I have yet to read any that get the message across as effectively as Articles 11-13 of the Hamas Charter, which can be found in the middle of page 18 of this discussion (click page 18 for link.)

I think this comment brings me to 5 posts in this discussion, or maybe 6. I fear that I'll soon exceed the my self-imposed Zionist Propaganda Troll Limit in this discussion, so I'm laying out for at least another 40-50 posts.

The power to prevent the killing of Palestinian children is in YOUR hands.

And the power to kill them is in yours. So when are you signing up with the IDF?

Another typical Israel-First America hater, reflexively supporting policies and subsidies which will lead to dead Americans. But she has so much contempt for Americans that she probably can't wait, so that the religious war she cheerleads for can come home, and she can show everyone how brave she is by putting on the uniform and killing The Other. In fact, she will probably have her whole family with her, shooting The Other, because she is so brave and willing to risk putting her family in harm's way fighting other peoples' religious wars.

What a coward.

Those of you who are pissed at how Israel is behaving towards Gaza and Hamas and anybody else...

What should Israel do right now? Tell me, please, troop withdrawals, 1948 borders, no borders, reparations, what?

Seriously, lay out for me immediate action steps that you would like Israel to do if you had magical powers and could make the entire state bow to your will.

Thanks in advance.

Since my tax dollars are part of that $3 billion the U.S. throws at Israel every year, and since the U.S. is still nominally a place where free speech is protected, you had better get used to the idea of people like me participating in the debate about how and whether Israel deserves American support. If you don't like the sound of a free society, too bad. I suppose that's why you live in a country that openly discriminates on the basis of religion, race, and national origin.

What should Israel do right now?

Who cares? Perhaps Mr. TelAviv can answer that for you. He cares about Israel. I care about THE UNITED STATES.

cabdriver, you are just another coward cheerleading other people's religious wars from the safety of your keyboard. But soon, the war will be coming home and will start costing American lives instead of just American Taxdollars, just like you want it to, so that we can all become Israelis. Then, when Americans are dieing, we will all understand.

is a neocon. Neocons are opposed to serving in the military as a matter of principle. Neither she, nor any member of her family, will never join any military, but she and her ilk are instinctively blood thirsty and will let others fight and kill till their last drop of blood. It's also called the Bill Kristol Syndrome(BKS).

Sounds like a chickenhawk to me, just like the rest of the Israel-firsters who have absolutely no problem involving the United States in their religious wars, even if that involvement leads to dead Americans in a failed, bankrupt, state. As long as tax dollars and militarism continue to flow to Israel and the blood continues to flow in Palestine, all of which gets blamed on "The Great Satan", "Screw you" they say.

A little story here. Years ago a Irish Sergeant I know came into a billet after a hard night before weapons training. The toilet (jax) was awash. I still remember what he said:

"if ye feckers cannot aim with something you're that familiar with, I'm not trusting you with firearms."

I mean, if the Israelis are not targeting civilians, and trying to minimize civilian casualties, they are doing a seriously dire job of it. Perhaps a few court martials are called for -- most armies do that for incompetence.

Of course there have been so many incidents where, later when the attention has wandered, it has been clear that the Israelis were lying -- from civilian deaths in Lebanon, international cameramen, UN Peacekeepers (including one I knew) etc., etc.

I noticed at no point in your article do you note that Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005. Your attempt to conflate "occupation" with recent events is a slight of hand worthy of a George Bush "Saddam-9/11" maneuver.

Your claims that America has marched "lockstep" with Israel for 60 years, a wonderful talking point, makes me wonder where America was in 1967 and 1973 when Israel was attacked and nearly destroyed. Or where America was in 2001 when nailbombs were going off every day on the streets of Israel.

But then this entire article is the usual mish-mash of distortions and talking points that assume a brainwashed America supporting those brutal Israelis who use the Holocaust for maximum exploitation. There's a reason this issue divides the Left, and it's because most leftists know that the right of Israel to fundamentally exist and defend itself is non-negotiable.

What you cite as an "attack" is a response to years of mortar fire. Unlike our invasion of Iraq (about 1000 times more morally indefensible than anything Israel is doing), Israel was responding to direct provocation.

I can already hear the answer/excuse from the apologists:

If those civilians didn't want to die, they shouldn't have allowed Hamas to use them as human shields trying to stop Israeli Freedom Bombs!

Something like that sound about right?

Minor point here, but your article suggests that the Indians never really threatened the English settlers' existence. This ignores what is commonly called "King Philip's War", where the Wampanoag leader Metacomet fought the Massachusetts colony. While the Wampanoags and their allies lost that war, they did wipe out about half the population of the colony.

This isn't a well-known episode, but it actually strengthens the point of the article.

As a middle-aged person who grew up reading the newspapers, I can say I've been reading letters like these for 40 years.

I have Middle East fatigue. I just don't care anymore. Go ahead, each side, ramp up your PR machine. Swamp those blog comments. Top the other guy with your rhetoric -- vitriolic, well-reasoned, conspiratorial, fact-based, whatever.

I reached my limit a few years ago. I've heard it all over and over again. It never changes. It just goes on and on. It will go on and on forever.

To whoever on either side that isn't prepared to compromise: please shut up and go and incinerate your respective bad guys. I don't want to know about you any more.

Thanks.