The real villain of the piece in the current cyclic war between Israel and her Palestinian neighbours ,is the US of A.The Bush administration did absolutely nothing to rein in the tension that was rapidly building up over the last 18 months.Buah's sponsorship for ther disgraced British ex-PM ,Tony Blair,as Middle East "Peace envoy"-a man who has never visited Gaza at all,and identified by the Arab world as partner in crime for Bush's catastrophic invasion of Iraq and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis,was the final insult.The US claims to promote democracy,but when Hamas won the Gaza election fairly,it did everything in its power to destroy Hamas' credibility.Why did Hamas win? Thanks to the US's denunciation of Yasser Arafat,the man who had the most credibility in the Palestinian camp and internationally recognised as the supremo of the Palestinians (even if his regime was a rotten corrupt one),Arafat had the majority of Palestinians behind him.His untimely death and that of Israeli PM Ariel Sharon-two leaders who could've brokered peace,within a short span of each other, brought the hardline Hamas into the forefront.The lacklustre personality of Abbas saw to it that Hamas took over from Arafat the leadership of the Gaza populace.
The agreement5 in broad terms between both entities,was a trade-off of land for a guaranteed peace for Israel.Hamas has never acknowledged the Jewish state at all and with foreign backing,chiefly from Iran has along with the Hiz in Lebanon,grown in strength and military capability.Sadly,the Israeli's,due to coalition politics, also allowed the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank,in land supposedly meant to be part of the Palestinian state.This is wheer the US could've used its influence upon bot Israel and the Palestinians,by halting the settlements and working doggedly towards a final peace package.It did nothing at all,allowing the frustartions on both sides to fester and ferment into the huge explosion right now.Both the Israelis and Palestinians do not trust each other at all,let alone Israel trusting Hamas who want them "thrown into the sea".In such a scenario,only a superpower with the assistance of the other major powers can crack heads together.Today the heads beign "cracked" come from Hamas' rockets and Israeli bombingIndia's satnd is pathetic.We make the usual condemnations in support of the Palestinians (have we sent the suffering civilians any relief supplies at all?),while buying billions of dollars of Israeli weaponry! It is a sad commentary on the lightweight influence of India right now in the 21st century,at a time when we are an economic powerhouse,completely disproportionate to our economic and military strength,when decads ago udner both Nehru and Indira Gandhi and for a time even Rajiv Gandhi,India's voice was heard with respect and authority worldwide.At this moment of crisis in the Midele east,India,which has good relations with both sides,should've been in the forefront of nations attempting to resolve the crisis,especially as we well know how Gandhi used non-violence to obtain his political ends instead of violence.Our insignificance in this tragic conflict is a disgrace to our post-independence history and reputation of global leadership during the Post-Colonial era and Cold War amongst the Non-Aligned nations.We are today being laughed at for not even being able to defend ourselves from wave after wave of Paki terrorism.
Here is a plea from a Rabbi as to what should be done by his country to bring about a lasting peace and reconciliation between both parties.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 446519.ece
It breaks my heart to see Israel's stupidity
It has a right to respond to attacks, but will not achieve its ultimate aim - peace - until it stops thinking in military terms
Michael Lerner
Israel's attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but stupid. No country in the world is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from neighbouring territory day after day. If Mexico had a group of anti-imperialists bombing Texas, imagine how long it would take for America to mobilise a counterattack. Israel has every right to respond.
But the kind of response matters. Killing 500 Palestinians and wounding 2,000 others (at the time of writing) is disproportionate. Hamas can harass, but it cannot pose any threat to the existence of Israel. And just as Hamas's indiscriminate bombing of population centres is a crime against humanity, so is Israel's killing of civilians (at least 130 so far in Gaza, not to mention the thousands in the years of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza).
Hamas had respected the previously negotiated ceasefire except when Israel used it as cover to make assassination raids. Hamas argued that these raids were hardly a manifestation of a ceasefire, and so as symbolic protest it would allow the release of rocket fire (usually hitting no targets). But when the issue of continuing the ceasefire came up, Hamas wanted a guarantee that these assassination raids would stop. And it asked for more. With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing acute malnutrition, Hamas insists that the borders be opened so that food can arrive unimpeded. And in return for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, it asks for the release of 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Hamas has made it clear that it would accept the terms of the Saudi Arabian peace agreement, though it would never formally recognise Israel. It would live peacefully in a two-state arrangement, but it would never acknowledge Israel's “right to exist”. This position is unnecessarily provocative, and is deeply self-destructive for Palestinians who believe it is the only symbolic weapon they have left.
How do we get out of this destructive spiral? The first step is for the world to demand an immediate ceasefire. That ceasefire should be imposed by the United Nations and backed unequivocally by America. Its terms must include the following:
— Hamas stops all firing of missiles, bombs or any other violent action originating from the West Bank or Gaza, and co-operates in actively jailing anyone from any faction that breaks this ceasefire.
— Israel stops all bombing, targeted assassinations or any other violent actions aimed at activists, militants, or suspected terrorists in the West Bank or Gaza, and uses the full force of its army to prevent any further attacks on Palestinians.
— Israel opens the border with Gaza and allows free access to and from Israel, subject only to full search and seizure of any weapons. Israel allows free travel of food, gas, electricity, water and consumer goods and materials including from land, air, and sea, subject only to full search and seizure of any weapons or materials typically used for weapons.
— Israel releases all Palestinians in detention and returns them to the West Bank or Gaza according to the choice of the detainees or prisoners. Hamas releases Gilad Schalit and anyone else being held by Palestinian forces.
— Both sides invite an international force to implement these agreements
— Both sides agree to end teaching and/or advocacy of violence against the other side in and outside mosques, educational institutions, and the media.
— This ceasefire would last for 20 years. Nato, the UN, and the US all agree to enforce this agreement and impose severe sanctions in the event of any violations.
These steps would make a huge difference, isolate the most radical members of each side from the mainstream, and make it possible to then begin negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on a broader and deeper set of issues.
The basic condition for creating peace is to help each side feel “safe”. A first and critical step is to speak in a language that is empathic toward the suffering of each people in a climate of discourse in which both sides' stories are heard and understood.
Yet Israel, as the militarily superior power, ought to take the first steps: implementing a massive Marshall Plan in Gaza and in the West Bank to end poverty and unemployment, rebuild infrastructure and encourage investment; dismantle the settlements or make settlers become citizens of a Palestinian state; accept 30,000 Palestinian refugees annually back into Israel for the next 30 years, apologise for its role in the 1948 expulsions and offer to co-ordinate a worldwide compensation effort for all that Palestinians lost during the Occupation; and recognise a Palestinian state within borders already defined by the Geneva Accord of 2003.
This is the only way Israel will ever achieve security. It is the only way to permanently defeat Hamas and all extremists who wish to see endless war against Israel.
The most significant contribution the new Obama administration could make to Middle East peace would be to embrace a strategy that homeland security is best achieved not by military or economic domination but by generosity and caring for others. If this new way of thinking could become a serious part of US policy, it would have an immense impact on undermining the fearful consciousness of Israelis who still see the world more through the frame of the Holocaust and previous persecutions than through the frame of their actual present power in the world.
It breaks my heart to see the terrible suffering in Gaza and in Israel. As a religious Jew I find it all the worse, because it confirms to me how easy it is to pervert the loving message of Judaism into a message of hatred and domination. I remain in mourning for the Jewish people, for Israel and for the world.
Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine. (
[email protected])
Bakis are not sending their ghauris,ghaznavis,hatfs ,mujahids to save their brethren in palestine.... 
A few pleas may be in order? Nayakuddin?
. All Hamas can do is issue Saddam Hussein like hot air: "Gaza will become mass grave for Israeli soldiers", yeah my foot.
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