Without question Hamas, who use innocent women and children as human shields or as readymade, specifically bred human bombs! Are mostly to blame here.

Billions in aid that should have been turned into food and housing etc/etc! Have instead been turned into bullets bombs and rockets! With one aim to start a highly confected war, with the forlorn hope of dragging other Arab nations into their bloodthirsty madness!

Were this not the inescapable and profound truth, their situation could be so different!

The over the top, bellicose and belligerent stance by Netanyahu and his sturm troopers, things might be so very different.

It is like watching the life and death struggle of the Mongoose and the Cobra. Neither willing to concede an inch of ground or back away.

I have no answer, save the illegal settlements must be rolled back and new more humane tactics tried.

Perhaps non lethal bean bag munitions and dry ice in any newly discovered tunnels? Escaping Co2 might be seen by the ignorant as nerve gas or worse!

And how about very low cost power and equally abundant potable water! And completely covert metal detectors and or, unbeatable space age lie detectors at border crossings?

Water has always represented life in the deserts and the gift of it, the gift of, unmistakable hands held out, in friendship?

And I have written at length here on OLO on that very topic, how it could be done!

That writing tells, you catch many more flies, with a teaspoon of honey than a whole jar of vinegar!

Something else must be tried! The situation could hardly be worse nor more heart wrenching!
Alan B.

There is just one cause for the misery of the Gazan people - procreation!

Hamas has declared that they will carry the war through the womb.

And they are successful at that - while the territory is tiny, their birth-rate is among the highest in the world.

No peace is possible because even if everyone in the Middle-East somehow loved each other, there is no space anywhere to house those people.

Since the womb is being used as a weapon, for Israel, the only possible military solution, if it so chooses, is to come in and sterilise all Gazan women.

Add endless cheap potable water and exceptionally cheap energy and hey presto there's an abundance of room and most of it in the untouched sky! i.e., thorium, molten salt reactors and deionization dialysis desalination! And every inch of desert blooming!

And well within the technical expertise of the Israelis!

Now, sterilizing the women might be acceptable but hugely unpalatable, if they were willing participants in baby making for bombs scenario? Rather than also innocent a voiceless victims of this blood lust eye for an eye madness, with the only logical outcome? a blind world!

Besides, sterilizing all the men would be far more appropriate when so much of this violence/madness, is fueled by over abundant testosterone! And castration more feared than death!
Alan B.

Oh please,

You two need to give it a break.

Here is a question for the both of you: Who has the highest birth rate? The women of Gaza or the illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank?

Yuyutsu when does the term “war through the womb” become “land theft through the womb”?

And Alan would you then also make the case for sterilising Jewish settler women? Would you deem this also acceptable? Why doesn't this put you in the same category as a certain axis power?

To an earlier point of yours it took a Supreme Court injunction to stop the long standing practice of the IDF using Palestinians as human shields although to a degree it continues with reports of it occurring during the last conflict.

S.R. Not advocating just offering an alternative to Yutusitu's sterilizing, mostly innocent women.

I don't how you can possibly suggest that I'm anything like something emanating from a former Axis power, when I'd do things very differently.

Moreover , where violent recidivist offenders are concerned, mandatory castration possibly preferable to incarceration for the term of your natural life and far less costly!

Furthermore, my preference would be to gift clean abundant potable water and ultracheap energy! And see how much difference that'd make? And secure the border crossings with covertly deployed, unbeatable space age lie detectors.

And react in a timely manner that minimises the risk to others when, what's the purpose of your visit questions? Raises a red flag!

Given the intending miscreant is sure to lie regarding true intentions, even though smiling and joking! Able to be lead away for further technological assisted interrogation!

Better security, and restricting punishment to wrongdoers or intending wrongdoers would help? As opposed to bulldozing the entire family's homes down!

Even were my suggestion acted upon, it'd only apply to known/proven troublemakers, not the entire population.

And flagged in advance of terrorist activity. And given the punishment fits the crime? I'd have no problem with violent men losing their ability to pass their genes/inherently violent natures on. And could apply equally to both sides of the never ending conflict!

An eye for an eye could morph into a ball for a ball? And not to different, except some of the sacrificed body parts would have different higher/lower locations, with some massively more precious in the minds of intending offenders, and perhaps valuable enough to modify behavior, so they remain always attached to them?

When a life becomes less valuable than a pair of testicals? Then the risk of losing them might be enough to modify intending behavior?

Or should the bloodbath allowed to wind on and on and on, for a couple of centuries?

I think the latter, would put those advocating/tolerating the never ending stalemate, squarely in the camp of the former Axis powers!
Alan B.

Dear SteeleRedux,

I welcome your suggestion to also sterilise the Jewish settlers in the West Bank, though I see no power on earth that is actually capable of doing so. The Jewish settlers are a cancer for the state of Israel, but it is way too late to remove them - Israel simply hasn't got the capacity and couldn't survive the civil-war that would ensue if it tried. I therefore suggested, including over these pages, that Israel should wash its hands, withdraw from the West Bank without touching the settlers - leave them to their own devices and let whatever happens there happen.

Overall, the world is infested and overcrowded with humans - way too many. Using procreation as a weapon harms not only the enemy, but everyone else on this planet. Given the unpopularity of celibacy, sterilisation is the answer not only for the Middle-East, but for the whole world.

---

Dear Alan,

Aiming at testicles is ineffective.

During the 1915 locust infestation in Palestine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_Palestine_locust_infestation, the Ottoman regime paid people by the bucket to catch and collect locusts - but only the females were accepted, because even one male escaping is sufficient to fertilise all the females.

And boy, I bet he was very very tired!

What else can you expect; they are Arabs and they are still marrying
their cousins and Hamas's battle with the womb weapon shows no hope
for the future.
They appear to have a behaviour problem which is probably a result
of the lower average IQ of Arab populations.
Genetists believe that their IQ is about 10 points lower than other
populations.
A moslem womens group in the UK has had enough of damaged children
and is trying to change the practise but they are being attacked by
immans for being unislamic. The argument is that Allah said it is
OK to marry your cousin so there can be no problem.
In the UK it is mostly Pakistani people but their cousin marriage rate
is the highest at 70% of all Pakistani marriages.

It would take some hundreds of years to repair their genome if they
stopped the practise now.

So what do the rest of us do about it. If we try making cousin
marriage illegal they will simply marry and not register as cousins
or go overseas. In the UK the number of handicapped children is
overloading the special school categories in the Midlands.

You do not hear much about this problem as it is either racist,
taboo or just not very nice to talk about.
It is already a problem in Australia.