wasn't that soft...

one gave a rats ass as to their well being. That includes the French, English and Americans. Get a clue and do what has to be done and to hell with world opinion. The world loves a dead Jew. a live kicking Jew is a thorn in their side. Dont be that dead Jew.

1. Israel started bombing Gaza for no reason 2. only palestinian civilians have been injured. The BBC deliberately hides the hole truth from us, the British public... just to be sure we don't come to the wrong conclusions vis a vis who's in the right and who's in the wrong... Telling us the whole truth would surely just confuse us? What Hamas started this? Oh... so virtually all the dead were Hamas members? Dangerous for us to think these kind of things... thank god the BBC protects us from the truth!

If Hamas ends the rocket attacks against Israel will Iran end sending money to Hamas? Of course they will! So there is little incentive for Hamas to discontinue their atrocities. The only way to break this cycle is for Israel to hit Hamas so hard that it is unprofitable for Hamas to continue the terrorist rocket business

Also from today's BBC website is the following 'How heavily Israel responds to any breaches in a ceasefire will also determine whether the recent flare-up in violence escalates further'. It seems they know already..... .... that Israel will be held responsible for any 'escalation' following a 'ceasefire' because it will inevitably use 'disproportionate force' when responding to further rocket attacks and the 'militants' will be responding to 'Israeli aggression' . ... ......and the military solution to thousands of rockets fired by terrorists is?.... the BBC conveniently doesn't say but Israel needs to make sure that no one gets hurt or killed! No similiar pressure on the British and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq which have been responsible for many thousands of civilians deaths, far more than Israel, but presumably this isn't disproportionate force. And finally we're told by the BBC that: in Operation Cast Lead ' more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed as well as 13 Israelis' forgeting to mention that 600-700 hundred of these deaths were hamas fighters a fact admitted by hamas itself two years later after initially conceding just 49 of the dead were its own fighters. This despite the best efforts of the BBC, other UK media outlets and hamas to accuse Israel of war crimes by 'deliberately' targeting civilians by inflating the numbers of civilians deaths for which Israel could be held accounable. Not to forget that hamas and it's fellow terrorists deliberately hid amongst civilians itself a war crime according to the geneva convention though this was usually overlooked by the BBC. For truly slanted coverage it's hard to beat the BBC and other UK 'news outlets'.

Thanks for two accurate talkbacks. I can't listen to the BBC anymore, their reporting is so biassed that it renders it worthless (at best) and destructive (at worst). Some of us are not stupid, though!

You have it precisely backwards. The United States wanted to invade from the South; Churchill was the one who pushed for an invasion of France, citing, among other reasons, that the degree of preparations could not go undetected in the south of Europe but could in East Anglia. As it turns o0ut, there was no shortage of German espionage activity in the U.K. which conveyed information about the significant Allied build-up (and probably no shortage of pro-Nazi members of the British aristocracy that relayed precisely that information to members of the German High Command, but Hitler, Von Runstedt and Rommel (may their names be cursed throughout eternity) all shouted down the wiser Nazis, and believed that the invasion point would be Calais. Even when D Day had been in progress for 48 hours, Hitler -- may his name be cursed throughout eternity -- continued to hold back the bulk of the Nazi Panzer divisions in the belief that the invasion of Normandy was a diversionary tactic. By the time it became apparent that Normandy was the real deal, it was too late for the Nazis to recoup significantly. Nevertheless, the Balkans would have been the less costly bet in terms of Allied troops -- it certainly would have been less costly in terms of Jewish lives because of quicker access to Eastern Europe, where most of the death camps were located (which was my point to begin with). Saving Jewish lives was simply not a concern for Churchill. In fact, a very credible argument can be made that he wanted to give the Germans every opportunity to finish off as many Jews as possible. "Soft underbelly of Europe" is not a misnomer at all. It has a very long history of being a relatively easy invasion route and, frankly, in World War II, would have been the logical choice. But logic meant nothing to the British; fewer Jews left to want to emigrate to Palestine (with world opinion very much on their side) would meant a great deal. In sum -- yes, you are mistaken and I have corrected you.

Thankyou for making the effort to explain your understanding of events during 1944. But, without credible sources, I can't accept your personal view at all. Please refer to Wikipeadia "Allied Invasion of Italy." Particularly section on Allied Strategy. Link below. As you will see, the Article clearly supports my own view, which is, in fact, the reverse of your own. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_invasion_of_Italy

I dispute the Wikipedia account -- it can be revised by anyone who is so inclined. I guess we'll have to wait for Britain to lift the Official Secrets Act ban which has been rigorously imposed on all events surrounding World War II. It won't happen in your or my lifetime, that's for certain.

If you're blind or just trying to be plain deceptive, which you’re not very good at Israel left Gaza 5 years ago, under the assumption that once Gazan's were in charge, they would behave like civilized human beings, that didn't work out too well, did it ? Since you mentioned American's & British, it was those two countries that refused to give sanctuary to the Jew fleeing Hitler's Europe, thus contributing to the slaughter of our Six Million Russia didn't rush in to save Jews, it got involved because Hitler had attacked, it wanted revenge and German territory to add to its own Frankly, the rest of the world didn't give a damn when the Jews were being killed; they sat on the sidelines watching it As far as Israel is concerned, Gaza is a cancer; the only way to treat a cancer is to go to the source The world may know that Israeli's are hurt by Gaza's rockets, on a daily basis; the fact is they don't care Peace Deal, that was tried at Oslo, Arafat despite his promise to do so, never removed the clause from the PLO Charter that called for the destruction of Israel Latest talks, just a few months ago, were front-loaded with Arab pre-conditions that were so obviously against Israel's interests, there was no sense in sitting down to talk, since the Arabs said they wouldn't sit down to parley until Israel agreed to them beforehand Another thing you're mistaken about, They occupy our land, not the reverse A couple of easy questions Who were the last three Rulers of Palestine ? What form of Government did Palestine have ? Where can I see some coinage minted by your Palestine ? What language did the ancient Palestinian's speak ? Don't be bashful, talk up ! P.S. Don't talk about "US", when it's quite evident you're one of them

oh 4 goodness sakes you really don't know anything about history do you? The British Archive in London has already declassified most of the document from WWII. Clearly if you were a true intellectual you would know that. But since you are nothing but a tired out dilettante well you don't know anything do you! Please do stop harrassing people simply because they know more than you!

Really? Check again. Over 80 percent of documents pertaining to the Second World War remain classified under the Official Secrets Act. But you might not know that because, judging from the content of your post, you're high on vitriol and rather low on actual knowledge. Your English language skills leave a great deal to be desired, as well. Judging from your writing ability (lack thereof, actually), you never even sat for A-levels! I doubt very highly that you have the requisitie abilities to conduct research. Shameful, really, the decline of the British educational system.

You have been reading way too much revisionist British history. The Americans did indeed want to invade Europe in 1943, but not, as you suggest, through France, but rather through the Balkans. The British convinced the Americans that the war in Europe had to be dealt with first, and claimed all sorts of false information supposedly revealed by the ENIGMA decrypts that the Balkans would be a supremely bad idea because the Germans were beefing up forces there (when in fact they were busy at work creating Fortress Europe in France). There is, in fact, strong evidence to suggest that Churchill knew that Japan was going to attack a United States naval base (what is unclear is whether it was to be Pearl Harbor or the Philippines) and withheld this information from the United States. Keep in mind that prior to World War II, America had been deeply isolationist, and had nowhere near the military intelligence available to it that the U.K. had (out of delicacy to the British, I will refrain from mentioning that Britain's intelligence community included the likes of Philby, Burgess, McLean, Blunt and Cairncross .... oops!). But I digress. Please tell me why North Africa was worth invading, anyway -- at least from the American point of view. It was both Field Marshal Montgomery and Churchill who convinced Roosevelt and Henry Stimson to invade Italy -- another useless invasion with respect to American interests. Finally -- at war's end, the United States realized that it had been badly played by the British, and it also realized why. That is why the United States refused to help the British as, one by one, Greece, Palestine and India fell. To mention just three. It is because of the British betrayal of the United States that America made it a point to end Britain's days as an Empire, and to assume the role as world leader. Unfortunately, we'll probably never really get to the truth. Britain's Official Secrets Act has never wavered with respect to many aspects of the War. Did you know, for example, that the British wanted all those top Nazis at Nuremberg executed? The Americans didn't, neither did the French. Just the Russians and the British. I've often wondered why. Moreover, as Rudolf Hoess (may his name be cursed throughout eternity) was languishing as the last man in Spandau Prison, even the Russians argued for clemency. It was the British who always said "No." Here, too, I often wonder why -- might it have had something to do with that little flight to Scotland? Or with the close links enjoyed between the British aristocracy and top Nazi Germans? We will probably never know.

you were singing him praises how come you're all quiet about him now?! and about my English... go bugger yourself you old biddy!

I have studied plenty of the history of WW2 over the last 50 years as I had family members who were killed in action with the RAF. I'm not going to debate WW2 history with you because your versiion, in this particular case, matches nothing I've ever read by any historian American, British German or otherwise. As other talkbackers have suggested it is possible that your version of these events is yours alone. The reasons for invading French-held Algeria in 1942 ( Torch) are available in numerous history books and I'm not going to list them here. Numerous NZers fought in Italy which as someone pointed out earlier turned out to be not very ''soft'' at all. I realise that WW2 is a very painful subject for you so I'll leave it at that.

''To mention just three. It is because of the British betrayal of the United States that America made it a point to end Britain's days as an Empire, and to assume the role as world leader'' Other way around again! After WW2 Churchill did speaking tours of the USA warning Americans that the British Empire was broken by the war with Germany, that an ''iron curtain'' was descending over Europe and that the USA would have to take on the role of leader of the ''free world''. Sarah I can only assume you are much younger than I am because some of these events are common knowledge to my generation.

My late father fought in the 8th Army in North Africa with the Kiwis. And then up through Italy, Monte Cassino etc. Into the soft underbelly which proved to be 'a tough old gut'! Good talkbacks.

Rudolf Hoess never flew to Scotland. He was hanged in 1947. You are confusing him with Rudolf Hess. The Russians most certainly did not plead for Hess. People my age still remember them saying ''no'' every time the west suggested freeing him--------------------- As for Greece - it was never in the British Empire to start with.