Israeli Daily butcher's bill for the cleansing of Gaza (24 July Aus time):

Palestinians killed: 697*

Israeli and foreign civilians killed: 3

Israeli soldiers killed: 32

* Using the findings of The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), Occupied Palestinian Territory, Gaza Emergency Situation Report, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_sitrep_24_07_2014.pdf.pdf .

The UN OCHA estimates that of the 697 Palestinians killed:

- civilians: 518^

- unknowns: 71

- militants: 108

^ This includes 170 children and 86 women.

Dear SteeleRedux,

<<2 civilians (though if they are on militarty age in Israel they would have been trained to kill Palestinians therefore one would have thought are legitimate targets)>>

Well, one of those civilians was killed while delivering food to the soldiers that guarded the Erez border-crossing to Gaza. He was 37 y.o. and father of three. The crossing was active at the time with trucks supplying food, medicine and fuel to Gaza.

The other was a 32 y.o. Beduin Israeli Arab (a Muslim, one would argue a Palestinian). His house was hit by a rocket, which also severely wounded his baby-daughter and also wounded his 5-y.o. son and two women.

Anyway, here is your chance to be constructive - I am all ears to hear your advice to Israel:

What would you do differently had YOUR family been in this situation, had your own family been under attack by rockets and lived with the constant fear of extremely-hateful mass-murderers and kidnappers emerging from tunnels that could open up anywhere and at any time?

Here's something that Redux and co didn't mention:

"The media has obsessively counted every dead body in the conflict between Hamas and Israel. They rarely explain why so many more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed: Hamas does not allow Palestinian civilians into their shelters, while using civilian areas from which to fire their rockets; Israel, on the other hand, devotes its resources to building shelters and Iron Dome protection. Put another way, while Israel uses shelters and Iron Dome to protect its civilians, Hamas uses its civilians to protect its rockets and its terrorists. A widely circulated cartoon makes this point effectively:

Recently, supporters of Hamas have argued that to say that Hamas uses civilians as human shields is a manifestation of racism and an attempt to dehumanize Palestinians. But it is Hamas' own leaders who have long boasted of this tragic reality. Listen to Fathi Hammad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council[QUOTE]:

'For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life.'"

Yutusu

I would have not indulged my desire to exterminate non Jewish inhabitants of the region. I would have recognised in the longer term my family is likely to suffer another of those regular progoms Jews have suffered for generations. I would recognise the next progom will be by the populations surrounding Israel that Israel has failed to accommodate and make peace with.

I'd help my family either to reform their religion or move from the region.

Dear Yuyutsu,

I understand you have family and friends in Israel and obviously feel fearful about their safety. I also personally know a Palestinian woman extremely worried about her family in Gaza.

I'm not expect either of you are going to take an even handed view so please do not take any part of this reply as an attempt to assuage your fears, that is not its purpose.

You wrote;

“Anyway, here is your chance to be constructive - I am all ears to hear your advice to Israel”.

Remove all of the illegal settlements from the West Bank and move purposefully and with proper intent to a homeland for the Palestinian people within the 67 borders.

You spoke of “constant fear of extremely-hateful mass-murderers and kidnappers”. The IDF is killing massive numbers of civilians and kidnapping (or 'administrative detention' to use the parlance of the occupiers).

The hate within the political and intellectual ranks of the Israeli establishment is also there to see. I offer the words of a university professor and a politician;

"The only thing that could deter a suicide bomber is knowing that if caught, his sister or his mother would be raped" - Middle East scholar Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/israeli-professor-rape-hamas-militiants-mothers-sisters-deter-terrorist-attacks-1457836

Well raping is slightly better than killing them as proposed by Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked on her facebook page;

“They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists. They are all our enemies and their blood should be on our hands. This also applies to the mothers of the dead terrorists. … [The terrorists] are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”
http://www.facebook.com/shakedayelet

So we have 'extremely-hateful mass-murderers and kidnappers' on both sides.

@Steele,

<<So we have 'extremely-hateful mass-murderers and kidnappers' on both sides>>

How very decent and even handed of your Steele!

Now just to demonstrate your balance how about listing side by side how many lines of criticism you have leveled at the bad guys on the Israeli side vis-à-vis those on the Hamas side --just so we can see how balanced your are,eh?

@ imajulianutter,
<<I'd help my family either to reform their religion or move from the region>>

LOL that's why the bulk of the ME Jews migrated from their former Arab homelands to Israel --so you want them to move again?