Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

He has to say that after his visit to the US. Who would he have face to face talks with? The Palestinian Authority is not a legitimate body. It was just set up as an interim organisation for 5 years in 1999.

Hamas won't accept face to face talks until settlement is stopped. Without Hamas involved there can be no talks. Fatah is discredited in Palestine and the PA is losing ground. It is a waste of time and just a smoke screen. Israel builds and builds on stolen land. They are expansionist. While no one stops them, they may as well build. It means that if they have to give ground then they have plenty to give.

It is a ploy as is the supposed easing of the Gaza blockade and intended to gain time with the US and allow more building. It will come to nothing.

of course hamas won't attend talks any more than will hezbollah ..... the very last thing those lunatics want is peace in the region, for it would do far more than just wreck their cash-cow of the smuggling tunnels

meanwhile, the pair of them will posture and pretend altruism on behalf of the poor innocent philistines

and of course, meanwhile hayseed et al spew out toxic vomit as if it were a fountain of champagne rather than close to being a font of all evil (a bit de trop i know, but its cadence was good)

Hezbollah has nothing to do with the Palestinian talks. It was formed as a result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. They are more of a Muslim faction and anti-Jewish. They are the extremists. Hamas is mild compared to them. You could never talk to them. They only recognise Jews who lived in the area prior to 1948 and they have said that they will accept them living there in the future. They want the rest to return to the countries where they came from.

It is possible to talk to Hamas, but they are always excluded. This will turn out to be a mistake. Hamas are likely to be the government in Gaza and even in the West Bank at some stage. They are more streetwise than the PA and Fatah. Talks will have to be with Hamas at some stage. Israel knows that and it is why they killed a Hamas leader in Dubai. The overall leader of Hamas lives in Syria for safety.

try 1 word instead of 6! ...... try thinking and forming a (your own) balanced view - e.g. both sides are pretty evil, but yes for there to be peace, they will have to talk sooner or later

the rabid bastards on both sides of the divide in ireland eventually did that, and much as one might loathe various individuals, at least there is now effective peace there

Ireland is not settled at all. I expect there to be rebewed vionce there. It is mostly peaceful at the moment. At some stage the Republicans will realise that power sharing has got them nothing. There is not going to be a united Ireland in our lifetimes and probably not for generations to come. Once that sinks in the 'troubles' will start again. The current agreement started by John Major is another political con.

no doubt the streets of wolverhampton will also run with blood within the next 5 years - as predicted by Beloved Enoch

you really are such a total and utter wally!

Took your time getting there Richard, but in the end you did!

Having been on the end of a few instances of lazy / sensationalised journalism, I rarely bother to read any newspaper / internet article in depth, nor accept at face value what is written. More often than not a journalist will be tasked with covering a story which has already been an exclusive for another paper, precis that already written, make a few phone calls to verify a few statements and publish the resulting article, thus perpetuating the orignal errors / untruths until it becomes fact. Anyone who continually posts articles without having first hand knowledge of the truth is quite frankly an arse.

That's an interesting point of view. However much of the information about Israel comes from people on the ground, such as the UN, the EU, Aid Aagencies, Red Cross and many others. It is easy to dismiss it all as journa;lism, but most of it is not. And it is not just second hand reported findings of these agencies. You can read the first hand reports from people who were there.

For instance you can read the actual testimonies from Israeli soldiers who were forced to commit acrocities. This is not journalism.

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifadah.

http://www.shovrimshtika.org/testimonies_group_e.asp

Very heavy topic.

A comment from the neutral corner: this thread makes for not bad reading without Fred's contributions.

Neutral ? Are you Swiss

NEW YORK
The Israeli Prime Minster, Benjamin Netanyahu said that he will not renew the "freeze" on settlement building stressing that settlement building will resume as soon as the moratorium ends in September.

These statements were made in a speech before the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday after he met with US President Barak Obama.

just shows what an arsehole he is too ..... i wonder if we can visit a re-run of the 10 plagues on the region ... at least they would be more effectual than the 10 commandments which both sides signally ignore

July 09, 2010
A ship commissioned by a Libyan charity organization made preparations Friday to set sail to Gaza loaded with aid.

It comes over a month after Israel raided Gaza-bound ships, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American on one of them. The flotilla was trying to break Israel's blockade on Gaza.

The Moldova-flagged cargo ship Amalthea will leave by Saturday from the port of Lavrio, south of Athens, carrying 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies, officials from the organization told The Associated Press. There will be 27 people on board.

Amalthea's journey to Gaza is expected to take up to 80 hours. Aid on the Amalthea includes sacks of rice and sugar, and corn oil and olive paste all mostly donated from Greek companies and charities, organizers said. The aid was loaded into the hull of the aging vessel by crane.

In addition to 15 volunteers the ship has a crew of 12 from Cuba, Haiti, India, and Syria.

why does the vessel need a crew of 27?
will hamas again refuse entree to the aid if it is diverted via ashdod?
if so under what total specious pretext?
how will hayseed and pals deem that to be acting altruistically?

12 crew.

15 volunteers to do what?
merely observe peacefully and without intervention - as would be required if UN observers?

The volunters on all but one of the ships in the last aid convoy were peaseful observers. The other one had people who fought back at the illegal seizure.

"illegal" is inflammatory (as intended) and certainly contentious and even debatable.

"peaceful observers" remain to be proved, but certainly if they are, then it is more than likely that the vessel will be ordered into ashdod for inspection, which the captain will be obliged to obey, even if it goes against his wishes - PTH is much more knowledgeable than i on maritime matters, but i'm 99% sure i am correct

the question then remains as to whether hamas will refuse entree to this "humanitarian aid", even if it has been "depleted" ..... history indicates that they will, which as i said, makes hamas's altruism (you said it!) more than a little suspect