Killing is always bad.
If a child pointed his gun at you and your children, you tried to reason with him, you even tried to negotiate with him. He is still going to kill you. Would you not shoot him first? Do you think you have another choice? Ok, you tried that too; didn’t work either and he killed one of your children. You shot the hand he had the gun in so he dropped the gun, pick it up in his other hand and shot another one of your children.
Now he is coming after your other kids as well. You shot the other hand. He picked up with his healed hand and started shooting at your children again. You tried to warn him and he pretended to listen.
When you turned away for a moment he shot yet another one of your children. But this child looks so helpless and cute and injured.
Yet he is killing your children, and you know if you don’t shoot him and kill him he will kill more of your children and he will never stop until they are all dead. What would you do? Would you let him kill your children? Or would you go and kill him first?
Does that make you bad? Does that make you a murderer?
But people can’t see what he is doing? He is a child and he knows how to play and hide well.
Would you kill him before he kills you and your children?
What do you think?

Kovadis Najem

You speak the truth. It is all about leadership and integrity.

I wish it were that easy. Unfortunately you have radicals(on both sides I may add) who simply don’t want peace. You have to go back and realize that the Jews had Israel as a homeland for over 2000 years, not just 1948. Religious Jews therefore believe, as it written in the torah, that this is the homeland of the Jewish people, Gaza included. On the opposite side of the fence, once can understand the anxiety and suffering of the Palestinian plight. The killing of innocent, men, women and children by extremists is not the way towards a resolution.

I dream of a two state solution where Palestine and Israel sit side by side in peace. Unfortunately the leaders of the world today do not have the ability to make this happen

There is no peace with people who occupy your land. Israelis actions on the ground makes it hard to believe that Israelis want to live in peace. About a month ago, a lot of us saw how the settlers attacked a houses in Hebron and now their army is targeting schools with children.

Any leadership the Palestinians get is going to be destroyed. It should be clear by now that the intention is not to allow the creation of a Palestinian state, ever. Although I detest Hamas, the truth is that the group was the closest the Palestinians had to a government that covered their needs and a sense or order, that’s the reason they were elected by the majority in 2006.
The only thing that has not been tried in order to solve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is a date for the creation of a Palestinian state. How would Hamas and those who supposedly want to destroy Israel react to such news?
It saddens me that the world does not react anymore to the imprisonment of almost 2 million Palestinians or to the carnage going on. It’s barbaric. We are all barbaric
If crimes against humanity are not taking place during this latest incursion why not allow the press to see the military action? Why were all Israeli soldiers stripped of their cellular phones?
Things are not going well for Israel in spite of the hundreds of dead Palestinians. Turkey has gotten into the picture and is already delivering messages from Hamas to governments and international institutions. Instead of destroying Hamas with this latest attack, Israel seems to be pushing for the credibility of its foe. And Jordan has declared its intention of evaluating its relation with Israel.
It’s a war of David against Goliath, yes, but David is not Israel any more.

You can not move history backward. Israel exists as a Jewish state.

As any state it requires to protect itself and its citizens.
That includes strategic sites and border. Especially taking in account that their neighbors are not very friendly, stable, have different factions fighting each other and overwhelming population.

So Palestinians have to accept and negotiate if they want to have own state, Arafat missed this chance.

No one likes when innocent civlians dying but I believe that Israel had no choice but respond to Hamas rocket attacks.

3200 injured, 690 deaths – among them 320 children!!

All in 12 days.

Sad and true numbers that the US media will not even dare to publish.

What we see on the news is a fraction of what is happening out there,

Fact is even the media has no access.

Where is the rest of the world, and how come such attrocity it is still permitted?

Way to go… Whoever thinks this method will solve anything, think again.

the land which the Israelis call The Holy Land in their Torah had been abandoned long long ago. They gave up the land, and left it and they became apart one another across the world. Then the Palestinian came to the land, settle, reside, and make a good life there for hundred years. Knowing that, and that the land saves treasure, geographically and economically beneficial, greater than expected, Israelis came back and started to bully the Palestinians, telling them that the holy land belongs to the Jewish, that the Israel is the legal “owner” of the land’. They moved back to the Holy Land in a movement what so called the Zionism. As of 1950, post the Hitler regime in Germany, the Zionism had reached its peak. Not only bullying, but they began to assault the Palestinians and attack the neighboring countries as their population rising and needed more soil to live. The Israelis re occupy something that no longer theirs. This is the start of the conflict, this is the root of the hundred years never ending hostility. Now, let say you trashed a jewel in a garbage can, then a beggar picked it, and took care of it, and created a diamond from it. All of sudden, you recognized that’s your old jewel you littered the other day. You claimed it, you wanted to posses it back no matter what it takes.With Your power you started to terrorize the beggar day and night, you tried to wound him and finally you got it back in your hand. The beggar lost everything. He lived in slum, injured and had no longer the precious. But he fights back, he wants something he has been taking for so long. Thats what the Palestinians are now striving. The Land belongs to the Palestinian, the Diamond belongs to the beggar! whatsoever, when there’s no justice there’s no peace. If the Israelis want to live in peace, please return the land to Filistin, Palestina and the Israelis could have other land to live. If you want to have your own diamond, please go to the jewellery shops to buy another new one!!!!

DON’T LET THE WOLF KILL YOUR SHEEP ISRAEL, PROTECT THE SHEEPS KILL THE WOLF..THIS IS RIGTH WAY TO DO. WE SUPPORT AND PRAY FOR YOU ISRAEL…..

Very well said. The situation in Gaza is a tragic one, especially for the innocents, on BOTH sides of this conflict. But that is the problem in a nutshell, the innocents have no voice in this matter, only the extremists do. The sqweaky wheel is getting all the grease, and the grease is very flammable. Pray for the innocents.

Leadership! Arafat and Hamas took their people to hell instead of paradise. Arafat and Hamas were supported by Syria and Iran.
There sole purpose was to be a thorn in Israel’s side.
What will become clear shortly is that Hamas created an underground base to manufacture new high tech missiles capable of reaching Israel’s nuclear reactors. They were within weeks of completing a two lane 3 mile long concrete paved tunnel leading to this base that would allow for heavy duty trucks coming and going every night from Egypt. Once the tunnel was completed, it was only a matter of weeks before the missiles would be launched. This was the need for the ground assault. To find everyone of these tunnels.

As much as Syria and Iran want to send missiles into Israel they would not risk the demolition of their cities by Israeli retaliation, though it was just fine for the Arab World to keep the Palestinians in a mode of constant suffering for decades while this plan has been in effect. Sad, though true, the Palestinian people are merely pawns to be used and abused.

Once this is exposed, will they be bright enough to drop their anger and hate towards Israel? Will they take responsibility for not understanding the power behind their vote. Will they vote for Hamas again? Probably yes ;-(

world peace one mind at a time
Richard

The struggle for a compromise and peace between Israel and the Muslim world is complicated and difficult but there is one simple overlying issue that is the root of all problems; the Muslim world regularly and publicly calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews. This was the same decree made by the Nazi’s and it comes not only from radicals but also from mainstream political and social leaders of Palestinians and Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. What Kind of a compromise is Israel supposed to agree to?? Are they to say “OK, go ahead and destroy us and then there will be peace”? NO!! Until the entire Muslim world begins to publicly agree to accept the State Of Israel’s right to exist, there will never be peace. The ball is in the court of the Muslims their own peace and prosperity is up to them to make the Right move.

What the Israelis are doing in the killing of women and children is a genocide. They try to justify these massacres because of the rockets being fired into their cities which killed 4 people to going into Gaza and killing over 600 people and over 40% of them are women and children. Why does our government turn a blind eye to these attrocities being committed by Israel, is it because they are muslims? I’m hispanic and try to be neutral but these are crimes being committed by the Israeli Offensive Forces as I call them. There can never be peace in a land where Israel has a blockade on a people who deserve their own state. Palestinian children deserve to have dreams, they deserve to live in peace without missiles being fired at them indiscriminately. THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THESE ATTROCITIES!!!!!

Kovadis Najem, I just wanted to point out that you made a horrible analogy. Really poor.

I think that to go back to a land after 2000 years is a little bit too much …Imagine the other nations the US being claimed by the native american indians etc etc . NO there was an injustice to the jews in the second world war by the nazis and the price was Palestine to the Jews .If they wanted really to coexist with the Arabs they shoulsd have tried harder. The Arabs are good people, they are very generous and may be they could accept that a state that is completely different from them would be coexisting with them.Did the Israelis try to understand the Arab mentality ????? They were mosly educated Europeans Jews against mostlu uneducated Arabs but still it does not give them a right to take other people’s land.Did they give compensation to the Arabs as the germans gave them NO.
They want to impose themselves by force and that is not the way.
I am a christian and a deep beleiver and I think that the Israelis should try harder to be friendly with the Arabs .They have so much knowledge to share technology. Do you think it is right to have a very developped country in front of a very poor country and separate both by a wall??? if there is a Hamas it is a reaction of the people
against injustice too bad they are fanatical but actions are needed
to strenghten the moderates what is Israel doing?????
Israel should try harder to win Arabs to its side and integrate
palestinians why not try it instead of using only power…
Many Arab regimes are corrupt and do nothing for their people but still I think the solution is peace only peoce because soooner or later that is what can achieve something and of course the return of all Palestinians to their homeland .I am telling the Israelis to be friends of the Arabs before it is too late ..The Arab populations even inside israel is increasing and one day they are going to be a majority… We only live 70 80 years why complicate it so much?????

Michael, I have to disagree with you. Kovadis made a great point. The family is Israel and the gun man is the Palestinians. That is very plain. Since Israel forceably removed their own people out of Gaza, Hamas has launched over 6,000 missiles into Israel killing many Israelies. Have you heard the liberal/world media reporting that? Yet now, palestine is “hepless” to the onslaught of justice. I, like the example given, would kill first. That is what they are dong. Israel wants peace, they gave them what they asked for. Israel even offered half of Jerusale at one point to Arafat, who refused the offer. Palestine is the one that does not want peace, they want Israel blown up and gone. Their are many other territorie that have the same belief system as the Palestinians, so they can move to those countries and give Israel their peace they deserve.

Kovadis Najem, you are either pretty ignorant or pretty sick in the head. But concentrating on mentalities like yours is a waste of time and a deviation of the problem at hand.
Israel has become a criminal state. As long as it continues keeping almost 2 million people under occupation – in this figure only in the Gaza area – they have no moral authority, except the authority of force and brutality, which is boomeranging. There is no excuse for what they are doing. I guess they want to reduce the future increase of the Palestinian population, it’s the only way to explain the scope of the killings. The other guilty of the massacres of these poor people are the Arab leaders themselves, especially those who govern wealthy countries with oil. They are so servile to the US and Israel it’s embarrassing. They have no pride in themselves or sympathy for the suffering of their own. I applaud the self-respect of the Turkish leader that has confronted the Israeli might and is pushing for Hamas to be heard. And the responsibility of the US and Europe for not demanding an end to the massacres is already well known.
Aurora

with the israel incursion euro leaders rush, UN have security meet, the whole world is concerned, media focus on the region………
when it was an ordinary day in israel with hamas missiles falling there is no rush, no UN meeting, no world concern , no news about it.

Thanks Ralitsa for your balance. At least someone at CNNI doesn’t express any bias.

Guatamalanska,

The 1947 Partition Plan passed by the UN called for the formation of an Arab state next to a Jewish state on the land that had been part of the British Mandate.The Arabs rejected the creation of that potential Palestinian state in favour of destruction of the Jewish state.

Hanun,

The Jews never abandoned the Holyland. They were exiled by the Romans and their state destroyed. Nevertheless, there always remained a Jewish population despite subsequent attempts to destroy them.

In parallel, The Land of Israel has always been central to Jews in prayer and religious practice.

Jews have continually been kicked out from country to country, and each time some returned to the land. They did not deliberately settle on the other side of the world. They found somewhere to live where they may be safe (at least for a generation or two).

They stole no land when they were offered a state.Since the end of the 19th century when immigration increased after European pogroms, land was purchased from Ottoman and Arab landowners. The migrant labourers of these landowners were left behind but refused to work for their new employers. It is the descendents of these migrant workers who make up the majority of the Palestinians today. Most claimed the land they had been employed to work on as their own, hence the lack of land deeds in their possession. Those with proof of ownership can take any legal claims to the Israeli courts.

I just hope that the Arabs would put away their hate for Jews and Israel and accept the right for a Jewish state to exist in the land she is connected to, side-by-side, in peace, with her Arab neighbours.

If there were any hopes for peace and a two state solution, they vanished three weeks ago. What israel is doing, has two consequences: more polarisation for generations of arabs who would never accept the carnage of Paletinians in Gaza.
Secondly, look at the wave of anti-semitism, sky rocketting in Europe. After all the pain to reduce it, which kad just started to work.
So for coming years Israel has to give their land back to Arabs, because when Israel was created in PALESTINE, people were living there. It was not an abandoned land. History is known by people who have witnessed and know it. Israel can create any bla bla about the land of Palestine, but this land belongs to Palestinians, it always had. The Jewish history has nothing to do with the Holy land. They were there like other faiths. The Holy land is the land of the three Great Religions:Judaism, Chritianity, and Islam.
My friends lets read the history, no doubt that every one will find that the land was lived by people called The Philistines for more than 3500 years, before any of the three great religions settled there.

The Philistines were invaders from a Mediteranean island, most probably Crete, in about 1200BC

Judaism existed in the land at a similar time.

The Palestinians are not descended or connected to the ancient Philistines.

The Palestinians were never refered to as such until the establishment of the British Mandate.

Palestine of the Romans was the name of an administrative region, the population of which was never refered to by that name.

What pain was there in Europe to reduce anti-semitism?
People having to keep their mouths shut and hide their opinions was so painful?
Anti-semitism never went away and only increases as the Moslem populations grow.

You have a lot of history to learn.

Hi Miriam, Anti-semitism will now never go away with the bombing of gaza. It has united Muslims all over the world, even the moderates and wait what you will see in the future. Israel has created an even bigger monster. Jews will ever be safe again.

Hi Miriam, Anti-semitism will now never go away with the bombing of gaza. It has united Muslims all over the world, even the moderates and wait what you will see in the future. Israel has created an even bigger monster. Jews will never be safe again.

These two idiologies have been fighting since biblical days. The bloodshed won’t stop because Arab’s don’t consider Western influences to resolve conflicts, which they deem internal to Arabs. Hamas is the puppet of Iran and as long as they’re involved, nothing will get resolved. And the Lebonese government is a joke.

“Jews will never be safe again”.

When have they ever been safe?

Miriam, Palestine was a colony of the Ottoman empire by the name of Palestine. It is in 1918 that the Ottoman empire got dismantled and the British Mandate came up. (So please don’t tell me to revise my history I know it quite well). Even though these are not episodes of history that you like people to remember.
By the same date , 1918 the British made a shame ful promise to the Zionists, called the Balfour Treaty, to give them the northern part of Palestine. The land did not belong to them to make a gift out of it, and to people who would perpetrate war and hatred in this region! More impotant the land had inhabitants for thousands of years: The palestinians! Sorry, this must be painful for you, but not more pain than the kids dying in Palestinian Gaza!
Your second point, what did Eorope do to reduce antisemitism?
Lady you don’t know a bit about Europe. For more than 30 years there hasn’t been a movie, tv series, novels… coming without the central theme going around a nice jewish family , who were fun and loving…and did all the right things for the country! As opposed to all the other protagonists…
There were laws made that prevent even students at universities to question anything about the zionist jewish history. They get labeled as anti-semite or revisionist…
Do you want me to continue….or you start to rememeber?

I have thought for a long time that soon-to-be president Obama should call the leaders of all factions together, with no one else in the room or nearby, no TV, no reporters, no one. Kick off the shoes and say, “OK, ALL of our children are getting killed. How can we stop this?” Find out what it will take for each one to stop the killing. Then, in that room, work out a way to get it done AND a way for each one to cover for the other because peace will not be politically popular even though it is popular with the common folk. I really believe that until they can talk to one another as real persons, as mothers and fathers, as husbands and wives in REAL life, they cannot solve the problem. And I disagree with those who say peace is impossible!!