Israel wants security. They do not want to occupy the territory of Gaza. But, they want security in Israel. The problem is, because of past actions, most Israelis think that the only way for security is the current asymmetry in the warfare.

Palestinians want their own land....their own government.

The crux of the problem is, Israel views a militarized Palestine as a direct threat to Israel. Probably because it is. So, we sit in a stand off. Palestinians was Palestine. Many will be okay with the West Bank and Gaza, but some want all of the land.

Israel want to remain. So, they will not give back the pre 1967 land. Some Israelis believe in the greater Israel. That is not a majority....those are the ones that are trying to annex the West Bank. But, because of the the quirks in the Israeli democracy, with proportional representation in the Knesset, these aligning minority positions can be the difference between forming a government and not: One Labour and Likud each have 40%. Whoever gets to 51% governs the country.

ISRAEL IS NO DIFFERENT THAN HAMAS. THEY ARE BOTH TERRORISTS. ISRAEL IS JUST SAVVIER.

Of course israel wants Gaza. Gaza sits on some of the largest reserves of gas and natural fuels in the world. As it turns out, Gaza is a gold mine. That's one reason why Israel has decided to take over more of it . . . see the article . . .

http://nsnbc.me/2014/07/10/war-natural-gas-israeli-invasion-gazas-offshore-gas-fields/

or this one . . .

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/chomsky-says-israel-is-pillaging-gazas-natural-gas-reserves.html

or this one . . .

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2489992/armed_robbery_in_gaza_israel_us_uk_carve_up_the_spoils_of_palestines_stolen_gas.html


just google gaza gas reserves and read. The reserves were discovered in the early 2000's, it was a shock to everyone---and guess what---that's about the time Israel started really choking palestinians with limitations on their movements, freedom etc, while simultaneously starting to really increase development of settlements in Gaza.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sure. Hamas does not recognize Israel. At all. As in 'kill and capture from sea to sea' Israel, knowing this, is still willing to let there be a Palestine, just not a sovereign one with such a murderous goal. Nor would I. If people wanted to kill me, I would do what I could to keep murderous tools from their hands

Ok. Unfortunately, this is not how the world works. You do not get to deprive an entire people of sovereignty because you don't like their government. You do not get to deprive someone of their human rights. If Israel does not want a Palestinian state to exist, then it MUST absorb all Palestinians as citizens of the state of Israel. If they do not do this while simultaneously professing that they will not permit a Palestinian state, then they will have an apartheid state.

Sure you do, if their government is out to harm yours. Israel should not take people who are out to harm their citizens. You don't move a fox into your henhouse.

So I guess what you are saying is that Israel must absorb the Palestinians and make them full citizens? Ok, that is fine.

Sharon

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This conflict is not a religious war-it is a money and turf war-Israel want all of the territory for themselves and they will not back down till they get it. The Palestinians will not back down and the conflict will continue.

Israel does not want Gaza. No one wants Gaza.

Of course they want Gaza-that hated Sahron formaking them to leave the 21 settlements they had there for approx. 35 years.

http://youtu.be/etXAm-OylQQ


It is all about staking claim to the land-it is a property/turf war. Nothing more.

Well, if the blockade will not be relieved, if the prison of Gaza would continue to be sealed and Israel would continue to determine even the level of calories the people are entitled to have there in order not to starve but not to live too well, if this kind of abuse, collective abuse of the Palestinians who are incarcerated in the Gaza Strip would continue, then Hamas will use any desperate means at its disposal to continue the struggle. And that could even lead to a third intifada; namely, the people in the West Bank, regardless of whether they are Hamas or not, will join in, and maybe even the Hezbollah . So a continued Israeli policy of siege has the potential for a much wider and bloodier conflict.

A removal of the siege, an ability of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including the political factions of the Hamas, to be reunited with their brothers and sisters in the West Bank, to be reunited with the world, and the end of the kind of boycott that America and the E.U. imposed on Hamas will include them in a political process that can change the reality in Israel and Palestine for the better. But for that to happen, you have to change the basic attitude of Israel. Israel today is the political system that believes that it has the military power to dictate to the Palestinians how to live and where to live. Once this kind of an Israeli conviction would be weakened, hopefully by international pressure, then there is a chance for a very painful but a more hopeful dialog about a different legal regime, a different political regime all over what used to be historical Palestine.

Anonymous wrote:This conflict is not a religious war-it is a money and turf war-Israel want all of the territory for themselves and they will not back down till they get it. The Palestinians will not back down and the conflict will continue.

Israel does not want Gaza. No one wants Gaza.

This conflict is not a religious war-it is a money and turf war-Israel want all of the territory for themselves and they will not back down till they get it. The Palestinians will not back down and the conflict will continue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Israel negotiates in good faith toward a two state solution with security guarantees for all.

Abbas and Fatah also generally seem to negotiate in good faith toward this mutually beneficial goal.

Hamas stays true to its charter goal of the destruction of Israel. Hamas lives up to its official designation as a terrorist organization. The current violence is entirely due to Hamas.

Good faith? What the fuck are you smoking? Israel has worked to derail the two state solution for the past 20 years. Ever notice all the settlements and siege of Gaza?

In the 1990s, in the era of Clinton and the Oslo accords, Israelis worked for peace and a vision of Israel and Palestine growing together. But a lot of people lost their faith in "peace process" when Hamas etc derailed the peace with bus bombings that killed and maimed many civilians in Israel. This changed the culture. Many Israelis saw that the Hamas terrorism only increased during the peace process. There is no peace with terrorists. They think they can achieve their aim of destroying Israel through violence. Hamas must be defeated.

In 1996, long before the second Intifada, Likud came to power. Netanyahu hated the Oslo Accords. During that time he expanded the settlements in West Bank. Who in their right mind could possibly believe that Israel was going to let Palestinians have control of West Banks while he was simultaneously constructing new settlements, each one a thorny barrier to a West Bank settlement?

Oslo 1995
Netanyahu Elected, Settlement expansion, 1996
Ariel Sharon visits Temple Mount, 2000
Second Intifada, 2000.