and demand that Iran use the money they have spent on supplying Grad missiles to Hamas and all the equipment in the world to Hezbollah, to pay for the reconstruction. As far as Israelis are concerned, they are fighting with outposts of Iran to the north and south and Hamastan was achieving stealth ethnic cleansing of southern Israel - 1/3 of Sderot residents have left already. Listen to Radio 4's "From our own correspondent", latest episode.

Spreading more rubbish. Most of the rockets coming out of Gaza are home made. If you want to look at the funding of Hamas then try looking at Israel, they supported Hamas as a counterbalance to the strengthening PLO as part of a divide and conquer strategy. Blaming Hamas for its existence is like blaming the monster for existing when you should be knocking at the door of Frankenstein!

Israel doesn't want unity amongst the Palestinians as they may have to actually give them some of their land back if that ever happens. Spread your rubbish elsewhere, disinformation stands out a mile if you have your eyes open (unless you believe the crap you're spouting and then I would say read more and type less!).

does. So Iran being squeezed by the USA is trying to squeeze Israel. Come on we all know that Israel broke the last ceasefire, Hamas were even arresting militants firing rockets before israel army did a raid killing 6, this was reported in newspapers allover the world.
Zionists are their own worst enemy, why the hell didnt you just move to america or europe legally?

This article is also on the bbc site
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7843307.stm

well done to green party, your earning my vote
unsuprisingly holocaust denier Nick Griffin supported latest invasion& cleansing

Supporting Israeli actions in Gaza is akin to supporting the Auschwitz concentration camp system. Comments supporting Israeli actions should be removed from IMC UK.

I disagree, I think they should remain for all to see. It's a question of giving them enough rope. Any argument to try and justify the actions of Israel is doomed to fail as there is no possible justification for their actions. No-one can argue in favour of ethinic cleansing and genocide without showing their hand (no matter how subtle they try to be). It's almost like a kind of litmus test for psychopaths and/or ignorance.

Anyone who thinks this is about rockets is sadly deluded. If it was about rockets then it would simply be a case of installing anti-rocket barrages all along the border. It would take these rockets out of the sky before they got anywhere. BUT if you needed those rockets to keep falling in order to try and hang on to some sliver of justification for the continued mistreatment of the Palestinian people then you might avoid this measure like the plague.

It's not about the rockets, it never has been. It is about breaking the will of the Palestinian people and their ambitions for a state of their own.

Free free Palestine, long live Gaza!

A fortune was spent on Patriots during the first Gulf War and even when used on scuds being fired as far away as Iraq there was dispute as to whether they did more good than harm, fragments still showered over Israeli cities and everyone had to respond to sirens. Think they can do better with the number and frequency of rockets that were being fired from Gaza and the much shorter times and distances they have to respond to them? You are right that the Gaza invasion wasn't some tidy little star wars game, no war is so why do you think operating interceptor rockets is any different?

Also are you saying Israel pulled out completely from Gaza so as to provoke excuses to go back in?

Even if it's obvious that you are an apologist.

There is a huge difference between SCUDS and rockets made out of drainpipes and fertilizer.

If you are quoting cost as a limiting factor that is insane. How much money in armaments do you think Israel dropped on to Gaza in that 3 weeks (never mind the human cost!). How much do you think an F-16 costs? Or a Merkava tank? Or 200 nuclear warheads? The cost of anti-rocket batteries pales in to insignificance!

This whole argument about rockets is a parlour game, they have killed 20 people in 7 years. More people die in traffic accidents on a holiday weekend in Tel Aviv. If someone is firing rockets at you, then you have to ask yourself why. Might it be because you've stolen their land? Might it be because you have forced 1.5 million people in to an area the size of the Isle of Wight? Might it be because you offered them democracy and when they used it in a fashion you didn't like you tried to take it off them? Might it be because 50% of Palestinians 'survive' on less than $2 a day? Might it be because you close the borders and deny them the right to food, medical care, an education, the right to earn a living and freedom of movement?

You say Israel pulled out of Gaza completely and whilst this is *literally* true, their influence was felt there just as much when they pulled out and 'put the Palestinians on a diet' (Dov Weisglass). They control the air, the sea and the borders (including forcing Egypt to close Rafah). They decide if food gets in, they decide if people get out, it is a prison plain and simple!

If Israel wanted to stop the rockets without using anti-rocket batteries, they could have extended the ceasefire like Hamas offered. I mean even Shin Bet reports praised Hamas for stopping the rockets and even stopping rockets from OTHER militant groups during the ceasefire. Please don't tell me about Hamas breaking the ceasefire, we both know that Israel entered Gaza on Nov 4th and killed 6 Hamas members. Something they knew would draw a response. Technically speaking Israel never honoured the ceasefire as they didn't loosen the restrictions on the crossings (they tightened them if anything)

We get this BS about Hamas wanting to destroy Israel, but they offered to recognise Israel, in return for the implementation of UN resolution 242 (retreat to the pre-67 borders), as have MANY Arab countries. Unfortunately Israel cannot afford to do that because they'd have to give Golan back to Syria and they need the water from the Litani river.

Israel needs Hamas and Hamas needs Israel. If this conflict was ever framed OUTSIDE of the religious confines and was painted as a struggle for equality rather than Muslims vs Jews, there would be no argument!

You see your finger pointing at Hamas might work on some sites, but here people take the time to inform themselves. I think it would be pretty obvious that you aren't going to be able to persuade me, and I think if you carry this on all you will do is make even more of a fool of yourself than you already have. You could always fire up the GIYUS megaphone and get some back up but a million people saying something wrong wouldn't make it right.

I just reread your first comment and was wondering if you were taking the piss. Given that Sderot is actually built on the remains of a Palestinian village called Najd, that was ethnically cleansed and destroyed in 1948 how exactly can you justify calling what Hamas are doing ethnic cleansing? That's like calling someone taking their property back off a thief, a thief. Can you not spot how insane that is? Yeah two wrongs don't make a right, but one wrong doesn't either.

It is well worth reminding that the pull-out was no more was than the transformation of gaza into a prison/concentration camp as the blockade, closing of crossings started at the same time.

Sharon is reported to have bragged at the Knesset, in response to right wing critics repesenting more or less the evicted settlers, that this was in fact the heaviest blow ever dealt to the Palestinians.

And Hamas got voted into power pretty much because of it obviously.

And since then all of Hamas efforts have simply aimed at ending the blockade.

It was your idea to suggest anti-rocket barrages along the border to counter the rockets some of which are homemade and some Iranian. So what if they are homemade, so were the London Underground bombs. Are the Israelis to use anti-rocket devices against the other side's rockets no matter how frequent and how long they go on for, and how effective would they really be?

It's no parlour game for the residents of Southern Israel who have to put up with the rockets, I don't know why that is your attitude. The present degree of blockade was a response to escalating rocket fire, Hamas' election and its kidnap of Gilad Shalit. I don't think it's valid for the Israelis to try to influence Palestinian elections via a blockade as one reason for it, but if the Palestinians had stopped rockets after Israel's withdrawal there would have been no such degree of blockade. As far as Israelis are concerned they are damned if they hit back at their enemies and damned if they give them space.

Don't tell me Israel's entry to Gaza on Nov 4th was unprovoked, the rockets hadn't stopped completely, there were attacks on Israeli positions at crossing points and a tunnelling attempt into Israel was foiled.

You mean Hamas don't want to destroy Israel? Why would that be in their charter then?

Re. Najd, there was an Arab-Israeli conflict, which led to many refugees on both sides. Are you saying that Germany now has the right to fire rockets at Polish and Czech towns previously inhabited by Germans/German speakers?

If the evacuation of Gaza was really such a terrible thing for the Palestinians, why didn't they beg the Israelis to stay? Israel controlled the entry points to Gaza before that point and the present degree of blockade followed the persistent firing of rockets.

If you want to stop the rockets then you need to implement a solution and quit dragging your heels and stealing more land whilst doing it. If someone came and stole my house, put me behind razor wire, stopped me and my family from accessing any food, medical care, education, employment and the like I would be probably be moved to direct action.

Here's the truth about Hamas firing rockets during the ceasefire, even admitted by the talking head Negev ->  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SILJxPTqjAM

The rockets did not stop but NONE came from Hamas and Hamas all but stopped the other militant groups from firing rockets.

Israel had been planning the bombardment against Gaza for more than 6 months, all the time the ceasefire was in place! (such peacemakers that they are) They needed a reason to start it and knew they could draw a response with the actions they used on Nov 4th. Stop painting Israel as the injured party, it's like excusing a rapist because his victim had a short skirt on. 1,300 people dead including 400 children and you have the chutzpah to post how it was reasonable! People have seen Israel for what they are, they've shown their hand and most civilised people don't like what they see.

Why would the destruction of Israel be in the Hamas charter? Oh no reason, they're just unreasonavble crazy Arabs with a deathwish aren't they? If someone HATES you (and I don't use that word lightly), wouldn't it make you look in the mirror and ask why?

This argument about an Arab-Israeli conflict is a specious argument. Israel didn't exist prior to 1948 (unless you count the 100 year period some 2 millenia ago) so this Arab Israeli conflict is really a bunch of Jewish people driving indigenous people from their land (no wonder the US and UK support them, there's a long history of that there too!). Have a look at what prominent Zionists and Israeli leaders have to say about it ->  http://www.monabaker.com/quotes.htm

You see I've taken the time to find out about this stuff (like a lot more people are) and your obfuscations won't work on me. Let's humour you for a bit and take at face value your claim of this Arab-Israeli conflict. What about all of the other land stolen from various countries since? Oh yeah they were as a result of other Arab-Israeli conflicts, with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. They're so unreasonable these Arabs, I completely understand.

If it was reasonable for the Jews to drive Arabs from their lands in '48, '67 and since, why is it not reasonable for the Arabs to do it back now? You are saying that you won the land in a conflict, how do you justify keeping it? Especially in the face of the LAW of the right to return? Oh that's right Israel are special and the law doesn't apply to them (we can see that with the lack of response so far on their most recent war crimes, let's not talk about Qana or Sabra-Shatila).

With regards the blockade (siege?), this is an act of war. One of the conditions of the ceasefire was that the blockade be lifted. This never happened and Israel tightened their grip.

Shit arguments sorry mate, in fact they're not even that good!