We found these games recreational and fun, not because we were shooting terrorists, but because of the thrillness of it. The intentions behind it were pure. The Palestinians, on the other hand, enact these things specifically to prepare the children for war, as Hamas ever so foolishly exclaimed publicly.

Shooting a terrorist is not a crime. Kidnapping a soldier is.

It's about survival. Jews are trying to prevent genocide in every generation. The Arabs train their kids to do genocide. Big difference. Obviously the writer doesn't get it.

YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ON THE MONEY WITH YOUR COMMENT !! AND THAT.....IS A BIG DIFFERENCE.

One of the big differences is the hate and indoctrination that is instilled into the children of Gaza.

As a child many years ago, I and my friends used to play and cowboys and indians more often than not I was the indian, with no harm caused to our later development. To attempt to equivocate the toy representation of the Israeli child and her plastic gun with the indoctrination and bloodthirsty brainwashing of the Gazan children to grow up and kill Jews as matter of honour and even better still to die as a martyr in the process is a travesty of reasonable interpretation of what play is.

What i infer from this op-ed is that Oded believes that Israeli army bases and training camps are comparable to Hamas terrorist camps and that Israeli soldiers are practicing the same kind of urban terrorism that Hamas is

So next step on this "moral relativity" point of view is that...Palestinians kids playing with "real" guns, like the Israelis kids in the same situation, when they become grownups, BOTH will become terrorists, blowing buses, stabbing babies, stoning , etc.etc.etc.... WAIT...JUST A MINUTE...are we sure about this? The last I've checked, it was just the palestinian group doing that....

I guess, the author forgets the kind of hatred environment that makes a child and his imaginary games into something real... Case 1.... http://youtu.be/R_K2_0elIqs

And just to show that this subject goes beyond the narrow point of view of the author of the article.... Now, case 2.... http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/syria-boy-holds-machine-gun-1790694

Mr. Even-Or does't see the difference between a real gun to shoot on INNOCENT JEWS and a toy gun to shoot on TERRORIST?

It's about time someone said this. It's true that should either condemn both sides for doing this and or ignore it. Again, thank you!

So is imprisoning and harassing an entire nation. Just be careful of all the crimes that we are committing as the ICC/ICJ is not far. Let's make peace with our neighbours so we can guarantee the survival of our great State of Israel that we all love and sacrificed to build. Thank you.

and land theft.

I don't agree absolutely with the inferred equation that you present, and while I am no fan of settlers, I think Arabs are far less likely to be killed by settlers than the other way around, but the mindset that you describe which vilifies the Arabs for acting desperately, and gives a pass to Jews only prevents us from reaching a solution. Your article sheds more light on the true nature of the conflict than the one-sided view that my teachers taught me in Jewish day school.

The writer used the example of kids playing a game re-enacting the smuggling of Jews into Palestine and compared it with Gazan kids being taught "Death to Israel" in camps where the main activities are mock military operations. It doesn't take high powered goggles to see the fallacy. Obviously there is a big difference between how Israeli kids are taught and how Gazan kids are. Even-Or's illness of Moral Relativsm is apparent. In his mind, nothing Hamas does is wrong because if you try hard enough, you can find something in Israeli society to compare it with. Hamas shoots rockets, Israel shoots rockets. Hamas swears to Israel's destruction, Israel swears to the destruction of her enemies. Hamas indoctrinates children with their message. Israel indoctrinates children with her message. You see, we are exactly as bad as Hamas! That is how Even-Or thinks. It's an illness.

between innocent childhood games and hate-inspired childhood terror training should be obvious to all except the brain-dead.

I am really surprised at those who posted "Thank you" - there is a huge difference between teaching children (or even grown ups) on how to perform acts of aggression and terror as compared to how to take measures to prevent aggression and terror. These cannot be presented as pertaining to the same philosophy and lifestyle

The incurable need for inaccurate 'political correct journalists explaining away Gaza's educational kidnapping lessons, starts to look really pathetic. There is a difference between this & children playing with toy rifles, which is as old as toys & children exist.

Just as the revisionists pre-48 partook in blowing up busses and hotels so too decades following their summer camps stateside were paramilitary farces with nightime raids on more peaceful neighbor camps. Ein chadash tachat hashemesh.

On one pic. a little girl is playing with a gun, which is not necessarily a good thing). On the other pic a little boy is learning how to kill Jews.

look how cute the little girl is. A proud Jew!

It is better for Israelis with guns than islamic terrorists. What foolishness. If bank robbers train for robbery, and the police train to catch robbers, it obvious who is right. This goes back to the foolish argument of proportional force. If you want to stop your enemy you have to overwhelm them....................

There is a world of difference between teaching terrorism, and teaching how to combat terrorism. Just like there is a difference between teaching arson, and putting out fires. Playing robbers, and playing policeman who stop them. Perhaps we should only teach how to treat wounded and bury our dead? No, we did that in Holocaust, once was enough.

The little girl is in fact "shooting" a real gun, that has enough weight that she needed a helping hand to hold it up. On the other side I have often seen Gaza kids "shooting" toy wooden guns. Nevertheless I grew up protecting Israel and the Jewish People, in the IDF and out. We are a different breed, whom many see as not better....they do not know us, and never will....

The quote is from a speech by Major Yoram Vazuz, a military officer speaking at a municipal military ceremony for kindergarten pupils in Hertzlia. So, Dagan and others, where's the difference, again?

Oh please, stop the drivel. The gun in question is pure plastic & the helping hand is helping her aim the toy gun correctly.

There is no great difference, the hate of Jews and the perceived Israeli occupier and the ideological fundamentalist religious indoctrination of this instilled into the children of Gaza by Hamas is the same hate and ideological religious fundamentalist indoctrination that is driven into the minds of the Children of militant Settlers and right-wing extremists, except that it is driven by hatred of the Arab and the perceived threat posed by Arabs and the desire to claim land inhabited by Arabs but which are believed by Settlers to belong to Jews because it is mentioned in the bible. Unfortunately until Israeli and Palestinian leaders gain the maturity to negotiate a viable peace and a two-state solution and end the occupation then more and more Children will be born and appear with more and more extreme views, due to the increased desire of Palestinians to shake off the occupation and the increased desire of Settlers to claim more and more of their land, this will unfortunately develop into more violent and extreme conflict and develop Jewish and Arab Children, sadly, into future Baruch Goldsteins or future suicide bombers unless action is taken and soon by good minded Israeli and Palestinian leaders.