i find poster eric's suggestion that the entire population of gaza be 'squashed out of existence' to be emblematic of israeli nationalists' attitude to the issue. they condemn hamas' rocket attacks of israel, yet applaud their own administration's shocking record of 'collateral' civilian casualties in their disproportionate retaliations, and the systemic deprivation of palestinians' liberty. that kind of duplicity is better described as hypocricy.

hamas is disqualified from the negotiating table by virtue of its refusal to recognise israel, yet israel's position is strengthened globally by its refusal to recognise hamas, who have a legitimate democratic mandate to represent their people.

Only a peace agreement with viable guarantees would work for Israel. A truce that enables Hamas the ability to re-arm is a non-starter.

What do you mean by giving politics a chance at peace? Whats been going on for fifty years?

Hamas has done one good thing, backed its followers into a small region where the least number of people will be harmed as they are squashed out of existence. Now is the time to maintain the pressure on Hamas and force them to be cast out of even Gaza. They are nearly finished and the threat of storming the border is their usual form of productive politics of keeping a supply of munitions.

i see in the middle east issue , the voilence never becoming the salotion and the political players should be doing their pavotil in this area , to save the human and stoping the daily bloodshede , i say that through reading the historical exprenice in this area , so the peace must become the first and end salotion for middle east issues .

the washington post and newsweek are severely anti Israel

i think this is the fifth article in a week I have seen condemning Israel and explaining how Hamas is a legitimate organization.

I can't understand how you could expect Israel to negotiate with a group that states one of its main goals is the destruction of the party that they are supposed to negotiate with.

and as far as Israeli war crimes, everyone neglects to mention that the rockets fired by Hamas and Al Aqsa martyrs and all the terrorists taking asylum in Gaza are fired form civilian areas. Why not writ about the fact that Hamas uses the deaths of its constituents as political leverage, and how those constituents dance in the streets celebrating the deaths of jewish children in school

i implore you to find video of Israelis dancing in the streets when Palestiniian children are killed

how about the fact that the democratically elected government of Hamas just took over every Fatah supported university and how Hamas uses childrens shows and characters in costume as a means to incite hate and breed a new generation of suicide bombers

the reason Hamas cannot be negotiated with is the fact that through their exrtemism, they have lost all value of human life, be it their enemies or their own people, and for people like that, peace is worthless

war, on the other hand, keeps you in power and pays the bills