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And that's not all Hamas has been up to:

Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seemed to have noticed.
On Tuesday Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Sharia criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, the code legalizes crucifixion.

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While this is not technically our (USA) war, it seems to me to be another fire lit just in time for the incoming president. Our "intelligence" agencies and Homeland security agencies are going to be doing nothing but putting out fires. Hopefully this president will be able to be firm in the convictions that America and it's interests should be allowed to be free from terrorism. (of course terrorism needs to be properly defined; not just they think and operate differently than we do so they are terrorists).

The question is how do you come to an agreement with someone that doesn't think you have the right to live??? I say this as a question for both sides of the terrorism debate.

Just my two cents worth. With our economy right now...

I don't think that's a true representation. The enemies of Israel don't want to kill its inhabitants but to get them to leave.

The modern unrest in that region started when Israel was arbitrarily created out of other people's land in 1948. No compensation was offered or even contemplated, and no acceptable arrangements were made for rehousing those people displaced. Israel has behaved ever since with total contempt for its non-Jewish citizens, who really epitomise the term "second class citizen". If they wanted to inflame sensitivities they could hardly do a better job. Who knows, perhaps they do.

If viable compensation had been paid, if Israel treated non-Jews better, if they were ever prepared to see the problem from the other side, maybe the situation wouldn't have deteriorated as much as it has done. Look at how Egypt peacefully resolved its major difficulties with Israel, after many years of fruitless war.

The way to deal with terrorism is to understand what motivates it and try to deal with the root cause. This has been well established over the years in many places, including British India, Northern Ireland & Kenya, to name just three. Using brute force against terrorism has never worked and I am confident will not work now. Sure, you may kill all the people locally who are lobbing missiles at you, but they will only be replaced by other sympathisers, probably by then even better funded. The violence steadily escalates. And since the USA is (rightfully) seen as the paymaster for Israel you can expect some of that escalating violence to come across the Atlantic. Wasn't 9/11 enough?

"The enemies of Israel don't want to kill its inhabitants but to get them to leave."

Please substantiate that. Policy statements by leaders of Israel's enemies will suffice.

But since they are killing its inhabitants, what should Israel do?

President Jeff what'sisname to the captured alien in Independence Day: "What do you want us to do?"

Alien: "Die"

It's a pretty straightforward, old-as-humanity scenario, Peter. Wars are waged to kill the enemy. The enemy fights back.

Why are you taking sides in this anyway?

Allowed to be free of terrorism? Well, I guess Obama really is a miracle worker.

Interesting that America, the Champions of Democracy, didn't fully agree with the outcome of the Palestinian elections. Remember those? Hamas won.1

I don't know what the best thing to do over there. I fear that unless the USA abandons Israel the Islamic extremists will always be after us. Did you see the news footage of the Palestinians dancing in the streets on 9/11?

I just don't see an end to this for Israel or the USA. We can pull out of Iraq, but I don't think that the conflict will end. It'll just move, I fear. Worst case: It moves here. I don't have any easy answers, none. I wish we could be allowed to live free of terrorism, but it's difficult to see Hamas and all the rest going into retirement.


Dan


Note 1. In the 2006 elections, Hamas took 74 seats to Fatah's 45, out of a total of 132.

Dan, if you would read the statement you are referring to a second time, I believe you would see that the focus is on the CONVICTION that America and it's interests SHOULD BE allowed free from terrorism.

I am sick of hearing that we (the USA) deserve what we have gotten. I am also tired of seeing/hearing of people in other parts of this earth dealing with such atrocities.

Tongue in cheek: "why can't we all just get along"?

Oh, and as far as the miracle worker... we could use one and I for one will be praying for our president and the rest of the government (since the president can't do much if anything on his own).

Again, just my take on things.

Very good point, Dan Carey. And NOW it is time for the Palestinians to reap the rewards of that vote! You got what you voted for.
"We" will probably be saying the same thing in 4 years!

The "modern unrest" has long and deep roots in history. Israel was NOT arbitrarily created out of other people's land - Israel's land was returned to its original owners. While there may be some debate about the efficacy of that decision given all that has transpired in the region since the Jews first had the land taken from them by the Arabs, there really can be no debate that the Jewish people were the initial owners and that they have had possession of that land off and on throughout history.

The region was initially called Judea and inhabited by the Jews until the Romans conquered and renamed it Palestine. Later the Arabs conquered it and had primary possession for the next 1000 or so years. There was always at least a portion of the Jewish people who longed for return to what they considered holy land. More recently Britain was granted Palestine for the express purpose of returning it to the Jewish people. That's when the Arabs decided it was "their" land and that the Jews should be purged from the area. Rather than carrying out their original mandate, Britain attempted to stem Jewish immigration to the region until other countries started making demands in support of Jewish immigration after the Holocaust. Eventually in 1947 the UN stepped in and attempted to "split the baby" into Arab and Jewish states. The Jews would have settled for that, but the Arabs refused and there has been conflict between them pretty much ever since.

In many respects it's difficult to take sides, or to fail to see some merit in the positions of each side - what would the US response be if all of a sudden Native Americans decided they were going to take back "their" land and that they were going to do it by force? Would their early treatment by the US government play any role in justifying such action? There just are no simple answers to this kind of conflict...

Peter et al, here's what our new President had to say about it:

Published: December 28, 2008 The New York Times
WASHINGTON - When President-elect Barack Obama went to Israel in July - to the very town, in fact, whose repeated shelling culminated in this weekend's new fighting in Gaza - he all but endorsed the punishing Israeli attacks now unfolding.

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," he told reporters in Sderot, a small city on the edge of Gaza that has been hit repeatedly by rocket fire. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."


I've got a good feeling about this guy

Oh yeah, that's something to feel good about - 'cause we can see how incredibly successful the last couple thousand years of violence has been in resolving this conflict . . .