Hamas are terrorists..the western world must make a stand on all fronts. The Jewish nation is standing up to them and deserve our support. I am saddened by the civilian casualties though on both sides.

The Jewish law has it, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; one would now hope that they accept the global response of outrage to the slaughter of Palestinians under the same terms. Jews anywhere on the globe will now live a much more insecure existence

Does Israel have a right to exist ? Yes, alongside the multitude of other ethnic and religious groups across the Middle East.

Does Palestine have a right to exist, with a government of its own ? Yes, of course, alongside the multitude of other ethnic and religious groups across the Middle East, including Israel.

A two-state solution is preferable to these interminable wars, with the civilian populations on both sides caught in the middle. If both sides claim ALL the territory of both, then I would prefer, ultimately a single secular state, but that is obviously a hell of a long way off. In the meantime, two states, each running their own affairs without interference from the other, is what any progressive person should have to settle for.

If Hamas keeps firing rockets into Israel, then it is quite legal - and necessary - for Israel to retaliate. When Israel offers a cease-fire, and Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel, then the retaliation must continue.

Hamas has been doing this for many years now, and seems to have learnt the mathematics of it, calibrating its aggression, calculating how much retaliation it can expect in return, until the people of Gaza have enough of it all. And around we go.

Joe

Yes but how!?
When Hamas continue to cower like craven cowards, hiding behind women and children!
Israel just can't win!
If they don't react!
Then an emboldened Hamas, will up the ante! And take the current war outside Gaza's borders!
Personally, I would continue the campaign, until Hamas hollers uncle, and sues for a lasting peace!
This off and on again risible rubbish, just allows them to rearm and redeploy, and can only continue, until ordinary Palestinians stand up to them; saying, if we are going to be killed anyway, then it should be at a time and place of our own choosing; and against the very madmen, who are patently prosecuting/perpetuating this war!
Rhrosty.

Until the Israeli gov't stops harassing the Palestinians in the illegally settled West Bank, stirring up trouble then the Palestinians will retaliate. The deaths of all those killed on the heads of Netanyahu and his fascist cronies.

A snapshot...

“We’re not really running a capitalist system. We are running a credit system. Instead of using savings, we are using credit. Credit, the way we are doing it now, is really a form of counterfeiting. If you look at the $72 trillion shadow banking system that we have operating right now, that is generating this credit . . . it collapsed in 2008 . . . and now it’s on a hairy edge. “I think 2008 was an early warning signal of the magnitude of the problem.

One of the top priorities at the Bilderberg meeting was the Ukraine crisis and sanctions being not so effectively pushed by President Obama.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) took the historically unprecedented step of lowering certain of its interest rates below 0%.

The Jewish Encyclopedia: “Khazars, a non-Semitic, Asiatic, Mongolian tribal nation who emigrated into Eastern Europe about the first century, who were converted as an entire nation to Judaism in the seventh century by the expanding Russian nation which absorbed the entire Khazar population, and who account for the presence in Eastern Europe of the great numbers of Yiddish-speaking Jews.

These worldviews are developed, promulgated, and defended by a network of think tanks, committees, public policy schools, and government agencies that don't always agree on what should be done (or which problems deserve most priority) but that are all committed to using U.S. power a lot. ... foreign policy is shaped by a bipartisan class of foreign policy do-gooders who spend years out of power maneuvering to get in, and spend their time in office trying to advance whatever their own pet project(s) might be. Having scratched and clawed to get themselves on the inside, the people who run foreign policy are not likely to counsel restraint, or to suggest that the United States and the rest of the world might be better off if Washington did a bit less. After all, what's the point of being a big shot in Washington if you can't use all that power to try to mold the world to your liking?