The PR War in Gaza

I can't for the life of me believe that people can actually blame Israel for this mess. I guess they are supposed to ignore the rockets that are being fired into their neiborhoods, killing men, women, and children. Remember, these are civilians, not soldiers.
And I also can't understand why people can't remember the images of Palestinians dancing and rejoycing in the street on 9/11 when 3000 of our civilians were murdered by the terrorists they support. I for one will never forget that day and their reaction. And we as a nation should never forget !

So, for people who use these biblical arguments about Israel???s "right" to the holy land, it would be then logical for the Native Americans to terrorize, kill, and starve the children of these European ???immigrants??? to death, and reclaim ???their??? land, right?. I can???t fathom any logical person advocating Israel???s ???divine??? right to Palestine.

With power comes responsibility, and Israel has shown no respect for human life, or for the desire for peace, only for a "piece" of land that is the homeland for millions of Palestinians.

Israel is the REAL terrorist here, and many enlightened Israelis realize that. History will record the events of the past 50 years to be as dark and unjust as the Nazi Holocaust.

Taobsu, now I think that you clearly see the differences. The Jewish nation accepted the UN plan of dividing the land between the Jordan river to the Mediterranean and to establish two states, while the Arab leadership refused to share the land, and launched the following day a deadly attack on a civilian bus traveling between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. More than 90% of the Israelis accept today a two state solution. On the other side you have people like Jafra that offer the Israelis only two options: Leave under Palestinian regime or leave.....
Instead of condemning and blaming Israel all the time, a more balanced view of the conflict putting at least equal responsibilities on both sides, would be much more efficient towards establishing peace in the region.

Time to do tshuvah. Time to get off our armchair (or couch, office chair, etc.) soapbox and start taking a look at ourselves, how we can improve. Imagine if we used all this energy spent in acerbic banter to do an accounting of our own actions and see how we can better ourselves. How else can we effect change? Peace will not come through politicians or PR. We must merit it.

I still don't understand why Egypt has border patrol and this is deemed ok. I think they should help the palestine people

It's time for tshuvah, people. TIme to get off the armchair (or office chair, coach, etc.) soapboxes and start improving ourselves, rather than pick apart the opinions of others. How about some introspection? Becoming more accountable for our own actions? It's the only way change will ever be effected. Influence people with our positive examples rather than our acerbic orations.

I do not know if it is a PR victory for Hamas, but I do know that a lot of ordinary Palestinians did suffer. The fact that Israel caused this suffering did not help. Also the fact that US is a provider for Israeli economy and army contributes to the dim view that Muslims have of the American efforts at bringing peace to the region. So, it is not the so called militants, who won, it is the strategy of oppression that foundered. You cannot make people forget their deep wounds by inflicting more of the same. You can try pacifying them with better living conditions, with better chances of education and better opportunities to prosper. Branding them as terrorists and making them outcasts will only make them more determined.
But the trouble is that it is somewhat late in the day, the divide is too deep. At present the best approach seems to be that Israel should be prepared to give more ground and of course, no more sneaking around the treaties with more illegal settlements. The American government also needs to develop some backbone dealing with their Jewish lobby., if they want peace in the Holy Land. The whole of Palestine is Holy Land, Israel included.
Muhammad

I do not know if it is a PR victory for Hamas, but I do know that a lot of ordinary Palestinians did suffer. The fact that Israel caused this suffering did not help. Also the fact that US is a provider for Israeli economy and army contributes to the dim view that Muslims have of the American efforts at bringing peace to the region. So, it is not the so called militants, who won, it is the strategy of oppression that foundered. You cannot make people forget their deep wounds by inflicting more of the same. You can try pacifying them with better living conditions, with better chances of education and better opportunities to prosper. Branding them as terrorists and making them outcasts will only make them more determined.
But the trouble is that it is somewhat late in the day, the divide is too deep. At present the best approach seems to be that Israel should be prepared to give more ground and of course, no more sneaking around the treaties with more illegal settlements. The American government also needs to develop some backbone dealing with their Jewish lobby., if they want peace in the holy land. The whole of Palestine is Holy land, Israel included.
Muhammad

Gavind: your comments are racist. And your country is the lead aggressor in the world, one of the few countries that attacks without provocation and bombs the crap out of innocent civilians. Your secretary of state Madeline Albright thought it was worthwhile to kill half a million children in Iraq to stop them from getting WMD then once the US had stopped them from getting WMDs they lied and invaded them and have killed another half a million innocent people. Arab attacks in israel are (however misguided) the closest thing to self defence in the Israel/Palestine conflict. Israel is OCCUPYING Palestine it is therefore NOT self defence for them to murder Palestinians. Your logic proves you can only see the world from a white point of view (ie you are racist).

Gavind, If the Mexicans want to liberate California, New Mexico and Texas, which are Mexican territory, no one should blame them. No thief should go unpunished.

To the comment about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising being compared to the Arabs in Gaza. Gaza is no Warsaw Ghetto. In the ghetto the number of Jews dwindled to 0 after the Nazis set it up. In the Gaza strip, the Arab population has gone from 250,000 people in 1967 to over 1.5 million people today. Perhaps if UNRWA taught these people how to use the pill instead of teaching them to hate Jews, the situation of the Arabs in Gaza would be better.