theres many holes in your ideology, your ideology want us to side with Israel against the poorest elements in ME. I am not going be a partner with this crime.

There are so many holes in the progressive/socialist/anti-semite argument a lorry can be driven through it. Land for peace now means Israel is supposed to financial support the Palestinians whose official declaration of nationalism calls for the death of Israel.

Their right to exist? I am sorry, but it is the other way around, the arabs never accepted the right of Israel to exist, and are still set on destroying it. All this destruction all this suffering, on both sides, would have never happened if the arabs just accepted the right of Israel to exist. have you read the Israel Declaration of Independence? "We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East." have you ever read the Palestinian National Charter? which "urges the elimination of Zionism in Palestine and worldwide" (Art. 15) hence my "cute" and "bigoted" remark above. also see: http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=798 have you read/listened to any of the songs being taught to children in both cultures? have you looked at textbooks from both cultures? have you read the Koran? do you know what it teaches about non-muslims? about spreading Islam? what about Islam treatment of women? have you ever tried to imagine the entire world ruled under Islamic law? Now, I have no problem with anyone practicing their religion however they see fit, as long as they practice "live and let live", i.e. respect other humans/the environment/animal rights etc, But when it comes to a religion preaching hatred, killing, beheadings, jihad, etc. I have a little bit of a problem with it... Why do you think the Hizbollah amassed tens of thousands of missiles? Why do you think they stored them under mosques, hospitals, and civilian houses? Do you know that the "mosque under construction" was built on top of one of the largest, most fortified bunkers/war rooms ever built? so much so, that it required several bombing waves and it is still not completely destroyed? Are you aware that the daily number of missiles landing in Israel is more than four time as many as were lobed by the Germans on England? and do you recall what the allied forces did to the German cities in retaliation? or the Japanese cities? and the German/Japanese civilians did not hide missiles in their houses... Compare to that, Israel is being very light handed. Too much so in my opinion.

If the Jews put down their weapons, the Arabs will need no more violence to express their right to exist.

Very cute statement. I wonder how long it took you to think that one up? It is also one of the most blatantly racist and obviously bigotted statements made on these blogs anywhere in my opinion. There are many many things that would prevent an Arab massacre of Jews - chief among which would be the Arabs themselves, if Isra4el truly laid down their arms. But on a more realistic note, no one is asking the Jews to lay down their weapons. They are only being asked to use them strictly for defensive purposes (REALLY defensive purposes, not vicious unprincipled agressision dressed up like defense). Victor http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

whydidhamas ( fault of better name ) war crimes are coommitted on both sides this is underlying reason to negotiate peace and viable states.. if israel and hamas cannot negotiate peace, let someone else (not the dark empire) negotiate on their behalf..

Israel left gaza, and quickly thereafter Hamas decided to launch Quassam Rockets on Israeli towns, specifically to kill innocent civilians (whaterver you say about Israel, admit this is a WAR CRIME).

Did Hamas decide to prove to the world that they operate a country? No, but they did prove that they could smuggle in weapons.

Yes, easy to blame Israel for EVERYTHING. Hamas bears no responsibility. Didn't they swear that destroying Israel was their final goal?

No, let's blame ONLY Israel. Palestinians always get a free pass, right? None of this is their fault.

I agree with your statements David, there is always always a "made" crisis that make the world forget about our abandoned palestinians brothers and sisters. Lets put Palestinians firsts..

thanks for the report on the humanitarian situation there justin. it's totally crazy, really. when the lebanon war started and we were all super glued to the television and we saw all the protests around the world, we would then remember gaza, and wonder why it isn't provoking the same sense of outrage, even among ourselves. we mostly concluded there are two major differences: 1) the violence against palestinians has become completely normalized because it's been pretty much daily for years now. the "Terrorist" label helps in lessening the blow and the level of killing used to be rather constant, spiking upwards here and there, but usually settling back to between one to two a day, though it's much much higher now. 2) gaza was never a country. it didn't have much infrastructure to speak of after 38 years of Israeli military occupation and not a lot of people have visited gaza, particularly since it was surrounded with 62-km long fence in 1999. it's a large prison camp and in the minds of alot of people its inhabitants are guilty of supporting hamas (a "terrorist" group) and therefore fair game. i think that's what i was trying to get at in my latest post that this tendency to automatically label resistance groups like hamas and hizbullah "terrorists" is dangerous because its a carte blanche for the extermination of these people and their supporters which in the case of popular movements that were democratically elected, means by logical extension, the extermination of the population itself and indeed, you will see zionist supporters advocating just that. (Go and read Haaretz talkbacks or ynetnews.com) thereis a historical precendent for this, the nazis, who called the opponents to the fourth reich "terrorists." after the reichstag fire, staged by hitler's own men and blamed on "Terrorists" and "communists," anti-terrorist legislation was passed which made the creation of the concentration camp system and administrative detention of "enemies of the regime" perfectly legal. that's part of what nazi fascism was and that's what we are facing today in the ideology espoused by the supporters of the "war on terror." as a speaker on "this is london" on the bbc said last week, "you can't have a war on terror because terror is not an ideology, it is a tactic." and it's used by both state and non-state actors. the war on gaza and lebanon are proof of the use of state terror against civilians to exact political gains that are actually unattainable military. populations are being held hostage and collectively punished for what they believe, rather that what they do. i could go on but i'll leave room for discussion for others. thanks for the reminder.