Yes ASymeonakis, what it shows is that Jewish people are democratic and believe in free speech.
How many demonstrations or "speaking out" about Hamas rocketing Israeli towns have you seen from the Palestinian side?
There have been a few references in the press regarding Palestinians who blame Hamas for all the recent violence and who condemn them, but there have been no demonstrations against Hamas actions.
Ever wonder why that is?
I think it is pretty obvious that Hamas retribution for any demonstration against them by the people of Gaza would probably be worse than anything they get from the Israelis.
After all, Hamas throw their political opponents, Fatah, off tall buildings.

PALESTINIAN FERTILITY and the CRISIS.

Given that most of Gaza depends on foreign aid for its very day to day survival....can anyone suggest what motivation there is for Palestinians to have HUGE families?
-Nazir Rayan (hamas leader recently killed) 12 children 4 wives
-Ismael Haniya (Hamas Leader) 10 children.

It seems that wherever you look in Gaza you see 'children'.

Does it not strike others as rather irresponsible to be having such large families when the means of supporting them is not there.. rather.. they live by international aid handouts alone.

President Houari Boumedienne had led Algeria to independence,

he stood in the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1974 and declared, "One day, millions of men will leave the southern Hemisphere to burst into the northern one. But not as friends.
They will burst in to conquer.

They will conquer it by populating it with their children.

Victory will come to us from the wombs of our women."

ARAFAT:

Authority president Yasser Arafat, who coined the adage that the Palestinians' most potent weapon was the womb

Sergio DellaPergola, a professor of population studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and one of Israel's leading demographers. While the fertility rates in Israel are high for a developed country -- on average there are 2.7 children per family -- they do not come close to those in Gaza, where the average is around 5.5 children per family. "We are almost at the point of demographic parity,"

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY should ensure a 1 couple 1 child policy for Gaza until they have the economic means to cope with higher fertility rates..... (works for China.)

MEANS.. the IC can simply demand policies be implemented on which aid it dependant. Australian government seems to like this approach when it comes to curriculum and religious schools.

Polycarp, regarding your post of 12 January 2009 1:54:55 PM:
I am pointing out one specific, long-standing, widespread pattern of stupid, cruel and insidiously violent behaviour: the sexual harassment and abuse of Palestinian women and children by Israel's border guards.

It is a potent example of a more general pattern of cause and effect. A person who has been humiliated, or has seen his loved ones humiliated may wish for revenge. Political and other groups, can provide the means and the opportunity for acting out the motive, thus exploiting this urge for revenge by encouragement, approval and public admiration for acts which are criminal - or justifiable acts of war, depending on one's point of view.

Many thoughtful observers have provided numerous examples of IDF force members humiliating Palestinians, over the years.

Polycarp, you don’t need a science degree to have some grasp of cause and effect. Little causes may deliver big effects. The computer monitor you are looking at right now depends on transistor amplification of signals through very, very tiny current changes. Electronic circuits and computer monitors are far more predictable than neurons and raging humans, but the micro does indeed explain the macro, in more areas than you seem willing to admit.

How would you feel, as a grown man, if you were ordered to drop your trousers in front of your daughter, or granddaughter or other child relative? Palestinian men are also sexually humiliated by the IDF.

Maybe you are just happy to tip-tap along your keyboard, using alleged Islamic texts to justify sexual abuse by the IDF, as well as their indiscriminate murder in war zones - calling it "collateral damage".

Polycarp, how do I tell you apart from the religious zealots you say you condemn? Does your special (but so far unexplained) status give you a special license to spread hatred and mistrust?

Read the story below again, and try to connect the dots:

http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/childabuse.html

Terrorism and Collective Punishment
An If Americans Knew Investigation:
Humiliation and Child Abuse at Israeli Borders & Airports
Strip-Searching Children
Alison Weir
CounterPunch
March 15, 2007

Bren,

In response to your article, 2 wrongs don't make it right.

True that Israeli civilians suffered daily with the Hamas rockets,
but don't ask the average citizen to put a different lens when judging collective punishment and bombing palestinian civilians murdering close to 300 children and 100 mothers in 2 weeks.

In addition, I think Israel lost the mind and hearts with the average citizen in most countries outside the arab and muslim street.

Someone should have studied the consequences of the action.

Peace,

For anyone that's interested the following
website gives an insight as to how
this conflict may be resolved:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Froman

Or alternatively you can google:

Menachem Froman

He's a very interesting man. A Hassidic Jew,
A Rabbi,who lives in a settlement on the West Bank,
and has been a moderator between the Palestinians
and the Jews for quite a few years.

He believes that Peace is possible.

It's worth a read.

As I've said previously, we desperately need
voices of reason from both sides at this
time.

Hanna O'Connor,

Regarding the ideas of Michel Chossudovsky about Gaza's natural gas reserves:

I have no idea what interest Michel has to present Israel as total fools, unless he himself is: wage a war costing about 10 billion dollars to recover gas worth 4 billion and make a profit of around 2 billions? this even before considering the uncompensatable costs in human lives!

Israel went to war to protect its citizens. Period.
But if you like to discuss the economics of the situation, you must understand that it is in Israel's interest to have Gaza prosper.
On the other hand, it is in the interest of Hamas to keep Gazans poor and hungry.

At this very moment, Israel supplies Gaza with humanitarian aid. It has been doing so before and during this war, but do you think that ordinary Gazans are going to see any of it? no! Hamas takes it all to itself and its supporters.

Before the war, Hamas made a special target of the very border crossings from which Gaza received food, medicine, petrol and practically everything else it needed, just so that when the crossings were blown up and Israel could not deliver the goods without risking the lives of its citizens and soldiers or have them kidnapped, Hamas could cry out propaganda about the "blockade". This is how much Hamas cares for Gazan Palestinians and their welfare!

People who are well fed and provisioned, people who got jobs, those who have a life, are much less likely to join Islamic cults of terror and death. Those who are desperate, those who have nothing to lose, tend to listen to cynical promises and dream about potential rewards in heaven.

Israel prefers happy Gazans, and it is no big deal for it to sacrifice some offshore gas-fields to achieve it. If you only think of the amount of petrol needed to keep the Israeli air-force in the air for the last 2 weeks, you will quickly reach the conclusion that such stories about greed-for-gas are nonsensical fluff.