DAVID_BOAZ, alias Polycarp,

When are you going to stop?

Enough already!

You keep quoting HAMAS, Israel
created HAMAS. They came to power
via popular, democratic vote, because
of the desperation by Palestinians
who've never been accorded the democratic
space within which to gain redress of their
grievances.

There are two sides to any conflict.

If you can quote HAMAS, let's read what
Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the
Israeli Defence Forces had to say, as
quoted in, New York Times, 14 April 1983:

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs
will be able to do about it will be to
scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a
bottle..."

And Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at
the time (still with current ambitions) -
August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post,
August 30, 2000:

"The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you
give them meat, they want more..."

Nice.

I could keep on quoting, but why bother. There's enough
hatred already. I've made my point, I don't need to add
to it.

The Kassam rockets have terrorized the
25,000 people in Sderot and its environs, but have
caused very, very few deaths or serious wounds.
By contrast, Israel has terrorized 1.5 million Gazans,
locked them inside their awfully narrow borders, throttled
their economy, and killed and seriously wounded thousands
of them ...

The only hope for an end to this carnage lies in global public opinion as well as in the new American
President to condemn the conflict in the strongest
possible terms - and insist on it being halted at once.

Foxy wrote:

"The only hope for an end to this carnage lies in global public opinion as well as in the new American President to condemn the conflict in the strongest possible terms"

Inherent in this condemnation must be the recognition of the true sides to the real conflict - no use in continued hammering of the victims (even if it is the easy way out, generating a temporary good feeling).

Most Israelis and most Palestinians are the innocent victims of the conflict.
There is no conflict between ordinary Israelis and ordinary Palestinians.

There are aweful extremists on both sides that continuously and deliberately harrass the ordinary people of "their own side" by provoking "the other side". If the new American president, or anyone else for that matter, wants to help stopping the conflict, they must be very delicate in picking those truly responsible instead of stomping like elephants over the whole scene.

Dear Yuyutsu,

As always, the voice of reason...
I totally agree with you, there are
innocents on both sides of this conflict.

However, I have every confidence in the
newly elected American President. He strikes
me as a man who is not one-dimensional, nor
has the old mind-set of war. He gave hope to
his nation, we can only trust that he will
do the same on the global scene.