Aye, there's the rub. They would have to get past that stumbling block. They have come close in the past, but now the two sides look more entrenched than ever.

People are sometimes so eager to cry "antisemite!" offering the slightest criticism is a little like walking on hot coals. But if Israel overreacts (and it looks like they are getting ready to do just that) watch how people change their tune.

Yes! Israel is by far the richer, more accomplished, better situated of the two parties. And as such I think they have a responsibility to be the adult in the room. But instead of showing a little magnanimity, they seem to pounce on every opportunity to be more tyrannical, more brutal, and to seize more land for themselves.

I have heard a hypothesis floated that Russia put Hamas up to this latest atrocity. Apparently Hamas leaders have had several meetings with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov over the last year or so. According to the hypothesis, Putin's intent is to create a distraction from Ukraine, and have the US divert resources that would otherwise go to Ukraine to Israel. I can't see how this would make much of an impact though. This thing in Gaza should be over pretty quickly.

@Flyingsaucesir That theory makes sence to me.

@MyTVC15 Hamas is a client of Iran, and Iran is aligned with Russia against Ukraine. So there's that too.

I don't completely disagree. But I will ask you this: how did the Palestinians refugees come to be walled off in the Gaza strip in the first place? Isn't "excuse" a better descriptor than "justificaion?"

Israel is no stranger to war crimes, but the Palestinians have never not targeted civilians. That makes excuse and justification much closer to being the same. Not that anyone really notices whether the murder comes from a suicide bomber or a jet pilot.

Verging on dictatorship, the Israelis have lost whatever moral authority they could have claimed in the past.

Tlaib is pretty rich complaining that Israel is Apartheid. Would that be the Apartheid that Islam preaches from every minaret?

At this point, both sides are ruled by cults, so who should care what they do?

Remember how Trump falsely claimed that people in New Jersey celebrated 9/11. That wasn't New Jersey; that was Gaza. " (“Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down." -Trump)

"A population dedicated to perpetual war or outright genocide can only be walled off." So you think Israel should be walled off?

Isn't Israel, in a sense, the creator of Hamas and Hexbollah?

@Flyingsaucesir Radical Islam is more responsible for that slaughter than anything else.

@Flyingsaucesir Sure, given that the Jews secretly pull the string all over the world (we know that since the days of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!) they even created Hamas, Hezbollah and, why not, the Nazis...
Gimme a break, moron

@Thibaud70 I was not even remotely intimating that "Jews secretly pull the string all over the world." But I am pointing out that Israelis have, since the inception of Israel, pushed out, dispossessed, evicted, and corraled the Palestinians who were already living there before Israel was a state.

I don't think it matters that the Palestinian population was small when all this started, and has grown exponentially since. The people who were there in 1945 did not get to pass on their lands to their descendants, because they were illegally dispossessed by newcomers. Much as I would like to see Jewish people have a place of their own, I don't like the way they got this one.

My position is in line with that of the United Nations: that the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights are an illegal land grab. Israel screwed up, or acted maliciously, and in bad faith. And I'm not a Holocaust denier. And I'm not any more anti-Semitic than I am anti-Christian, anti-Moslem, anti-Hindu, or anti-superstition in general. I don't really wish ill upon any group of people. As for their religions, a pox on all their houses of worship.

Now my final point. Where the hell do you get off calling me a moron? Aren't you a little old to be acting like a bratty child? Grow up! Jeez.

@Flyingsaucesir Before the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the area called Israel was 5% Jewish. The other 95% was Arab. The reason that the Jewish population was able to become a self governing, nuclear power while the Palestinians became impoverished  and desperate is because the Jews had the backing of the Western powers. What we have is an example a biproduct of British Colonialism. All through out the world the British left regional conflict. This also got everyone's attention off Trump and Ukraine and our own failing government.

@MyTVC15 Indeed! But but the israelis will have flattened Gaza way before Trumpty Dumpty's first criminal trial begins.

@Flyingsaucesir Yes, I think you are right.

@Flyingsaucesir Islamic terrorism is one of the most pressing problems in the world today and needs to be dealt with. Hamas and Hezbollah both do not recognize Israel’s right to exist and want to destroy Israel. In order to have piece in the Middle East Hamas and Hezbollah will have to be destroyed and we will have to have regime change in Iran. I’ve never understood why Obama and Biden have wanted to deal with Iran as it’s quite impossible to deal with radical Islamic regimes who hate you and want to destroy you.

@Trajan61 We tried regime change in Afghanistan...20 years of blood and treasure, and where did that get us?

I don't think it's possible to eradicate an ideology. Probably the best we can do is exercise soft power, and don't expect instant results.

@Flyingsaucesir We should support the people who are apposed to the radical Islamic rulers of Iran and there are plenty. Hell they killed a woman just because she wasn’t dressed to their radical standards.

@Trajan61 Sure, we should support opponents of Iran. Again, soft power will probably gain us more than military intervention. Let the Iranians change their own regime. Our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have to have taught us something.

@Flyingsaucesir Yes I agree and we need to impose severe sanctions on them and quit trying to do crazy deals with them like Obama and Biden have been by releasing a bunch of money to them.

@Trajan61 Actually the nuke deal was a good deal for everybody. Trump screwed the pooch by backing out f it.

@Flyingsaucesir Iran would have never honored the nuke deal so it was not a good deal. You can’t deal with a radical Islamic regime like Iran.

@Trajan61 On the contrary; we had access to all of their nuclear facilities, and they were not on track to build a bomb. Now we don't have access, and we don't know what they are up to. All our allies who were parties to the deal were shocked and dismayed by Trump's foolish action. Let's face it: he killed the deal because a Black guy negotiated it.

@Flyingsaucesir They we’re not giving us full access to the nuclear sites and would have never honored the deal. Obama was an idiot for even trying to do it.