

The Gaza crisis

Will the ceasefire lead to peace?


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Can the writer of this article really be so uninformed? Will the ceasefire lead to peace? Are you serious?

We have a cease fire with an organization which in its Charter has the following Article 7:





Does the author want to guess what has greater sway over Hamas- the terms of cease-fire agreement or the words of the Prophet?

Attendant Lord

The first chart in this article, rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, makes two important things precisely clear: why Israel invaded Gaza the last time, and that Israel's incursion into Gaza, widely criticized as having accomlished "nothing" could not be more misleading and incorrect. The number of rockets "skyrocketed" prior to Israel's incursion--in fact, caused it--and immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, Israel had accomlished her goal. The rocketry diminished more than dramatically.

Now we see that "diplomacy" has been "credited" with preventing such a military incursion, while the Palestinians achieved their goal of having the blockade lifted.

In exchange for staying out of Gaza with its military forces, Israel received money from the US to build more Iron Dome defenses.

Thus we see the so called balanced approach leading to more war: making it even easier for Gaza to attain more rockets and making it easier for Israel to shoot most of them down before they do any damage.

Diplomacy kicks cans down the road, but as the cans travel down the road, they grow larger.


Charts and graphs and wishful thinking are meaningless, and I am surprised that TE would publish such a juvenile article.

One side wishes to exist on someone else's land, and one side wishes to eliminate the other. How can a graph add anything to this struggle? If TE had published a similar story in 1940 would it have lead to "peace?" What is important is the objectives of the decision-makers and the options open to them. You don't need a chart or graph for that.

I don't support either "side" in this "struggle" but I do feel sorry for the innocents drawn into the nightmare. But if someone was shooting rockets at me and my family I would be more than justified in responding with deadly force even when the enemy is hiding in schools and residential neighborhoods. Just as in 1944, you have to kill the bad guy no matter where he hides. Does that sound bad? Or do you wish Nazi's were still in Paris??? Excuses for doing nothing are easy to find. Life is not fair.

Attendant Lord in reply to MySetDancer

Not a bad analysis except for the "someone else's land" part, which is dead wrong.

The Ottoman Turks LOST World War I. The Turkish Caliphate was destroyed. The Allied Armies were now in charge. The Islamic Ottomans were no longer in control.

Now when Istanbul had been called Constantinople, it was because Christians, known in Islam as "Infidels" were in control. The Muslims laid siege to Constantinople in 1453 and took over the city. Now Islam was in control. Islam took "someone else's land" and held it until they lost it, and especially Jerusalem, in World War I. The illusion that it was "someone else's land" is a lie perpetuated by Islam, which Islam itself believes.

It is taught in the Qur'an and in the Hamas Charter that if Muslims ever conquer land it is consecrated to them until Judgement Day. The rest of the world should know that land belongs to the last conquerer. It became Allied land, to do with as the Allied Armies saw fit, after the defeated Ottoman Turks signed the peace Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

The Allies carved up the entire region which had been the Turkish Ottoman Caliphate (one political unit) into multiple nation states. It partitioned one section, separating warring Muslims from Jews. This land was under the control of the Allies, the VICTORS in World War I.

So, no, sorry, it was not "someone else's land" when it was partitioned, and it is Israel's land today. If Islamic forces retake it, and only then, will it be "theirs" . Such is the law of war in the real world.

ColoradoJack in reply to Attendant Lord

Like it or not, the Jews who have come to Israel since 1900 are colonists in every sense of the word. The American colonists solved their land theft problem by eliminating most of the native people and rounding up the others and putting them in camps (reservation). But that was the 18th and 19th century. Modern society and world opinion will not allow that today. The South African colonists tried it , and that didn't work out too well. The Palestinians were the lawful residents of Palestine until they were displaced in 1948. Basically, Israel today is in violation of international law. But reality demands some form of real compromise. apartheid and a Bantustan republic will not work. Israeli politicians are just not yet ready to accept that fact.

tzatz in reply to ColoradoJack

Nice try. But unfortunately … THE FACTS ARE DIFFERNT AND YOU LIE!

In 1947, the UN voted to create 2 states on the land termed Mandate Palestine … one Arab and one Jewish … these were their terms!

The Jewish State was declared on May 14, 1948 … the Arab State was NEVER CREATED …

From Nov 1947 to May 1248 … the indigenous Arab/Muslims began a CIVIL WAR against the Jewish population

From May 1948 - Armistice in 1949 … 5 Arab States attacked the nascent Jewish State aiming to annihilate the population … Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and various Jihadis … the Arab Armies were rebuffed and during the war (both the Civil and the War of Independence that followed) … there were 650K indigenous Arab/Muslims that were uprooted AND WERE NEVER ALLOWED BACK INSIDE THE JEWISH STATE … that's the history …

When the Arab/Muslims are ready to accept a sovereign, strong, Jewish State of Israel … there can be a basis to allow for the creation of anotheer Arab/Muslim state for the Filistans … 2 States for 2 Peoples!

Not before!

Attendant Lord in reply to ColoradoJack

@ ColoradoJack re: "The Palestinians were the lawful residents of Palestine until they were displaced in 1948."

1.If you are going to claim these are modern times, and modern society and world opinion will not allow reservations like the American Indian reservations, are you not equally required to demand in modern times that the Arabs tolerate the Jews who immigrated to their region peacefully and legally? The only reason that the Brits ultimately chose Partition was precisely because the Arabs were completely intolerant of the Jews. In America, people are tolerant of immigrants; no partition required.

2. The people to which you refer were not all displaced in 1948. Many Arabs remained through the war (proving that they were not driven out by the Jews) and they and their progeny live in Israel as citizens and representatives to Parliament today, representing a full 20 percent of the population of Israel. These are not the Arabs sworn to displace "ever inch" the state of Israel. They, too, were lawful residents, just like the people whose rights you claim, and just as were the Jews who travelled there (as did every American who crossed the oceans to get to America, except the natives) and purchased land.

However, all the Jews living in the attacking Arab nations WERE displaced in 1948. I don't see you crying for their property rights, because Israel was there for them, which is precisely the reason she was founded. . .to be "there" when Arabs and Nazis displace their people and drive them away and no one else will accept them.

So when you refer to "the Palestinians" as meaning "all" and to the Jews as if the were not lawful residents in the region just because they immigrated there, you are incorrect on both counts. Not to mention that many of your lawful Arab residents were responsible for the ultimate partition precisely because of their inability and unwillingness to tolerate people of a different culture.

As for " Basically, Israel today is in violation of international law." How about this "international law"-- It is the pre-amble to the UN Charter:

Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:

I don't see you claiming that the attack on the new state of Israel one day after she was founded, by 5 surrounding Arab armies, was "an act of aggression" or arguing that the other Arab states should have taken "effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace" caused by these attacking nations.

It is warring and intransigent Arabs and Islamic intolerance and adherence to religious Jihad, and not the Israeli politicians, who both created and maintain the current state of affairs.


Israel has been out to conquer the holy land to which it allegedly has ownership rights, from the very beginning. The UN mandated strip of land created in 1947 was only the "supply base" for furthur operations. Israel has a duty to conquer and drive the "heathen" (Palastinians) out. Israel has been promised victory by Jehovah (read: American bible freaks)

Therefore Israel will continue to provoke the Arabs in order to elicit a response, which is then used to conquer(grab) more territory, tighten furthur the screws on the captives, and force as many of them off their land as possible. The territory available for a Palistinian existence is shrinking fast thanks to this "provoke-elicit-hammer-provoke-elicit-hammer" cycle.

It's a real pity that the Arabs proved themselves hopelessly incompetent in countering Israeli expansion. Maybe they should have acquainted themselves with the Torah a bit better, to know what the real sentiment of the Jewish people is. The holocaust is only the shoehorn being used to squeeze the foot into the boot.

The Arabs have lost, and the only consolation seems to be a two state solution, but that is also "showing them the showers before being gassed". This Palestinian state will be suffocated, poisoned and eventually annexed again. As a matter of fact, there already is a Palistinian state. It's called "Gaza strip" .

Two state solution? It's already there, so whats all the fuss about?

You asked for it... you got it! Two state solution!

just because some book (revered by some part of world) mentions some 'holy land' , it does not give the license to kill innocents, to suffocate them economically, to orphan kids,why all this? just to attain the things written in a book ..have we lost all reason ...have we got brains ..are you any different from nazis who executed jews just because hitler wrote it in nazi manifesto...nazi officers were just following their revered leader's manifesto!
migration has been happening since ages..may be jews were forced to move out/leave...may be there were atrocities on jews in the barbarious ages....why tit for tat now! when will this irrationality end! why dont just live and let others live as well

Attendant Lord in reply to UcolLibrary

Israel is not governed by her fundamentalists bible thumpers. Hamas is indeed governed by hers.

Hamas teaches, not in its bible, but in its charter--its constitution-- that it is the Islamic duty of her people to take back all lands ever won by Muslims in conquest if control over such lands should ever leave Islam.

Attendant Lord in reply to UcolLibrary

UcolLibrary you have educated yourself on the propaganda of Hamas and Islam to the exclusion of the very reason you call upon your readers to exercise.

There isn't "some book" mentioning some "holy land" --a statement like that completely overlooks the Qur'an and the Hamas Charter and what is written in the latter as the constitution for Islamic reconquest of the lands lost to them in their defeat in World War I.

"Are you any different from Nazis who executed Jews just because Hitler wrote it?" is so naive one wonders where to begin. First, you could make that statement against every single warring power. Have you asked the Syrians about that, for example? In war, people do get killed.

You object to what you refer to as the execution of Hamas leadership, but in effect you object to any deaths in any part of Gaza, no matter that Gazans attempt to murder Israelis. Gazans engage in suicide bombings? Rocketry into Israeli civilian areas? Blowing up ambulances, kindergartens, busses full of civilians or children?

From your perspective, Israel is like the Nazis if she responds in any way that leads to any deaths in Gaza. If she were to indiscriminately send tockets back into Gazan civilian populations, to you that would be "like the Nazis". When Israel targets Hamas leadership, the entire point is to prevent the deaths of innocent Gazan civilians and to place the penalty on those who are creating and carrying out Hamas policy. But to you, that is not acceptable either.

To you, Israel may do nothing in retaliation for the murders of her people or else they are like the Nazis. Sorry but your position is without foundation and extremely naive of actual history and informed by nothing but Islamist hate propaganda.

Jehuda Ben-Israel

The way to resolve the Gaza predicament:

1. Allow for a monitored free movement of people and goods between Muslim-Arab Gaza and Muslim-Arab Egypt

2. Gradually, close all access between Israel and Gaza, to people and goods alike

3. Begin to develop, with the professional and economic - not including financial!! - assistance of the international community, the agricultural and tourist potential in Gaza and northern Sinai

4. Seek the financial assistance for the economic development from other Suni-Muslim-Arab states

The goal to be aimed is the development of a self-sustaining economic region consisting of Gaza and northern Sinai, that can, in time, expand into the rest of Sinai. Such an economic development is, practically, the answer to the drive by some in the Muslim-Arab world to perpetuate the deadly conflict and strife with Israel.

Well meaning and well thought out "solutions" like this always overlook a giant problem: the radical Islamist fundamentalist teachings and drive to eliminate the Israeli presence from the area .

Read the Hamas Charter of 1988, Unabridged, and then get back to us with you solution to THAT.

Yehuda, have YOU read the Hamas Charter of 1988, Unabridged?
What it is, is a carefully thought out road map to drive Israel and Israelis completely out of the area; the goal is not one inch for Israel. The goal is also to regain all lands Islam has ever won through conquest (Article XI, among others), and it is truly astonishing to me how people in those other lands are oblivious, even as we see it occurring.
It includes some very disturbing strategies in every imaginable area: religion used as strategy is one such disturbing element; another is education--the goal (in which they have succeeded) was to eliminate all vestiges of Western ideas and ideals to such an extent that only one narrative exists: the Islamist narrative which makes it a moral and religious imperative to never listen to any Westerner and to believe that the West, in its entirety, is the everlasting enemy of Islamists.
I ask again, have you actually read this strategy as it appears in the Hamas Charter of 1988, Unabridged, and noticed how the steps they have taken, the speeches their leaders give, the actions they take with respect to geo/political goals, are all in progress now?

rewt66 in reply to Attendant Lord

Well, the solution to the Hamas Charter is to have fewer people following the Hamas Charter (or to have the Charter changed, but I'm less optimistic of that).

If you can give them a realistic economic future, a lot smaller fraction of the population is going to enthusiastically follow the Charter. (Not none, just a smaller fraction.) Hamas would (probably) respond to that by inciting incidents of violence, and Israel would probably respond to some of them. This would cause people to be angry with Israel, but it would also cause some of them to be angry with Hamas.

My conclusion: Israel could do a lot worse than promoting the prosperity and economic development of the Gaza Strip.

tzatz in reply to rewt66

You said: "If you can give them a realistic economic future …"

'give them' … they have to want it! You would know better if you were a parent … let them 'earn it' … let them 'want it' … giving it to them doesn't accomplish that goal.

The Filiatanis have been given lots of $$$ and look what they've done with it!!!! Lined the pants of their leaders and left the majority WITHOUT HOPE!

Let them earn their own $$$$ … their decision making has been awful for 65 Years … it will remain awful if we continue to feed them … they need to FEED THEMSELVES … go through the hardships … struggles … and understand they are not on the 'worlds' dole … welfare … ANY LONGER.


@rsg england

"The Economist calls this latest local skirmish a war .It was not a war
The Israeli Goverment went in with limited objectives and pretty much acheived them .
1 ) Reduce the rockets and mortars being fired at Israeli civilians
2 ) Reduce Hamas' military capability
3 ) Reduce Hamas, store of weaponry
4 ) Reduce Hamas' means of resupply"

You forgot to add

5) Reduce the number of Palestinian Children
6) Reduce the number of Palestinian civilians


Attendant Lord in reply to Sandaman

Look at the first chart, on the number of rocket attacks by Hamas into Israeli civilian population preceding the Israeli operation in 2008. The number just spikes on the chart, which indicates not an attempt to reduce the number of Palestinian children and civilians, but quite the opposite.

The Israeli reaction, had it been real war, would and could have been to level Gaza and drive everyone out. You are naive to misunderstand the difference between a military operation to stop rockets falling onto one's civilian territory and war with a powerful military opponent, capable of totally destroying your people, who do not.

Sandaman in reply to Attendant Lord

Sure you can get rid of the Palestinians just like Nazi did to the Jews. Both are quite similar in mentality.
It is a logic of thieves lead by Bibi.
Go back to 1967 line.
That is the only way to have a peaceful life.
You know Israel is supported only by USA and micronesians in the international society? First and foremost you have no rights to blame the rockets from Hamas.
You live in a orphanage. In a concrete wall and iron dome.

tzatz in reply to Sandaman

You said: "… just like Nazi did to the Jews"

This statement is anti-Semitic hate speech. Your comparison is odious … sulphurous … in the 'world' you inhabit … that is, the Arab/Muslim world … anti-Semitic hate speech is not called out. It's part of the daily speech. BUT NOT HERE NOT MOW. Words lead to actions and actions lead to death. The deaths you wish on the Jews/Zionists/Israelis … I FLING right back at you at 50:1 Inshallah!

Sandaman in reply to tzatz

No, I am not anti-semitic. The Jews in Israel are racists.

Israekis are enjoying beautiful life in orchards where they stole from Palestines. Their GDP per capita is more than Portugal and they have been receiving $3 billion from US + same amount of free militaru aid, while Gazans are forced to live in the seige by Israelis. You know all countries in the UN except US and Micronesians do not agree with your rhetoric. 5-6 death of Jews is nothing compared to the agony born by the Gazans. Daily Gazans are dying due to extremely poor conditions forced by Israel. They are dying during the period of no firockets. Israel is responsible for all those too-early deaths in Gaza and the West Bank. Who else other than Nazis impose such harsh conditions while claiming herself a free and democratic country? Or that one of De Klerk of former South Africa?

tzatz in reply to Sandaman

You need to open your ears!!
Here's a start:
I don't know how old YOU ARE? But most people on this blog don't remember 1973 … but even if you do … here's a reminder of where the world was pre-1973 and after 1973 … vis a vis the Arab/Israeli Conflict … and I do mean Arab vs Israeli Conflict!
Let me know your thoughts after listening to the logic … of a Canadian energy expert … (I'm proud of the fact he's Canadian as well)

Sandaman in reply to tzatz

it all started in 1948
if not, then 1967.

mr.solomon, a jew.

soon, you will hear that israeli mossad killed yasir arafat with radioactive agent. moosad are killers. israelis are killers. (not all jews are killers, though9.


The Israelis never considered this latest engagement as a war but only as an 'operation'. This terminology clearly reflects that Israelis have no huge aspirations or optimism for the long term future .They regard the Hamas as a delinquent teenager who might with enough punishment finally realise terrorising the neighbourhood is not good for him either. But they are aware that more punishments might still be applied in the future. Over 70% of the Israeli population wanted this operation to continue. Although Israel is war weary, life with the rockets simply can not continue as it was.


A strange interlude where both leaders claimed that they won & both peoples feel that their leaders were wrong.
Yet they were all correct. And here is why:
The Israeli Government aimed to cease & deter. Hamas aimed to survive, gain local recognition and support. The cessation has been obtained. The deterrence is in place because the Hamas survived and may not do so again [after all after the Hezbollah's pounding that side did not enter the affray].
But more than this. Egypt's Morsi now has endorsed and taken upon himself the guardianship' of the Hamas. Morsi who is beholden to the US & her largesses can not forgo these largesses. Egypt would collapse. Morsi will never chose to passively allow the Hamas to re-arm and endanger the vital US monies he so needs.
The linkage of Morsi to the Hamas and US was a great victory for both Israel & the Hamas as one. For Israel vicariously so as Israel's benefits are governed by the US funding factor. The power of which Israel only too well understands herself.
Neither of the peoples in Israel or Gaza take this more esoteric and yet extremely significant factor into consideration. Their reflection on and conclusion about the events is negatively influenced accordingly.
But there are many added and significant bonuses. The Iranian hold over Hamas is broken. The Obama policy concept of a malleable Muslim Brotherhood is vindicated.
Gaza resorts to the pre 1967 Egyptian hegemony with the significant difference of the Egyptian - Israeli peace. Meanwhile, surely but unnoticed the Muslim Brotherhood is close to a Jordanian success. In these circumstances are we to see the West Bank resort to the pre-1967 Jordanian model with the significant Jordanian - Israeli peace in place?
Exciting times.
Remember that the virtual Egptian victory in 1973 enabled the opening of the eventually successful peace.

Attendant Lord in reply to beden

"Morsi who is beholden to the US & her largesses can not forgo these largesses." Oh? Well that suggests that his latest step, turning himself into the next Egyptian dictator, is with the blessing of the US,because by withholding funds, the US could turn that particular action around, if it so wished.

ZA Observor

A rhetorical question, but however many lives are saved by the cease fire makes the deal worthwhile for now. Appeasement does not work with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who demand the annihilation of Israel and openly reject a 2-state solution - there is nothing to negotiate about.

The length of that peace (and of international funding to Egypt), depends on whether Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood act as gatekeepers to keep rockets out of Gaza or, more likely, simply provide an easy route for their 'brothers in arms' to replenish stock piles that were successfully reduced by Israeli military action.

The status quo remains, which is that Israel's survival hinges on its military capability to counter the asymmetrical terrorism from its neighbouring states - force is the only common language between these opposing ideologies. Drones will be needed to supplement missile shields in countering unconventional warfare of Muslim extremists targeting soft civilian targets such as children. Hillary Clinton would be wise to heed Obama's advice and back off centre stage - public American meddling inflames the Middle East, whose wars have cost the US taxpayer dearly. Spare us your desire for the limelight, dear lady, and go do something useful behind the scenes.

tzatz in reply to ZA Observor




The Economists asks: Will the ceasefire lead to peace?

How can Israel make peace with people, who can't even keep peace among themselves?.

Hamas fights PLO
Shi'ite flight Sunnis
Salafists fight Christians.
Humus fights Falafel (only in Arab countries). over who is the "real deal"?
Iranians fight Arabs

The list goes on and on.

Peace will come when Muslim clerics will stop preaching hared of Jews.

tzatz in reply to mtweng

So riddle me this?

Why are 1.2 MILLION ARAB/MUSLIMS LIVING INSIDE THE STATE OF ISRAEL AS FREE CITIZENS? Why are they spared? Why are they prospering? Why are they sitting in the Israeli Parliament? Why are they sitting as Justices on the Supreme Court? Why are they doctors practicing alongside their Jewish colleagues? Why are their standard of living better than ALL the surrounding Arab/Muslim states? Why are they able to carry on their religious practices without fear of interference?

You are mislead or ignorant! Either way … you're a 'pawn in the game' … of the Arab/Muslim Islamist agenda. It's so clear to me that the Arab/Muslims masses are 'pawns in the game' … BECAUSE … their leaders require them to react without thinking … this is a 'crime against humanity' …

In the past … this was allowed to pass … BUT there is ONE AVENGER … ONE STATE ABLE TO SLAY THIS DRAGON … THE STATE OF ISRAEL and the Western Powers nobly acknowledging their right to defend themselves … INCLUDING the USA … CANADA … BRITAIN … FRANCE … AUSTRALIA … et al Notice … these are all liberal democracies who understand the situation Israel finds itself … My mother always said something like (it was in Russian): You can tell who YOU are by the FRIENDS you keep!

Attendant Lord in reply to mtweng

mtweng, the suggestion that peace will not come until the Israelis "kill everyone in the mid east who is not Jewish" is not based upon fact, now, is it? It is simply your attempt to turn around what IS factual, turn fact into lie, just as a knee jerk propaganda effort.

What IS factual is that Israel could kill everyone in the mid east who is not Jewish, and could have done so for some time now, but has not, would not and will not.

Killing everyone in the mid east who is not Jewish is the antithesis of the goal of Israelis; but killing every Jew in Israel, and driving out the Christians from Arab lands, IS the goal of Islamists.

Jews WERE ethnically cleansed from surrounding Arab states to the tune of 650,000 expelled in 1948. They didn't flee as refugees from a war; they were unequivocally driven out. Expelled.

Coptic Christians are being slaughtered today in Egypt. Jews cannot enter many Arab countries. Christian bibles cannot even enter Saudi Arabia, the greatest exporter of terror in the Middle East.

The Charter of Hamas contains many segments in which it simply repeats that the goal is to kill Jews, kill the Jews, kill the Jews.


It's a war for thousands of years.

Attendant Lord in reply to Yourassisbig

Yourassisbig wrote that "It's a war for thousands of years," but didn't detail how it began, or when.

In the early 7th Century, Islam began its military expansion. For over 1,300 years their war has continued, whether they have been in military ascendancy or descendancy. Their primary enemies throughout that time have been societies established by Christians and Jews,and their goal has been the spread of Sharia law through Islam, whether by the sword, or, more recently, through immigration into Western lands. The object of this latter immigration, unlike immigration to, say, the US, is not to assimilate into the existing society and culture,but rather to gain sufficient numbers to force the existing society to submit to Sharia law and to Islam. I am not making this up. Their own leaders write it, say in speeches, say it in Charters and say it on TV, regularly.

We are also experiencing one of the most well funded PR campaigns in the history of the world, financed by oil billions. This has been carefully researched and documented by Mitchell Bard in his book, The Arab Lobby.The latter lobby spends plenty of money complaining about the Jewish Lobby, to such an extent that much of the Western world had been led, falsely, to believe that there is no powerful Arab Lobby at all, while, in fact, it is the most powerful of them all.

This PR campaign has succeeded on many fronts, but the one most challenging to the Western mind is the one that talks about land ownership. What would once have been crystal clear to the Western mind is now fuzzy, because this Arab money has been infiltrating Western universities, buying Professorial chairs, and spreading entirely new ideas about Islam and the West.

This was presaged in 1988 in the Hamas Charter, when the strategic importance of education was announced.

Now the Western mind is completely befuddled about land ownership. The Western mind has been corrupted by Islamist ideology and is totally unaware of this. Islamist ideology holds that once land has been conquered by Islamic armies, it is theirs forever, even if it is subsequently lost in combat.

Thus, even though the West won land in WWI, the notion that this was no longer Islamic land never penetrated the Islamist mind. Similarly, if "Palestinians" begin wars with Israel, and then lose land, they immediately claim that it is "their" land--although they lost it in battles they, themselves, began.

They do this so consistently, with the help of their Lobby working abroad in Western societies, that the notion is pounded and pounded into the Western mind through repetition, until it is unquestioned. This is the state of affairs today. There is very little, if any, Western realization of what is occurring not just in Israel, or to Israel and the Middle East, but throughout Western Europe as well.


Things are defintely heading the right direction. "Operation Cast Lead" in 2008 resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths (4 from friendly fire) accroding to Wiki. By my calcuclation that's around 100 Palestinian lives for every Isareli life lost. This time aorund 140 Palestinians and 5 Isarelis were kiled, which means around 30 Palestinian lives for every Isareli life lost. Things are most definitely looking up.

tzatz in reply to Kanun



The ration is 50 : 1

So … you owe us a few … it's all right … we'll catch up in the 'next one' … INSHALLAH


The moral high ground that Turkish or many leaders from the Muslim world take while espousing Palestinian cause is a joke.Even today Turkey is killing more innocent Muslims than Israel(ask the kurds).What Turkey has done to Armenian people will never be forgotten.And it has shamelessly refused to accept the Genocide carried out by it and has never asked for forgiveness.
I do not know whether Economist has prepared statistical charts on Kurds killed by Turks and vice versa.But I doubt they would have done it, it will not look 'glamourous' enough as Palestinians killing Israelis and vice versa. At the time of writing this post innocent muslim shiite mourners are being butchered in Pakistan by suicide bombers.
One of the major problem that has to be looked closely by moderate muslims around the world is why they do not come out on streets in force when muslims kill innocent muslims/non muslims.The answer is very simple.It is very easy to blame others but when it comes to look internally, it is very difficult.While this lacunae is universal, it is more pronounced in case of Muslims.
Muslims have done grave injustice to the Palestinian cause by projecting the issue as Muslims versus Jews.It has only increased the Palestinians suffering and helped in their radicalisation.

Attendant Lord in reply to sidr1

Sidr1 has completely ignored the position that Turkey has taken on Iranian nuclear ambitions.Turkey sided against nearly the entire UN security council against the US led embargo. Turkey is dismantling the Ataturk secular revolution, and doing so by jailing the generals who were tasked throughout the 20th century, with protecting Ataturk's western leaning revolution. Turkey is now squarely in the fold of Islam, not the West. It was from Turkey that the murderous IHH on the flotilla attacked the Israeli blockade, designed to prevent advanced weaponry, such as has recently been used against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, from easily reaching Gazan ports. Turkey is no ally of the West. Today they lobby Obama for Patriot missile technology--undoubtedly to pass on to Iran to use against the Israelis who are thought to be planning an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Look to Obama, who stood down as Egypt's revolution to topple a western leaning dictator occurred, to stand down again as Morsi becomes the Islamist leaning dictator. Look to Obama to provide Turkey with Patriot missiles, even though Turkey is no longer in the Western camp. Look to Obama to do Israel in through international actions and inactions like these that world press in its usual fashion, overlooks.

AJHilltop in reply to sidr1


Look to the Turkish Invasion and seize of Northern Cyprus.









Peace talks with now vindicated and STRENGTHENED Death to Israel movements like Hamas and its Muslim Brotherhood parent is a diplomatic fiction that only the Economist can really believe! Hamas will show its strength by keeping up the rocket fire as it did when ignored IDENTICAL pledges after the 2009 Cease fire. The only difference is that Hamas will ( through surrogates Islamic Jihad) ramp up daily rocketing quicker with looser controls. Israel's leaders have told residents within thirty miles of Gaza to just take IT!! Maybe Ben Gurion International Airport and Tel Aviv are the real Red Lines for the foreseeable future!

John Petersen

What an idiotic title. Of course the cease-fire will not lead to peace. The only thing that will lead to PEACE is JUSTICE, meaning an end to the apartheid state currently in place in Israel, an independent Palestinian state, the right of refugees to return to their homes (hey, the West went to war in Bosnia because ethnic cleansing was unacceptable. If it's unacceptable there, why should it be acceptable in Israel?) Otherwise, Palestinians will continue to fight with the means at their disposal, and now that their Arab brothers are led by democratically elected governments accountable to the people (rather than the dictators of old who did America's bidding) the Palestinians have more support.
My advice to them: continue the resistance. Few countries in the world got their independence by asking nicely. So continue fighting until you get your rights back. And it seems that Hamas is doing just that, unlike that weak and ineffective Abbas regime.

john4law in reply to John Petersen

You mean an end to Israel ( a/k/a) the Apartheid State to justify its destruction ( the South African White community WAS NEVER attacked generally or constantly threatened with elimination)!! Yes an Auschwitz Peace would mean that Arabs and other Muslim could have their JEW Free Blood Bath over the spoils of "liberated" Palestine and would be jolly, jolly bloody about who owns the bones!! What rights is Hamas talking about getting back by being perfectly honest about its elimination of Jews as PART OF ITS WRITTEN PROGRAM! You are either totally ignorant of Hamas or more certainly AGREE with its gruesome aims and just want to spout nonsense to cover your bigotry!!

guest-ljjjlml in reply to john4law

Well, the Israelis are openly fretting that they didn't kill enough Palestinians in this latest go-around to fully satisfy their blood-lust, so your animated analysis of Israel as the victim does not hold water.

F R O Y in reply to john4law

You obviously don't remember the wars South Africa waged with most of its neighbors. They also claimed to be battling an "existential" struggle, and also claimed to be the West's "first line of defense", this time against communism, the bogeyman of the time. Afrikaaners would of course paint it as if the very day apartheid was taken down, revenge-seeking black "savages" would have their very own WHITE blood bath over the spoils of liberated South Africa.

All in all, it was just another colonial conflict, where the colonial population defended their privileges against the natives who wanted to take them away from them and shake off their domination, much like Arabs have been trying to do in Palestine since the creation of Israel.

MySetDancer in reply to guest-ljjjlml

Those of us who have decided not to support one side over another read your post and easily see your blind partisanship and/or self-delusion. If you shoot rockets at someone and they respond in-kind, that is self-defense.

Yes, there are other issues in the "conflict" but the simple fact is that Hamas wanted Israel to respond so it could keep its control of the poor civilian population.

When I was a child in the early 1960's there was quite a bit of sympathy for the palestinian "cause" but when they started murdering Americans and hijacking planes all that sympathy evaporated. Why? It is another plot? No. It is a reaction against murderers. Now most Americans have little or no sympathy for the murderers/Hamas/palestinians/nutcases. They are now seen as mostly the same people. Perhaps it is untrue, but that is what they earned by their actions.

And oh, by the way, who would waste their time plotting to kill palestinians anyway as your post says? I for one could care less.

Attendant Lord in reply to guest-ljjjlml

The Israelis are openly fretting that by not going into Gaza militarily, they left the rockets and rocket launchers hidden int the basements of apartment buildings along the Gaza n border, ready to be used again against Israeli civilians.

marting456 in reply to John Petersen

I guess the one million Jews expelled from Arab countries doesn't bother you. It's fine as long they are Jews, right? Perhaps a more just solution would be that those countries that disposed their Jewish population and confiscated their land and property would take in the homeless Palestinians? But I guess this wouldn't occur to someone spreading Nazi propaganda. Apartheid in Israel? There is not a single Arab country in the world where Arab citizens have human rights like in Israel. From gays to women's rights for Arabs Israel is 1000 years ahead of its neighbors.

Why does a moron like you even bother to comment?

ahmed limam in reply to marting456

Abuse doesn't help in any debate. And I perfectly agree with you that nobody should be expelled from their homeland. So you agree with me, right, that Palestinians should be allowed to go back to their ancestral lands, and Jews who were expelled from Arab countries should be allowed to go back there. Deal? Peace treaty?

ahmed limam in reply to john4law

Typical propaganda. Nothing will be destroyed, the monuments in the Holy Land will still stay there, and so will the olive groves, and the shining sun. It's just that the majority (Muslim and Christian Arabs) will be in charge. Jews are invited to stay on ...as a minority. Why are they so scared? Could it be because they know of the horrible treatment they have meted out to the Palestinians and are afraid of getting the same back? Well, maybe they shouldn't have done what they did. But I am sure that wise men will prevail.

In the 21st century, dictatorships are behind us,and democracy means rule of the majority. Sorry, but Arabs ARE the majority in Israel/Palestine, you may not like it, but facts are facts, and they do have that stubborn habit of sticking around, whether you like them or not

john4law in reply to ahmed limam

Sorry to upset your day but Hamas,Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran and all Middle East Islamic groups with any influence whatsoever have the total destruction of the Jewish community in Palestine ( ALL OF SO-CALLED Israel) as a bottom line!! In fact Hezbollah and many theologians in Iran have openly called for the DEATH OF ALL JEWS WORLDWIDE to insure the CRIME OF ZIONISM never comes again!!! Why do you think the Jewish community in ARGENTINA was deliberately slaughtered twice in 1992 and 1994 by Iran and Hezbollah! Is Argentina a stolen land from the Muslims???


As long as the peace process is handled by the regional players, it will work out. Keep the outsiders (US. Europe, Russia..) out of it.

Best wishes

Kishore Nair from Mumbai www.soffina.com

tzatz in reply to soffina

Why do you think the deal got done between Hamas and Israel? Do you think it was MORSI that got it done? Why was the deal NOT DONE until Clinton showed up? Take a guess!

Israel did not want a guarantee from Egypt but it could ask that the USA sit in on the deal and hear the terms and then guarantee that the USA makes Morsi GUARANTEE exactly what ALL PARTIES … ISRAEL & HAMAS AND EGYPT UNDERSTOOD … otherwise there would NOT have been a deal!

The USA's presence was the deal maker … sure Morsi has boosted his stock (to the detriment of Turkey and Qatar) but as we've seen today … he has overplayed his own hand INSIDE Egypt … he's someone that ISRAEL can't trust … that's why Clinton presence made the deal!

luigi bianchi

The shifting of Hamas from Iran to Turkey,from Syria to Quatar and Aegypt is useless.Israel pretends not to believe and accept this move,and the reason is simple:Nethanyahu,has no intention of stopping the settlements into Palestine,nor of beginning a road map to peace with all the palestinians.There is no minimum interest of the israeli government to stop to try to humiliate the palestinians:the recent revolutions in the arab states are changing the political map in Middle East,but they show no interest in this change:Obama should rediscute the financements to Israel and the collaboration on military programs.This is the only language to be spoken with he zionists.

tzatz in reply to luigi bianchi

Israel does not want more territory … no let me rephrase that … it would accept more territory BUT NOT WITH ARAB/MUSLIMS … Israel can only exist IF … IT IS OVERWHELMINGLY JEWISH AND DEMOCRATIC …
So don't fret … the size of Israel is pretty much what you see on the current map … the Filistans have to accept a state on what's left to them … if they don't … then expect there to be many more bursts of violence … with patches of quiet … unless the Israelis can figure out a drone network and robotic soldiers to patrol the 'occupied territories' on their behalf … dispatching 'justice' as they've been programmed to do … relax … it's a few years off … and the ratio of 50 : 1 would still apply … LOL


As long as Israel exists as an independent state in the Middle East - there will never be peace.

john4law in reply to Napoleon1798

Does that mean that Death and Destruction to Israel will bring a Garden of Peace and Good will towards ALL to the Arab or Muslim worlds?? You have to have a really twisted view of the history of both Europe and the Middle East to think such a successful act of Genocide or ethnic cleansing will bring anything but bolder horrors and totalitarian wars among Arabs and Iranians as we have seen in the very recent past!!

Attendant Lord in reply to Napoleon1798

YOu, Napoleon1798, did not explain why you believe there would never be peace. I wonder if you realize that as long as the West is keeping Islam from full control of Jerusalem, there will never be peace because Islam will have none of peace when it is called to holy war to reclaim every inch of soil it won in conquest but later lost. Islam has been losing to the West for over 300 years, and it is now gearing up to reverse the course of history once again, and not just in the tiny region where Gazans are fighting against the Infidel, either. Pay attention.

Napoleon1798 in reply to Attendant Lord

The Israeli Declaration of Independence was made on the 14th of May 1948. The next day (15th of May 1948) the Arab-Israeli War started. Ever since then, there has been numerous ceasefires and peace talks - yet violence continues.

For the modern context - a ceasefire has been negotiated. Yet it is just a matter of time before more violence erupts.

Napoleon1798 in reply to john4law


In no way am I suggesting ethnic cleansing. I am merely stating the possibility of real peace for the state of Israel in the Middle East.


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