Neve,

Are you suggesting that Israel should ignore the rockets fired by Hamas?

Seneca, they're firing them for the same reasons that oppressed, starved and brutalised Jews rose up in 1943 in the Warsaw Ghetto. Gaza is, to the eternal shame of Zionist policy, Israel's own Warsaw Ghetto.

Dear Neve... I assume that because your piece was publised here, you are also viewing the comments and feedback?

You focused on the rather narrow perspective of the immediate events, and neglected to examine the framework/big picture.

Mike.. you also bomb out in this.

Many times over the past weeks, the news has carried stories which mention the Hamas Charter and its clear assertion of the goal of destroying Israel.. "obliterate" is word used "Until ISLAM obliterates it".

Now.. given that Jews of all people have a rather more refined understanding about what clear statements of genocide translate into in real world behavior, u know..ovens...camsp..trains.. mass graves.. quicklime... (If OLO allowed it, I'd post just such an image right here)

Mike mentions 'Israel's warsaw ghetto' and Neve just doesn't mention anything other than comparative tragedy.

Sorry folks.. we need to go deeper.

Gaza could be much nicer for those there if Hamas simply
-Renounced it's genocidal charter.
-Stopped launching war crimes rockets at Israeli civilian towns.
-Surrendered (as war criminals and despots)
-Closed up all tunnels from Egypt.
-Destroyed publically all unfired rockets
-Handed over all weapons except those needed by Police.

The victims here are the Gaza Arabs.. but the PERPETRATOR is ISLAMIST HAMAS.

Remove the Cancer and the body will heal.

Hamas can learn the same lesson as one of it's sons Moussab Hassan, son of a HAMAS founder to embraced Christ and learned the secred of "Love your enemies".

For those clinging to the militant,oppressive and aggressive doctrines of Islam.. they have only one path..down..down and down further.

Polycarp,
Another solution would be if Israel simply renounced it's policy of relentless oppression and ceased carrying out it's own war particular brand of crimes.

Failing this, it could -
abide by it's own "cease fire" agreement and lift it's ongoing blockade,
withdraw it's forces,
allow the restoration of essential services such as water, electricity and medical relief and
release the citizens it recently kidnapped.

This would eliminate the need for those evil tunnels that many Palestinians also rely on for essential supplies.

They could allow independent foreign journalists into the area to determine the viability of the situation or at least an independent peacekeeping force.

Relations would be further enhanced in the region if it complied with at least some of the international requests made over the decades for the withdrawal of it's forces and continual theft of territory. It could also renounce it's plans for future territorial expansion within the region.

This is as unlikely as Hamas obliterating Israel.

By the way, there are also Christians in Palestine (and Israel).

Hypothetical:

I share a duplex with a poor neighbour, one who doesn't like me and who feels I, or my ancestors have wronged him or his anscestors, in countless ways intolerable ways.

My neighbour throws rocks at my children, so I throw a brick through his window and demand that he stops.

He continues to throw rocks at my children, So I throw rocks at his kids and demand that he stops.

He continues to throw rocks at my children, so I fire a gun at his house and accidentally kill one of his children and demand that he stops throwing rocks at my children.

He continues to throw rocks at my children, so I throw a bomb over the fence and kill a bunch of his children and demand that he stop throwing rocks.

He continues throwing rocks at my children, so I go over there smash up his house, kill a bunch more of his kids (he seems to have an endless supply), beat him up and demand that he stop throwing rocks at my children.

He keeps throwing rocks at my children.

Surely everyone can see where this must lead. Whilst I might have done all the wrong things in the world, if my neighbour persists in the view that he will continue to throw rocks as long as he is able, then there is only one way I can stop him throwing rocks.

Yes, I might still be the bad guy after I do what must be done to protect my kids, but you'd have to admit my neighbour is either mighty stupid or doesn't care much about his own kids.

Kalin1, I suspect your "neighbour" is a lot less stupid than you. Your only response is to escalate the dispute. If you'd brought in a mediator when his first rock was thrown at your children, you might have found out by now why he is aggrieved, and taken some timely advice to seek a compromise to avert future damage. If you'd found out that more than a thousand years ago ancestors of both of your families had shared the house, and that since that time his people had lived in it; that an international crime syndicate had "returned the house" to you so that out of gratitude and dependency you'd allow yourself to be used as a base for their standover tactics in the neighbourhood; that as a consequence of the house being "returned" to you, your neighbour had been unceremoniously kicked out and forced to squat in the ramshackle one room dump that you've now reduced to ashes in order to "defend" youself; if you hadn't in the meantime pinched a further half of what he'd been allocated when his house was "restored" to you; if you hadn't built that bloody monstrosity of a fence that keeps him in, without food, clothing or medicine except on your terms....but I give up. Your neighbour is, as I said, a lot less stupid, and more deserving of respect for his perseverance and resilience, than you, my friend.