If Obama Is Serious

What happened in 1948 is ancient history. Furthermore, it is not as if the Jews simply invaded Palestine.

My main point is that stupid attitudes, like those expressed in this editorial, are the real problem. Palestinians in particular, and Arabs in general, seem interested in destroying more than anything else. With that sort of attitude, peace is impossible. Obama needs to get tough with the Arabs, telling them that they can expect no support until they fully accept Israel's right to exist. Of course, Obama can't do that, because we are addicted to Saudi oil. But, let's at least admit that's the case and stop these nonsensical attempts to blame Israel.

mr.miller neglects to discuss the important constraints placed on every U.S. president by that odd but large and powerful pro Israel coalition of American Jews, neo conservatives and conservatives, and a large part of the strongly anti Arab Christian Right. It would be right, speaking internationally, for President Obama to tell Israel it no longer has carte blanche on policy and carte bleu with U.S. taxpayer monies, and must move toward a peace that requires a truly independent Palestinian state. But I can't imagine how to get there, since we have no international structure to bind Hamas, Fatah, and Israel to a deal about non violence, which is the sine qua non for Israel, or to meaningful territorial inegrity and and an accommodation on Jerusalem, the sine qua non for any Palestinian leader. Unless we choose to design, guide, cajole and enforce a peace that commits us to the defense of Israel and the new Palestinian state, Obama will fall prey to the same hand wringing of the last sixteen years, where U.S. domestic politics have demanded that policy toward Israel be absolute, even when it injures our interests in regional peace and stability. Perhaps Mr.Miller would like to lead a domestic campaign to recast U.S.policy toward Israel? I thought not.

This all started in 1948 when the jews occupied the palestinian lands. Everything that happens to the jews in israel at the hands of the people whose land they stole is there own fault. America should not support israel. All of Americas activites in the middle east come down to helping the jews steal the palestinian lands or oil. It is time America left the middle east and cut off all non-humanitarian foreign aid. It is time for America to stop acting immoral and live up the ideals put forth by our founding fathers. Basing our foreign policy on religious belief or our need for oil has been a disaster. People who call themselves Christains seem to have no trouble killing muslims, what happened to thou shall not kill, what happened to thou shall not steal? Everyone chacterizes israels right to defend itself from paestinian aggression, why then do not the palestinians have the right to defend themselves from jewish aggression? Supporting the jewish land grab has brought much shame to our country. If Israel wants peace it should support a palestinian state.

Hamas wishes to destroy Isreal - It is in their charter or constitution/creed. They are too primitive to make modern day compromises and their fundamentalism makes civilized negotiations impossible. They have kidnaped the residents of Gaza and are using them as human shields. What country wouldnt defend itself agasint daily rocket attacks? Remember Isreal left the Gaza strip in 2005 so so much for their expansionist ideals

The Israelis are trying to take care of this problem before it comes to them. What is happening in Gaza will turn out to be very similar to what happened in Rwanda in 94. It will not be called a genocide because no one dares to insult Israel but the results will be pretty much the same. Why do you think they are banishing the press. There was a trial run in Jenin some years ago and it worked pretty well. The UN was not allowed to investigate thanks to US veto power.

It is crucial that one has her/his facts straight about Israel???s war on Gaza. What events brought about this dreadful situation? What needs to be done to make it stop? These questions will be answered in the content of this article, using concrete facts from a variety of news sources.

Let???s first investigate the recent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The cease-fire began in June 2008. The terms were as follows:

1. Israel would drastically reduce its military blockade of Gaza.
2. Israel would halt all military incursions into Gaza.
3. Hamas would halt all rocket attacks into Israel.

From the outset of the cease-fire, Israel did little to ease its military blockade. As a result, Gazans continued to suffer from a lack of food, fuel, financial aid, electricity, clean water, medical supplies, and more. This has been, inarguably, an attack on innocent Palestinian civilians.

??? Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points, the head of the main UN aid agency for the Palestinians said on Friday??? Israel had restricted goods into Gaza despite the truce, which calls on militants to halt rocket attacks in return for Israel easing its embargo on the territory??? Israel also held up deliveries of European Union-funded fuel for the power plant, which generates about a third of the electricity consumed by Gazans... Ailments associated with insufficient food were surfacing among the impoverished coastal strip's 1.5 million population, including growing malnutrition.
--Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 21, 2008 [1]

??? The UN in the Gaza Strip says it will run out of food aid in two days unless Israel's blockade - which it describes as "shameful and unacceptable" - eases. The UN refugee agency UNWRA, which distributes food to half of Gaza's 1.5m people, called the blockade "a physical as well as a mental punishment". Israel is now allowing a limited amount of fuel across the border, but it is still blocking food deliveries??? In a statement, UNWRA spokesman Christopher Gunness said food distribution operations would end on Thursday unless Israeli authorities allowed deliveries of wheat, luncheon meat, powdered milk and cooking oil without delay. "This is both a physical as well as a mental punishment of the population - of mothers and parents trying to feed their children - who are being forced to live hand to mouth," he said??? "It is a further illustration of the barbarity of this inhuman blockade."??? "It is also shameful and unacceptable that the largest humanitarian actor in Gaza is being forced into yet another cycle of crisis management," Mr Gunness added.
--BBC News, Nov. 11, 2008 [3]

??? International aid agencies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, have said virtually no medical supplies were reaching Gaza.
--Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 9, 2008 [14]

Mr. Obama going to be as tough as George Bush was and is. Israel has the right to defend itself, and if I have two daughters ect.ect.ect. And Israel has the right to exist. And come sweetie how many billions you need for next year. I don't mind to see the United States helping a country militarily, but does Hamas or Hezbolah poses that much of a threat?. So Israel have no right to exist, probably not, obviously in the area, and that's probably truth. We all can agree somehow that Israel has nothing to do with it, First was moses idea of a promise land, two the British settling the jews in Palestine, and three and mostly three, is their greed to occupy more land. And that's were trouble started. The United States needed a cheap ally in the area, build up Israel military to a point were it became invincible around its neighbors. So why Israel is so worry about. After years of wars between Israel and its neighbors, destroying Israel became a fiction than a fact. And Hamas , Hezbolah, and their surrounding neighbors knows it well. But the fact remain that Israel is occupying Palestinian land, to reclaim their lands, the Palestinians will have to take them militarity. For Israel to keep their land they need a Hamas, a Hezbolah, anyone that can fit their terrorist description. Even if Hamas, and Hezbolah, and Syria embrace Israel, accept their demands, lay down their arms, will Israel give up that vast land between Gaza, and the West Bank. To unify the Palestinians, instead to divide them. The answer is no. So what's Mr. Obama going to do?. Nothing. What Hillary going to do?. Travelling a lot in the area, and earning her paycheck.

that last comment was for city troll, I don't know why it ended up here. he was being offensive. Sorry guys

This is typical left-wing nonsense. The heart of the problem is that Hamas, and the so-called Palestinian state has only one objective: destroying Israel. Just as the U.S. could make any concession to Osama Bin Laden, and it would not make a difference in his actions, so it goes with Israel and the Palestinians.
There should not be 1.5 million Arabs in the Gaza Strip. For a population that claims Israel is targeting it, they certainly have grown significantly over the past 50 years. Were it not for the U.N. Jew haters propping up the people of the Gaza Strip with aid, the Arabs living in Gaza would have long since emigrated out of that tiny piece of land. Instead, because most of the world hates Jews, the Arabs in Gaza are used as Iranian and Syrian proxies to strike at Israel.

Lastly, you cannot have an article about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict without discussing the moral differences between the two sides. Israel is trying to defend its citizens, like any country normal country would (Imagine what the U.S. would do if Canada lobbed bombs into New York City), while Hamas is attempting to indescriminately murder civilians by firing rockets at Israel. If Hamas dropped its weapons today, there would be peace immediately. If Israel dropped its weapons today, Hamas would destroy Israel. That's the point.

This is typical left-wing nonsense. The heart of the problem is that Hamas, and the so-called Palestinian state has only one objective: destroying Israel. Just as the U.S. could make any concession to Osama Bin Laden, and it would not make a difference in his actions, so it goes with Israel and the Palestinians.
There should not be 1.5 million Arabs in the Gaza Strip. For a population that claims Israel is targeting it, they certainly have grown significantly over the past 50 years. Were it not for the U.N. Jew haters propping up the people of the Gaza Strip with aid, the Arabs living in Gaza would have long since emigrated out of that tiny piece of land. Instead, because most of the world hates Jews, the Arabs in Gaza are used as Iranian and Syrian proxies to strike at Israel.

Lastly, you cannot have an article about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict without discussing the moral differences between the two sides. Israel is trying to defend its citizens, like any country normal country would (Imagine what the U.S. would do if Canada lobbed bombs into New York City), while Hamas is attempting to indescriminately murder civilians by firing rockets at Israel. If Hamas dropped its weapons today, there would be peace immediately. If Israel dropped its weapons today, Hamas would destroy Israel. That's the point.

You are disgusting.The global attack from the Muslim world has included: flying planeloads of civialians into buildings full of civilians, kidnapping and beheading civilians, shooting rockets and mortars randamly into civilian populations, sending their children as human bombs to blow up civilians, etc. Do you think they wouldn't take you out in a second? The Western World needs to vastly increase our response.

Well, President Obama should make sure Iran doesn't get it's hands on nuclear weapons, because that will bring the unwanted development of having groups like Hamas and Hezbollah committing terrorist acts under a nuclear umbrella.

"its policy of punishing Hamas by making life unbearable for 1.5 million Gazans by denying aid and economic development"? How can you write this with not giant sense of irony? What about the economic infrastructure that Israel left in place for the Palestinians, giving them billions of dollars worth of farms, greenhouses, and agricultural equipment? Hamas set fire to all of this and spent what little money they had to fire missiles at their benefactors. Gaza shares a border with Egypt too, you know. Why don't the Palestinians turns those missiles around and fire them into Egypt which never gives them anything?

"its policy of punishing Hamas by making life unbearable for 1.5 million Gazans by denying aid and economic development"? How can you write this with not giant sense of irony? What about the economic infrastructure that Israel left in place for the Palestinians, giving them billions of dollars worth of farms, greenhouses, and agricultural equipment? Hamas set fire to all of this and spent what little money they had to fire missiles at their benefactors. Gaza shares a border with Egypt too, you know. Why don't the Palestinians turns those missiles around and fire them into Egypt which never gives them anything?