The moral battleground

JJS

Absolutely right, Melanie. Thank you.

Ian G

We are not all fooled by the propaganda. I know my parents and my wife's mother get very annoyed by the bias in the news. They are old enough to remember WW2. I know plenty of others who are not deceived. People forget that these rocket attacks are a constant tormewnt and torture of covolians, including children. What civilised society can allow its people to be harassed in such a way? Comparisons with NI are flawed. The IRA never bombed with such frequency, although they were more deadly. It might be interesting to ask the victims of terrorism in NI what they think of Israel. A confidential study might well be illuminating. The IRA/SinnFein and the other terror groups never sought the total destruction of their opponents. They also had negotiable political aims.The very name of Hamas underlines their aims. In Arabic it means (we are told) 'zeal'. In Hebrew it means (I have checked) 'Violence'. Are we naive enough to believe that they do not know this? The message to every Hebrew speaker is appallingly clear.

Yosef

Thank you Melanie, for yet again clearly articulating a truth that is so obvious.

It is terrible to see how much irrational hatred is directed towards Israel.

G-d bless you Melanie, and may He bestow peace upon all the dwellers of our morally bankrupt world.

Mehran

What is it with the West? Over six decades of peace, freedom and prosperity have resulted not in rational, progressive, positive and upright citizenry who take pride in their achievements, but in a mass of ill-educated, hysterical, slobbering idiots whose only contribution to any debate is to scream that the West is always wrong, and the other side, whether it be the suffocating and cruel monstrosity of communism, or the evil obscurantism of Muslim hand-choppers and wife-beaters is always - but ALWAYS - right?

As I wrote in response to a blog post earlier today, Israel is our last, best hope. We all of us, regardless of religion or ethnicity or background, who believe strongly in the values of Western civilzation, owe it to ourselves and our children to stand firmly behind it, no matter what.

Let the rent-a-mob morons, pansy liberals, despicable Beeboids, and has-been celebrities get outraged all they want. We will not give in.

davidka

For some forty years the BBC has been the main instigator of ISRAELI hatred in the UK- all at the taxpayers expense SO many cases of bias and falsified history that they would easily fill an encyclopedia and indeed someone of your capability should now have the courage to write and publish it.
The one ray of hope is perhaps the BBC's own audience who have reacted to their HYS loaded question -How can a truce be achieved in Gaza? - loaded because they know full well that only a hudna and not a truce is possible with an organisation run by gangsters such as Hammas.
The results show that by far the largest majority of their own audience is solidly behind Israel.
THe BBC should learn the old lesson that you cannot fool the majority of the population all of the time and realise that thier credibility is approaching aN ALL TIME LOW!
On the Sky channel where they have been allowing the likes of dubious celebs such as ALexei Sayle Annie Lennox andBianca Jagger to air their views , the reaction of viewers has been one of being appalled at their arrogance and ignorance. And so it should be.

Dixon

A great piece. Pity no-one outside of Spectator readers will hear any of these arguments.

Meanwhile, as the usual idiots whinge because Bush has refused to denounce Israel, is it not enlightening to discover which politician has remained utterly silent on these events?

Why, its Obammie of course!

Reis Kash, Springfield, Oregon, USA

Anything Ms Phillips writes is worth reading, printing, and re-reading. She would make a great Prime Minister, except that she is good for the job.

Herbert Thornton

We are seeing, on a small scale - unless our civilisation also comes to its senses - a preview of the future of our own grandchildren and of all of western Europe.

Brian Moshe

Bravo Melanie. Perfectly put.

W. B. Harris

“The moral dividing line in this battle is very clear. Those who stand with Israel are on the side of morality, justice, and civilization.”

How true is this quote is, but may I expand simply by saying those who pray for the Peace of Israel and stand side by side with GOD’S chosen People are standing on the LORD’S side in the final Battle against sin and all of its followers.

Abe Lincoln – and make no illusion/mistake that B.Obama can ever fit in his shoes, once said that it was more important to be on GOD’S side rather than if the LORD of LORD’S and KING of Kings was on his, Abe's side.

This whole situation is not just a war of principalities but against the very cause of Evil. My question is simple: What side is everyone on in relationship to what is going on in the Middle East, but more importantly… will you be standing with GOD when it is all over?

If you didn’t stand for Truth now, you’ll be lying on the side of defeat with no chance of changing your mind.

– Like Buddy Holly sang years ago, “ITS TOO LATE”, because you will be left behind.

Seraph

Precisely because they do not see themselves in this light, it is imperative that those in the West who are critical of Israel be told to their face that they are racists and anti-Semites.

They are racists because they do not believe that Hamas or other jihadists could really mean the blood-curdling things that they regularly say. Essentially their Western supporters are saying that Muslims are by nature incapable of expressing themselves honestly. It also implies that this radical Muslim ideology is neither inteligent nor sophistacted when, in fact, it is both. It is also patronising on the part of these Westerners marching for Hamas to think that they know better than those representing Hamas what the group "really" wants.

They are anti-Semites because they hold Israel accountable for defending itself and blame Israel even when it is not defending itself. They are like the archer who shoots an arrow and then draws a bullseye. If they were anything but anti-Semites with double standards then today's marches would have continued to the Sri Lankan embassy to protest the assault on the Tamil Tiger territory, not to mention many other embassies that merit visits along the way (e.g the Turks just entered Kurdistan a few days ago). Perhaps if these "high-minded" types (who cynically protest that they are only "anti-Zionists") were revealed as the anti-Semites that they are, then it might no longer be as "progresive" to be seen marching for genocidal maniacs like Hamas.

Jay in the USA

Seeing all the pro-Hamas rallies in Western cities like NY, London and Toronto, with thousands of Muslim and non-Muslim (mostly leftist) demonstrators, was both surprising and very disturbing to me. I know Jew-hatred is still alive and very prevalent in Europe. Distressingly, it seems to be rising on this side of the Atlantic as well.

HarleyDavidson

What country indeed who stand for 6000 rockets fired in seven years? Not Canada who called in the Canadian Army, the Canadian Air Force, the Canadian Navy, the Quebec police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian special forces, tanks, armored carriers, attack helicopters, all because Natives in Oaka, Quebec refused to allow their ancestor grave sites to be turned into a golf course. All food supplies were cut and suspended, all communications were terminated, electrical terminated, and those Native elders, women and children who wished to leave the area were stoned by Quebecers while police merely looked on.

Not Canada! We'd have no problem killing and starving natives. Israelis don't go there even in the worst of times. Even now as their soldiers walk in harm's food and hospital care for the wounded innocent are theirs for the asking.

Has Israel did to their Arab population what Canada has done to it's indigenous population?

NO!

When Germany shelled France in World War 1 & 2 what did France try to do? Fight back? You bet! Or does this mean any country is free to shell and rocket France and Britain today? And they'll do nothing for SEVEN years before fighting back? That's what those two idiot countries expect of Israel!

Farid Ghadry, President of the Reform Party of Syria is correct. Destroy like Gaza or develop like Dubai. Can the terror loving loonies even understand what Farid Ghadry is trying to say?

No! Because they are terrorists themselves. Don't bother responding, I've heard all the justifications from Joseph Goebbels. But I can respect him more than the left wing liberals because Goebbels made it quite clear he was a Nazi. And that Jews were expendable.

Fabio P.Barbieri

Ehud Olmert is mad as Hell and he's not going to take it any more. He is not, perhaps, the most honest or far-sighted Prime Minister in Israeli history, not the most competent or successful; but one thing that no honest person can deny is that nobody has done more for what the world calls peace, nobody has bent further backward to appease Palestinian hatred and prejudiced journalism. (Of course, the usual fool will raise the Lebanon war of 2006; where the truth is that Israel fought with both hands tied behind its back by Olmert's desperate desire to appease "world" public opinion.) His thanks has been a two-year rain of rockets on his country.

Now two things can happen to a disappointed pacifist: either, like Jimmy Carter, he loses his mind altogether, starts ignoring reality, and becomes an extreme supporter of the enemy; or else, well, he loses his temper with a bang and forgets the good opinion of all his "friends" and of "world" public opinion, and he goes in with both fists swinging, to make the enemy pay for every betrayal, every lie, every piece of backstabbing for which he has had to suffer. Hamas have pushed the enemy too far and now they are going to find out what real war, not the nonsense preached by their ignorant clerics at Friday prayers, looks like. They are going to look at Hell.

Lenny

Melanie,

Lest anyone forget why Israel is fighting this war - let them also google Hamas's Charter.

They will find an unambiguous religious dictate to destroy not just Israel, but the Jews.

Some excerpts.

Preamble:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.

Article 7:
"The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."

Article 28:
Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people, "May the cowards never sleep".

Israel really needs to emphasise this more strongly as it fights the media war.

Norm

Why would the west defend Israel when it will not defend itself against the onslaught of Islam? It's only a matter of time before Iran gets a nuclear weapon and they will use it against Israel and the west will do nothing.

Howard

Your 1st sentence says it all,
"And so now begins the second and most difficult stage". You seem to take pride in saying this, expect of course it means the 1st stage failed.

There should never be this 2nd stage. What there should be is a ceasefire and a solution to this issue. You do not propose one. All you do is make subjective statements and take quotes out of context. It is very clever but gets nowhere.

Tell me, did the British bomb and invade Ireland when the IRA were launching bombs from there into NI? Of course not.

What we need is a strong decisive US president that tells Israel to call a halt, not this useless UN talk show.

Is Obama up to it? Well in two weeks we will find out.

Until then, what? More killing and the hardening of Hamas's position. This latest development will get Israel nowhere.

Of course it could be all driven by politics in Israel and the forthcoming elections caused by the corrupt PM. Funny, but you do not appear to have posted about this.

Geoff M

Just look at the, err, popular support for action against Israel.

Such luminaries and intellectual giants like George Galloway, Red Ken, Jeremy Corbin, Alexi Sayle, Bianca Jagger and........Annie Lennox, a woman who seems so permanently rationally challenged that she can barely string a sentence together let alone compose an argument.

These people are a joke.

If this is the best the Islamists can come up with it just shows how baseless their arguments against Israel are and just how lacking in any popular support.

The silent majority can see the simple connection between the genocidal violence of Hamas and the current defensive actions by Israel.

All the muslim lies and fake footage doesnt convince anyone but these gullible marxist hippies.

The Palestinians could "have it all" if they just accepted the right of Israel to exist and lived in peace. But the Muslims cannot accept antyone to exist other than themselves. Once the Jews are gone it will then be the rest of us. For that reason alone we cannot allow Israel to be extinguished.

One day perhaps our leaders will understand the basic reality of Islams non-negotiable stance on world domination, genocide and war.

They want a world composed soley of muslims - and brown ones at that.

Their racist and religious agenda is plain to see.

We should oppose it by EVERY means. It is literally us or them.

Frances Waddams

Thanks for this, Melanie

Gregory B.

Thanks are due once again to Melanie for her voice of sanity amidst the media madness to which we are increasingly subjected. On this particular issue, the mind boggles at how so many (duped) people in the West can support a fanatically violent, anti-Western, anti-democratic terrorist organisation, bent on destroying all vestiges of the way of life enjoyed by those who blindly support them here and at the same time viciously attack the only democracy in the Middle East, which has been the target of Islamist terrorism for decades now and which, after much restraint, is now quite rightly seeking to resolve its dilemma by direct action, clearly the only way their adversaries understand. Let those of us who oppose the barbarism of Hamas (and its overlord, Iran) and who support Israel, like Melanie and those she cites, speak out against the barrage of lies and distortions we are being subjected to daily.

Roland

I'll try again, partly to see if the moderator is only passing pro-Mel comments and also now that I'm more awake.

I share a lot of the anger about those who turn a blind eye to the reality of Hammas rule in Gaza and of Hammas aims. However, I have to ask, what purpose does the anger of Melanie's post, and those here, serve? What purpose can Israel's action ulitmately achieve? Will it solve the problem of Hammas, of the rocket attacks into Israeli territory, of Palestinian misery or hatred? Or the wider, and only important question, of finding a way for Palestinians and Israelis to live side-by-side? Jonathan Friedland's article in the Guardian yesterday puts this much better than I'm struggling to here:

''So, yes, there may be short-term advantage for Israel's politicians, eyeing the election calendar, in hitting Hamas hard. But the senior European official who told me that this is "tactics, not strategy by the Israelis, who are expert in dealing with symptoms, not causes" is surely right. This is the act of a nation that has plenty of tactics for war - but no strategy for peace.''

Hammas is terrible. the rocket attacks into Israel cannot be jutified. The death of 460 Paletinians including women and children is terrible. Shrieking for more blood to be split is not the answer.

Roland

I'll try again, partly to see if the moderator is only passing pro-Mel comments and also now that I'm more awake.

I share a lot of the anger about those who turn a blind eye to the reality of Hammas rule in Gaza and of Hammas aims. However, I have to ask, what purpose does the anger of Melanie's post, and those here, serve? What purpose can Israel's action ulitmately achieve? Will it solve the problem of Hammas, of the rocket attacks into Israeli territory, of Palestinian misery or hatred? Or the wider, and only important question, of finding a way for Palestinians and Israelis to live side-by-side? Jonathan Friedland's article in the Guardian yesterday puts this much better than I'm struggling to here:

''So, yes, there may be short-term advantage for Israel's politicians, eyeing the election calendar, in hitting Hamas hard. But the senior European official who told me that this is "tactics, not strategy by the Israelis, who are expert in dealing with symptoms, not causes" is surely right. This is the act of a nation that has plenty of tactics for war - but no strategy for peace.''

Hammas is terrible. the rocket attacks into Israel cannot be jutified. The death of 460 Paletinians including women and children is terrible. Shrieking for more blood to be split is not the answer.

Roland

I'll try again, partly to see if the moderator is only passing pro-Mel comments and also now that I'm more awake.

I share a lot of the anger about those who turn a blind eye to the reality of Hammas rule in Gaza and of Hammas aims. However, I have to ask, what purpose does the anger of Melanie's post, and those here, serve? What purpose can Israel's action ulitmately achieve? Will it solve the problem of Hammas, of the rocket attacks into Israeli territory, of Palestinian misery or hatred? Or the wider, and only important question, of finding a way for Palestinians and Israelis to live side-by-side? Jonathan Friedland's article in the Guardian yesterday puts this much better than I'm struggling to here:

''So, yes, there may be short-term advantage for Israel's politicians, eyeing the election calendar, in hitting Hamas hard. But the senior European official who told me that this is "tactics, not strategy by the Israelis, who are expert in dealing with symptoms, not causes" is surely right. This is the act of a nation that has plenty of tactics for war - but no strategy for peace.''

Hammas is terrible. the rocket attacks into Israel cannot be jutified. The death of 460 Paletinians including women and children is terrible. Shrieking for more blood to be split is not the answer.

Louise

I live in a small town, where yesterday the local "Peace Network" was out in force - all 15 of them - holding a vigil alongside huge placards demanding "Stop Bombing Gaza". While the others stood, one was busy button-holing pedestrians and handing out leaflets that consisted mainly of a large chunk of a particularly malevolent anti-Israel article that appeared recently in "The Guardian". Against my better judgment (for why give these "useful idiots" oxygen?) I asked the leaflet distributor why, since they claimed to be a pacifist group, they were not also demanding that Hamas stopped its rockets into Israel. I was immediately treated to an intemperate diatribe, called a "Zionist extremist" merely for asking the question, and was told that Israel - yes, the very State of Israel, that nation founded in 1948 with UN backing - had "no right to exist in international law" and that its people deserved all the bloodshed Hamas inflicted on them.
Although these "useful idiots" mustered only some 15 strong, and although the entire group is probably not much bigger, they are very successful in getting their anti-Israel propaganda into the local paper on a regular basis, and their one-sidedness is abetted by a far-left anti-Israel feature-writer on its staff, who not long ago took a pop at Melanie.
Among the "Peace Network"'s members is a person of Jewish birth who for many years has been a member of another religion, yet rediscovers the Jewish label whenever a "useful idiot" of the Jewish variety is required to be trotted out to demonise Israel in its struggle to survive.

straightchris

So why did the IDF turn a 'blind eye' to Hamas when it was first formed? Why did Shabak recruit informers to recruit dummy Hamas suicide cells to attack IDF checkpoints?
Why was Fatah armed by the US to overthrow Hamas in 2007?
Source: Zaki Chehab
Melanie Phillips (Source?): "Israel’s behaviour is moral, legal and proportionate." Yoram Dinstein (the president of Tel Aviv University and leading authority on international law): "there's no genuine difference between a premeditated attack against civilians", what Hamas does, "and a reckless disregard of the principle to distinguish between civilians and combatants." What the IDF does, They are equally forbidden under international law.

steve

Another difference between Israel and Gaza and the situation in Northern Ireland is that Israel helped create Hamas as a way of dividing the Palestinian movement. It succeeded in that but now is having to deal with the monster it helped create
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2007/feb/12/00017/

Super Blue

For anyone who doesn't understand Hamas' agenda, try the following exercise:
Start with a blank sheet of paper.
Draw an equilateral cross in the middle.
Add a perpendicular extension to each end.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

Norm, you are right in a way that the west can not defend themselves and they would not defend Israel, Israel don't need the western help they could do it by themselves, Iran can not do anything to anyone, they could not defend themselves from Iraq in the past,

Israel will win, and they are going to win for freeing those women and children from "Hamas terrorists".

davidka

'Tell me, did the British bomb and invade Ireland when the IRA were launching bombs from there into NI?'
what are you saying Howard? that it was the Irish government that announced they were sanctioning and launching the bombs.And the British did nothing about it?
what kind of corrupt moral equivalence is that!!
Hammas IS THE GOVERNMENT OF GAZA
but THE IRA WERE NOT THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND

David L

Howard: "What there should be is a ceasefire and a solution to this issue."

During the time you weren't around, Israel and Hamas had a ceasefire but Hamas resumed its rocket attacks on Israel.

Canon Alberic

The BBC's coverage of this has been shocking. I can never see it in the same light again. Hateful, prejudiced and as anti-semitic as Dr Who is homophiliac. Shameful.

JC

All Hamas had to do was stop firing rockets into Israel. Really. Just stop it. It's was that simple.

The defenders of Hamas will cry "But the Jews this and Israel that!" No. I'm sorry. Stop it.

All Hamas had to do, literally, was nothing.

Just stop lobbing rockets into Israel. Just go about their days sharpening their knives or sitting around talking about how much they hate the filthy Jews, or whatever. Anything - but shooting missiles into Israel. But no, they just wouldn't stop. All the while egged on by many in the Arab world to keep up the good fight. Hamas has been like a group teens poking at a bull with sticks through a barbed-wire fence. And now the bull has finally broken through the fence and is chasing them through town. Every death, both Jew and Arab, is on their shoulders. But they will never see it that way - for they are the 'righteous fighters against the murderous Israelis!' I honestly believe that some in Palastine have grown incapable of living without war or conflict. Having been taught from near infancy to hate Jews, Israel, and the West they don't seem to know any other way of life. I don't know. But I will say this - although it has become 'sacrilegious' to speak in terms of black and white among some people, this is one of the times when it couldn't be clearer: The Israelis are the good guys and the members of Hamas are the bad guys. Period.

Like many posting here I too wonder why so many in the media are so biased against Israel. I can only assume that some actually are Anti-Semitic. The rest I can't fully explain. The best I can do is provide a link to a speech given at The Heritage Foundation on March 5, 2007 by Evan Sayet. It is an "entertaining yet quite serious lecture which examines the modern liberal “mindset” and how it can lead to siding with evil over good."
To watch click on View Event to open the movie file. Approx. 48 minutes.
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev030507a.cfm
There is a lower quality copy on YouTube at http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c but be warned, the comments below the movie frame contain a lot of foul language.

N. Simon

This is something we won't see in the UK media:
/www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3397287&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475226,00.html">Escape from Hamas on Fox News

Sarah

There are comparisons to be made with Northern Ireland. That an endless cycle of violence will not work. That the only way to solve this problem is to talk and use diplomacy, that the blame game doesn't work. Both sides need to call for an end to the violence instead of shouting at each other over which death is more justified to further their aims. Take it from us here in NI, violence doesn't solve anything. Perhaps Mrs Philips should call for the same thing.

Susan

I am disgusted and appalled by the protests going on against Israel, which generally involve destruction of public property, harassment and outright bullying. There was a time people would have been ashamed to act this way, now it appears, especially among Hamas supporting Muslims, to be worn like a badge of honour.

If a police presence hadn't been at these rallies, the anti-Israel protesters would have lynched the pro-Israel protesters. Sickening.

I am sick of people in this country thinking that they can get away with incredible hate speech and violence to make their point. If you support organisations like Hamas, you shouldn't even be allowed to ENTER this nation, let alone LIVE in it. We are storing up a real cinderbox by allowing these people to rampage through the streets and abuse the values of free speech and democracy to cower people into submission.

Sick of it. I truly am. And the BBC are a joke. Thank you, Melanie. Always a pleasure to read your articles.

George

Sarah,
I don't recall that the IRA was calling for the total destruction of the UK, so ultimately there was what to negotiate about. However, Hamas calls for the total destruction of Israel. Just where would you suggest the negotiations start?

JonathanC

I cannot add any more to the other comments already posted except to say that we need more people like Melanie speaking and writing truth in the media.
Hamas (for Hamas see Iran!) has to be stoped. Full Stop.
G-d bless and Shalom.

phil

have to say that the last people I would wish to support my cause would be the disgusting sadaam supporter galloway and the abominable red ken ,the silly communist alexai ,bianca who continues to prove her foolishness,and my one real disappointment annie ,whose music I love ,make up a motley bunch -I will leave Tony Benn out he loves everyone regardless of how daft they are.,and how impractical are his ideas .

These rent a crowd protesters mostly covered in veils, scarf,s and mab placards arrive regularly to protest about all things Israel or western government ,but where are they when they are needed by the country who gives them protection and succour -NOWHERE !

Did anyone see them marching to protest Mumbai,Bali London ,Darfur ,of course not .Anyone with intelligence is aware of what is happening -we have the usual lefties who hate everyone many of whom we will be paying for on social security and who will have a day out for most things anti establishment .together with the radicalised Islamists ,who know only one thing ,hatred !

Anyone with a heart (no not the song) feels only sorrow for the situation both the ordinary Palestinian population and the Israeli ,s find themselves in -one thing is very different here though Jews all over the world wish only for peace and do not hate Palestinians ,they want an end to 60 years of violence and incessant attempts to destroy Israel ,those feelings are not reciprocated and never will be until the extremists who run the Arab world stop the teaching of violence and hatred to their children -Perhaps if I too were a Palestinian child bred on a diet of lies and hatred I too might feel like them .Instead of marching and burning flags ,those protesters would better serve this world by demanding an education that leads to an end to this ceaseless hatred and gives a chance to those children to live a fruitful and happy life .

Do I waste my time here? -probably -do I write too much ? probably ,.but I will continue to do so because that is my heritage and my pursuit of a better world for all people regardless of race or religion .It is that heritage that ensures Israel treating Palestinians in their hospitals and keeps trying to get the supplies of essentials through to an enemy dedicated to its destruction .It is also the heritage that will continue to try to make peace as it has done with Egypt and Jordan and will continue to do so with the Palestinian people .

I have no real hope that I will have changed the minds of the people like sin and stephanie et al but if they read this they will have to go to bed at night with my thoughts ringing in their ears .and in that I will have acomplished something .ADAM B -KATE A et al stay strong. good eventually triumphs over evil .

phil

JC it is that simple !!!but do you think the useful idiots are listening -no way-well said

Dave M

What all those protesters (who now march shoulder to shoulder with more radical muslims) simply fail to grasp is Israel's action isn't just about the rockets. Those who argue rocket fire into Israel isn't so destructive that it merits a ground invasion don't grasp the full picture. What's happening is more and more rockets and other weapons are being smuggled into Gaza and stored in civilian areas. The range of the rockets keeps increasing and no doubt their destructiveness will too. Add to that the threat of suicide bombings and former incursions into Israel's borders and then it becomes clear it's a serious situation. As Melanie also points out no other country would tolerate such a situation for so long, not France, not Russia, not China. At any rate, as I observed the protests yesterday against Israel in London and in France, I could draw only one conclusion: Radical Islam has well and truly gotten a firm foothold in the U.K. and many parts of Europe. For angry mobs to march on Downing Street and throw shoes at the door of a P.M. who, if the truth be known, opposed Israel's military stance anyway, is beyond belief. To see such activity in a country that supposedly values freedom and democracy beggars belief! How can these people seriously believe they represent some higher truth or morality? Likewise in France thousands of protesters threw on their veils and marched to show their "solidarity". I must say, however, that this time around the U.S. has come up smelling of roses and has stood firmly behind Israel. After so much ditering by Condi Rice it's good to see that. Also, the Czech Republic has been fair, as Melanie pointed out and Russia seems to be treading more carefully before following the French line.

Frank Owen

there also jews for palestine amongst the marchers are they also jew haters?

farid gahdry is a member of AIPAc so anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt

yeah we need Melanie an her "truth" as if we do not have enough lies and propaganda in the world.

Augustus

Without doubt Israel is determined to give the Hamas terrorists a good hiding. But not only that. A further very important objective is to send a strong message to the Islamic world. A message which is short and simple: Reflect before you start. If you dare to threaten Israel and its people you will pay a heavy price. It's a strong answer to the tension in the region, and the continued violations of Israel's undoubted integrity.

During past decades Israel has tried time and again to approach her enemies in a humane way. During the short war with Lebanon in 2006 Israel held back her forces. Because of pressure from the international community, and her concern for civilians, she spared Hezbollah. In the Islamic world this was taken as a sign of cowardice, and interpreted as a victory for them. But it was a victory of evil over goodness. However, evil is not placated or appeased by goodness. Israel learnt its lesson in the war with Hezbollah. The real truth is that whenever Israel has tried to save innocent lives, especially those of civilians, it is seen by Islamic terrorists as a sign of weakness, as it it throughout the Islamic world.

Dave M

"What purpose can Israel's action ulitmately achieve? Will it solve the problem of Hammas, of the rocket attacks into Israeli territory, of Palestinian misery or hatred?"

There's a possibility it can. History would seem to indicate that the military option (when applied with statesmanship and diplomacy), can bring about change. Look at Germany today for example. There is absolutely no way in this world an organization such as Hamas can ever be brought round by negotiation. These people are fanatical enemies of Western civilization who thrive on appeasement and propaganda. As the Israelis pointed out this organization not only terrorises Israeli citizens but also holds Western hostages to ransom and uses Palestinian people as human shields. My own view is if Israel can deal a death blow to Hamas (or close enough to a knock out blow) just maybe a force of international peacekeepers can then go into the region to prevent any more rocket attacks and weapons smuggling. That can then allow Israel to relax security restrictions around Gaza with the hope the region can stabilise. Any influence from Iran has to be stamped out before peace stands a chance.

N. Simon

What's sickening is that the people protesting in support of Hamas, are also supporting the likes of the 7th July bombers over here.

They're ALL Al Qaeda!

daniella paget

well done Melanie, It seems to me that alot of people have a knee jerk, unjustified reaction to Isreal, why ? it is blatent anti- semitism, surely anyone can see the Isreali's are entirely justified in defending themselves. The worlds governments and media should be focusing on the appalling unrelenting attacks on Jews for daring existing. just aweful. I am not Jewish, so my viewpoint stems from basic common sense and compassion for a Jewish people who deserve our support to criticism

Frank Owen

N Simon, what evidence do you have???

typical scaremongering.

Dixon

Howard asks, did Britain bomb Ireland. Well theres a silly attempt at an analogy for you: Ireland ( neither north nor south ) was not administered by the very people launching the attacks, but by associates of our own who were trying to stop the attacks. In Gaza the opposite is true: the very people running the place are the people launching the attacks. The end butt of such a silly analogy would be to say that tBritain should not have attacked Germany in WW2 but sent policemen to arrest the NAZIs. THAT is the hare-brained outcome of trying to apply "proportionality" to these situations.

As for Obama, I reiterate my earlier point: Obama has been careful to say nothing, either in support or criticism of either side. We can see already how he is going to dissapoint an awful lot of people like Howard.

Matthew Roberts

I wonder if there will be a list of violent anti semitic thugs of the extreme left published on the internet so that we can all see if any of these morons live next to us or work in the public services or for the Home Office.I wonder if the unions and employers Will then trawl this list to expel and sack these fanatics because they are not fit to work in education or for the police.
It is strange how anti semitic left wing fanatics are just fine and acceptable but law abiding BNP people are considered beyond the pale! Just a thought. Victory to Israel.

Dixon

Louise, I can tell you about the "peace network" as well. Here in Bristol they have had a continuous Friday "vigil" since 1999...all three or four of them. In a city of half a million. Most of them are septagenerians who dont really know where or even who they are. Like the one ( not actually among their number ) who told me how awful the USA was for "doing that Pearl Harbour".

One exception is a young man who appears to have nothing better to do. I once videoed him holding a placard that read "Bob Geldoff boiled alive". He hid behind the placard when he saw me filming.

Weeks later, I had the chance to address him on the street. His "explanation" of the placard was some ingenuous nonsense about the president of a former Soviet republic accused of boiling dissidents. That was when said man had been an ally of the USA. I pointed out that the accusations were phoney. He agreed, as the man had now switched sides and opposed the USA, so he couldnt have been doing such a thing! Doh!

But what had any of this to do with Bob Geldoff? He then gave me a rant about Bob Geldoff being a "missionary". Finally I asked how any of this was conveyed by the message "Bob Geldoff boiled alive". Having obviously run out of flimsy over inflated rationalisations that had been popped by such a simple question he took the line of "debate" that these "pacifists" usually resort to at some point...and hit me!

I wasnt hurt, but mindful of the whailing of both whingers and police sirens, anxious not to have to defend myself! I felt like Israel: his blow was feeble, but shouldv I have to stand there and take it?

Such "people" are simply trash.

Dixon

Frank Owen
January 4th, 2009 1:51pm
there also jews for palestine amongst the marchers are they also jew haters?2

YES.

Dixon

I think our solutions ( to most things ) lie in recombinant DNS research in secret underground laboratories, by people who need never be named. I hope we have such laboratories. You can bet the other side does.

Dixon

...I meant to type "DNA" ( when reading my comments, I advise people to consider the letters adjacent on the keyboard to the ones that appear )! Doh!

Dan Schwartz

Nice to see you back! We missed you here in New Jersey while you were on break.

Frank P

I see you were already back, having hit the ground running, Melanie. It's going to be busy year!

A few of the more virulent trolls missing today. Is there an anti-Israeli rally on somewhere?

Dan Schwartz in NJ

Howard wrote above:

"Tell me, did the British bomb and invade Ireland when the IRA were launching bombs from there into NI? Of course not."

You're right... And the British troops took rocket and mortar fire when they retreated to al-Amarah (near Basra) while the Generals accepted a phony "hudna" from the Sadr Shi'ite militia. For details, please see "Our [British] Army failed its test in Iraq" by Christopher Booker at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/4092439/Our-Army-failed-its-test-in-Iraq.html

Unlike the Brits in both Northern Ireland and Iraq, Israel will NOT stand by as its citizens are terrorized by Hamas Qassam and Grad rockets.

M.Lester

Well done Melanie & also well done to N.Simon for the presentation - www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3397287&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475226,00.html">Escape from Hamas on Fox News.
IT's very etertaining, not just illuminating

Rick

Melanie, your article has given substantive proof that radical left-wing ideology is THE social/psychological disorder of our time. Their perspective is such that America and Israel are the world's great evils. While those such as Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein (though now deceased of course), Kim Jong Il, Al Queda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Castro, Hugo Chavez and Iran are all given a free pass. It was disturbing to read comments from the left that likened Bush and Blair to Hitler and Stalin when Iraq was invaded in order to free the Iraqi people from a despotic tyrant that conducted terror among his own people in much the same way that Hitler and Stalin did. The radical left outlook is like a perverse and adolescent distortion of reality which is systemically irrational. Bill Ayers is their hero!

N. Simon

Meanwhile in Paris, they're deonstrating and shouting "Death to the Jews" and in Holland, they're shouting "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024231.php

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/01/poller-on-paris.html

EthanII

Anyone truly interested in seeing the face of Islam that we are confronting should check out the following:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Xl68kP4wo.

This shows a pro-Hamas demonstration in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Watch the fat, bearded, fanatical imam leading these people in "prayer", followed by their shouts of--get this--"Jews, to the ovens! Jews, go back to the ovens!!"
I am not making this up, it is a real video, and it should shock us all.

N. Simon

Frank Owen,

It's a known fact that Al Qaeda are in Gaza, along with Iranian Republican Guards, but you won't see this on any Palestinian propaganda website!

Nor will you see photos of young kids standing by the Hamas rocket launchers, or children being used as cannon fodder.

As for Christians in Gaza, the're now subject to Crucifixion for their crimes of being Christian...

When will you wake up and smell the coffee?

These Islamists want an Islamic world WITHOUT infidel influences.

Barry Larking

"... the genocidal aims of Hamas (and its Iranian puppet-master) ..."

Please keep repeating this truth. In the morning, in the day and at night. Who has sought this conflict? Hamas and its paymasters in Tehran.

Mitch

The views shown above are as bad as those presented by Hamas against Israel - Racist, derogatory to Muslims and, frankly backwards in views to other religions around them.

I am not religious and i have jewish friends, but more importantly i disagree with the current policy of Israel. This does not make me a racist, it makes me human with an open mind to the prospect of a possible way forward without having to emotively rant or be stupidly dismissive of ideas that do not come from the Israeli megaphone crew.

Peace can be reached and both sides should be muzzled however Israel has a right to exist in the ME BUT it has to understand that so does a sustainable Palestinian state! This means giving its siezed lands back!

No more blood letting for votes and get back to the peace table.

La Cumparsita

Thank you so much Melanie for your clear-sighted views.
I agree with you 100%.

Grumpy the Cobbler

So many shoes - what to do with them.
Left ones - no right ones and vica versa.
We in the west understand shoe obsessions (you should see my wife), but this is nuts.
Here in the west we love shoes - almost worship em. Nike's, Reeboks (for the athletic or inclined) Timberlands for the outdoor mountain people and cute little Jimmy Choos for our ladies.

Where do these Muslims get off insulting the merchandise we love.
are there no good brands in afganistan/iraq/indonesia/gaza etc etc.
Are these poor 'soles' destined to walk about in cheap knock-offs - in discomfort - only waiting to hurl the offensive product at some poor un-suspecting westerner.

And i have'nt even begun to talk about Crocs.

blessed are the shoe lovers!

Dixon

Frank Owen
January 4th, 2009 2:28pm
N Simon, what evidence do you have???
typical scaremongering."

Their placards as seen on all news programmes. Doh! Typical dumbass statement.

Adam B.

Frank Owen, are you really so naive that you believe it impossible for anti-semitic Jews to exist?

Dixon

Folks, its easy to explain the popularity of Israel bashing...without needing to imagine everyones anti-semitic ( although many of them are ) ...its simply down to what Richard Dawkins calls a "meme". An article of culture that gets passed on from person to person like a virus. There are thousands of such opinions and beliefs in any culture which need neither reason nor passion to thrive, merely piggy-backing upon those qualities which humans commonly share with sheep and parrots.

In fact, I would have more respect for honest anti-semites than I do for these numbnuts who merely repeat parrot-like what has been repeated unto them, copying sheep-like what is copied by their associates around them.

The latest fad is to sday we should all put our poo in the trash rather than down the loo. To save the planet somehow.

Shaun Harbord

I was one of "the fellow-travellers of barbarism. [Who] are continuing to stoke the fires of irrational hatred and genocidal hysteria." by protesting against Israel's actions yesterday. Except that the hysteria comes from Ms Phillips and irrationality is evidenced by many of the posts above.

Jerry

The BBC has done it again. It not only supports Hamas through its biased coverage, it has now become an active participant in the conflict. It has become a spy for Hamas by feeding tactical information to it through its "news" postings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7810468.stm

Note carefully how they mention streets and directions of Israeli troop movements. Is there nothing more gross. I will be recommending to Israeli government agencies that, based upon these articles, BBC reporters be banned from Israel and become legitimate targets for elimination by Israeli ground forces while in Gaza.

Where does this irrational hatred come from in Britain? Why do they seek the death of Jews who are protecting themselves?

Margaret Muller-Johansson

I think it is time for us, honest thinkers, to go in the streets and protest about "left wing liberal liars", they are anti civilization, anti peace, religion, God, and true, we should go in the streets and protest against this terrorists, it will wake up a lot of people who been misled before.

The media is trying to brain wash young and ignorant people, how dangerous!

Straydingo

Roland
You have asked a set of questions and I will put forward my own personal response which will be kept short as possible.

Roland asks “what purpose does the anger of Melanie's post, and those here, serve?”

The purpose of Melanie’s post is to provide an educated and critical analysis of the current events that are unfolding in Palestine. Melanie is asking the hard questions that no one within the MSM see’s to want to ask or answer. Ultimately, she is holding the supposed intellectual and political elite of Britain, along with other Pro Hamas/ Islamist EU countries, to account over their stance on this conflict.

The reason I am drawn to this blog is simple “To maintain my sanity” – I truly believe Melanie Philips is one of the greatest thinkers of our time – She is human and as a consequence does not always get it right, nor do any of us for that matter, however, she is fearless in speaking her mind when her peers are not and take safe haven in trendy politics.

Switch on any news broadcast or pick up any of the broadsheets and you are presented with a sanitised and pre-packaged version of events that is designed to entertain vs. educate.

By visiting this blog I am able to hear the views of peers who have engaged in developing a deeper level of understanding on the topic in question and who then shares their insights with the collective.

What purpose can Israel's action ultimately achieve?
Simple...destroy those that seek to destroy you – As an Aussie I could have asked the same question in the 40’s “What purpose can Australia’s action in Europe ultimately achieve” The answer is the same now as it was then – peace...History shows us that peace does not come without a cost.

Will it solve the problem of Hamas, of the rocket attacks into Israeli territory, of Palestinian misery or hatred?

Israel’s actions are designed to destroy the terrorist leadership of Hamas and at the very least will reduce the threat to it in the short to medium term.

The misery within Palestine is self inflicted and this is well documented as there has been numerous peace deals/cease fires on the table which are always rejected.

In terms of the hatred this again will stop in time once the leadership stops poising the minds of its children with Anti-Semitic messaging – just go to Google video and type ‘Indoctrination of Palestinian Children’ the parallels between what you will see here and the Nazi Hitler youth are frightening.

Or the wider, and only important question, of finding a way for Palestinians and Israelis to live side-by-side?
The only way Palestinians and Israelis will live in peace is if the Palestinians reject the Anti Semitic ideologies spewed out by their leaders and accept Israel’s right to exist – just as the Germans did in the 40’s.

YA

Propaganda war is definitely won by Israel.

On TV screens, the pro-Hamas viewpoint is represented by a herd of deceptive orks who only can lie, avoid straightforward questions, and threaten.

On the other hand, it is evident that militarily, Hamas absorbed mortal blow and most likely will be broken very soon.
That was their choice.
They wanted destruction of Israel - and here it is.
It goes like that guys.
At least for now.

You shouldn't be exceptionalyy smart Westerner to get at least that two simple messages.

Winston Smith

Happy New Year All!

As usual a shining light in the darkness is Melanie.
There has to be retaliation by Israel and Hamas has to be stopped. In fact, we should never have gone to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and should be sending troops to support Israel and ally with them on their offensive.

It was sickening to see the demonstrations in London. I was repulsed at seeing the despicable Ken Livingstone and George Galloway. It shows how sick our country is.
The BBC has been the main promoter of Anti Israeli propaganda there's no doubt about that as a previous poster stated, however let us not also forget that all the luvvies of the Musical, Actor and Arts World's are predominately Left Wing/Pro Palestine supporters. I wonder how many Pro Palestinians there are in our government alone?

The society in the UK has taken a turn for the worst. It is creating another war that will come on its own doorstep very soon, there's no doubt. The people inhabiting Britain(most definately have are not British) have become complacent and ignorant and have never had to fight for their freedom. That time will come and then they will see just why Israel is doing what it is. I hate to say it but our country needs to understand that freedom comes at a price and is not given like a social security giro postal order.

How disgusted I am to see the Anti Israeli propaganda all over the media.

An American

Doesn't anyone find the timing of Israel's response to Hamas rockets interesting?

Dixon asks where Obama is on this issue...Not a word is forthcoming, although The One has had plenty of comments on other issues like the economy.

The Israelis don't trust Obama and they're smart not to. Like most far left liberals, Obama will do everything to get Israel to back down from protecting themselves...although Obama will not be upfront about it...his allegiance will be on Hamas' side.

Obama was raised a Muslim and he will always be a Muslim...he professes to be a Christian but has not been baptished and no longer attends any church since he left his Chicago politically based 'black power' church.

Israel is going into Gaza to destroy as many rockets they can find before The Messiah takes office, too bad they didn't bomb Iran's nuclear facilities while they were at it. I doubt that Obama will permit our military to give Israel the right to fly over Iraqi airspace to get the job done.

It things look bad now...wait until Iran has nuclear bombs and holds the entire middle east hostage. Hamas and Hezbolla will be in the catbird seat then.

Thugdom will reign.

Oleg

I do not think that people in Europe are in favor of Hamas, but they are shocked by brutality of Israel army. Hundreds of little children killed, who can approve that ?
It seems that Israel is the only nation that have "license to kill".
And it is old story again, if You are critical about Israel, You are automatically anti semit or Jew hater or something.

Ann

Basically, if it even crosses your mind to question anything Israel does or you even hint that Israel may not be doing everything right, you are an anti-semite, a jew-hating thug, a holocaust denier and so on. Or, if you're lucky enough to be Jewish, you're just a self-hating Jew. It is absolutely pathetic and one can only hope that this attitude, displayed so avidly by Melanie Phillips and her supporters, further alienates Israel from the rest of the world, even America, because that's the only thing which might just bring them to their senses. Although probably not.

Augustus

Mitch and Shaun, you don't negotiate with such evil, you defeat it. Every diplomatic option has been tried over the years repeatedly, in an effort to solve this problem. Hamas must be forced to recognise the cost of continuing to violate agreements to facilitate peace. But their ideology is nothing more than a cult of death, and one that even brainwashes its own children to hate. "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters slept at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israel to do the same."
-Obama.

phil

Shaun Harbord-well as you say you are committed -what,s your solution -you have lots of room here and a committed audience -we await your words .but only one request please make them practical

Adam B.

Oleg, who has said that if you criticize Israel, you are automatically anti-Semitic? "Hundreds of little children" - are you sure about that?

The question is how does one fight against Hamas without any civilian casualties? Israel has taken every care to avoid civilian casualties - if it didn't care, it could just level every building in Gaza in 24 hours from the air, which is clearly not the case. To insist there are no civilian casualties is simply to give Hamas carte blanche, safe in the knowledge that they can do whatever they like without any possibility of stopping them. Of course civilian casualties are tragic, every single one is a tragedy, but we didn't win WWII without civilian casualties (in fact, in WWII we deliberately targeted civilians, something Israel is NOT doing, and something Hamas always does).

Jim Carr

The media and culture of the UK has been entirely infiltrated by these people, but that is what happens when media vacancies are advertised mainly or entirely in the Guardian.
We now have cultural hegemony by a tiny unrepresentative group of leftwingers.
And yet the main bulk of the UK population still have commonsense views supporting Israel against the murdering cowards of Hamas, diammetrically opposed to these useful idiots.

Jim Carr

"Hundreds of little children killed...if You are critical about Israel, You are automatically anti semit or Jew hater or something."

You must be.
Hundreds of Hamas were killed, not little children.

bobski the builder

I'm not impressed so far by any of the arguments.
It's a sad case of black and whitism. Whoevers view you listen to the other side is ALWAYS wrong.
If you don't support the Israelis you are definitly "anti-semitic"
If you don't support the Palistinians you're a "right-wing power crazy conservative."
If it's not black it's white and
if it's not white it's black.
Maybe we should introduce a little colour into the argument/debate.

As for the UN. it's taken nine days to work out that it can't make up it's mind about the situation.
I suggest we disband the UN and replace it with a World Boundary Enforcement Organisation that works to a strict set of procedures to guarantee and safeguard the soveriegnty of all states and nations.
Invasion or aggression to any other country should in this day and age be illegal.
Any region or ethnic group in any country in the world should have a right to self-determination provided it ticks the right boxes and follows the correct procedure to achieve this.
How many groups in the world could benefit from this system?
Basque, Palastine, Tibet, Cyprus, the Kurds, Cornwall (yes Cornwall) etc, etc.
We need to make terrorism, war ,invasion and large countries that bulley small countries a thing of the past.
None of the religions seem to be able to do it, as for the polliticians, intellectuals and the "educated elite" they don't seem to be able to achieve this either-- I'm not impressed.
I realise that this post will be ridiculed by the average spectator blogger but to quote my old mentor "If things don't change; they'll stay the same."
wishing you all a happy 2009.
bob

Martin Bright

When we bombed Nazi Berlin thousands of children & presumed innocent civilians died.
We had no choice, neither has Israel, which is showing great restraint, & has killed very few innocents.
The BBC & other overtly leftist groups are quite simply pro - Nazi, as long as the Nazis are not white.
We are living in times where all the moral certainties of 50 years ago have been reversed.
Jew hating is now fashionably left wing, while the allegedly fascist BNP is relatively mild, & certainly not as openly anti Jewish as the left

Martin

Another American

I think "M" gave a license to kill to Hamas years ago. 6000 rockets in 7 years without a response, Oleg? Maybe Israelis should sew yellow stars of David to their clothing again, it would make them easier targets. Brutality? tell that to the man who was critically wounded in a Palestine hospital who was shot in the head, because he was "suspected" of collaborating with Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli physicians treat all wounded people the same, be they Palestinian or Jew. And if Hamas would stop planting their rocket launchers in neighborhoods and schools, then "hundreds" of Palestian children would not be killed, would they? Golda Meir had it right: Until they love their children more than they hate Jews, there will never be peace.

ColoradoJew

OLEG: First - even the UN, that bastion of intellect and morality, says that most of the individuals killed were MEN.

Second, you obviously have not read over the past 10 years of the suicide bombers bombing ISRAELI children, HAMAS snipers aiming for babes-in-arms and the thousands of rockets that have rained down on Israel?

Third, How long does a country have to be under siege (with so-called ceasefire agreements that are broken by HAMAS the day they are signed) before it can defend itself?

WHEN DOES ISRAEL HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITS LOST CIVILIANS?!?!?

Henry Rogers

Oleg,
I think most people in Europe, as opposed to left wing politicos and their dupes/hangers-on, saw through the pro-Hamas propaganda ages ago. Hundreds of children killed? Not much proof I'm afraid, though even one or two has to be a tragedy. Don't forget, it is the activities of Hamas which provoke the Israeli response and if you read a bit of European history, from the Thirty Years War to the Fall of Berlin you will be forced to conclude that the Israeli Army is very far from being brutal.

I think all of us in Europe, regardless of our race or religion, need to be quite worried about the violent extremists we have in our own countries. Suicide bombing on public transport and the murder of film-makers is bad enough, but civil wars could happen here too.

Dipper

Israel has an opportunity to undermine Hamas by working closely with the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank to show how peaceful engagement between Palestinian representatives and Israel can produce progress.

So how's that going?

Ethan II

This is in response to Oleg:

Here is what the political philosopher Michael Walzer wrote about what we are witnessing:

When Palestinian militants launch rocket attacks intentionally from within civilian Palestinian areas intentionally against Israeli civilians, they are themselves responsible--and no one else is--for the civilian deaths caused by Israeli counterfire.

Period. Think about it.

In any case, even according to the UN Relief Agency, 3/4 of all causalties are Hamas fighters, not "hundreds of babies". Again, that is according to the UN.

The continuing attacks on Israel from those who claim to favour civilised values are based on a perverse inversion of reality.

When theocratic devotees of a Jihadist death cult launch murderous attacks on Israeli civilians, the fashionable approach is to ‘understand’ these criminal actions. And when Israel fights back against this violence being directed at its civilian population, it encounters a firestorm of criticism and abuse, being accused of ‘racism’ and painted as a bloodthirsty monster that delights in ’slaughtering’ and ‘massacring’ women and children."

It's grotesque. In the case of the terrorist imam Nizar Rayan, he was PHONED by the Israelis and told to leave his apt with his family. Can you imagine? Here is someone who has directed suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, including by his own son--and they warned him! Instead he intentionally chose to "martyr" himself. Fine. But he took along his four wives and his children, too. Now--who is at fault for the dead?

YA

Here are the messages Arab public should draw from the operation:

1. Hamas are brainless - they were cought with pants off by Israeli attack. They also under-estimated enemy.

2. Hamas are not united - obviously there are many Israeli informants in its ranks that allowed eliminating key terrorist figures

3. Hamas are weak - Israel suffered only 5 casualties (2 military, one in combat) but succeeded to inflict all-out destruction on Gaza terrorist infrastructure, acting both in the air and on the ground, and eliminated about 300 Hamas fighters.

4. Hamas are cowards not capable of protecting the population - they are hiding in bunkers while Gazans are placed above to serve as human shields.

5. Hamas are liars not keeping their word - they promised lot of dead Zionists, and fast, - and what?..

6. Hamas' Islamic agenda is fiction designed for the naive ones - so many mosques are destroyed in Gaza, an where is Almighty's wrath?

7. Hamas are isolated, still recognized by international community only as terrorist organization, and that won't change.

Overall, neither God, neither moral, neither intelligence, neither luck, neither internationl opinion are on Hamas' side.

There is no point in supporting loosers.

bert

I am a BNP supporter and we know all about lefty media bias!!!
I do fully support Israel.
The silence from the western media was deafening when Israel is showered with rockets daily, during what is supposed to be a ceasefire, one that Hamas totally ignore, as the media does.

Hamas is nothing short of an Islamic terrorist organization, using the palestinian people as pawns.

First of get any old map, go back centurys, and look for a country called Palestine.
You wont find one, it was a region, not a country..well heres a better explanation.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26932

Hamas Prevents Wounded from Seeking Treatment...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7801881.stm

comments by Hamas representative Fathi Hamad: "For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire life."
http://newsblaze.com/story/20081229092838zzzz.nb/topstory.html

A Palestinian girl who said she lost a 4-year-old sister yesterday during Israel's air strikes in the Gaza Strip squarely placed the blame for the violence on Hamas.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84877

Hamas Executes, Maims Dozens of Palestinian Civilians...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733155685&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Louise

Just for the record (for since it seems to have gone generally unreported, many of Melanie’s readers will be unaware of this), on Wednesday evening a mob of about 15 male demonstrators against Israeli actions in Gaza rampaged through the heart of one of London’s most iconically Jewish areas, Golders Green, forcing their way into Jewish-owned shops and kosher restaurants and assaulting a man who was getting into his car. Antisemitic graffiti, including the phrases “Jihad for Israel” and “Jihad the only solution for Palestine”, have been daubed on synagogues and communal buildings in London and Manchester. This was reported in the Jewish press. Of course, as when Jews are beset by mob violence in France (an all-too-frequent occurrence), the media in general appears to be shtum on this sort of thing. The BBC and the Guardianistas would report this sort of thing with repetitive zeal if "Islamophobia" rather than antisemitism was involved.

some guy

I wasn't familiar with Melanie Phillips before seeing this column. I'm glad to see one more person with the moral clarity to see that suicide is not a noble act, whether it's blowing oneself up in a crowded shopping mall, or standing by idly while thugs fire missiles at your family.

Jon

When Arafat walked away from 98% peace died. The Palestinian people do not want peace. If they wanted peace, would they have elected a known terrorist entity to govern their territory. How can anyone possible claim that we can have peace with these people if when given land, they choose to govern them people who's only reason for being is to wipe out Israel? How can there be peace when the "good" Palestinians are Fatah? There have been decades of broken peace accords, it is beyond the time that we crush Hamas once and for all and send a message to other terrorists worldwide. If you don't like that, kiss my ass.

Manuel

Melanie, you have stated it as it is. I find it revealing, and I don't like what is revealed, that no one, absolutaely no one, bothered a miniscule jot when Israel was being daily bombarded by hamas missiles for 8 years and over 6500 rockets. Its citizens were made to live for 8 years in terror and no one, no country apart from the US, uttered a word of condemnation upon hamas & cohorts. As soon as Israel hits back, the whole of the left wing uninteligensia stand up screaming 'muder' by Israel. Jeremy Bowen of the BBC proclaimed on Sat the 28th Dec that Israel's initial airborne response was to hamas's "relatively crude rocket fire". Relatively crude, as if they were mere children's toys. These relatively crude missiles were designed to kill Israelis, anywhere, everywhere, especially civillians. But Bowen,& the BBC, gave the impression that only toys were being used by his terrorist mates; appalling,crude gutter rabble rousing, unthruthful pseudo-journalism. For many years past I have been shocked by the BBC's "reporting" of various issues, the Israel/Arab dispute, so called 'global warming', the EU, pro Labour etc etc. I realise now that as far as the first is concerned it is based on pure hatred, need I be more explicit?
Israel seems to have learnt the lessons of Lebanon - no journos in the war zone, disregard for the western media hate-mongers and hopefylly it's forces will finish the job.
Today we live alongside a democratic Germany. How? By utterly defeating & destroying it's nazi heritage and starting afresh after '45. The truth is, this is what is required in Gaza, the total destruction of hamas & to start afresh with a clean piece of paper. We need to show them a new way of life, a way that will lead to creating a viable & prosperous economy & society, by way of peace & co-operation with & by its neighbour Israel.
Final point, the left, islamists, politicians with an eye on the ballot box (truth goes out of the window where an X is concerned) & media shriek "disproportionate" Israeli response without any explanation. Under the Geneva Convention the word "disproportionate" is applicable if a military force primarily targets civillians, which the IDF is clearly not. Therefore its response is entirely "proportionate" and by useage is without any question at law,legal.
May the hate mongers of Israel, the West, the US and the anti-Semites be confounded and burn with their 'flags& slogans' in hell!

Straydingo

A couple of question for those that oppose Melanie’s view's:

1) Do you believe in Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation?

2) What do you think Israel should do in respect to the constant bombardment of rockets?

3) If you were now in power of Israel how would you handle the situation?

4) How long should a country try and negotiate with an enemy that openly says it wants to wipe your people of the map and at what point do you move to using military force in order to protect your citizens?

I really do want to understand the alternative views; because all I hear in the MSM at resent are arguments that are actually devoid and emotionally charged.

Dave W.

Oleg and Mitch, I've lived through an Intifada and know first hand what Hamas is all about and what they do to their own people, much less Israelis. No sympathy for them. I support Israel 100%, and any other country or people who fight these barbaric, 7th Century Islamist ideologues who want me dead, you dead, and the entire world to submit to Islam, by force if not willingly. This isn't just a Palestinaian cause for the Muslim world (who otherwise don't support Hamas...until they are taking bombs and an excuse to express their hatred arises). This is mostly about religion and hatred of Jews, with Israelis being only a part of that equation.

Norman

The truth is that some parts of the European media ( I am being generous) are simply weak , illogical and decadent. A sad end to a once intellectual and strong civilization.
The question how this happened is interesting but complicated. It certainly first showed itself in the bloodletting of the First World war.
Israel and the USA have so much willpower and self respect the Europeans are jealous and simply cannot understand it.
The Arab world in general seems to me to hate Israel while marveling at its strong will to survive and succeed ,and then look for silly conspiratorial antisemitic explanations for the success.

Joe Strummer

Will posters please desist from portraying the bigoted and nakedly sectarian and anti- Protestant IRA as happy clappy Roman Catholic peaceniks in comparison to Hamas ? There is no barometer of barbarity when it comes to homicidal lunatics.

These evil people of the IRA targeted innocent Protestants in Northern Ireland for mass murder no differently from the Jew haters of Islamic fundamentalism. Placing a bomb attached to cans of petrol to create a fireball inside the La Mon restaurant in 1978 to deliberately incinerate all the Protestants within showed the IRA up for the murdering sectarian scum that they are/ were. Or the Kingsmilll Massacre, where the IRA removed eleven men from a bus taking them home from work, ordered the sole Catholic amongst the group to leave the scene, then mowed down the remaining ten Protestants left in cold blood with machine guns. Murder, is murder, is murder, as Mrs Thatcher so stated.

As for the current situation in Gaza, Israel MUST do what it has to do to ensure the security of its people. It simply cannot afford to do anything else. Israel's many hypocritical critics would not tolerate the same relentless missile attacks on its own soil, so why should they ?

An American

Augustus,
Let's hope that Obama lives up to his statement that you quoted.
I have grave doubts as does...apparently, Israel.

An American

Oleg, Hundreds of Palestinian children being killed by Israel? Where did you get your info...the
BBC?

YA, Read your comment twice and still can't make out what you're trying to say...

Ann, You're one to talk about sense since you seem to be lacking in that department.

Straydingo, Thank God for intelligent people like you who can get their points across.

Raymond in DC

Only one update. It's reported that the Czech Republic has "clarified" its statement about Israel's actions being "defensive in nature". It seems they came under threats from Libya and other Arab states and demands they apologize for the remarks.

Edward

Google and read the "Hamas Charter" of 1988, the same year that Pan Am 103 was bombed and crashed onto Lockerbie Scotland.

"For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave"

"The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim)."

No "anti-Zionist" smoke and mirrors there. Just clear Jew hatred.

I wonder how "moral" Leftists, Socialists, Progressives swallow ideas espoused in the Hamas Charter that mirror nazi era declarations.

B Bridge

Absolutely excellent. The Western media are shameless.

Herbert Thornton

Jim Carr - To say that we now have cultural hegemony by a tiny unrepresentative group of leftwingers is entirely true. But I also think that to say that the main bulk of the UK population still have commonsense views supporting Israel paints an overly rosy picture. I believe that the schools and universities have succeeded in brainwashing a disturbingly large proportion of younger people to be left-wing, anti-Jewish, anti-American and anti-Christian too - so much so that many of them actually sympathise with Islamic terrorism.

That, combined with the fact that terrorism suspects in Britain are now estimated to number several thousand, and that they account for around half the terrorism being planned against the U.S.A., forebodes a very alarming future indeed for Britain itself. As to the gravity of this threat, see this report from Tim Shipman in Washington - http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cia-uses-british-informants-to-track-terrorism/2009/01/04/1231003847131.html

Straydingo

I have just watched the Evan Sayet video that another poster had placed a URL link too:

http://multimedia.heritage.org/content/wm/Lehrman-030507a.wvx

This was incredibly illuminating video and has now given me the insight that had been missing when it came to understanding why Modern left leaning Liberals took the positions they do.

This is a must see video for all...it runs for just under an hour so sit down with a cuppa and a couple of biscuits.

nicodemus31

@Ian G 4th 01:19am: "It might be interesting to ask the victims of terrorism in NI what they think of Israel. A confidential study might well be illuminating. The IRA/SinnFein and the other terror groups never sought the total destruction of their opponents"

During the height of the troubles in the late '70s/early '80s the IRA sympathising Catholic fraternity were known for supporting the Palestinian cause as they self-indulgently identified themselves with the "oppressed" & Palestinian flags were, at times, interchanged with Rep of Ireland flags. In response, the Protestants were known to fly the Star of David at certain Ulster locations in retaliation.

Neither were particluarly successful in each others' annihilation but saw parallels in the middle east with their own conflict.

Childish really, but watching the appalling Jeremy Bowen tonight, who was rubbing his hands with glee at yet more Palestinian civilian victims, par for the course.

Elena

Thank you, Melanie

Dixon

Heard the expression "some mothers son"? This is how the looney-left rationalise their assertions that anybody killed by Israel is an innocent / baby / civilian: on the principal that even a Hamas thug was once a child / innocent / a civilian! For hecks sake, what crazy twisted rationalisation is that?

Dixon

I am NOT a BNP supporter. But if the logic of Hamas sympathisers is that they are justified in firing rockets at "foreigners" "occupying" "their" land ( Israel ), would not that logically imply that the BNP would be legitimately entitled to fire rockets into Keighley?

They cannot seem to think things through, can they, these "marching folk"?

Joe Strummer

nicodemus31 You are correct in your earlier referral to IRA supporting Catholics in Northern Ireland promoting the Palestinian cause and the Ulster Protestant Loyalists retaliating by using Star Of David flags.

This scenario is also to this day played out to a lesser extent in Glasgow by the supporters of the two major football clubs Rangers and Celtic.

The Israeli Star Of David flag is regularly seen amongst Protestant Rangers fans at their Ibrox Stadium and Celtic's Catholic supporters flaunt the Palestinian banner alongside Hizbollah flags.

Celtic supporters were noticable amongst the pro-Hamas marchers in Glasgow on Saturday.

Roger Moore

You guys are blowhards. Israel has a massive defence budget and the technology exists to stop every rocket from ever landing. Why does it not?

Terry

"Such people have made no protest at the bombardment of Israeli towns by more than 6000 rockets in the past six years, deliberately targeting innocent civilians."

And that is the core of the argument that the self righteous prtotesters have no more moral weight than did the pre WW2 ordinary Germans who were also hot under the collar about the plight of Germans in the Sudetenland. If targeting civlians is the trigger for moral outrage, how come these modern neo fascist protesters weren't on the streets when it was Jewish civilians that were thetarget of rocket borne genocide? Annie Lennox uttered the throwaway line about how 'not many people were killed by the arab rockets"!! So genocide of civilians should be ignbored if 'only a few people are killed"?!! So if Annie's child happended to be murdered she would take it on the chin and urge her government not to do anything about the rockets? And how many Jewish civilian murders does it take to become worthy of criticism? We should simply ignore these demonstrations as the participants are either motivated by antisemitic hatred or hamstrung by gross ignorance.

Am Yisroel Chai. May the IDF complete its work safely and soon.

Kestas

Israel occupied Palestine and now is paying the price for its greedy. Israelis, good luck, in fighting a terrorists at least for 50 years. You may thank just to yourself.

phil

maybe in a bond movie ,dont demean a good mans name

Richard Owen

I am mystified by all the talk about jew-hating. How do you explain the sheer imbalance in numbers of casualties?! 500 dead civilian Palestinians versus what, 2 Israelis? Israel gets a third of the U.S. foreign aid - what would happen if we turned off that spigot?

Augustus

From Haaretz.com-
"The challenge for Israel is to create an Arab and international envelope around Gaza, free of Hamas rockets, and restore it to the Palestinian Authority in the form of Mahmoud Abbas or Salam Fayyad. This may require new elections in the PA, and this time only the parties willing to recognize the existence of Israel and the validity of the Oslo Accords will be allowed to participate. bringing Hamas face to face with such a reality
will be the true success of Operation Cast Lead."

So, not really a war against the Palestinians at all!

RajeshB

What a breath of Fresh Air ! I agree with Melanie 20,000 percent. Butchers cannot be reasoned with, they need to be exterminated.

Richard Mather

On Saturday I witnessed a terrible protest march in Manchester. The crowd was chanting anti-Israeli slogans (calling it a terrorist state!!), there was a skull-and-cross-bones flag attached to a Menorah in Albert Square, there were Palestinian flags everywhere (many of which were held by non-Arab Brits) and the place was teeming with left-wing thugs and ageing hippies. Depressing and upsetting. Made me ashamed to be a Brit.

An American

Richard Owen,

How about the US and Europe turning off the spigot to the Palestinians and Hamas? Gaza is nothing but a worthless welfare state constantly begging for money from the world. And Hamas uses that money to buy rockets to bombard Israel and arm their terrorists with suicide vests to kill innocent Jewish citizens. Hamas and most Palestinians don't care a whit about building Gaza into an independent, prosperous stare that could give its children a decent future. They care more about killing Jews than their children. It is a state...if you can call it that...that is based on hate and death.

How incredibly dumb can one person be? I'm the one mystified.

roGER

"Israel’s behaviour is moral, legal and proportionate."

Thanks Mel, that's the first time I've laughed since the Gaza slaughter started.

Adam B.

Richard Owen, it isn't 500 civilians. You are simply misinformed. The vast majority have been Hamas terrorists.

John M

In the current state of our societal evolution, there are many times when long nurtured antagonisms cannot be resolved except by armed conflict. Israel has shown more forbearance than most countries would have under similar provocation and is in the right to defend herself. The loss of innocent life is always regrettable, but practically unavoidable in the case where one side fights without uniforms, hides behind their women and children, and welcomes their deaths as good propaganda tools. In this conflict that is in essence one which pits civilization against the forces of barbarism, it is puzzling why the political left of Europe and America have deliberately chosen to give such vociferous support to radical Islam. What possible common interests do they have if not to create and maintain global anarchy? There was a time when the fellow travelers of the left and their useful idiots in the world-wide communist movement received their marching orders from Moscow. I am beginning to wonder if that is still true, or is some other entity calling the shots?

KateA

Pete: point of 'order'! My posts - hardly the most riveting but certainly not libellous(?) or inflamatory - are disappearing into the ether. Is there a particular reason for this? Am I inadvertently transgressing?

Pete Hoskin

KateA: certainly no transgressions that I can think of! Could be technical problems at our end - and my apologies if it is. I'm happy to look for any comments in our system if you e-mail me with a rough time/date of when they were made (along with the name of the blog post they were made on). If it happens again, do let me know on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk

phil

Kate A .do not put yourself down -your,s are the most riveting-I certainly look forward to my dose of common sense and fact.happy new year

phil

John M my compliments on an excellently written post -I wish I could write as well-no doubt the wags will arrive shortly to agree with that :)

An American

John M,
Thank you for your comments.

This creeping destruction of western society has been insidious. It's taken the far-left 50 years to seep into and destroy our western culture...in our primary schools, our colleges, our politics, our courts, our news media...even some churchs like Obama's Rev. Wright's church.

America has now elected President Obama...our first socialist president. Most Americans have no idea who or what they voted for.

Western countries and their people were asleep and unaware of what was happening right under their noses...I hate to say it, but I believe that democracy and the capitalist system have lost the battle. We are looking at world rule socialism.

Sorry to be so negative but, there it is and the world we are leaving our grandchildren will not be the same world that we were given. We have failed them.

kim serca

You've accused the NYT of censoring itself by removing a passage about intra-Palestinian violence - then you find you got the link wrong. Why don't you have the honest to modify your article, rather than simply tagging an 'update' on the end?

Billy Bob

Richard Owen, a question: If a gang of 10 thugs came into your house and killed your wife, are you going to seek the prosecution of just one of them because you lost only one family member, and then hope the gang disbands and doesn't hurt any other families? Maybe YOU would. Me...I'm going after the entire gang and I'd do whatever I could to bring the entire cartel down, whether they were the ones in my house that night or not. I would do that not only because it's the right course of action, but to protect the neighborhood for the future.

Frank Owen

Israel’s violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response to the Israeli attacks, notes Jeremy Hammond.

Lie #1: Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.

Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.

Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack under international law. This was a war crime.

Other of Israel’s bombardment with protected status under international law have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in addition to residential buildings.

Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies to treat the injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but directly designed to punish the civilian population.

Lie #2: Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket attacks.

Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it announced a “special security zone” within the Gaza Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of not only the cease-fire but international law.

Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into effect on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce on November 4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and injured several others.

Israel’s violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response to the Israeli attacks.

Israel's actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.

Lie #3: Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.

There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel defines as “human shields” in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this interpretation under international law. In circumstances such as these, Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international law.

Lie #4: Arab nations have not condemned Israel’s actions because they understand Israel’s justification for its assault.

The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel’s actions and at their own governments for not condemning Israel’s assault and acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not represent their respective Arab populations. The populations of the Arab nations have staged mass protests in opposition to not only Israel's actions but also the inaction of their own governments and what they view as either complacency or complicity in Israel's crimes.

Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel’s actions, but because they are submissive to the will of the US, which fully supports Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon US aid, and is being widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas' past perceived betrayals in conniving with Israel and the US to sideline the democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of Abbas' Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.

Lie #5: Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.

Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the border. It is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza have no electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.

KateA

Thanks phil - happy New Year to you. I am, as always, astounded by your patient consideration of ill-mannered boors!

Quiet courtesy is too often, in my life experience, mistaken for 'weakness' and attacked. This, I suspect, explains the offensive naysayers. 'Let not your heart be troubled...'. Regards KateA

Velvel Zev Weisz

The EU is offering its'NEUTRAL'office to broker an Israeli/Hamas peace treaty just does not fool anybody.The EU's neutral monitors replaced the Israeli monitoring of the Gazan-Israeli-Egyptian crossing point ,only to literally run away when the Hamas threatened them,thus leaving the border open to the smuggling by the Arab terrorists of thousands of rockets.
The same EU promised Israel that they would gaol the Arab terrorists who had desecrated the Christian sites in BethLehem only to release them very quickly when they were threatened by arab terrorist groups.
The EU/UN 's brokered/supervised (by their own troops) treaty 1701 between Israel and Hizbollah-Lebanon enabled the latter to instal 40,000 rockets aimed ,at this moment, at Israel's northern towns.The Italian troops afraid of arab terrorism in thier country watch and do nothing.
As and Israeli Jew Zionist one might get the impression that the EU is not very pro-Israel.Their centuries -old dislike/hatred of Jews is so transparent.
They deserve their ever-growing number of radical-Islamic citizens. Revenge is so sweet when it is self inflicted.

Velvel Zev Weisz

In their search for terrorists ,American and British troops carpet-bomb whole villages in Afghanistan in order to safe-guard their own troops.The BBC never reports such actions.
Israel not only warns the arabs in Gaza by phone and leaflets, at the risk of their own soldiers .

richard

An American - hey there, buddy! I was worried about you. You still haven't answered my question: in what way does Obama qualify as a socialist? Are you ok?

roger

There is a lot of talk about what is morally right wrong etc,whether hamas/israel are targeting civillians etc etc.
but the truth is that you pick your friends and hope they win through. my friend is israel and i hope they clear out gaza and the west bank and if we are really lucky deal with the nuclear threat from iran. why? because i would sure as hell prefer israel as a neighbour than hamas or fatah. i all my years jewish people have never pu thousands of people on the streets in london calling for the death and destruction of my friends my family simply because i do not share their religon.
incidentally all those of you who compare the ira to hamas should be aware that the reason that the ira came to the table was because they were near defeat. they had lost public support through the bombings especially omagh even though that was credited to the REAL ira. we had infiltrated even the top ecehlons of their network, identified over 60% of their weapons caches and taken out most of their key players either through prison or attrition. many people will argue the above points with the ira but all i can say is i was there and i spent many years dealing with the murderous scum bags that called themselves freedom fighters. they were gangsters that didn`t give a monkeys for the people of ireland and thought of only their own profit and glory. Hamas Fatah and Iran they are no different and you will only reach a settlement with them when they can taste their own defeat.

HyperInfluential

Please don't lump all left-wing progressives together; this isn't really a left-right matter. I am an American tofu-eating, tree-hugging hardcore liberal, and I completely agree that Israel should immediately remove any Hamas capability to further harm the Israeli people. I can tell propaganda when I see it, and the Hamas reports don't add up. They had enough money to buy rockets but claim Israel's impoverished them so much they have to have open sewers? Yeah, right.

Just because I believe the highest goal humans can strive for is an end to all war, that doesn't mean I think Israel should stop destroying rocket emplacements and ammo dumps that threaten their children, even if they have to kill people to do it.

Clearly in this situation, one group wants to eliminate the other, so we should help and support the people who are threatened with elimination, who are also our longtime allies.

Sam Eilon

It is repeated alleged that Gaza is under under Israeli siege that prevents Gaza inhabitants from getting supplies and leaving the Strip. But they can do so through the border with Egypt. Why does Egypt not allow free access?

Ronnie

Lets look at this the other way round.

Suppose we accept that Hamas, Hezbollah and their sponsor Iran are now isolated by their absurdly loud and failed militancy? Not least because there isn't a government in the region, or probably the rest of the world, that supports Iran's possession of nuclear weapons.

No Arab country has rushed to the aid of Hamas. Egypt has refused to open its border either to allow humanitarian supplies in or refugees out.

Yes there has been lots of talk and expresions of outrage, but they are pro-forma. Not even Syria, Iran's closest ally, has done anything, concerned more with their attempted rapproachment with the West.

Interestingly, Hezbollah has not joined in to open a second front against Israel, yet. Nor has Fatah in the West Bank. Why not? What are they and Iran waiting for or do they only see this as another opportunity to make Israel look like aggressors and they don't want to spoil it.

Or, are the forces currently ranged against Israel now actually at their weakest for a long time. Perhaps now is indeed the time to strike decisively against Hamas, who have blown their chance to be taken seriously by people other than themselves.

Maybe now it is time to encourage more engagement with Syria and have them put real pressure on Hezbollah.

Maybe now it is time to deal intelligently with Iran's nuclear threat and further weaken the already shaky position of their President before forthcoming elections.

Just maybe, the hardline position screamed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran has far less support than was thought. Arab governments want to do business, they don't want to be at war all the time and they will not take orders from Iran.

phil

Richard-an American writes mostly good sense but is totally blind on the subject of Obama-she never responds to anything I say to her on this subject ,which I find very strange ,especially when I wish her happy new year :)-I find it so sad that she and others with similar mindset refuse to even give the man a chance--.right of centre is one thing but totally closed is quite another .

phil

frank owen this is for you ,and lest I forget nizar rayan was called and told to leave his home ,but chose to stay with his family ,no doubt thinking he was safe .shows some care for his children ?

Apparently, Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview and was asked about Israel's
occupation of Arab lands. His response was "It's our land". The reporter (CNN or
the like) was stunned - read below "It's our land..."

"Crash Course on the Arab Israeli Conflict."
Here are overlooked facts in the current & past Middle East situation.
These were compiled by a Christian university professor:

BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY.... ( It takes just 1.5 minutes
to read!!!! )It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and non-Jew -- it doesn't
matter.

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, Two thousand
years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian
people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the
land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past
3,300 years.
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22
years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has
never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians
occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders
did not come to visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures.
Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave
Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent
left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
10 The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality,
persecution and pogroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around
630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the
same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the
Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the
100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the
world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands.
Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the
state of New Jersey .
13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate nations,
not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations
initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel
has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the
Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were
denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites
have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions
passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were
directed against Israel.
18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the
Jordanians.
19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient
Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like a policy of
preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

we look forward to yuor response .

An American

Rhil and Richard,
I responded to both of you.

Phil...I wished you Happy New Year and thanked you for your past comments...
Too bad you let Richard know I'm a female... I enjoyed the tough guy image he had of me...

Richard, I spend a good long time last night on a blog to your on why I think Obama is a socialist...it didn't make it for some reason and I'll have to start over when I have the time. Also, I was unable to access Melanie's blog all day for some reason...kept getting a shoe advertisment.
Will be busy for the next several days but will try to respond to your questions when I have time...then will you accept the fact that some of us are very worried for our country and believe that Obama is just a symptom of what many of us believe is the beginning of the end of our great country? For now, we conservatives still have a right to express our beliefs and I hope you will respect that.

phil

An American-I did not see your reply as it must have gone missing .the web site went off for me too partly yesterday -hence my post which said you did not respond .You have every right to express your opinions ,most of which I agree with and as far as O is concerned I am also not sure of what he will turn out to be ,but what I want is for him to be given a chance to prove himself ,and one which I believe he earned in the election .Your comments are valued even when I do not agree with them as you write with a passion similar to mine and with a good heart which is what most posters here have -I look forward to seeing your critique of O -I may well have missed something :)

I will post this also on the current thread so that those who are interested will know you replied .

Annette

If Israel does not stand up for its very survival, we in the USA might as well roll out the red carpet for the jihadists to come knocking on our front door.

Peter

Thank you for writing this article. I agree with it completely. I hope it gets very broad distribution. The future of Western civilization depends upon moral certainty, a clear knowledge of right and wrong. Hypocracy undermines both.