The defeat of Hamas is a humanitarian cause

kinglear

yeah but the Gazans voted them in - in the same way as we voted in NuLiebore.If they get voted out will they stop? No.

Alan, Calgary Canada

Speak for yourself. They were voted in and are rightfully the legitimate gov of the Palestinians both in Gaza and in the West Bank.
Israel's occupation of Arab land and buliding illegal settelments are issues number 1 and 2 for ongoing violence.

Fareed, Moscow

I agree with Alan in Canada 100%.This article is absurd. Palestinians have been living under cruel Israeli occupation for decades now. Checkstops, detentions, supressing mobitlity of citizens in the West bank, building a Racist-Nazi seperating wall and creating all out hell-like living conditions for citizens in the West Bank and Gaza alike. If the Israelis are "allowed to defend themselves" why aren't the Palestinians?

Herbert Thornton

Peter Hoskin says - "Hamas is an enemy that needs defeating for the good of both Israel and the Gazan people."

True, so far as it goes, Peter, but it's only one small part of the picture. Doesn't the big picture include a great deal more? Not only has Israel been under constant rocket attacks from Gaza, but Britain has suffered attacks on the London Underground and in several other places; the USA has been attacked in the very centre of New York; India has been repeatedly attacked by Islamic terrorists from Pakistan (the Mumbai hotels atrocity being only the latest one). Russia too has been attacked - remember the Moscow theatre, and the school in Beslan. And that is far from a complete list.

All of those atrocities were perpetrated in the name of Islam. Does that not suggest that for the good of the whole world, the enemy that needs defeating consists of a great deal more than just Hamas?

Or is the west going to condemn Israel and wait supinely for terrorist commando groups to blow up several hotels in London or massacre the girls at Rodean or the children at a big city High School? Or until rockets start being fired from the banlieues into downtown Paris? Or from Bradford onto Manchester? It seems to me to be entirely probable that some such things are now actually being planned.

Verity

Herbert Thornton - agreed, as always.

I think, of all the Western leaders, the most aware is Sarkozy. We will see.

Hysteria

Herbert/Verity - agreed - such events may well be being planned . Isn't the point though that we have a choice in dealing/retaliating.?

If such attacks were at the behest of a foreign power then an all out war to deal with that would be a viable option - the mission being a military victory in the field of battle, the killing or detention of the regime and the installation of a friendly power - let's call this the WWII allied approach - or Iraq perhaps?

.....and maybe this is at the root of the problem - that the new enemy (Islamic fundamentalism) cannot be dealt with in this way - anyway...

In the absence of an organised enemy these attacks do not become an existential threat to our society, but remain as terrorist criminal acts - dealt with by intelligence, policing and select military operations. Our political and economic efforts being directed at changing the leadership of the many different countries notionally on the other side so that they become with us in fighting and marginalising the terrorist groups.

We have to support Israel as our first line of defence - but absent a political effort across a broad range of countries I don't see how we move this forward. Or are you saying we are in the first stages of the final battle started centuries ago? I can't belive that a war aim is to defeat (kill?) all Muslims - so what is the solution?

Frank P

Go Israel!

It is the spearhead against Islamic jihad and we must be the shaft of the spear. But the shaft sure needs some stiffening. The anti-Israeli bias of the msm propaganda machine is as relentless as it is disgusting. It is important to that everybody who agrees with this writes to their MP to complain about the treasonous media coverage. I intend to do so today and will post any reply I get from my local Tory MP.

Carmine, Toronto Canada

Baloney to Alan, Calgary Canada and Fareed, Moscow. Both of you ignore the history....The land was given to Issac not Ishmael by God. If you choose not to believe in the God of the Holy Bible.....Too bad..... History is what it is, not as we choose to define it or redefine it. Why don't the Arab nations give REAL help to the Palestinian people instead of offering them weapons to continue their evil Islamic extremist agenda?

Waiting for Gobbo

Well said, Herbert Thornton.

The answers to your questions in the last paragraph though, are yes, yes and yes.

Our 'establishment' now has so much invested in its appeasment idiocy, that it can no longer allow itself to recognise what it sees when a country decides to defend itself.

(Maybe the Bradford/Manchester exchange is pushing things - blue on blue too likely)