As for the prospects of peace and co-existence. I think that it could happen if the Israeli government changed and the extremists on both sides got overwhelmed by the moderates.

Certainly there many extremists Israelis that do not to co-exist with us Palestinians. We have all seen those “Death to All Arabs” signs. What is unfortunate in this issue is that these Israeli extremists have a loud voice in the Israeli government and politics. What is worse, if the right-wing Netanyahu wins in the upcoming elections (and the signs say that he will), then the extremists will have an even louder voice in the Israeli government and politics, and things will get even worse than now.

The current Israeli government has allowed the cold-blooded killing of hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians as did the previous governments. It is truly barbaric and disgusting. And i can’t help but think that things will only get worse as the right-wing Israeli extremists become stronger and stronger.

However, i still think that killing any civilian any were on earth is terrible. I just wish that Israelis realize that as well some day. They get sad over the death of 3 or 4 of their civilians, but they have no problem with killing more than 400 of our civilians in cold blood.

You mentioned that since Hamas won in the last elections then the majority of Gazans must support a terrorist organization. I personally do not neither support Hamas nor Fatah, but i can tell you that Hamas won the last elections due to the people’s frustrations with Fatah. The previous governments had many corrupt elements that really frustrated the citizens. Add to that the general frustration that the negotiations that the PA and Fatah were taking with Israel were not fruitful. After all, Israel continued to increase checkpoints, increase closures, tighten borders, and expand illegal settlements. So from the people’s perspective, the fruitlessness of the negotiations of Fatah and the corruption issues made them vote against it in the elections. Just to give you a perspective on this, the slogan for the Hamas party during the elections was “Change and Transparency in Government” .. this is what attracted people.

Also, Hamas’s win does not mean that the majority of people approve of *all* of its actions. Do not forget that Hamas actually started as a non-military party that built hospitals and daycare centers for the poor. So people did not necessarily vote for it because they wanted rockets to be fired, but because of their frustrations with Fatah and what they saw on the ground in terms of what Hamas and NGOs did to the population.

Regardless of their voting record, that does not give Israel the right or the justification to punish and kill people because of their votes.

A second point i want to make. How can you honestly claim that Israel the percentage of the civilians killed by Israel in Gaza is small ? If even the U.N. says that 250 of the 800 Palestinians killed in Gaza were children and another 50 of the killed were women. If you feel very sympathetic for the death of the 3 Israeli civilians since this conflict, shouldn’t you feel anything for the 300+ innocent civilians that were killed by Israel in Gaza ?

Finally, you claim that Israel is carrying out the “humanitarian oriented” military operation and trying to avoid civilian casualties. However, we all know that Israel also bombed a U.N. school were hundreds of Palestinian civilians were taking refuge. Of course you will state the Israeli position that Hamas takes human shields and that there were some rockets fired from there. Well, the U.N. says that it monitored the location and no rockets were fired from that area. But even if i believed the Israeli statement for a second, we all know that the U.N. had supplied Israel with GPS coordinates of all of its schools and facilities (as is always done in war). Also, it was well known to Israel (i.e. published) that civilians were taking refuge in the U.N. schools and that the U.N. was monitoring it to make sure only civilians get through. So Israel had complete knowledge in advance that if they bomb that school many civilians will be killed. Even if we believed that two rockets were fired from the school’s area (although the U.N. monitors and says that did not happen), even if that happened, why did Israel choose to bomb the school and kill tens of civilians just to punish two fighters ? That does not seem to go well with your argument that Israel is avoiding civilian casualties.

As I understand it, Isreal was the first to violate the cease-fire, and once violated the other party has no obligation to observe it, right? Which means Hamas technically didn’t violate anything, which means Israel has no right to say they are defending themselves since they are the ones who started it…

Anyway I juat have a question, do you still believe in peace and co-existence with Israel? Well, I don’t. I never did actually but there were times when I thought I was wrong but now I’m more convinced than ever that it’s impossible. From now on I’m forbidding myself from feeling sorry for any “civilain” killed in Israel. I don’t believe there are “civilians” in Israel to begin with, becuase killing 800 Palestinians and showing no regret or respect for their souls and adopting that self-rightuous attitude about it makes my blood boil and makes me want all Israelis wiped out to death. If this makes me prejudiced and a wanna-be terrorist, so be it…

2. Modern Day Israel was established in 1948 in accordance with international law.

3. Gaza, which is part of Biblical Israel, was acquired by Modern Day Israel in the defensive 6 Day War, which occurred in 1967. Israel successfully, albeit with casualties, fought off Syria, Egypt, and Jordan whom were all trying to wipe Israel off the face of the map.

4. Under the order of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (whom has been in a coma since January 04, 2006) Israel withdrew entirely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. The most expressed rational defending this move was that the territorial concession of Gaza to the Arabs would lead to Peace. Arabs had been demanding that Israel withdraw from Gaza among, literally, the entire country. A significant amount of Arabs still call for the destruction of Israel.

5. After winning a democratic election in the Gaza Strip beating out their rival Fatah the Hamas terrorist group seized control of Gaza in June 2007. That means that a majority of those out of the 1.5 million people in Gaza who voted supported a known terrorist organization.

6. Prior to withdrawing from Gaza in 2005 Israel had to endure 179 rocket attacks against her. In the year after Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip Arab terrorists fired 946 rockets against her- a 500% increase.

7. After negotiations brokered by Egypt; Hamas and Israel agreed to a 6 month cease-fire on June 19, 2008 which was supposed to last until December 19, 2008. During this “cease-fire” 215 rockets were launched against Israel from the Gaza Strip.

8. Israel had observed the truce down to the letter and at the end of the “cease-fire” Israeli officials publicly voiced their yearning to extend the agreement despite continues rocket attacks against her. Hamas had simultaneously issued statements that they would not extend the “Cease-fire” because Israel had “not respected the truce”.

9. In response to suffering for over 8 years due to having over 4000 rockets fired at them; over the course of the last 10 days Israel has been waging one of the most morally just, humanitarian oriented, militarily impressive defensive wars with the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip and has managed to keep civilian casualties lower than anyone could have possibly predicted in one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

10. A) The overwhelming majority of those that have been killed by what is called “Operation Cast Lead” are Hamas terrorists and not civilians. B) A percentage of the remarkably small amount of civilians that have been killed had been ordered to hover around potential sites for IAF (Israeli air force) attacks to raise the number of “civilian” casualties. C) Hamas purposely operates within or near civilian centers such as Mosques, schools, playgrounds and ordinary neighborhoods.

As usual, Israel will loose the media war, a field on which they used to excel.

I agree with the Prime Minister zipi livni said ” The equation in the middle east have changed” the question is on which direction !

There are no will to end the war, because the hurt is so deep and affect every family member from both-sides.
I say this because there are many suicide bombers willing to dye for the cause.
I see this conflict with a never ending solution, but is my wish for the goodwill to prevail and end this conflict as soon as possible.
I am for peace not war.

Stop the war and achieve peace as a way to show the world it is possible to live together even with different ideologies.

The United Nations should give the example how to work together to find a long last resolution for this and others conflicts in the world.

Give Peace a Chance, and everybody will be better off and in harmony.