punter57,

You're very amusing,"I am yet to see any sign of serious expansion or threat of such from Israel" I refer you to the 1967 war when Israel expanded quite seriously and still hasn't managed to trim its waistline. I know,I know, it was all in self-defence.

This one is even funnier " The West Bank Palestinians are(slowly) en route to complete independence, what route is that? That statement reminds me of Zeno's paradox. Given the expansion of the settlements, the Palestinians will be left with little, if anything.

Finally the desperate straw man argument, that critics of Israel are all rabid anti-semites, some are, some aren't. Western anti-semitism is irrelevant to the moral argument in regard to the policies of the nation state of Israel. Why oh why are some people so cowed by the accusation "anti-semite" that they apply a double standard to Israel and its policies?

"The problem with Hamas and Hezbollah is that they are funded and armed by external regimes in a proxy war of survival too."

Hamas was initially supported and funded by Israel and the USA so they could drive a wedge between Fateh and the PLO. Now Fateh seem to have been the preferred political option but never managed to win a single concession.

The USA continually supplied the PLO with armaments and other items in exchange for intelligence from the Middle East (a policy scrapped by GWB to the alarm of his own intelligence community and with devastating results).
Meanwhile Mossad were quietly assassinating the Arab go-betweens so Israel seem to have gotten their way eventually.

Likewise, Israel supplied South Africa with weapons in spite of the international apartheid blockade - as well as several South American despots, so they've been as happy to spread oppression elsewhere while claiming to be victims of it.

Things are usually more complicated than they seem in that region but that doesn't seem to stop reactionary and increasingly exaggerated outbursts by fanatics on both sides.

I agree that Israel has squandered probably the last of whatever international goodwill it may have had left.

They've been living off the horrors inflicted on a previous generation too long and it's time the consequences of their own actions were taken into account, like those of the rest of the international community.

Thanks Leigh and Col. You uncover the hypocrisy of Mr Haigh so precisely. It surprises me that someone from the left can actually recognise that their is any line to overstep. I wonder who drew that line. Surely not the morally corrupt UN?

What rubbish Bwuce.

Israel has overstepped the line huh? So how many years of constant rocket attacks would you endure before you said "enough!".

Shame on you for taking sides. Both are at fault and the world knows that. Your ridiculous one sided drivel is simply adding fuel to the fire.

No one should support what either mob or murderers do. They are both guilty. Don't you get it? It'll blow over soon.

They've only been at it for 2000+ years after all. Give them a chance to resolve it!!

Ahhh, religion. Ya gotta love it don't ya?

MX,

Ahh, this morning I believe. Rockets constitute invasion as those who die would see it I believe. You must be a complete idiot, not just a partially made one.

And then there's Runner. Still obsessed with the 50's idealogies of left and right. Check your calender Runner, they don't exist any more. Today we have way right and just right of right. Left disappeared decades ago mate. You could call it left of way right and that'd be accurate but left? No. There, not their. OK,. Maybe your 50's dictionary got that wrong too.

Morally corrupt UN. Morally is a surplus word Runner. Just corrupt is sufficient.

Conscientious Israelis acknowledge that
the Hamas rockets rationale is fraudulent.

Jerusalem Post writer Larry Defner has noted:

"We don't want to see how people in Gaza are
living, we block it out of our minds...
which, I suppose, is natural for a society
at war, but which also keeps that war going
longer than it might if we would recognize that
Gaza is getting so much the worst of it..."

"The (Palestinian) 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,
locket them inside their awfully narrow borders,
throttled their economy, and killed and
seriously wounded thousands of them ..."

Yes, Israel has really over stepped the line.
Perhaps if they looked at the whole picture
instead of just their half of it, and asked
themselves, "What have we done wrong to incur
their wrath?" And then acted to correct the
situation, they might spend less time having to
fight their enemies.