Leigh
its not often that I have to disagree with you, and disagree in the strongggest terms... :)

You claimed the author is "just showing his personal pro-palestinian/anti Israel bias"

No mate.. its MUCH worse than that.
Yes, he is showing bias, but also "Lunacy". Here is why.....

"In war, you do not 'kidnap' enemy soldiers, you capture them"

So, there we have it, 'Its WAR'...... but, given that on the reliable estimate of our friend 'Stewn' (th) Israel has the 4th largest Army in the .. world...soo... makes you wonder. WHY THE HECK THEY ARE SO PATIENT' with the mosquito bites of these idiot Palestinians who regularly suck their blood, when they should know damn well that if push comes to shove the only place they would have would be the salt water off Gaza beach.

I agree, it IS 'war', so..... lets take it the next step, move in, take full control, take literally Arafats proclaimation "All Palestinians are fighters" and act according to their own

a) Attitude/statements
b) Actions.
c) Election of a government dedicated to destroying Israel

The only sensible thing Stalin ever did was 'remove' the Chechyn problem by removing EVERY Chechyn to Kazakstan or somewhere.

So, Colin, is it REALLY war ? do you want that ? what drives these defeated, miserable,brainless dillbrains who think a few AK47s and some pathetic home made rockets will do anything other than FINALLY move Israel to make a FINAL solution ?

WAR= You want to win
WIN= You MUST have superior force.

This kind of madness requires radical surgery to be kind to them.
Move em all out to Syria, Lebanon, Jordon Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Africa. No camps, just disperse them among many villages/towns so the next generation can be absorbed. Some of them are even ethnic Jews, forced into Islam some generations ago... ask them.

Who is UK reporter Donald Macintyre who writes in The Independent? Is he an expert on the area or just a journalist who supplied a convenient article which supports Colin Andersen´s views?

There are reports which show Israel has suffered more attacks than the Palestinians. Colin Andersen should supply some reasonable statistics which show his case otherwise he is just giving an unsubstantiated opinion.

Too often personal opinion passes for an arguement. It supplies grist to the mill of the cheer squad but no useful commentary. Israel has been attacked by the Palestinians and vice versa. One thing which does seem to be hard to deny that Hamas refuses to accept the Jewish state and has often stated its determination to eliminate it. On the other hand Israel has removed if belatedly its settlements which shows that elimination of Palestinians is not on its agenda.

How would feel if a group of aborigines started killing us and claiming that they wanted us to disappear and showed that they are happy to kill us if we don´t.

Is Israel to be condemned because it is capable of defending itself.

elig: re thousands of Qassams. Human Rights Watch in their 9/6/06 report, Hamas Must End Attacks Against Civilians says "According to the Israel Defence Forces, Hamas has launched more than 300 Qassam rockets since September 2000." That is, up to Hamas' near one and a half year old ceasefire which ended with the Gaza beach massacre. Tanya Reinhart in 'A Week of Israeli Restraint'(21/6/06), which is obviously where Colin got some of his material, has written that: "Even though it is impossible to compare the sufferings of the residents of Sderot with the sufferings of the residents of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the North of the Gaza Strip, on which 5000 shells fell in the past month alone, my heart also goes out to the residents of Sderot. It is their destiny to live in fear and agony, because in the eyes of the army their suffering is necessary so that the world may understand that Israel is the restrained side in a war for its very existence." To cross the t's and dot the i's: Israel is prepared to risk the deaths of its own civilians in the interests of its crusade to overthrow the Hamas government.

Yes Strewth

And the Elves and the Hobbits lived together in peace after the destruction of Mordor. Sorry but we get further and further into fiction.

Goodby as the sun sets into the West.

Strewn... your logic is exactly as my version of your nick.

It is MUCH more in the Israeli interests to leave the settlements in GAZA and then claim 'attacks' from Palestinians. But did they ? nope..they withdrew them and STILL the morons send rockets at them. Bear in mind, they reached Ashkelon today, much FURTHER away than Sderot, so.. what you are REALLY saying is this:

"ANY part of Israel which is in firing range of INCREASINGLY long range rockets is JUST there to 'bring sympathy to Israel".

And, being the not so well disguised Arab/Muslim/Palestinian or Arab/Muslim/Palestinian stooge that your words denote you to be, you will CONTINUE doing this until you have made the same claim about every inch of Israeli territory where there is a Jew living.

You know the sound you make when you twiddle ur fingers on your lips when speaking ? That is as meaningful as your biased, twisted, one sided, pro-terror anti Israel stance.

So, having demolished your reasoning and leaving it 'strewn' over the pages of OLO, perhaps we can move on to better things.

Rather than waste time trying to justify a political position by microscopic examination of specific incidents, you would be better off convincing the Palestinians who voted for Hamas, to gird their loins, and fight a 'final' war with Israel to decide the matter.

We all know what the outcome of that would be, and still may well actually be, so I think Arab countries should begin construction now, of the extra housing and employment opportunities they will need for the large exodus of Palestinians from Gaza.

Its the only workable political solution.... and the kindest in the LONG run.
Military defeat by Western Values powers is not the end of the world, look at Japan and Germany.

Ah... we have BOAZ_David with us - end of any rational discussion. There are I believe some laws against racism, but BOAZ stands convicted by our contributors on the evidence of his written pronouncements of bigotry.

On the matter of Israel having the 4th largest army in the world, so why should they be so patient in clearing out all the Palestinian occupants from their homeland, history has a recent lesson for us. In Vietnam America had the world's largest army.

In negotiations, the hard-line, cruel, arrogant, ambitious Israeli government needs a strong opposition, and their attitude got Hammas elected. Two strong negotiators could bring about a just settlement, and that is what Israel is afraid of - justice confounding their ambitions.