Polycarp tries for third place in the kneejerk competition. Sorry but I'm out of wooden spoons. How about you spend some time reading instead of writing?
Try
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051547.html

"Rivalry among Israel's leaders at root of row on Gaza cease-fire
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff , Haaretz Correspondents

"Four days after the launch of "Operation Cast Lead" in the Gaza Strip, the first signs of a rift among the Israeli leadership over the campaign's management began to emerge. Even though the IDF operation has thus far been considered a relative success (and the ministers who approved it have benefited from an improvement in their political standing as a result), a dispute has erupted among the country's senior political echelon over the question of when to begin the process of winding down the operation."

and so on. Seems that Neve Gordon may have a point - - -

Hello there Ivory....(tower?)

Now.. that ignorance is still stubbornly clinging to your left shoe.. rather like an old piece of discarded bubble gum from the pavement.

Neve Gordon does indeed have 'a point' when he mentions political considerations.... OH....SHOCK...HORROR.. "Israel is a political entity just like us" man oh man...I did not see that coming. (except that I also mentioned it)

I note your immediate recourse to the Green Left Weekly/Haeretz..but the point made in the article was:

<<The defense minister told Olmert and Livni on Tuesday night that Israel needs to consider a 48-hour cease-fire during which Hamas' willingness to cease its launching of rockets will be tested.>>

COMMENT: "How stuuuuupid is THAT?".. it's 'THIS' stupid.

a) HAMAS ended the cease fire.
b) HAMAS then ramped up/continued to hurl deadly rockets at Israel.

So... why test something that is already self evident? i.e..that Hamas has been, is, and will continue to launch rockets against Israel.

CONCLUSION.. "wipe out hamas" is the only viable/reasonable solution.

IGNORANCE is ONGOING: Until you, from your Ivory Tower, begin to address the root causes of the problems...which are theological, as shown in the many references to the Quran and Hadith in HAMAS political rhetoric, (underlined by Steven) you will just continue to dribble out convenient but innaccurate leftist rubbish which simply confirms our opinion of your group... "you know nothing".. long on 'profile raising rhetoric" short on Real anaysis and understanding.

CHALLENGE. Are the points raised by Steven wrong? If so...how? Leave out empty 'wooden spoon' responses.. just stick with facts.

Discussions for and against Israeli actions in Gaza are a legitimate and valuable part of the political process. Disseminating myths about Israel and the Palestinians is not.

The States of Israel and Palestine were drawn on the map of the Middle East by a UN General Assembly decision in 1947. It was a remarkable decision in that it was not opposed by the Soviet Union.

The Jewish leadership in the land of Israel took up the offer and declared a state within the UN-defined borders in 1948.

The Palestinian state offered by the UN was rejected by the Arab League member nations, who claimed to be acting on behalf of the Palestinians. There was no Palestinian leadership at that time as there was little or no concept of a Palestinian people among many Arabs in the region.

The Arab League also loudly and publicly wholly rejected the State of Israel.

The major part of the area designated for a Palestinian state by the UN was occupied by Jordan from 1948 until 1967.

A Palestinian leadership did not emerge until the mid-1960's. It's leader was Yasser Arafat.

There was no breach of the UN Charter in the allocation of land to a Jewish state.

The Aviator

Neve Gordon tries to create a mystery where none exists.

Israel's "Gaza goal" is a PERMANENT cessation of rocket and mortar attacks.

Would Israel like to see the Hamas regime toppled?

Of course. Nobody likes living next door to a regime that has declared its intent to commit genocide against you.

Has the Israeli Government made contingency plans for toppling the Hamas regime?

Given Hamas' openly declared genocidal intentions they would be remiss had they not developed such plans.

But toppling Hamas plainly is not the goal of THIS operation. If it was Israeli troops would already be in Gaza.

As the Israeli Government has made plain, the goal is "no more rocket or mortar attacks."

The EQUATION is simple:

No rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza into Israel

= No Israeli attacks on Hamas in Gaza

= No more Palestinian casualties.

It REALLY is as simple as that.

All the rest is flim flam

"One under god"

Even your dopey pseudonym reveals what a religious screw ball you are, but that "change" web site you provided only just confirms it.

What a load of dribbling nonsense- talk about making silk purses and drawing long bows

Its on a par with this sort of crap, published in the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html

The auguries for 2009 are already not looking too flash.

One under God,

After deciphering your recent post its is clear you are an anti-semite and not a very bright one. The charge that “Jews run politics[and banking and the media [and medicine , movies ... ” is strikingly similar to Hitlers claims in Mein Kampf.

You say >> “usa russia china got more planes boats etc
israel only got 400 aged nukes
it has so few tanks its laughable “

Who’s laughing besides morons? The Israelis beat all comers three times in the 20th century, including the “MIGHT” of 5 Arab armies. Israels' military is one of the most highly trained and effective in the world. And if they could ignore civilian casualties like their opponents, they would have wiped the floor with Hezbollah-Lebanon (even though Iran pumps in massive amounts of military aid).

Israel actually has 3800 MBT’s, that’s main battle tanks. It has 1100 self propelled artillery pieces and an airforce of nearly 700 fixed wing and 300 rotary wing aircraft.

You say >> “noting the ggghhh-hamas
how goes ggghhh-hanika “

What?? ??

You say >> “israel cant do nothing because big brother does it all
supply the bombs ... “

Very eloquent. I suppose those Merkava Tanks are from the US and their APC’S? How about the UZI. The list of Israeli manufactured military equipment is as long as your arm. For a very small nation it is highly self-reliant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_equipment_of_Israel#Local_military_development

Everyone else,

Clearly there can be no long term solution until the two parties are prepared to negotiate. Hamas are clearly not ready to negotiate so Israel is bereft of real, workable long term solutions.

That leaves Israel to deal with a seemingly never-ending war. In that situation all Israel can do is try and limit the harm to its citizens through rocket attacks and suicide bombings. Civillian casualties are tragic but I cannot see how Israel can defend itself without this collateral damage when Hamas insist on using their own civilians as a shield for their activities.

In all seriousness, does anyone really believe Hamas is interested in ANY kind of peace with Israel?