Israel intensifies attacks, despite truce talk
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A diplomatic push to end Israel's nearly weeklong offensive in the Gaza Strip gained momentum Tuesday, with Egypt's president predicting that airstrikes would end within hours and Israel's prime minister saying his country would be a "willing partner" to a cease-fire with the Islamic militant group Hamas.
As international diplomats raced across the region to cement a deal, a senior Hamas official said an agreement was close even as relentless airstrikes and rocket attacks between the two sides continued.
"We haven't struck the deal yet, but we are progressing and it will most likely be tonight," Moussa Abu Marzouk said Tuesday from Cairo, where cease-fire talks were being held.
Israeli officials were more circumspect, saying only that "intensive efforts" were under way to end the fighting. Israeli media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce.
In what appeared to be a last-minute burst of heavy fire, Israeli tanks and gunboats shelled targets late Tuesday, and an airstrike killed two brothers riding on a motorcycle. The men weren't identified.
The fighting came shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was set to arrive. President Barack Obama dispatched her to the Mideast from Cambodia, where she had accompanied him on a visit.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, perhaps the most important interlocutor between Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory, and the Israelis, said the negotiations between the two sides would yield "positive results" during the coming hours.
Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.
Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.
In Brussels, a senior official of the European Union's foreign service said a cease-fire would include an end of Israeli airstrikes and targeted killings in Gaza, the opening of Gaza crossing points and an end to rocket attacks on Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Violence raged on as the talks continued. An airstrike late Tuesday killed two journalists who work for the Hamas TV station, Al-Aqsa, according to a statement from the channel. The men were in a car hit by an airstrike, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are involved in militant activities. Earlier this week it targeted the station's offices, saying it served as a Hamas communications post.
By Tuesday, 133 Palestinians, including at least 54 civilians, were killed since Israel began an air onslaught that has so far included nearly 1,500 strikes. Some 840 people have been wounded, including 225 children, Gaza health officials said.
Four Israelis, including an 18-year-old soldier who was struck by rocket fire on Tuesday, have also been killed and dozens wounded since the fighting began last week, the numbers possibly kept down by a rocket-defense system that Israel developed with U.S. funding. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel this week, the military said.
Late Tuesday, a Palestinian rocket hit a house in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding two people and badly damaging the top two floors of the building, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. In other violence, a 60-year-old Israeli woman was seriously wounded in a firebombing attack as she drove in the West Bank, police said.
With the death toll rising, the international community stepped up efforts to bring a halt to the fighting that began last Wednesday with an Israel's assassination of the Hamas military chief.
"If a long-term solution can be put in place through diplomatic means, then Israel would be a willing partner to such a solution. But if stronger military action proves necessary to stop the constant barrage of rockets, Israel wouldn't hesitate to do what is necessary to defend our people," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a joint press conference in Jerusalem with visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.
Ban condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."
"Further escalation benefits no one," he said.
Minutes before Ban's arrival in Jerusalem from Egypt, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, just the second time it has targeted the city. The rocket fell in an open area southeast of the city.
Jerusalem had previously been considered beyond the range of Gaza rockets - and an unlikely target because it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine.
Earlier Tuesday, a man identified as Hamas' militant commander urged his fighters to keep up attacks on Israel. Speaking from hiding on Hamas-run TV and radio, Mohammed Deif said Hamas "must invest all resources to uproot this aggressor from our land," a reference to Israel.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on several Gaza neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate and head toward the center of Gaza City along specific roads. The army "is not targeting any of you, and doesn't want to harm you or your families," the leaflets said. Palestinian militants urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them "psychological warfare."
Clinton was scheduled to meet with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Egyptian leaders in Cairo. Turkey's foreign minister and a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers traveled to Gaza on a separate truce mission. Airstrikes continued to hit Gaza even as they entered the territory.
"Turkey is standing by you," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. "Our demand is clear. Israel should end its aggression immediately and lift the inhumane blockade imposed on Gaza."
It was unclear how diplomatic efforts to achieve a cease-fire and stave off a threatened Israeli ground invasion into Gaza were hampered by the hard-to-bridge positions staked out by both sides - and by the persistent attacks. Thousands of Israeli soldiers have been dispatched to the Gaza border in case of a decision to invade.
The U.S. considers Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide and other attacks, to be a terror group and does not meet with its officials. The Obama administration blames Hamas for the latest eruption of violence and says Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time, it has warned against a ground invasion, saying it could send casualties spiraling.
Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday that Israel was exploring a diplomatic solution, but wouldn't balk at a broader military operation.
"I prefer a diplomatic solution," Netanyahu said in a statement after meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was also in the region trying to advance peace efforts. "But if the fire continues, we will be forced to take broader measures and will not hesitate to do so."
Westerwelle said a truce must be urgently pursued, "but of course, there is one precondition for everything else, and this is a stop of the missile attacks against Israel."
The conflict erupted last week, when a resurgence in rocket fire from Gaza set off the Israeli offensive, which included hundreds of airstrikes on militants' underground rocket launchers and weapons' stores.
The onslaught turned deadlier over the weekend, as airstrikes began targeting the homes of suspected Hamas activists, leading to a spike in civilian casualties. Israel sent warnings in some cases, witnesses said, but in other instances missiles hit suddenly, burying residents under the rubble of their homes.
Hamas is deeply rooted in densely populated Gaza, and the movement's activists live in the midst of ordinary Gazans. Israel says militants are using civilians as human shields, both for their own safety and to launch rocket strikes from residential neighborhoods.
The conflict showed signs of spilling into the West Bank, as hundreds of Palestinian protesters in the town of Jenin clashed with Israeli forces during a demonstration against Israel's Gaza offensive.
Two Palestinian protesters were killed in anti-Israel demonstrations in the West Bank on Monday, according to Palestinian officials. Separate clashes occurred Tuesday in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, during the funeral for one of the dead.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, now governs from the West Bank. Abbas claims to represent both areas, and there is widespread sympathy among West Bank Palestinians for their brethren in Gaza.
As international diplomats raced across the region to cement a deal, a senior Hamas official said an agreement was close even as relentless airstrikes and rocket attacks between the two sides continued.
"We haven't struck the deal yet, but we are progressing and it will most likely be tonight," Moussa Abu Marzouk said Tuesday from Cairo, where cease-fire talks were being held.
Israeli officials were more circumspect, saying only that "intensive efforts" were under way to end the fighting. Israeli media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce.
In what appeared to be a last-minute burst of heavy fire, Israeli tanks and gunboats shelled targets late Tuesday, and an airstrike killed two brothers riding on a motorcycle. The men weren't identified.
The fighting came shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was set to arrive. President Barack Obama dispatched her to the Mideast from Cambodia, where she had accompanied him on a visit.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, perhaps the most important interlocutor between Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory, and the Israelis, said the negotiations between the two sides would yield "positive results" during the coming hours.
Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.
Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.
In Brussels, a senior official of the European Union's foreign service said a cease-fire would include an end of Israeli airstrikes and targeted killings in Gaza, the opening of Gaza crossing points and an end to rocket attacks on Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Violence raged on as the talks continued. An airstrike late Tuesday killed two journalists who work for the Hamas TV station, Al-Aqsa, according to a statement from the channel. The men were in a car hit by an airstrike, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are involved in militant activities. Earlier this week it targeted the station's offices, saying it served as a Hamas communications post.
By Tuesday, 133 Palestinians, including at least 54 civilians, were killed since Israel began an air onslaught that has so far included nearly 1,500 strikes. Some 840 people have been wounded, including 225 children, Gaza health officials said.
Four Israelis, including an 18-year-old soldier who was struck by rocket fire on Tuesday, have also been killed and dozens wounded since the fighting began last week, the numbers possibly kept down by a rocket-defense system that Israel developed with U.S. funding. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel this week, the military said.
Late Tuesday, a Palestinian rocket hit a house in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding two people and badly damaging the top two floors of the building, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. In other violence, a 60-year-old Israeli woman was seriously wounded in a firebombing attack as she drove in the West Bank, police said.
With the death toll rising, the international community stepped up efforts to bring a halt to the fighting that began last Wednesday with an Israel's assassination of the Hamas military chief.
"If a long-term solution can be put in place through diplomatic means, then Israel would be a willing partner to such a solution. But if stronger military action proves necessary to stop the constant barrage of rockets, Israel wouldn't hesitate to do what is necessary to defend our people," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a joint press conference in Jerusalem with visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.
Ban condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."
"Further escalation benefits no one," he said.
Minutes before Ban's arrival in Jerusalem from Egypt, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, just the second time it has targeted the city. The rocket fell in an open area southeast of the city.
Jerusalem had previously been considered beyond the range of Gaza rockets - and an unlikely target because it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine.
Earlier Tuesday, a man identified as Hamas' militant commander urged his fighters to keep up attacks on Israel. Speaking from hiding on Hamas-run TV and radio, Mohammed Deif said Hamas "must invest all resources to uproot this aggressor from our land," a reference to Israel.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on several Gaza neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate and head toward the center of Gaza City along specific roads. The army "is not targeting any of you, and doesn't want to harm you or your families," the leaflets said. Palestinian militants urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them "psychological warfare."
Clinton was scheduled to meet with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Egyptian leaders in Cairo. Turkey's foreign minister and a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers traveled to Gaza on a separate truce mission. Airstrikes continued to hit Gaza even as they entered the territory.
"Turkey is standing by you," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. "Our demand is clear. Israel should end its aggression immediately and lift the inhumane blockade imposed on Gaza."
It was unclear how diplomatic efforts to achieve a cease-fire and stave off a threatened Israeli ground invasion into Gaza were hampered by the hard-to-bridge positions staked out by both sides - and by the persistent attacks. Thousands of Israeli soldiers have been dispatched to the Gaza border in case of a decision to invade.
The U.S. considers Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide and other attacks, to be a terror group and does not meet with its officials. The Obama administration blames Hamas for the latest eruption of violence and says Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time, it has warned against a ground invasion, saying it could send casualties spiraling.
Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday that Israel was exploring a diplomatic solution, but wouldn't balk at a broader military operation.
"I prefer a diplomatic solution," Netanyahu said in a statement after meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was also in the region trying to advance peace efforts. "But if the fire continues, we will be forced to take broader measures and will not hesitate to do so."
Westerwelle said a truce must be urgently pursued, "but of course, there is one precondition for everything else, and this is a stop of the missile attacks against Israel."
The conflict erupted last week, when a resurgence in rocket fire from Gaza set off the Israeli offensive, which included hundreds of airstrikes on militants' underground rocket launchers and weapons' stores.
The onslaught turned deadlier over the weekend, as airstrikes began targeting the homes of suspected Hamas activists, leading to a spike in civilian casualties. Israel sent warnings in some cases, witnesses said, but in other instances missiles hit suddenly, burying residents under the rubble of their homes.
Hamas is deeply rooted in densely populated Gaza, and the movement's activists live in the midst of ordinary Gazans. Israel says militants are using civilians as human shields, both for their own safety and to launch rocket strikes from residential neighborhoods.
The conflict showed signs of spilling into the West Bank, as hundreds of Palestinian protesters in the town of Jenin clashed with Israeli forces during a demonstration against Israel's Gaza offensive.
Two Palestinian protesters were killed in anti-Israel demonstrations in the West Bank on Monday, according to Palestinian officials. Separate clashes occurred Tuesday in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, during the funeral for one of the dead.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, now governs from the West Bank. Abbas claims to represent both areas, and there is widespread sympathy among West Bank Palestinians for their brethren in Gaza.
The hard-core Hamas group has a lot of blame in this current flare up. I think the fundamentalist Jews are probably not the best neighbors to have. If they could get rid of the radicals on both sides, there may be hope. Until then, bombs away!
The escalation is true, but its also a news production. The Palestinians have been shelling Israel for years. They've been under attack since 1948. Its only their retaliation that's made this a nightly news event. I've been following it through non-secular news sources channels for quite some time now.
Israel has been trying peace talks for over 50 years and has given ground time after time. when the arabs are lobbing bombs into Israel, it's time for them to stop it any way they can. the US government needs to mind it's own business. Or give hillary an M-1 and let her deal with it.
A fine example of democracy in the Middle East, this is what you get. People vote for lunatic groups and are suffering now for it and too stupid to realize it's all up to them.... Maybe we could drop some magic diplomas like the scarecrow got in OZ and the Islamic extremists would get enlightened?
Palestine just needs to accept that no country becomes a sovereign nation without a war. So if they want to have a country they're just going to have to take it from the jews.
One of the sides just needs to kill the other one off.
@SolntsevskayaBratva Sad......but true.
Been going on for for 2000 years this is just another chapter...
 @Windowseat Actually it's only been going on a little over 100 years. No one wanted the land there until the Jews came back and were given 1/650th of the land in the Middle East and then Britain tried to screw them. The term 'Palestine' was used for the land 5 centuries before Christ long before the Arabs moved in. You can't negotiate with people that hold to an idelogy/religion which allows lying to non-muslims to achieve their means of destroying Israel.
"Israel intensifies [its defensive] attacks, despite truce talks." Israel has been under Palestinian rocket fire for years, but it's only when they take a defensive stance that the media takes notice. Oil.
When it is your government's (Palestine's) charter to wipe another sovereign state (Israel) from the face of the earth and you start firing a bunch of rockets at them with no other goal except to terrorize their citizens -- expect to get your hind side kicked real hard. I find it despicable that the media has called Israel's strikes an "offensive" and seems to applaud Hamas' ability to strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with rockets, but doesn't condemn Hamas for firing these rockets in the first place! If they weren't being fired, Israel wouldn't be bombing them back to the stone age!
I believe Israeli politics may be playing a role in the Hamas vs. Israel attacks. Israel should not have to deal with rockets fired from Gaza, but in-turn Israel did make the first move in this recent conflict with a missile strike that killed Ahmed Jibari, Hamas' top military commander. These two forces have been at each others throats since Hamas was initiated to replace the PLO. Up until the death of the Hamas military commander there had been only minor skirmishes between the two groups. Israel is getting ready to hold elections early next year and this current conflict has all but guaranteed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu re-electiom.
 @left-center 121 rockets hitting your country in four days before your respond is not the first move
 @livinintheNW No kidding... Left.. where you been Israel was hit first and they responded in full right to defend themselves...Hamas needed a firm butt kicking and I'm happy Israel chose to deliver the message. Hopefully they can hit more of Hamas's military aspects and keep the collateral damage down but that happens in these sort of conflicts
 @RN1 I can't, well maybe Belize.
 @left-center  @relatively  @Freespeech  @livinintheNW Actually, Palestine has NEVER been a nation. The Jews have been there continuously for ~3000 years. The area was doing squat before it was made into Israel. And, can you name ANY modern nation who's borders were NOT established by force, either via active war or direct threat of imminent war to enforce the "agreement"?
 @relatively  @Freespeech  @livinintheNW Okay, I've taken enough hits for my argument regarding the tit for tat that exist between Israel and Palestine. I will agree that bombs and rockets have been a Palestinian terror tactic since the establishment of Israel, just as Israel used it's military to take and then occupy Gaza and the West Bank during and following the 1967 war. But strangely, this brings me to my point, which is: the State of Israel did not exist in the Middle East until May, 1948 when the European Jewish People's Council established the Israeli state in the ancient Jewish homeland. With assistance from the United Nations. Note that Israel did not integrate into the Palestinian population but rather forced the Palestinian people out of the Israeli State and into the outline territory. Up until then Palestine (now Israel) was one of the Arab nations. So regarding the exchange of rocket fire and artillery and drone missiles between the two bitter rivals; It all comes down to that old chicken and egg thing (what came first).
 @left-center  @Freespeech  @livinintheNW Regarding the timeline, here's an article from The Atlantic on 11-12-2012, reporting that rockets were already being fired from Gaza. So the attacks started before Jibari was killed:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/11/the-rockets-of-gaza/265091/
 @left-center  @Freespeech  @livinintheNW Please note that some of the Gaza dead are from Hamas rockets that didn't work as planned. Also note that Hamas has a habit of launching their rockets from points with a high civilian population, preferably women and children, like schools, masques, hospitals, etc., in the *hopes* that some of them die in Israeli counter-strikes. Then their corpses can be used for propaganda purposes. Deliberately hiding behind non-combatants is a war crime according the the Geneva and Hague conventions, and incidental deaths connected with killing said cowards are not a genuine legal problem for the Israelis.
 @Freespeech  @livinintheNW In Israel (4) dead Israelis and another dozen wounded, in Gaza nearing 200 dead and dozens wounded included in that group are women and children. I do not blame Israel for wanting to defend itself from Hamas rockets, but please note the date that. Jibari was killed it was on 11-14-2012.
I have a feeling that this is not going to end well...a "cease fire"??...really??? Hamas to Israel: "Time out, we need to reload". Israel to Hamas: "Are you kidding?". Guess what genuises, God will sort this out very soon and nobody's gonna like it.
 @TreeTopFlyer care to explain precisely when and how "God will sort this out"?
 @TruthinAdverts  @TreeTopFlyer Anytime between now and 2037 to answer your question, as for how it'll be war, natural cataclysms to start. You aint seen nothing yet unfortunately.....
 @Lbaba  @TruthinAdverts  @TreeTopFlyer What does 2037 have to do with anything?
What do both these sides expect to accomplish with hurling exploding chunks of metal at each other?
 @Sovereign I think it quite obvious......kill as many of the opposing team as possible.
 @Susabelle And that is supposed to accomplish what?
 @RN1  @Sovereign That about sums it up......I was merely pointing out that a dead enemy cannot kill you.
 @Sovereign In my opinion, nothing but establishing who has the bigger stick. Since I am neither an Israeli nor a Palestinian, I cannot even comprehend the need that drives them. The hatred goes back hundreds of years. Tit for tat......and the civilians suffer. I am not condoning it by any means, but the truth is a dead enemy cannot kill you.Â
 @Sovereign  @Susabelle Can't speak to what Susabelle had in mind, but historically, when one side in a fight has all it's members annihilated or scattered to the winds, then the other side can claim the land and the war is over, because there isn't anyone left to fight. At least until someone else comes along to fight over the same patch of land. It may not be a "nice" way to do things, but it IS effective.
One more: Quit saying "Israel intensifies attacks, despite truce talks" that's 100% BS! Israel intensifies attacks to stop rockets from entering its country!
 @Funky-Munky I was watching CNN at the gym on Saturday and it was quite clear the bias they were showing towards Israel. The Israel spokesman got all of 30 seconds to say his piece, while the Palestinian spokeswoman got 10 minutes to rant about how evil Israel was ad nauseum with no rebuttal. And then the anchor agreed before going to commercial! I was almost sick. So much for unbiased reporting. The rest of the broadcast was pretty much how horrible Israel was for bombing Gaza, and I heard nothing about how Israel dropped leaflets informing civilians to evacuate so they didn't get hit. Pretty interesting news I thought but I guess CNN didn't agree.
 @dg54321  @Funky-Munky To their credit, CNN is running the story about the body of a suspected "collaborator" being dragged through the streets behind a motorcycle. Strangely, I don't have to specify whether that's taking place in Israel or Gaza. Everyone knows.
If Mexico was lobbing rockets into the US the US would do whatever it needs to do to stop it including a ground offensive. It is too bad on that note though why we can't stop the drugs coming over since they do more damage then the rockets Hamas is lobbing into Israel, but this is more a problem with the people of the US wanting the drugs versus rockets.
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"Ban condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."" So "maximum restraint" means doing nothing, how does this help Israel stop the rockets? They have been showing "maximum restraint" for longer than any country would have in the first place. Another reason why the UN can only make matters worse than do any real good. They are a diplomatic time machine which just provides voices to the people that commit atrocities while these same people are taking the pause the UN provides to rearm and come up with new ways to cause maximum violence upon what they think is their enemies.  Â
I don't see that there will ever be a lasting peace in the region. Israel will defend itself from Gaza's attacks and the Muslims want the land and aren't willing to give up trying to take it. There will be a "cease fire" for a short time then Gaza will begin lobbing rockets every so often back into Israel, and this whole thing will be back to a head in short order.
 If Israel weren't encroaching onto Palestinian land so much then there would be much more support for them and much less for Hamas. Although then Hamas wouldn't even get much support from it's own people and more reasonable people would be elected and maybe the violence would at least subdue.
 @dg54321 Sadly I must agree.... peace was only achieved because of the simple fact... retaliate and escalate.... Israel dominated the Palestinians and escalated the violence to break them..... sad. :(
Translation: Hamas says they are getting hurt badly, and need time to regroup, rearm, and replace their losses, (hudna) so they can keep on launching rockets at women, children, and civilians with explicit intent to commit genocide (but it's really hard when fighting someone with an actual military and economy).
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There will not be a lasting peace there as long as the Islamic leaders in the region find it in their own best interests to keep it festering (and, given their incompetence and corruption, that'll be a LONG time), or Israel does to the surrounding aggressor nations what the US did to Germany and Japan i WW II. If Israel is destroyed, the rest of the will still be fighting, just over different things.
 @RN1 Hamas must be "exterminated" or at the very least imprisoned.... (just a thought)
 @Funky-Munky I always figure that is someone has expressed the desire to kill another, the ability to do so, and the will to do it, while hiding behind technicalities and rules for how that person treat other *law-abiding* folks, then they have pretty much given up their right to life, and should expect to get shot at the soonest opportunity. You have no obligation to die by waiting to be shot first to prove your moral superiority.
 @Funky-Munky The Palestinians keep Hamas around because it brings in lots of foreign money to support them without working doing something useful, because most of them support the goal of destroying all the Jews, and because many of them (not all, but many) think that dieing for the greater cause of Islam and/or Palestine is OK. Not ration by my way of thinking, but it is based on their value system.
 @RN1 Hamas continues to bring harm to the Palestinians and continues to hide behind women and children.... It should speak volumes about how cowardly Hamas operates... Sad that Israel had to be drawn into conflict by the acts of cowards.... :( I wonder why Palestinians won't quick Hamas out of their country?