Uhh, yes they were! They told them to evacuate so they could get a better shot at the joooos during the war of independence. Then they lost the war and some territory with it.

Brilliant – why can we see things so clearly and nobody else can?

Lilliput

Hamas firing missiles from within civilian areas contravenes the rules of war, not to mention conventional morality. Moreover, whilst admittedly the Israelis may be very heavy-handed in their approach they are at least attempting/intend to target military objectives, whilst Hamas on the other hand deliberately targets civilians.

Maybe because they weren’t responsible for the ethnic cleansing that displaced them?

The palestinians hate Israelis because their holy book tells them to hate Jews. Theyre also jealous because Jews are so much more successful than they are.

And the Israelis are going to overreact because, being Jews they have been almost completely wiped out on several occasions.

Thats why they’ve been fighting for as long as living memory can recall.
The only sensible solution and the only constructive thing which we could do would be to encourage the surrounding Arab countries to rehouse the Palestinians within their borders. If they really cared about them they would have done this decades ago. Hmm I wonder why they haven’t?

as in – I knew that was what you meant, and I was being ironic, and that I was fully aware Israel doesn’t want peace.

The problem when nations believe there is a choice between peace and victory, is that they tend to choose victory – no matter the cost.

They do not WANT peace.

Israeli elections + Obama not yet inaugurated + Abbas constitutionally obliged to call date of next PA elections = Israel seeking to kill as many Palestinians and destroy as much of Gaza as possible.

http://www.scriboergosum.org.uk/revamp/2124

Get this into your heads: They do not peace. Peace doesn’t suit the Israeli Right & it doesn’t suit the Israeli Centre. Peace obliges dealing with the settler situation, that’s not something the Israeli Right wants to happen and even assuming it is (which you shouldn’t assume) what the centre does it’s not something that they can afford to do.

War suits the Israeli establishment just fine. It’s a central plank of the Kadima re-election strategy, in fact.

It almost certainly would, except maybe Hamas are libertarians and don’t believe the state should spend money on anything except weapons.

(actually one reason for the popularity of Hamas has been precisely that it provided healthcare, education and welfare services even whilst not in power, and the PLO was failing to do so).

Would not all the money and time spent by Hamas on weapons and conflict be better spent on water and sewage treatment, healthcare and education ? FATAH has misused vasts sums of money . Would ‘nt a Hamas government producing a well run administration with a better quality sewage treatment, water supply, electricity supply , healthcare , education and a more rapidly growing economy be a better way of showing Hamas as preferable to FATAH when it cpme to government?

Or: ‘It’s not fair! Why can’t they fight like a regular army (even though they’re not, and can’t be) so we can kill them more easily?’

Who cares, “He started it” is barely a credible argument for a 5 year old.

banter

Sadly, there’s no grudge quite like an ancient grudge.