A truce is a formal gentlemen's agreement . . . but if one of the parties is clueless about the meaning of word of honour . . .

bound to happen, the contest between the israelis and palestinians for Gaza won't end without a lot more bloodshed...unfortunately.

msn are you freaking kidding me?? the first attack since the truce?? gaza fires at least 20 rockets at israel every week. not to mention about 10 in the first 24 hours after the "truce". get your facts straight.

There are people on both sides who want the conflict to continue.

More rockets fired from Gaza = more public support for settlement expansion into Palestinian territory = more protests = more police brutality

More retaliation from Israel = more recruits for Hamas = more rockets fired at Israel.

A vicious circle, no? The only way peace can occur is if it happens despite rockets continuing to be fired by small gangs. If Palestine had an effective government, it could police its own streets.

Unfortunately it's a little late now that Gaza is controlled by Hamas. Thanks to global favoritism and hopelessness, Hamas is more powerful than ever.

too many geo political hotzones erupting allover the world all at once, it feels like if one reaches a tipping point we could see world war 3 and everything that comes with world war. Millions dead, trillions spent on military industry and the inevitable drafts of first world poor.

"A rocket exploded in southern Israel on Tuesday in the first such attack by militants in the Hamas Islamist ruled Gaza Strip since a truce ended a week of cross-border fighting in November"

That is a bit long period to keep the truce for Sunni Islamists like Hamas!

Have the followers of Islamic cult ever kept a word, agreement, truce, deal, pact or anything sane since the birth of Islam?

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade tells it is behind the grad rockets (2) attacks on Ashkelon- one caused damage in the industrial section- 2nd rockets fell on open field. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is the armed wing (military) of Fatah.

and the beat goes on...and on and on...

and just for the zionists out there who have forgotten about the USS Liberty and think we owe Israel something...Israel has also fired missiles into crowds of Palestinians in crowded shopping areas (from jet fighters) and into apartment bldgs because they "saw a bad guy running in there". That sounds a lot like terrorism to me. As long as Israel is determined to "kill its way past the Palestinian problem", this will continue. I'm quite sure that if a govt killed my kids, I'd be happy to spend the rest of my life trying to make them pay for it.

Have the followers of Islamic cult ever kept a word, agreement, truce, deal, pact or anything sane since the birth of Islam?

NOPE!

And funny that they're the first to whine and bytch when they are about to have their a$$es handed to them by the Israelis, or when they start civil wars.

Let Netanyahu obliterate them or better yet let them kill each other. Bonus for the planet.

The PEACEFULreligion of islam

WorldGoneCrazy: Most loving too!

So females are treated as loving and f****g sex objects!

God save us from such "love" and "peace" people!

Thomas Blue...Enough with the "oh remember the US Liberty"...Yeah and while you're at it don't forget to remember the Alamo...

@Thomas Blue (#1.8): View the following and tell us what you think. Actually, don't bother, I already know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sdCsl98naqM#t=303s

Just some observations:

1) Palestinian captives frequently (more than 1 a month) die under "mysterious circumstances." The "circumstances" usually turn out to be blunt force trauma to the head. This happens when the prisoner is bound and is being beaten on the shoulders (a standard Mossad/IDF interrogation technique) and the prisoner moves his head in an attempt to avoid the blows. This form of beating (and the resulting deaths) is a little trick that the Mossad learned from Apartheid South Africa.

2) The "intermittent" hunger strikes that the article refers to are actually "practice" hunger strikes. Fasting for ten days or so then eating lightly for two days then fasting again and repeating the cycle 5-6 times is a prelude to terminal hunger strikes. The practice fasting actually accustoms the body to the lack of food and allows the prisoner to last as long as two months with no food.

3) There were (contrary to what a couple of posters have stated) NO violations of the truce by the Palestinians. This truce was negotiated by Morsi and he had a lot riding on it. But there have been several incidents, including the wounding of several unarmed Palestinian protesters, a suspicious jail death, and a number of incursions into Palestinian territory by "shock troops" who try to incite firefights. These are squads of IDF troops who try to get the Palestinians shooting and then retreat back to Israeli lines before returning fire, often accompanied by mortars, artillery and jet strikes. Most of the Israeli soldiers who have died in recent years were members of such groups. (The IDF just says they were border guards.)

4) The situation that is developing is pretty much Israel's worst nightmare. Their plan has always been to get all their enemies quiet and then to attack one of them. Unfortunately, the Syrian situation won't go away for years and Lebanon will be in chaos for a decade. Jordan is even becoming more and more belligerent because of the massive number of Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese refugees entering their country and sapping their economy. Egypt is tottering under Morsi who has taken all the power from the Egyptian military. Do you think that the military is not scheming to get power back somehow? The easiest way is to stir up trouble with Israel. And all that leaves Iran, the original "bad guy" in recent months. Unless the Palestinians, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon can be pacified to a great degree, there is no possibility of a successful attack against Iran and even less likelihood that the US would participate in such an attack.

I too, remember the USS Liberty. I had friends on that ship. I have listened to the tapes of IDF airmen and sailors happily shooting up American damage control parties and commenting on shooting at their hoses and shooting up the American flag on the ship. They turned tail and fled in panic when told that 6th Fleet aircraft had been launched. BTW: Most military planners consider that American fighter pilots would have about a 6 to 1 kill ration against the IDF.

Go get them Ben.

@Chris: You are pathetic. You pass yourself off as an "expert" in so many different areas yet never post links to your outlandish claims. There are always two sides to the story. Let people decide for themselves. It's fairly evident, however, that those who consistently cite the Liberty are grasping at straws.

Sources claiming attack was a mistake

US
tapes confirm Israel's '67 attack on 'Liberty' was accidental

• The Liberty Incident, by A.
  Jay Cristol
• The USS Liberty: Case
  Closed Azure article
  by Michael
  Oren
• Michael
  Oren's "Six Days of War." Ballantine Books, 2003,
  p. 263–271
• Memos
  show Liberty attack
  was an error Haaretz article by Nathan Guttman
• Return
  of the USS Liberty Critique
  of Bamford's "Body of Secrets" from Honest
  Reporting
• Bamford
  Bashes Israel: Conspiracy Theorist Claims Attack on USS Liberty Intentional from the Committee
  for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
• The USS Liberty Attack from the Anti-Defamation League
• USS Liberty:
  Israel Did Not Intend to Bomb the Ship by A. Jay Cristol
• USS Liberty on www.sixdaywar.org
• USS
  'Liberty' hit was unintentional, says CIA

Sources claiming attack was deliberate

Survivors of the attack

USS Liberty Veterans
Association website

• USS Liberty Memorial, by
  survivor Jim Ennes. This site includes a wide variety of documents,
  photographs, statements by survivors, and responses to authors who argue that
  the attack was a mistake.
• USS Liberty, by John
  Gidusko, former Electronics Material Officer aboard the USS Liberty before the
  attack.
• Assault
  on Liberty Still
  Covered Up After 26 Years by Jim
  Ennes at Washington-Report
• Dead in
  the Water BBC
  documentary (2002).
• BrasscheckTV Documentary Video:
  "Loss of Liberty—The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty"
• 43
  Years After Surviving Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, US Veteran Joe Meadors
  Seized by Israeli Forces on Gaza Aid Flotilla - video report by Democracy
  Now!
• The
  Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American
  Intelligence Ship, online ebook.

From Wikipedia.

Chris - what a liar you are . . . remember you are speaking your own karma . . . God will judge you after man is finished with you.

BTW @Chris: As tragic as the Liberty was, many more Americans were killed in the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983. For some reason you never mention that one. Fair and balanced Chris? You've lost your credibility long ago.

The only way peace can occur is if it happens despite rockets continuing to be fired by small gangs

ROFL....

In other words, peace can occur if Israel lays down and lets them walk all over her. Oh, yeah, like that's gonna happen....

Hey there, HOTTICKET

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

Nothing but a bunch of idiots that need to be destroyed in order to support peace.

Basil Romeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sdCsl98naqM#t=303s

Thanks for the link

JIhad is going to say "what me,worried? I was playing dominos"Hamas will say me Playing chess" Alquiada in Gaza will say.what,`we`re not in Gaza" And all 3 will use children as hostages and sacrifice children when Israel retaliates.And NBC they are NOT "militants" they are terrorists! Or maybe the devils who attacked NY and other places on 9-11 were only "militants Get real.Where do you did up your writers. So many writers have called you on this but you still continue .Now say it 3 times...TERRORISTS!

How many thousands of truces have they declared only to be broken 100% of the time? So, now the Israeli's will call up their reserves and start rolling in tanks. Nations will decry their actions and on and on. Film at 11.

There is no peace for the middle east- no hope whatsoever.

@#1.14

Well said.

Basil - You posted the account as written by a Jew. I am posting the survivors account of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty. When reading the account, please take into consideration the fact that Lyndon Johnson was Jewish. Let the readers decide which is true.

There is a timeline
at the website which was set up to honor the American victims of the Israeli
and U.S. Military. Most of it follows.

June 8,
1967, Israeli forces attack the USS Liberty. They kill 34 American servicemen,
wounding 171 others. It will be the highest casualty rate ever inflicted on a
U.S. naval vessel, with 7 out of every 10 crew members killed or injured. It
will also be the only peacetime attack on a U.S. naval vessel that, to this
day, the Congress of the United States of America formally refuses to
investigate.

2 June 1967. Liberty
departs Rota at top speed of 18 knots en route to a point 13 miles off the Gaza
Strip, well within international waters.

5 June 1967, 7:45
(all times cited are local Liberty time). Israel attacks Egypt, simultaneously
putting out false reports that Egypt had attacked first. Captain McGonagle asks
Vice Admiral William Martin at Sixth Fleet headquarters to send a destroyer as
an armed escort and auxiliary communication center, noting that Liberty's
"self defense capability limited to four .50 caliber machine guns and
small arms."

6 June
1967. Admiral Martin replies "Liberty is clearly marked United States ship
in international waters, not a participant in the conflict and not a reasonable
subject for attack by any nation . . . Request for escort denied."

7 June
1967, shortly before midnight. Office of the U.S. Defense Attaché in Tel Aviv
sends coded message to U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that Israel intends
to attack the Liberty if her course is not changed.

8 June 1967:

1000: Two unmarked,
rocket-armed, delta-winged jets circle Liberty three times. Liberty officers
can count rockets and see the pilots, but see no identifying marks on the
plane. The jets radio Israeli headquarters that the ship is flying an American
flag.

1030: Israeli "flying boxcar" with Israeli markings circles
Liberty at about 200 feet. Crew member Larry Weaver says, "I was actually
able to wave to the co-pilot, a fellow on the right-hand side of the plane. He
waved back, and actually smiled at me."

1055: Pinchas Pinchasy, naval liaison officer at Israeli air force
headquarters, reports to Naval Headquarters that the ship cruising slowly off
El Arish is "an electromagnetic audio-surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy,
named Liberty, whose marking was GTR-5."

1100 & 1130: Israeli reconnaissance aircraft again circle Liberty.

1205: Three Israeli motor torpedo boats leave Ashdod at high speed headed
toward Liberty. They are followed by Israeli air force fighters, loaded with
30mm cannon ammunition, rockets, and napalm.

1215 & 1245: Israeli reconnaissance aircraft again circle Liberty.

1341: Israeli torpedo boats spot Liberty and call for an immediate air strike.

1358: Two unmarked delta-winged Mirage jets attack Liberty. After taking out
gun mounts, they target ship's antennae and bridge with heat-seeking missiles.

1405: Three unmarked Dassault Mystère IIIC jets attack with napalm and
rockets. Ship tries to contact Sixth Fleet headquarters, but five of Liberty's
six shore circuits are jammed. Radio operator manages to send distress signal
from Captain McGonagle: "Under attack by unidentified jet aircraft,
require immediate assistance." Attack lasts approximately 22 minutes,
involving 30 to 35 sorties, killing nine men and wounding around 60. Israeli
pilot reports to base: "Great, wonderful, she's burning, she's
burning."

1409: Captain Joe Tully of the USS Saratoga acknowledges call for help,
dispatches four F-4 Phantom jets, and informs Liberty that help is on the way.
Within minutes U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara orders rescue jets to
return: : "Tell Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back
immediately." Rear Admiral Geis relays message and tells them to re-launch
jets in 90 minutes.

1424: Three French-built 62-ton Israeli motor torpedo boats approach Liberty in
attack formation. Because the Israeli fighters had destroyed the American flag,
Captain McGonagle orders the signalman to hoist the "holiday ensign,"
the largest flag the ship has.

1435: Torpedo boats launch five German-made 19-inch torpedoes at Liberty.
One torpedo strikes starboard directly into NSA area, accounting for 25 of the
34 men who would be killed. Torpedo boats then circle, machine-gunning the ship
with armor-piercing projectiles for another 40 minutes.

1450: Commander of Sixth Fleet orders carriers USS America and USS Saratoga to
send aircraft to defend Liberty.

1500: NSA Sigint Command Center receives first notice of the attack from either
the America or Saratoga: "USS Liberty has been reportedly torpedoed by
unknown source in Med near 32N 33E. Request examine all communications for
possible reaction/reflections and report accordingly."

1505: Message sent to Liberty from Sixth Fleet: "Sending aircraft to cover
you. Surface units on the way." Liberty is off the air and does not
receive the message.

1511: First "official" notice that Liberty is under attack reaches
National Military Command Center in Washington.

1515: After the order to "prepare to abandon ship" comes over the
loudspeaker system, the lifeboats are lowered into the water. Israeli torpedo
boats move in closer and fire on them, as well as those still on deck, making
them all unusable. "I watched with horror as the floating life rafts were
riddled with holes," recalled Lieutenant Lloyd Painter, in charge of the
evacuation. Said Petty Officer Rowley, who also witnessed the event: "They
didn't want anyone to live." After destroying the life rafts, the Israeli
boats departed. Next, two Israeli SA-321 Super Frelon Hornet assault
helicopters carrying soldiers in battle dress circle ship several times, then
depart.

1600: Liberty transmits: "Flash, flash, flash. I pass in the blind. We
are under attack by aircraft and high-speed surface craft." Deputy
Director Louis Tordella is informed by Deputy Director of Joint Reconnaissance
Center, Captain Vineyard, that "consideration was then being given by some
unnamed Washington authorities to sink the Liberty in order that newspaper men
would be unable to photograph her and thus inflame public opinion against the
Israelis." Tordella makes an "impolite" comment about the idea,
writes a memo of the conversation for the record, and stores it away.

1639: Secretary of Defense McNamara again orders rescue planes recalled;
order is confirmed by President Johnson because "we are not going to
embarrass an ally." Naval Air Attaché at U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv,
Commander Ernest Castle, is summoned to Israeli Defense Forces headquarters.

1729: Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis, commander of the Sixth Fleet in the
Mediterranean, protests decision to recall rescue planes to Secretary of
Defense McNamara. At that point President Johnson comes on the phone and says
he didn't care if the ship sunk, he would not embarrass his allies. Admiral Geis
tells Lt. Commander David Lewis, head of the Liberty's NSA group, of the
remark, but asks him not to repeat it until after he dies. It is a promise
Lewis will honor.

9 June 1967:

After midnight: Soviet guided missile
destroyer sends flashing-light message in English: "Do you need
help?" Liberty responds: "No thank you." Soviets answer: "I
will stand by in case you need me."

0600: USS Navy destroyers Davis and Massey
arrive.

Mid-morning: Dead and wounded are evacuated by helicopter.

1450: Israeli Lt. Col. Michael Bloch telephones Commander Castle that Liberty, because
it was not flying a flag, had been mistaken for the Egyptian supply ship El
Queseir. State Department assures Congress that attack was accidental.

10 June 1967: Vice Admiral McCain orders Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd to convene
Navy Court of Inquiry.

11 June 1967: Admiral Kidd boards Liberty
with small staff to head Navy Court of Inquiry.

14 June 1967: Liberty arrives in Malta. Total
news blackout imposed. Rear Admiral Kidd warns crew: "You are never,
repeat never, to discuss this with anyone, not even your wives. If you do, you
will be court-martialed and will end your lives in prison or worse."
Secretary of Defense McNamara informs media that, "Department of Defense
will have no further comment."

15 June 1967: Secretary of State Dean Rusk
tells NATO ambassadors in Luxembourg that Israel's attack was deliberate. His
remark is reported in European, but not U.S. papers.

18 June 1967: Israeli Court of Inquiry
exonerates Israeli government and all those involved, saying that its torpedo
boats erroneously reported the Liberty's speed at 30 knots instead of 5, and
that the Liberty flew no flag and had no identifying markings. Later, Israel
will honor Motor Torpedo Boat 203, the one that fired the deadly torpedo at the
Liberty, by putting its wheel and bell on display in its naval museum, among
those maritime items of which it is most proud.

July 1967: Shortly after the burial of six
Liberty crewmen in Arlington National Cemetery, a monument is erected
describing the six as having "Died in the Eastern Mediterranean."
Liberty survivors complain that the marking is evasive and improper.

September 1967: State Department legal
adviser Carl Salans finds many discrepancies with the Israeli report. His
report is classified Top Secret.

11 June 1968: Captain McGonagle is awarded
the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Medal, usually presented by the President
of the United States at the White House, is presented by the Secretary of the
Navy during a hastily arranged ceremony at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard.
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, the Chief of Naval Operations, calls the way the
Medal is presented a back-handed slap. "Everyone else received their medal
at the White House," Moorer will later observe. "President Johnson
must have been concerned about the reaction of the Israeli lobby."

1980: National Security Agency Director
Marshall Carter tells investigative author James Bamford that, regarding the
attack on the Liberty, "There was no other answer than that it was
deliberate."

1981: National Security Agency review,
"Attack on a Sigint Collector, the USS Liberty Incident," rejects the
Israeli Court of Inquiry's "mistake" theory and accuses Israeli
fighter pilots and torpedo boat crewmen and commanders of perjury.

1982: Israeli senior lead pilot approaches
former Congressman Pete McCloskey and admits that he recognized the Liberty as
American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the
American flag and continue his attack. He said he refused to do so and returned
to base, where he was arrested.

6 October 1982: A new headstone for the six
Liberty crew members at Arlington National Cemetery is unveiled. This one
reads: "Killed USS Liberty June 8, 1967."

1986: Lt. Commander Walter H. Jacobsen writes
in Naval Law Review: "To speculate on the motives of an attack group that
uses unmarked planes and deprives helpless survivors of life rafts raises
disturbing possibilities, including the one that the Liberty crew was not meant
to survive the attack..."

6 November 1991: Columnists Evans and Novak
publish interview with Dwight Porter, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon in 1967, in
which Porter says that during or immediately after the attack on the Liberty
the CIA station chief showed him transcripts of intercepted Israeli messages.
One has Israel ordering the attack on the Liberty, another has an Israeli pilot
replying it's an American ship. When the order to attack is repeated, the pilot
insists he can see the American flag. The pilot is told again: "Attack
it."

8 June 1997: Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, appointed
Chief of Naval Operations shortly after the attack on the Liberty, tells a
reunion of survivors: "I have to conclude that it was Israel's intent to
sink the Liberty and leave as few survivors as possible. Israel knew perfectly
well that the ship was American."

November 1998: Captain McGonagle breaks his
long silence: "After many years I finally believe that the attack was
deliberate. I don't think there has been an adequate investigation of the
incident . . . The flag was flying prior to the attack..." McGonagle will
die four months later, on March 3, 1999.

They will be fighting forever and there will never be a full scale war in Gaza. Militants lack the ability to fight a conventional war, and the Israelis know the entire world will @!$%# on them if they occupy Gaza again. They are only safe if they can stop the rocket attacks without fighting another conflict. The threat that hezbollah will retaliate against them for hitting hamas is too great now, and fears o syrian chemical stockpiles being passed to hezbollah will keep them ( Israel ) on a short leash for now... They are too encompassed watching that inevitable could-be crisis to get caught up entering Gaza right now...

All out war is also not an option because guerilla fighters have no front lines. It would end up like a mini afghanistan or iraq for Israel.

"The death in disputed circumstances of Arafat Jaradat, buried in a funeral in the Hebron area attended by thousands on Monday, and a hunger strike by four other Palestinian inmates"

Here you go!

Everything appears to be upside down these days.

Netanyahu agreeing for truce; seventh century Islamists of Eypt "helping to achieve" truce and strangest of all: Palestinians going on "hunger strike" instead of throwing rocks or rockets!!!

Peace has been close there before. Jimmy Carter has done some admirable work there. It is very noteworthybefore Ariel Sharon was elected, the Palestinians' and Israelis' young people would socialize together and go to the same clubs together. Ariel Sharon single-handedly started the 2001 Intifada for his own political purposes, may he burn in hell. It's very tragic that both Sharon and Arafat advanced their own personal interests so much by fanning war. Many on both sides do want peace but until the right-wing war mongers get retired, there will be no peace.

"...and a hunger strike by four other Palestinian inmates, have stoked tensions ahead of a planned visit next month by U.S. President Barack Obama."

Perhaps these "hunger strikes" can be banned under his guidance? The time to act is now!

so they should all Die? because you are sick of hearing of it? WOW.. Must be great being YOU.. LMFAO

I agree, Israel needs to get serious; they need to put the hammer down on Gaza and quit being so soft on terrorists.

Israel has been putting the hammer down for 60 years+. How's that working out for them? Do you see peace on the horizon?

Thomas do you think Israel has put the hammer down? They could incinerate every palestinian "person" right now on the ground they stand on. The liberals do not let wars happen anymore. Wars used to settle things. Now they just turn into protracted battles and small skimishes where people get killed for years.

@Zheng He: Thanks for the semi-translation (-:

Really intelligent!!

Yes Tom, you are right. israel is pain in the butt brat.

As I was saying, it didn't take long did it?

You are looking in your wrong prism!

Jews came to their present state as they were not aggressive enough like followers of Islamic cult.

If Jews had been more aggressive than Mohammed's followers, they would not have been driven out their homes in the current Israel itself.

If they had been in their homelands, there would not have been persecutions.

If Jews of Israel are smart, they should fire rockets now and then into Hamas areas; spray pork often and then terrorize them.

Here Jews should learn some tricks from Hamas on how to contantly terrorize!

Best place for Palestinians belonging to Hamas is Saudi Arabia with Mecca as capital and Fatah with Medina as capital.

Even in Saudi Arabia, they need to be given separate homelands and capitals or else Hamas and Fatah will battle each other.

Johnathan,

Ignoring history again. Israel gained it's nationhood largely due to terrorism against the British and arabs living in the area. The Palistinians learned that terrorism can win you a country, from the Israelis. Look up Lehi or Irgun.

ED: I know about Lehi or Irgun and later Mossad.

Jews and many non-Muslims are learning history from followers of Islamic cult.

Still they have to go a long way!

Or else, most Muslims will be limited to some Saudi or some Islamic hell hole place.

Nice Tom. Did you miss you medications this morning?

@Johathan,

You really should work on your English in order to troll on these boards. It is very obvious that you are not an English speaker and troll for the Israelis. The question is, do they pay you? If so, they are getting ripped off.

Chris, you are clearly an idiot that you want to bring up an incident that is 60 years old instead of talking about the many innocent people murdered by Palestinians over the years. Pathetic losers like you seek to distort the truth with lies.

You have absolutely no credibility.

It is interesting that @Basil Romeo says that I claim to be an "expert" and "Joe Plumber claims that my note that @Jonathan's English is wanting is "60 years old." Neither of these statements is true. Israelis like to talk about Palestinians killing people, but neglect to mention the many times more Palestinians that Israeli's kill. But all that won't ever make the Liberty go away (and the dishonor upon the IDF) nor will it change the issue that it is only a one-sided Israeli set of home-grown "facts" that they want represented on here --- and nothing else.

I am sorry if that bothers the Israeli trolls, but I call 'em like I see 'em and more and more Americans are seeing Isreali's self-inflicted troubles as something we can do without.

But my bottom line is that my personal experience and every thing I have ever read convinces me that the Israeli's are a rogue nation that has never played well with its neighbors. An old drill sargeant once told me that if I looked around and I was the only one in step, that the problem more likely lay with my marching, not everyone else's. Israel can never be "right" if, in a paranoid haze, it sees all its neighbors as "wrong." And Israel can never be a friend to the US as long as it does not act like a friend.

When is the last time that Israel ever stood beside the US in any issue of consequence? Israel only stands by a country when it directly benefits Israel, regardless of whether anyone else is benefitted. And a treaty with Israel is, as Golda Meir said, "written on the wind" and need not be honored by Israelis. A man, like a country is judged by its word. While the US has not had a sterling reputation, Israel has no good reputation at all.

chris - As others have noted, you are pathetic. All you need to do in order top address your own last paragraph is to read the history of all muslim countries (your brethren) voting against the US in 68% to 94% of the time while receiving US tax dollars. Go ahead, educate yourself.

Chris: Here you go again!

When many don't understand/like the topic/post, they comment on my English.

That means: what I wrote was correct and you could not find anything wrong else where.

I don't think you are fit even to edit my IT books and novels.

My US IT book editors had some knowledge of the topics I was writing. Now they are doing same on my novels.

If you don't know the basics of a subject, then what English corrections/editing can you do?

farideh and joe..: Thanks a lot.

Without knowing much about a topic, Chris was commenting on my English some others.

"The ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands is a crime and the collective punishment and blockade of Gaza is a war crime. " Couldn't the same be told about Hamas shooting rockets into Israel? How are Hamas rockets any different than Nazi V2 rockets?

"Israel needs to recognize the right of Palestine to exist." Even though Palestinians don't recognizes Israel's right to exist?

You look for parity and fairness in death and injury? You are an idiot. The real problem is that israel is not using any where near enough force to dissuade these provocative actions of the arab population. These soft responses embolden the arabs and result in more trouble.

In Gaza when the rockets come a substantive death toll - 10,000 or more should be extracted in 24 hours with a warning - surrender. This they understand and nothing else.

An idiot dies of a hear attack in jail and they make a protest and fire rockets. If they knew what real retribution was and that it was sure and certain they would not be so quick to protest with rockets.

Smack them down a lot harder when they misbehave.

Hamas does need to exist, but only in heaven with their virgins.

@pdqsailor

No, Sparky. There is an idiot here but it's not Brian. If you look at the overall loss of life on both sides, it is overwhelmingly the Palestinians that are dying, not the Israelis. The IDF has a saying:" What cannot be accomplished by force can be accomplished with more force". Here is the crux of the problem. As long as the IDF thinks the solution is the hammer and killas many Palestinians as possible, the fire will simply grow. A slap begets a slap, a punch, a punch, a club, a club. You should try using that grey thing betweenour ears. BTW, I believe that calling another poster an idiot violates the terms of usage here as well as common decency.

Brian:

Go learn some history. If you're a fan of the palestinian or hamas go take your dumb fatt ass over there. You kind of look like one of there women folk anyway. Maybe you can get in on the smuggled sperm thing....

Brian, I think it is the Palestinians that need to recognize Israel's right to exist. But don't let antisemitism stand in your way of a balanced argument!

@CUE,

The shooting of V-2 rockets into England by the Nazis was not a war crime. The two countries were engaged in an all-out declared war. Hamas is not a country. Israel is theoretically at peace (except with all its neighbors) and involved in no declared wars against any other country.

@pdqsailor,

You are an advocate of genocide? How does that give you any moral credentials?

Israel doesn't have to smuggle rockets. They are given F16s by America, which they have used to terrorize and kill thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese.

You Zionists them complain about a few bottle rockets, which are fired aimlessly into former Arab lands, where they usually do no damage. Those Arab lands were stolen at the point of guns by the Stern gang and ther Irgun. The Israelis don't like it when the worm turns.

"For eight
years now, they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza and have watched how,
before their very eyes, we have turned their lands and villages, where they and
their forefathers previously dwelled, into our home." General Moshe Dayan,
Israeli military hero - 1956

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation,
and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab
population."

Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum"

You and your "zionism" non sense should stay in Iran and continue your cut and paste of misinformation to please your master mullahs. But I believe you may be useful to society if you worked helping Iranian people who are being murdered, raped and mollested by the ayatollahs you so fiercely defend and protect. You and your fanatical theocrats make "zionism" look nice, very nice.

@farideh,

It is interesting that Iran is a much bigger country with a larger military and a hugely larger economy. It is a country rich in resources and does not depend on otherss,, such as the US taxpayer, for annual foreign aid and the payment of the country's deficit. I don;t see Iran looking to other countries to pull its chestnuts out of a fire it started. Now Isreal, on the other hand ....

Do you, in your reflective voice, know what it's like to carry away a baby from a place that had collateral damage and have that baby die in your arms?

Let's show some compassion for both sides if you have it in you.

Well, perhaps you should apply that logic and compassion for the the bombs being launched at Israeli civilian targets. I have no sympathy for terrorists or countries/states that allow them to operate within their borders.

SOA, Stupidity becomes you. Comparing Nazis to Zionist is clearly stupid. You have no intelligence in your comment. Ignorance to facts is your best asset.

@Spirit,

As you can see, @Joe has no comeback except to call you ignorant, stupid, and lacking in intelligence. So, Joe, let's hear some of those facts.

1) A quarter of all "Israeli citizens" are Arabs. Are they accorded the same priviledges as Jews?

2) The Hamas rocket was fired in protest of the unexplained death of a young Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli prison without charges and without a trial for two years.

3) Israel refuses to obey UN accords, even though those accords are backed by the full weight and authority of the USA.

4) The US Embassy in Israel is in Tel Aviv, can you explain why?

The actual comparison with the Nazis is a lot more compelling that you seem to think. The parallels are striking, especially the coveting of other countries' lands, the reliance on vastly superior military force to achieve pourely political or criminal goals, the making of treaties only to break them quickly, the massive paranoia, the lack of universal suffrage (where some citizens are super-citizens, above the law, and some citizens are a special low class of citizens that are beneath the law.) The non-stop violence against its neighbors since the inception of the country is also strikingly similar. But there is one major difference --- the Germans build great highways while the Israelis have only build superior nuclear weapons.

Sally-Ann, I guess hate for other Americans that don't share you political opinions is your specialty.

Actually, until arounbd WWI or so the Jews and Arabs were quite close. They are both Semitic and they speak extremely similar languages and have extyremely similar religious customs. The latter would be natural since they are both Abrahamic religions and consider the same religious documents as sacred.

It would be a great deal easier to make a case that the "fruit loops" that broke off from Judaism 2000 years ago did much worse. They tried to completely exterminate the Jewish culture, race, and religion entirely.

If by "they" you mean Hitler and the third reich then you are mistakenly wrong. Hitler didn't remotely follow the teachings of Jesus therefore his claim to be a "Christian" or one who is "christ-like" flies over like a fart in church.

What if Canada lobbed a rocket into Maine? It's just not acceptable behavior.

canada will not lob a rocket to Maine. Why?

-US did not occupy and steal Canadian land and turned Canadians into 2nd class concentration camp guests.

-US did not attack and kill thousands of women and children in Canada

There are slow learners, then there's joe. Third correction. The Liberty was strafed and set ablaze with napalm. The crew never abandoned ship, but did toss the burning lifeboats overboard.

Regardless, @Procrustes, the Israeli aircraft and PT boats fled in panic (two PT boats were actually damaged in a panic-driven collision) when notified that 6th Fleet aircraft had been launched.

What is the favorite dish of the IDF? CHICKEN!

Are you, joe and chris, from a fanatical muslim country? you both seem to forget a dozen intentional and unprovoked murders that were committed against the US by muslim countries, and you witness them continuing to this day, but remember one thing (non muslim) from 1967 when you were not even born.

They moved the pieces to the good part of the road for photographs.

And the UN is a toothless old useless worn out tiger of dreams gone bad.

Israel needs to stop this crap from the made up people who call themselves "Palestinians".

This was all settled in 1947.

But Hamas would not accept it.

They started wars, and lost land.

Too bad.

Move off the West Bank immediately,

Jerusalem is the Eternal Capitol of Israel. Has been for 5,000 years.

The UN has spoken,

Yes, and they acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and the EU is about to rule the same for Hesb'ALlah.

.