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Why begin this story with the number of Palestinians killed, when the REASON for the attack by IDF was terror by Hamas.
This is very misleading to the uninformed.

"Israel Retaliates"

A horribly slanted title.

Hmmm. Let's see.......you ask why begin the article with the number of Palestinians killed? Perhaps because the value of their lives is of as much value as the rest of us. The life of a helpless Plaestinian child is just precious as the life of an Israeli child. Or are those massacred Palestinian children militants too. Or how about the elderly? Or is banning food, water, fuel, electricity, medical aid,etc not enough punishment. Do we dare call this a holocaust or howabout genocide? Oooh call me antisemetic now. That's what you would say!

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The Palestinians have a grievance going back sixty years because of the way they were treated by the Jews in the creation of Israel. I would have thought that after the persecution of Jews in the second world war Israel would be more compassionate and understanding. They currently are no better than the nazis.

It's about time! Israel was being very patient in not retaliating sooner. Let the Hamas cowards run back into their rat-holes and stay there. If they don't and Hamas continues to launching rockets on top of Israeli civilians' heads, they will have only themselves to blame for the results. At some point, ordinary citizens of Gaza have to take responsibility for their own future. If they do not, it's their own damn fault.

Once, I had nothing but admiration for the Israelis; now, nothing but contempt. People complain about starting the article with the number of Palestinians killed???? Perhaps a weather report to start the article. That there were no Israelis killed or seriously injured might explain the article...in fact, that should have been the beginning of the article. "In spite of the fact that no Israelis were killed or seriously injured during the recent heavy rocket fire from Gaza, at least 195 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli air strikes." How does _that_ sound? Perhaps those that protest the wording of the article are having issues with their consciences. Probably not.

@H5jake: How is it slated. If Iran was the one launching the Kassam missiles themselves, you know, THE EXACT SAME MISSILES, you know, the ones they designed and provided, into Iraq, or if Syria was pelting Lebanon with them, it wouldn't be the former retaliating? Hamas was the one who was launching these attacks BEFORE and AFTER the ceasefire ended. So, the Israel dropped bombs on the likely launching points, Hamas is the one using civilans as a shield, which is permitted in the Qu'ran and blames the attackers for the deaths (you might want to know/read what it says).

@noratj: Yes, the life of either child dying matters just as much. But, read the data. They say most of the causalities are NOT children, but security forces. Hamas has launched more then 200 since the ceasefire with no provocation. If I launch rockets at you and your family, does that mean you WONT attack me to make me stop?

@morelos: Yes, they have a legitimate grievance going back. Israel was wrong then. Hamas has broken down the two state solution process. They wont negotiate. All they want to do is bomb, both by air and by person, their way into ruling the entire region. The Jews of Europe didn't launch rockets from their ghetto's. They didn't make claims to large swaths of countries and refuse to talk. Ans they aren't rounding people up and gassing/burning them. They are retaliating as best they can in an imperfect world to STOP the rockets fromr raining down. How can you talk peace if the other side wont? I agree, it'd be nice for it not to happen at all, but NEITHER side is as bad as the Nazi's. Talk to ANY WW II allied surviour and you'll be set right.

Re: Dena Silver
If "terror" by Hamas justified this attack, where are the 200 dead Israelis? Where are five? In fact, not one was killed in the Hamas shelling. To contend that 200 Palestinians killed is not the story lead -- in other words, not important -- is simply depraved. Once again, I'm ashamed to be a Jewish American.

The actions of the israeli government are sickening indeed. It seems to me that hamas had knowledge of the impending strike and the only ones caught off guard are the innocent civillians of Gaza. It makes you wonder if the strike is really about defeating Hamas as much as Israel trying to show its might and dominance over the people of Palestine, which, lets face it, Israel is slowly invading and attempting to subvert palestines government and people.

Earth to God, earth to God,,,please come in.

to morelos and noratj: comparing israel to the nazi regime is ridiculously offensive. lets all understand that the nazis systematically tried to eradicate all jews, gypsies, and homosexuals from the face of this earth. they rounded them up and they killed them. not only that, but its not exactly like the jews, gypsies, and homosexuals were doing anything but trying to live their lives. the holocaust was a heinous event, and it should not be spoken about so lightly. calling people "no better than nazis" and comparing things to the holocaust only serves to distort history and cheapen the horrors that happened during that time. i'd also like to note, noratj, that writing comments like "call my antisemetic now, thats what you would say" is quite hateful and presumptive of you. nobody is going to call you anti-semetic for having opinions. you are welcome to them. but there is an opinion and there is crossing a line. cheapening the holocaust is crossing a line. making hurtful comments about jews (or anybody) who are offended when people use the term holocaust or nazi loosely is wrong.

now, i would like to actually comment on this story.

it is always terrible when innocent people are killed. and nobody is going to be happy about it. or celebrate it. its a sad, sad, horrible thing.

that being said, civilian casualties are a sad side effect of war. and lets be honest, this is a war.
we can all go back and forth on the history and who is right and who is wrong, but that won't solve anything, so we have to look at the facts of this event through a sterile lens.

the facts are that hamas which is recognized as a terrorist organization is in control of gaza - not by force, they were elected. the facts are also that hamas has no agenda to make peace with israel or to settle on a two state solution. their mission is the destruction of israel. end of story.
they also fired hundreds and hundreds of long range rockets into israel - and not into military bases, but into towns. they aim their rockets at civilians. so while it is horrible that civilians were killed in the israeli attacks on gaza, at least those were not aimed at civilians. those civilians were not the target of said attacks. thats a HUGE difference.

if somebody were aiming and shooting rockets into our cities, and our towns, we would be outraged. and even if nobody got hurt (though, it is not true that there were no israeli deaths, there were. not as many as palestinian deaths, but a life is a life). we would still feel that we would need to retaliate.

so israel is doing just that. its not like they didn't say to the people of gaza, overthrow hamas, stop the rocket shooting or else. cause they did. its not like they did not open up the supply channels hoping that this would be avoided, because they did. (the debate on the supply channels is for another time). but it didn't help. there was no other option but a military one.

i know that there are those who would say that hamas leaders had already gone underground...but israel was targeting their weapons supply. the idea being to get rid of the rockets that are terrorizing the israeli people.

look, its not a black and white situation. and im not going to sit here and say that the israeli government has always been fair and good and wonderful to the palestinians. but they are responding to attacks on their country.

wouldn't you want our country to do the same for us?

Regardless of how you label the operation, it is terribly disproportionate.