If Obama Is Serious

CM JJ If you are a warrior, you don't hide behind your family in war. You place yourself in harms way for your beliefs and keep them safe. I don't see Hamas doing that...their cowardice is the cause of innocent death not the Israelis. Hundreds of houses? What about thousands of school buses? Churches, mosques, and temples?

I'M getting real sick of the Jews.

Our household supports the state of Israel. How come no one is protesting the comments of Iran's president to wipe Israel off the face of the earth? Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.

Hmm... I get it, someone shoots a rocket at your home and, of course, you have every right to retaliate. To do this, you destroy hundreds of dwellings killing hundreds of people, many of them chldren, and expect this will stop the hate. Please, don't misunderstand, I believe Israel has every right to protect herself, but not by using these methods. Unfortunately, Israel wil do whatever she so desires; it makes no difference what anyone thinks, and I mean anyone! We will never get a clear understanding from both sides of what the problems really are from a truly objective point of view. This article is about the closest I've ever seen it come; and that ain't saying much.

Ridiculousness! Israel has the right to defend herself, many have forgotten that due to anti-semitism, put that aside for a second, Hamas were firing many many rockets into Israel before Israel responded. What is she supposed to do not defend herself? It's like a bully slapping you in the face repeatedly for days and days and then one day you hit back and then you are condemned and your bully who rejoiced over your hurt is now parading in the streets protesting that you tried to defend yourself, its racist foolishness, and it's time to shake off the blinders from media and other propaganda sources off of ourselves!!

boo on YOU! Israel has every right to defend itself from terrorist!

boooo on you! Israel has every right to defend itself!

Let's get some actual facts into the mix here...

In 1994, Gaza was given self-rule by Israel. By 2005, all of its citizens and soldiers had withdrawn from Gaza. In 2007, Hamas succeeded in essentially overthrowing Fatah to gain control of Gaza.

In the past 8 years, Hamas has fired approximately 10,000 rockets and/or mortars into Israel and 7,000 of them were done after Israel had already completely withdrawn from Gaza.

Because of all the fighting between Arabs, Muslims and Jews in that area of the world for centuries, it was finally during the the early 1900s that Britain (which had control of the land at that time) pledged through the Balfour Declaration to support a national homeland for Israel. It was in 1920 that a British Palestine Mandate was actually recognized. Two years later, the land was divided into two parts by the League of Nations, with the eastern portion coming under the control of Jordan in 1946 and the western portion - known as Palestine - became the seedbed for the Jewish homeland.
In 1947, the UN partitioned the area into two areas or states - one Jewish and one Arab. At the time (and even today), Arabs refused to acknowledge it, discuss it or were willing to compromise on it. In 1948, when Israel effectively became a nation, Arab forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq attempted to push this new (day-old) country into oblivion. Amazingly, Israel defeated those foes.

The trouble is that Israel has withstood attack after attack from her neighboring Arab countries, a number of which have publicly stated that they wish for nothing more than to destroy Israel at all costs. This they have attempted to do for many years, yet Israel and her people stand. How much more does Israel need to 'give up' to make her neighbors happy?

These cease-fires are ridiculous. Hamas ignores them time after time. In fact, it is clear from their own fanatical beliefs that they can actually agree to something while lying through their teeth as long as they are lying to their enemy. Israel is their enemy and regardless of how many times they agree to a cease fire, they will turn around and continue to send shells into Israel, as they have done for years and years, with the Israeli death toll continuing to rise.

It is interesting to me how the world at large, the media and most people believe that Israel is wrong. Yet, all it really takes is a solid look at history - as it has actually played itself out - to see that Israel has become the convenient scapegoat for all the world's troubles. In point of fact, it's not Israel that is the problem; it's the individuals who are so anti-semetic that they cannot see straight through eyes that seek only death and destruction of Israel.

We will see Obama become more and more guarded, cautious and finally antagonistic toward Israel as the next four years play themselves out. His heart is for the Muslim.

One more thing I'd like to say.......................If Hamas really wanted to keep their people safe.....WHY DON'T THEY BUILD BOMB SHELTERS?!?!??!?!?!!?!!?!!?!?? ISRAEL HAS BEEN DOING THAT....THEY DON'T WWWAAANNTTT THEIR PEOPLE TO BE SAFE...

I agree wholeheartedly with the author. For everyone who brings up rocket fire as the start point as if time did not exist before that should be reminded, do no reminder should be required, that Israel is an occupying force in Gaza. It controls access to all land, sea and air routes for people and trade.
So the example of "let's imagine Canada lobbing rockets, what will we do?" should be changed to "let's imagine Canada occupies us, takes our freedom of movement and trade away for 60 odd years, kills in the ratio of 30:1 everytime and then let's see what Americans will agree to do to Canada?"

I also agree that we are not dealing with angels on the other side. In fact, even after a peace agreement is etched (if that ever happens) without a doubt Israel will be our staunchest ally in that area of the world and many Arab nations and non-state groups continue to hate America. But if at that time they turn their feelings in to action against America and Israel, we will have complete justification to go for a 30:1 ratio of attack. We will have the moral, ethical and whatever other type of authority you can think of. And a peace deal only reduces the probability of attack on Israel and US, surely doesn't increase it.

The people who want to give peace a chance are not all hippies who want to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" but people who want a way out of these killings to allow a different approach a true chance to succeed. And if that fails then sure, let's pop some spinach and kick some behind!!!

are you out of your mind? how could anyone look at Israel as the problem? how is it that Israel can be the bad guy for defending their people? Obama should support the actions of any country to defend itself from foeign threats.

Israel wants peace!! What? They have nothing better to do? Their bowling alleys are closed? No!!!!! Hamas is killing their own woman and children. As soon as Israel tells them that they are going to bomb one of their buildings because it is full of missles, they send whatever woman and children there so that the IDF won't bomb there..Israel has been getting missles from Hamas despite their "peace treaty." Now that the peace treaty is over..it's time for Israel to defend itself! AND THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a Catholic I think that it is our duty to protect the holy land from the infidels. Israel MUST be protected from terrorists at all costs. WHen you have "allah" being the impetus to send women and disabled people into crowds strapped with a bomb, what do you do? Too bad if moslem's do not like Israel and the son's of David protecting themselves......As a wise man once said, "Quit blowing stuff up and we won't have to shoot you!" Real simple!

A question for US citizens: If Canada was taken over by a radical religious group and started lobbing rockets at you, what would you expect our government to do? If we can't be mediators and Israel's ally, then to heck with mediating. Stand with your friends...not with people who danced in the streets when the twin towers came down.

I think if Hamas, or any other islamic terrorist group had any guts at all they would stop using women,childrenand religious sites as sheilds and fight in a military fashon. And if they had any brains they would stop trying to pick a fight by launching over 10,000 rockets from gaza for the last 8 years and if the rest of us would just shut up and let them figure it out instead of passing meaningless u.n. resolutions and listening to the propganda machines known as cnn msnbc (the news) this world might just be a little better place

The Israelim do want peace..THATS WHY THEY ARE IN PALESTINE RIGHT NOW!
What? They have nothing better to do? The bowling alley is closed? NO!!!
Hamas (yemachshemom) is killing their own woman and children. As soon as Israel tells them that they are going to attack one of their buildings, because there are bombs and missles in there, and that they have to evacuate Hamas takes any woman and children and puts them into there in order for Isrel not to bomb that place. Israel has been getting attacks from Hamas for the past 4 years despite the "peace treaty." Now that they peace treaty is done with, they have every RIGHT to defend themselves...

I don't see how we"ve been too lax with Isreal...at least this time...because Hamas is firing rockets at them, a number of them on a daily basis, but if getting tough can avert a nuclear war in the region, let's get tough! If Iran gets close to developing nuclear warheads, Isreal will stop them and this would create havoc around the world. We can't allow this to fester, it must be resolved diplomatically.

Why do you say get tough on Israel? What about get tough on the Palestinians? What about getiting tough on them (particularly their terrorist government - Hamas) to end corruption, to feed their people, to stop using their innocent people as victims in their senseless wars?
I hope we elected a president who sees the real situation and who is not swayed by the one sided commentary that is this op/ed piece.