Tom, I do hope your not from the UK. And I also hope that you are a strident believer in the strictest version of Sharia law. Because if you aren't, then Hamas would be only too delighted to kill you and your family too. However, after reading your completely fictionalised and unbelievably warped view of history, and witnessing the venom with which you attack Israel, I only hope they get hold of you soon (you deserve eachother)!

Posted by Robert Clayton | 19.01.09, 15:41 GMT

To Brian, which ‘bit of Palestinian land’ is Israel ‘occupying’??

Answer = israel is the bit of Palestinian land israel is occupying. If you knew your recent history....

Posted by Tom | 16.01.09, 08:53 GMT

So essentially what you're saying, Brian, is that you CAN'T answer my very simple question, and thus will try and completely sidestep it by calling it 'the wrong question'.....

Is there anyone that is brave enough to attempt to answer the question: "What WOULD you do if you were constantly being attacked by rockets?", without saying "Well, I wouldn't do this or this" (and please bare in mind that Hamas have no interest in 'negotiations' - they exist solely to destroy Israel, not to negotiate with it)

Posted by Robert Clayton | 15.01.09, 10:32 GMT

Brian, you should read UN security resolutions 242 onwards if you wish to appraise yourself of the occupied territories. Again, Isreal has retained complete military control of the Gaza borders including sea and air. Some "withdrawal" that is. During the past three years Isreal has conducted many incursions into Gaza resulting in more death and injury, the present agression is just the latest.
I agree that any democracy has a duty to defend itself, the people of Gaza are doing just that and suffering greatly for it.
The rest of your comments are the usual rantings and claptrap from war mongers and apologists for state terrorism along with some Islamist phobia thrown in for good measure.
I guess you got no response to your question "What would you do if...?" because its the wrong question deliberately formulated by Isreal to justify its latest attack and to blame the victims.

Posted by Brian | 15.01.09, 02:03 GMT

P.S. I couldn’t help comment on the irony of people defending Hamas, when Hamas would murder those same people (and their families) in an instant if they had the chance. In Hamas’s eyes, if you are not an Islamic fundamentalist willing to live by the strictest Sharia law, then you deserve to die as an infidel. If they had their way and Israel was destroyed today, then tomorrow they’d be after you too for being a ‘Western infidel’.

As any democracy does, Israel has a duty to defend itself. When fighting an enemy like Hamas who see their own people’s lives as worthless, how do you defend you country without some form of collateral damage (especially when civilians themselves - including children - have become Hamas weapons in the propaganda war)?? They actively want their civilians to die because A) it doesn’t matter, they’ll go to heaven as martyrs and, B) what fantastic propaganda material!

Posted by Robert Clayton | 14.01.09, 17:00 GMT

You're pathetic Mickey!

Posted by Mark | 14.01.09, 16:50 GMT

To Brian, which ‘bit of Palestinian land’ is Israel ‘occupying’?? If you knew your recent history, you’d know that Israel left the Gaza strip 3 years ago so that the Palestinian people could govern themselves, but all that has happened is Gaza has become one big rocket launch-pad. Claiming that Hamas is ‘trying to defend its people and territory’ is nothing short of laughable…..if that were the case, they wouldn’t hide behind civilians during war and wouldn’t spend all their aid money (which they DO receive) on weapons as opposed to a coherent social infrastructure during ‘peace’

I see not a single person has taken up my challenge of answering the question: “What would you do if you were constantly being attacked by rockets?” without saying “well, I wouldn’t do this, or this, or this’…….what WOULD you do???

Posted by Robert Clayton | 14.01.09, 16:09 GMT

Mikey, can you ever comment on something with out bringing it back to SF or the IRA? If you have an opinion on the situation in Gaza please let us know, or are you happy to ignore what is going on and stick to your small minded and bigoted comments that are absolutely irrelevant to what Tom had to say??

Posted by Brónagh | 14.01.09, 12:40 GMT

"Its funny how people can justify and basically condone the murder of hundreds of innocent children. As someone with kids, i find it difficult to understand those who are 'cheerleaders' for the slaughter of children. "

I know. People who champion the failed "cause" of IRA/SF are contemptible.

Posted by mickey | 14.01.09, 11:06 GMT

I would like to see independent figures on the numbers of deaths, specifically of women and children after this conflict is over and not the hamas figures that are digested as fact. I remember a few years ago the arabs spewed forth their claims of a "massacre" at Jenin, claiming that hundreds upon hundreds of women and children were mercilessly slaughtered by the brutal zionist machine of death. Once fighting ceased, the death toll was established as 52 to 56 palestinians, only around 5 to 15 of those civilians whilst 23 Israeli combatants were killed by booby-trapped bombs, hardly a massacre. The most interesting discovery however was that the pipe bombs used by the palestinians to booby trap their homes were identical to the ones the IRA had used in Northern Ireland.

Posted by James H | 14.01.09, 03:22 GMT

To Yehudah and Robert, somehow you have turned the situation on its head. Isreal is occupying Palestinian land, Isreal has defied UN resolutions for decades to stop this occupation. Hamas is trying to defend its people and territory and get rid of the illegal occupiers. Hamas and the Palestinians have an absolute right to defend themselves against the Isreali invader.

Any country in the world has the right of self defence, why is it that the Palestinians in Gaza are to be denied this right? When Isreal ends the occupation and stranglehold of the Palestinian people then there could be peace. Your excuses for armed aggression by Isreal are an unsuccessful attempt to shift the blame to the victims.

Posted by Brian | 14.01.09, 03:00 GMT

Yehudah, I thought the aim was to limit food, paper, medicines, thus having a catastrophic effect on the civilian population, never mind pratically all industry closing down leaving most of the residents dependent on humanitarian aid. I'm sure Gaza is just lovely at the minute, but the IDF would prefer we didn't see it. Children are children Yehudah, please step back and think. I'm no Hamas fan, but can I suggest you read up on International Humanitarian Law and the Rules of Engagement.

Posted by John | 13.01.09, 23:41 GMT

Its funny how people can justify and basically condone the murder of hundreds of innocent children.

As someone with kids, i find it difficult to understand those who are 'cheerleaders' for the slaughter of children.

Posted by tom | 13.01.09, 23:03 GMT

Israel is a criminal state whose only aim is to wipe out the Palestinians, because they know they have the support of the USA. Israel has defied UN Resolutions 242, 339 and 1442 to get out of the occupied territories, but if you have the backing of the USA you can flout international law openly. I say to the Unionist population who I think many seem to support Israel is to put yourself in the shoes of the Palestinians in Gaza. They have reduced the people of Gaza to abject poverty. They are attacking them by land, sea and air and are using phosphourous bombs which are banned in international law. If you are occupied you have every right to defend yourself, that is enshrined in international law. The Israelis are criminally supported by the USA and this country has a lot of experience of state sponsored terrorism in many parts of the world. The Israeli colonists can build their houses at will, and there is a system of apartheid in occupied territories designed to humiliate

Posted by Patrick Murphy | 13.01.09, 22:19 GMT

The rockets fired by Hamas killed an average of 4 Israelis per year and most of us condemned those murders.

When Republican terrorists planted a bomb in Omagh and ‘accidentally’ killed 29 people we called it murder – and rightly so.

What then should we call it when Israel fires high explosive shells into an area as heavily populated as Belfast and kills 280 children in 3 weeks (920 adults). Israel is committing the equivalent of an Omagh atrocity every day in Gaza

Well done for highlighting this Barry Fennell

Posted by Parent | 13.01.09, 20:09 GMT

The rockets fired by Hamas killed an average of 4 Israelis per year and we all condemned those murders.

When Republican terrorists planted a bomb in Omagh and ‘accidentally’ killed 29 people we called it murder – and rightly so.

What then should we call it when Israel fires high explosive shells into an area as heavily populated as Belfast and kills 920 people including 280 children?

Barry Fennel is right to highlight what Israel has done. The evil of Hamas does not justify an even greater evil committed by Israel. Well done Barry.

Posted by AJC | 13.01.09, 19:54 GMT

Barry, the only people glorying in child killing is Hamas. When this current horror is over it will be only them who will glory in the heroic resistance and martyrdom they put their people through.

It is an indictment on humanity that a peaceful means wasn't found to stop the Hamas rockets but when Israel blockaded the Strip to stop the flow of weapons from Iran that was a crime too.

The Israeli army killed its own troops in Gaza. War is hell.

Posted by Yehudah | 13.01.09, 11:32 GMT

Please enlighten me on these so-called 'alternative dispute resolutions' and why you think Hamas, an organisation whose sole aim is to destroy Israel, would engage in them. Please tell me how you would defend your country from constant rocket attacks, without saying "well, I wouldn't do this, and this, and this".....I want to know what you WOULD do? If Hamas cared a single bit about the lives of the Palestinian civilians, they would stop firing rockets into Israel immediately and stop using the civilians as shields and propaganda subjects. If Israel wanted to harm Palestinian civilians, it could completely wipe them out (yes, all 1 and a half million of them) within a few hours, but the (Palestinian) figures show that their attacks have been specifically targetted. Lets not forget that this is a war, and unfortunately civilian lives do get lost, but only Hamas see the death of innocents on either side as a cause to celebrate.

Posted by Robert Clayton | 13.01.09, 11:26 GMT