Gaza during Cast Lead. Men with cameras are not journalists. Keep up your argument, sure you in NC know the true facts & we here in Israel, dont !!