Death on either side is very sad and of course Israel have lost people also, but you can't equate the carnage and death's of so many many Palestinian's compared to Israel death toll.
The force from Israel is so much greater there is no question of that and their unwillingness to give access to aid, media etc is not acceptable.
Of course the protests are higher against Israel as they are seen as the biggest aggressor as they have so much in military might compared to Palestine and will do what they want when they want.
They are even ignoring the latest UN required ceasefire which has been backed by us, so you tell me who is the biggest trouble maker here?

Thank god someone's finally posted an article like this on a reputable site. I've not understood why the fact Israel had been attacked endlessly has been glossed over so thoroughly by the media.

What really irks me is a lot of complaints are coming from here, at home, as we wrap up a war that was incited by what boils down to a single attack at home which was completely out of scale for what we needed to accomplish.

Israel should be commended on its repeated and constant efforts to deploy diplomacy before brute force and really deserves some international support at this point rather than being pointed out as the 'bully.'

Mr. Pogrund, please, inform yourself before making a plea in vain:

"Israel, not Hamas, broke the recent truce, both by attacking Hamas on November 4 and by imposing an economic strangle-hold on Gaza. Israel's blockade left the people of Gaza desperately lacking in food, fuel, electricity, medical supplies, and other necessities for weeks before the current attack began. Israel has consistently ignored Hamas truce offers. Instead, helped by the U.S., it has tried to destroy the Hamas government, which Palestinians democratically chose to rule them. Israel, helped by the U.S., has also consistently inflamed tensions between Hamas and Fatah and blocked their efforts at creating a unified regime.

Anyone who does not know, or ignores, those crucial facts can hardly hope to frame a just resolution to the conflict. Yet all of that background simply disappears from the supposedly even-handed approach in our news media."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/06-13

It is this ignorance (your blog/story) that no doubt lets catastrophes like the Iraq invasion by the U.S. and such happen. We have too many that are uninformed at best or biased that allow such incidents to go unchallenged. If you want to be taken seriously, please inform yourself then find the courage to be honest about the reality of the situation.

Disappointing that the very sane piece by your contributor meets the usual anti-Israel spiel from Cajola. His or her conscience has apparently nothing to say about the fact that Hamas hides among the civlians - deliberately exposing them tothe danger they deliberately provoked. This proportionately argument is absurd. Had Israel to wait until it had lost hundreds before protecting its citizens. Bear in mind the Hamas rockets - fired at random without warning into civililan areas- would have killed many more but for Israel's defensive measures. As for the cease fire, bear in mind, too, that Hamas is dedicated not to peace but to killing as many Israelis as it can and used the last cease fire to amass weapons and explosives with the help of its friends in Iran to go on killing as many Jews as it could What we are seeing here is anti-Semitism masquerading as humanitarian concern. Give me a break.The hypocrisy is nauseating.

to answer the question about where the protestors were during the rocket attacks: they were voting/supporting/cheering the people who sent them.

next question.

OH poor Israel.
They stole land from the Palestinians, confine them to isolated areas (camps) , then kill them when the Palestinians try to defend themselves.
Forgive me if I don't shed a tear for Israel.

The entire premise of this article relies on the propaganda which has been shoveled onto US citizens for decades now: that Israel is just being attacked willy-nilly by crazy terrorists. The reality is that Israel has been systematically infiltrating Palestine--including Gaza--with settlements that give their military power over the population, while usurping Palestine's right to its resources, like water supplies.

Even if a ceasefire is reached, Israel and some of its more militant citizens will still occupy Gaza.

If anything, Israel should expect more protests against its inhumane and unjust policies.

Anybody who critize Israel is automatically called and "anti-semite"!!!
That is far from the truth though, I/we don't agree with Israel or the US and it's backing because it is counter productive.
Both sides in this conflict have their own reasons as to why this conflict is so volatile and for us to only see and agree with one side is totally wrong.
Israel are the domineering force here and they say what they will and won't do...even with this latest required UN ceasefire and they still say they are going to continue their mission!!
So I don't want anyone saying how they want peace when they are real aggressors in all this and we need to get really tough on them, time for this pussy footing around Israel is long gone.

This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.

The article provides a counterpoint to all of the hype, warrented or not, around the Palestinian movement. Cajola, you are the one pussy footing -- you flipflop between supporting Israel, and damning it...

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas thugs regularly murder gay people whose only "crime" is that they are discovered as being gay. Sometimes, people possibly heterosexual are murdered by Hamas thugs on the supposition that they are gay.

This goes on constantly. It is not reported about in major media, nor do people gather en masse in cities around the world to protest it. You have to look quite hard to find online any expression of concern for the rights, including the right to live, of gay people in the Gaza Strip. There are no U.N. resolutions, calling for Hamas to respect the rights of gay people.

The number of gay people killed by Hamas thugs yearly is far greater than the number of people killed in the current war.

Hamas is calling for the elimination of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in that area of land. Sharia calls for gay people to be killed. In today's Israel, gay people enjoy nearly full legal equality. They serve openly in the military.

Hamas propagandists routinely publish material claiming that all homosexual activity in the Arab world is Israel's "fault."

I have to assume that the people speaking up on behalf of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and against Israel's defensive actions, are at best neutral and possibly in favor of Hamas policies towards gay people.

mransom

I don't know where you get the idea that I flip flop over Israel, I have always thought they were the aggressors here...your comment make no sense!!!!

It is fairly clear as to what it will take to end the struggle as far as give and take. However, when will Hamas renounce the clause in its charter that states that they want to destroy the state of Israel? You can talk about putting such a thing on hold but it needs finally to be renounced and no longer applying. Then both sides can sit down and negotiate. Till that is done, there will be no end of warfare.

so much of the conversation around the proportionality of Israel's (legitimate) response to missles misses the point. this problem began not when hamas was elected (i must remind everyone - they were elected), but in 1948. no finger pointing here, but palestinian rage has a cause. hamas was born from the rage of being suppressed for sixty years. it's not as simple as "they fired missles. we were so patient, but finally something had to be done." it's way, way deeper than that.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7815630.stm

http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Johnnorth,

if Israel was so on the right why are they prohibiting journalists from accessing the events on the ground? The mention of them hiding amongst civilians is propaganda provided by the IDS to present themselves as the "victims". There is no supporting evidence what so ever to say that they are hiding between civilians, other than the IDF sources. Provide supporting evidence and do not just listen without verification of facts.

An excellent article, Beast, and one that seems to be getting little play in the international media. Certainly, the Palenstinians have grievances with Israel over land rights, but nothing justifies 6,000 rockets--all of them, aimed at civilians--over the past six years.

Now, we see Palestinians on TV nightly demanding Israel obey international law. But I wish they could point out to us the international law that justifes firing rockets aimed at civilians over a land dispute. They themselves should operate throught he legal channels they demand of Israelis.

As to the purported solution of "a return to the 1967 borders," (oh gosh, the fighting will stop once Israel pulls up its settlements and returns to the 67 borders) it's worth remembering why Israel pushed past the 1967 borders in the first place: the threat of Imminent attack from its Arab neighbors. Now it's again responding (in 2006 and today) to attacks from its Arab neighbors. What else would you have Israel do? Return to the '67 borders, and then await the inevitable threats that they push back further?

No. The cycle has to end. Unfortunately for the arabs (and the Persians, it would seem, who are now the motivating force behind Hamas), Israel has learned the unfortunate lesson that their neighbors will only respond to extreme, brute force. Diplomacy and international law are a trifle to the region's extremists, who only recognize the sword. Sad, but it would seem to be their culture.

At bottom, Palestine (and Lebanon, and Iran, presumeably) have but one choice: keep to themselves, or awaken the sleeping giant to their own doom. It sickens me that this seems to be the only efffective course of action for Israel, but I can't say I blame them.

From now until the end of time, there will be no peace in the middle east, but only downtimes between Israel's ass-whippings of their diplomatically unsophisticated neighbors.

I agree with thecolonel. It is always awful when innocent people die, but Israel didn't have much of a choice. I atleast get a sense from the Israelis that they feel bad about causing civilian deaths in Gaza, and the responses from Hamas supporters are always so stupid, like "well, yeah, we fire rockets but they don't always hit stuff."
stupid.

The problem I have with this article is that it is just as biased as the bias it purports to speak out against. The reason for the protests is quite simple...death tolls bring people out, whereas attempted attacks tend not to.

Has Hamas fired rockets? Yes. Have Israeli's lived in fear and a few of them died from these rockets? Yes. But this does not change the dispraportionate response by Israel.

Palestinians have also lived in fear, cut off from the outside world. The lack of food and medical supplies only furthers the enragement that comes from a displaced people. And please, let's not forget...Israel is a fairly recently created state. And the Palestinians (many of whom had lived there for many years before the creation of Israel) weren't exactly partial to its creation in the first place.

The whole thing reminds me of so many other situations in the world in which the response to a perceived threat is to stop talking, and barricade the offensive party inside the defined borders. Somehow, we never seem to realize that this strategy only ends up enraging the innocent civilians who are just trying to live. The rage of these civilians at not being able to get basic supplies then ends up allowing organizations like Hamas to come to power in the first place.

Maybe, just maybe, if Israel were to make a few concessions and attempt to improve the standard of living in the occupied zones instead of barricading them, the people of Palestine would elect far more moderate governmental bodies. And maybe, just maybe, if both sides would respect the others right to exist and realize that concessions will have to come from each side, peace might be achieved. Personally though, I'm certainly not holding my breath.

you gonna count the number of rocks thrown as well?

apples & oranges idiot

Cajola & afrancisco --- you are both COMPLETE IDIOTS. IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What really bother me about this article, and many I have read, is this idea that people who disagree with Israel's policy and war is due to an underlying hate for Jewish people. It's absolutely ridiculous! It is also VERY offensive. I agree with afrancisco on many points. This land does not belong to the Jewish people more than it belongs to the Palestinian people. And Israel should not have imposed the blockade creating such an unlivable situation for Palenstinians in Gaza. For those who say that the only thing coming out of those tunnels is weapons, well that is just not true. It is everything, all sorts of things b/c it's the only way the Palenstinians have to survive! No Israeli's shouldn't have to live under the threat of rocket fire daily but the harm inflicted in my humble opinon has not been enough to warrant the kind of attack Israel has launched. There are other means that should have been pursued first. And now Israel is dropping leaflets telling people that if Hamas doesn't give up they have even harsher means of attacking them and that the Palestinians should evacuate. Evacuate to where? That leaves me with a feeling that Israel is basically saying, we will start bombing and attacking until the place is flattened if we have too to take care of Hamas. In my opinion that is just not right.

We live in a fairly stable nation and yet we still have terrorist extremists here...however, we have very few and these aberrations are shunned by the rest. So what is the difference, why don't we have bombing in the streets?? Are we more moral, less willing to kill for our cause??? No, the fact is that every human being on this planet is the same - HUMAN (which means capable of good and evil -- sorry folks your nationality, religion, profession, race, etc is NOT the factor in whether you are naughty or nice).
The difference is we have something to lose!! Most, not all by any means, of Americans have a relatively good life (yes, there is crime, poverty etc) but compared to most of the rest of the world we live in a pretty good place (if you doubt that please travel outside of the US for awhile!!!!). Now, go to countries where you have the most violent terrorist groups and you will see that one of the main ingredients needed for terrorism to flourish is to give them nothing to lose: take their land, their religion, their culture, etc, etc, give them no way to make $$ or any ability to ever improve their lives or the lives of their children. Then start killing their moms, dads, cousins, friends, neighbors, etc (preemptively - you know for your own safety).......mix with a few Molotov Cocktails and the next hot new extremist terrorist group is born.

For either side on this issue to pretend that the other does not have some incredibly good reasons to kill each other is ridiculous. If Americans were being oppressed by another nation we would fight and kill said oppressors to obtain our freedom from such tyranny (can you say AMERICAN REVOLUTION??)...peace will only come in 2 ways - 1 side completely kills everyone on the other (and their sympathizers, and their sympathizers friends and family and....) or if both sides agree to concede A LOT. Yes, there will still be extremists but when both sides have something to lose terrorism will, like in American and other places, be the exception NOT the rule.

Intelligentbydesign: what would be the "proportional response"? 6000 rockets fired indiscriminately? That would be problematic, I would guess, as time has proven the Israelis are much better shots.

And why should Palestinians get a pass because they are such horrible shots? It's not that they only wanted to kill one or two Israelis--it's that they didn't succeed in killing hundreds or thousands. Should Israel's response be proportionate to the number of people Palestinians have TRIED to kill, or the number they SUCCEEDED in killing?

If it's the latter, how should we work it: execution by firing squad? Only blowing up buildings where we know there are a similiar number of people?

Again: if you throw darts at Hercules all day, you can't complain when he gets up and breaks your face. Sure, your broken face doesn't equal a few pin pricks, but then you should have considered Hercules' likely response when you started throwing darts.

And remember, people: these aren't darts. They're missles meant to kill. Successful or not, they're not inconsequential, and if they were landing near our homes we, too, would demand a thorough and complete response. NOT a "proportional" response.