for someone who claims Saddam was behind 9/11 and that Obama is an illegal alien, your opinions of the Salon.com editor are worthless. She deserves criticism quite often, but you are disqualified from doing so.

Obama has "refused to show his birth certificate" (not true and entirely irrelevant), and you refuse to take your meds.

is that an Afghani drink or a person who drank too many bacardi mojitos and then refused to show his birth certificate?

"To protest you know, the Zionist occupation of Londonistan', unlike, let's see, the peaceful Jewish settlers of Hebron, who kill and abuse local residents to protest, you know, their BO.

Wrong again I'm afraid. 435 Israeli settlers are nestled within the city limits of Hebron in co-habitation with approximately 180,00 Palestinians. The settlers are "guarded" by approximately 1,500 to 2,000 Israeli soldiers costing Israel millions of dollars in operations cost; the ratio is 1 settler to 4 soldiers guarding the post. Unlike their Arab neighbors, the settlers are heavily armed and use their weapons often to terrorize and humiliate their unarmed Palestinian neighbors, whom they consider as sub-human and alien to the land. A common past-time is beating a Palestinian man in front of his wife and children, spitting on the wife and then setting his store on fire, while their IDF bodyguard look on passively. Even in Israel proper they are considered crazy and extremely dangerous, or as an Israeli friend of mine is fond of labeling them:"the bearded crazy hooligans with their even loonier spitting women".

You mean the IDF will defeat Hamas like it defeated Hesbollah 2006? I'll get the pop corn.

are there any other kind?

"Under Clinton, Israel conceded to ALL Palestinian demands other than repatriation within Israel borders and a few hilltops for security reasons."

Rubbish. The Barak plan, which is the furthest Israel had been willing to go envisioned a fractured Palestinian state divided into a number of disjointed bantuslands with no territorial continuity. Palestinians traveling from one bantusland to another would've needed to go through an IDF checkpoint and subjected to Israel approval. Any Israeli officer at a military checkpoint would've had the authority to prevent a Palestinian citizen from traveling in his own country. Additionally, Israel demanded full control of all west bank water resources and air space.

My guess is that the Likud doesn't need you to spread its propaganda in cyberspace-it has enough trolls doing it already.

The Israelis will always get very nasty with anybody getting too close. The 1967 USS Liberty attack was the first major example of that modus operandi. Foreign journalists detained, deported and sometimes shot "accidently" in the occupied territories while observing and reporting on IDF and settlers actions are infamous by now. Whenever incidents like that occur, you can rest assured that someone was getting too close and payed the price. The former congresswoman is lucky to be alive.

Israel is incapable of defeating Hamas, just like it had failed to defeat Hezbollah. This operation will end with the death of a few thousand Arabs, mostly civilians and very little lasting damage to Hamas. It would increase Hamas's popularity in the occupied territories and the Islamic world, which will result in more recruits, more money and more influence. Hamas will end up undoubtedly with more fighters than it had before the Israeli operation. The rockets Hamas is using are primitive and are easily assembled in garages, launched rapidly before the launchers disappear into the dense population of Gaza. Because of the Israeli attack on densely populated areas, Hamas has won the propaganda and public relations war, which exactly what Hamas wanted. There's no military solution to any aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel is unwilling to do the only thing that would render Hamas irrelevant-end the occupation and dismantle all the settlement in exchange for a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians and most Arab states, aka the Saudi plan.

Israel’s excuse for its violence is that from time to time Hamas fires off rockets into Israel to protest the ghetto life that Israel imposes on Gazans. The rockets are ineffectual for the most part and seldom claim Israeli casualties. However, the real purpose for the Israeli attack is to destroy Hamas.

In 2006 the US insisted that the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank hold free elections. When free elections were held, Hamas won. This was unacceptable to the Americans and Israelis. In the West Bank, the Americans and Israelis imposed a puppet government, but Hamas held on in Gaza. After unheeded warnings to the Gazans to rid themselves of Hamas and accept a puppet government, Israel has decided to destroy the freely elected government with violence.

1-4 million people are crammed into a 139 sqm ghetto, living in squalor and uter hopelessness. The Israelis have blockaded Gaza from all directions, in attempt to topple Hamas. Repulsive as Hamas is, mostly due to its militant religious ideology, it's doing what any resistance movement would do anywhere in the world. It's fighting against a much more powerful foe, equipped with the most sophisticated military hardware in the world, with primitive rockets. The Hamas position isn't irrational:as long as the residents of Gaza live like rats and are treated like rats, why should the residents of Ashdod or Be'er Sheba have any peace?

the Israeli operation will end up strengthening Hamas, making Israel even more despised around the world and less secure. The bottom line is that Israel insists on being the apartheid regime of her region, while expecting her neighbors and victims to acquiesce without resistance. This delusional state of mind will just perpetuate this endless conflict. As much as Hamas must realize that Israel cannot be destroyed and isn't going anywhere, the Israelis must realize that replacing the old South African regime will perpetuate Palestinian terror and never bring them any security.