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?

perhaps more likely from the fizzing circular sphere that i was preparing to throw at them - though i suppose that would be deemed to be an over-reaction - lol!

Yes disproportionate.

that was the word .... i couldn't remember - lol!

Dementia huh ... apparently people affected by this should go and pummel a cushion.

good morning lickable one! ..... a bit of serious violence against the opposition also works .... the antidote to that sort of thing is apparently an increase of zinc in the diet

Marmite.

don't go that route - lol!

Maybe interesting to the unblinkered.

War propaganda often rests on the myth of eternal enmity: the current enemy must be portrayed as perennially and irredeemably vile. George Orwell aptly limned this mindset in his novel 1984

Interesting article.

http://sanseverything.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/when-conservatives-loved-the-palestinians/

A large stockpile of unexploded weapons has disappeared in Gaza, before United Nations experts were able to dispose of it safely, the BBC has learned.

The explosives, including aircraft bombs and white phosphorus shells, were fired by the Israeli military during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.

UN officials said they were urgently trying to establish where the arms had gone and have called for their return.

Israel has accused Hamas of taking the stockpile, which was under Hamas guard.

Perhaps the Israelis are stockpiling Hamas with weapons to keep them going!

I give up, Fred - limned has stretched my linguistic capacities, aptly or otherwise.

peasant oh lickable one (whether choc or marmite!) ..... limned is actually to illustrate (as in illuminate a manuscript), but also to describe .... somewhat arcane to archaic!

Peasant with limited grey cells this afternoon :)

rat-arsed again?

I know a new word, I know a new word :)

Edit: nope :P
Ooh edit again: vielen Dank Liebchen ;)

de rien!

Is the present Israeli government made up of gangsters?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE51G1VF20090217?feedType=nl&feedName=uktopnewsearly

Not gangsters, Fred, intelligence operatives. We all do it.

I suppose Hamas is made up of kindly old gentlemen whose only concern is the welfare of the poor Palestinians.

For God's sake Fred, grow up, what do you expect the Israelis to do about a country that has vowed to wipe them off the face of the Earth and is openly setting about acquiring the means to do it.

Have a read of Bariness Deach speech made in the House of Lords on feb 6th see below:


>
>
> Baroness Deech (Crossbench) | Hansard source
>
> My Lord, I recently heard a speech by President Peres of
> Israel. He
> said that if we look back 50 years, who would have imagined
> then that
> the Soviet Empire would have ended, that the South African
> system of
> apartheid would have been dismantled and Mandela would have
> become
> president, that the Berlin Wall would have come down and
> that there
> would be a black president of America? He said that we
> should look
> forward 50 years from now in the same spirit. I want to
> start on that
> optimistic note because I believe that if we wait that
> long*no doubt
> beyond our lifetimes*there will be change for the better. I
> want to
> emphasise that because inevitably much of my speech will be
> rather
> gloomy.
>
> No one can accuse this House of not focusing on the
> distressing
> situation in Gaza. In the past 12 months, there have been
> 161 Questions
> and Statements about Israel, Gaza and the Palestinians
> compared with,
> for example, 33 on Sri Lanka and 24 on Tibet. I mention
> Sri Lanka
> in particular because noble Lords will be aware that
> recently there was
> a well attended protest in Parliament Square about the
> terrible
> attacks on the Tamils, the hospitals under siege, the
> killing of 70,000
> people and the many more thousands who are trapped and
> displaced from
> their homes. This has attracted little opprobrium and no
> calls for the
> obliteration of Sri Lanka or talk of its brutalisation.
>
> I raise that because I am interested in the particular
> focus on the
> Middle East that is expressed in this country. Part of the
> reason is
> that the war in Gaza has not been seen in perspective, but
> only as a
> minute fragment of what is, in truth, a larger picture.
> There is a
> wider war, of which Israel and Gaza are figureheads, and
> there is
> also a civil war. The talk about what is proportionate*I
> prefer the
> word "necessary"*has to be seen in the context
> of a response to an
> attack from Hamas designed not just to launch rockets at
> Israel*5,000
> rockets deliberately aimed at Israeli civilians and
> schoolchildren at
> 7.45 in the morning*but to end the state of Israel.
>
> Hamas has vowed to have an Islamic state over Gaza, the
> West Bank
> and Israel as part of a wider Islamic empire. Israel has
> a 20 per cent
> Arab population, but not one Jew is to be allowed to live
> in this
> Islamic state. We can well imagine the fate planned for
> the millions of
> Israelis were this to come about. The response from Israel
> was, if
> anything, as restrained as it possibly could be. We should
> recall the
> detailed precautions taken by the Israeli army to avoid
> wherever
> possible harm to civilians, bearing in mind the use of
> mosques, schools
> and hospitals, as has been referred to earlier today.
>
> The charges of "disproportionate" were not
> made in relation to other
> wars that we have recently experienced; Kosovo, Georgia,
> Iraq or even
> Afghanistan, where people have died in their thousands. In
> fact, there
> has been some praise for the restraint that Israel has
> shown in trying
> to avoid civilian casualties. There is also a civil war in
> Gaza, which
> makes the prospects of peace unrealistic. The military
> dictatorship
> there did nothing to protect its own subjects, but took the
> opportunity
> of war to eliminate many of its Fatah political opponents.
> Other noble
> Lords have referred to the very cruel details of this.
> Even the
> Palestinian Authority's President Abbas said:
>
> "Hamas has taken risks with the blood of
> Palestinians, with their
> fate and dreams and aspirations for an independent
> Palestinian state".
>
> The wider war is one of destruction of Israel, and those
> who
> criticise Israel's attack on Gaza must realise that
> they are
> unwittingly giving succour to that plan.
>
> Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas all share that
> same aim of
> destroying Israel entirely and, indeed, Hamas has thanked
> Iran for its
> support in the Gaza war. As others have mentioned, the
> result has been
> that Jews all over the world have suffered for this. The
> attacks on
> Jews that have taken place here in the UK and elsewhere
> illustrate my
> theme of a wider war. It is Jews and synagogues in London
> and
> Venezuela, in universities, to their shame, and streets,
> that are
> attacked, with Gaza as the excuse, not Israelis. It is
> not Jews who
> see all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism; it is some
> of the
> critics of Israel who vent their displeasure on Jews in
> general. The
> hatred of Israel, and sometimes Jews, is almost unique in
> international politics.
>
> Then there is the propaganda war. I urge noble Lords not
> to believe
> all that they read in the newspapers about damage and
> killings in Gaza.
> We do not have the evidence. I cite just one case. The
> tragic killing
> of the three daughters of the respected Gazan doctor
> Izzeldin Abuelaish
> now seems to have been by Gazan rockets, not Israeli fire,
> according to
> the post-mortem examination of the fragments of their
> bodies.
>
> On the humanitarian front, of course, it is exacerbated,
> because
> Hamas wanted civilian deaths to increase its worldwide
> exposure and
> sympathy. Humanitarian aid is another area where the wrong
> and
> pessimistic view has been taken. I noted with interest and
> approval
> that the BBC refused to screen the advertisement for aid
> and that it
> was backed by its own NUJ branch of journalists. It is not
> so good to
> hear talk of a Zionist lobby and Jews mugging protests and
> stemming
> disquiet in the United States, when you consider the very
> small
> numbers that there are. The United Nations Relief and
> Works Agency has
> a huge budget. We do not yet know what happened to the
> millions that
> Arafat salted away and took to his death. We note the
> failure of other
> Arab countries to come to the aid of their brothers. The
> oil revenue of
> the Gulf states in 2008 was $562 billion; in Saudi Arabia
> it was $260
> billion*one day's oil revenue would work a miracle for
> the West Bank
> and Gaza, but this is not forthcoming.
>
> On the humanitarian front, Israel's Supreme Court in
> the past few
> days, a court known for its robustness, has examined the
> application of
> the Geneva conventions on humanitarian law and found them
> not to have
> been breached. Other Arab countries have not only not
> helped but have
> literally turned their backs on the Palestinians, as one
> can read
> regarding Syria in the report in the Times today.
>
> What of the future? Gaza could have had a future. Every
> Israeli
> soldier and civilian was removed from there. Everything
> was ready for
> the Gazans a few years ago to start a new period of
> economic
> development. There was no blockade, and it remains true
> that Egypt
> could open its crossing if it wanted to. It does not, of
> course,
> because it no more wants an Iranian state on its borders
> than Israel
> does. Instead the rockets and the tunnels came, and the sad
> destruction
> of the very greenhouses where flowers and fruit were grown
> and could
> have continued to be grown.
>
> What can the UK do? It can support Egypt, which is
> acting very well
> in this crisis, albeit for its own reasons of survival. It
> can help
> block Hamas from smuggling more arms by sea. It can press
> for the
> release of Gilad Shalit, who has been a hostage in Gaza
> for two and a
> half years with no access to the Red Cross or any other
> international
> agency. It can persuade Hamas to change the charter and
> remove mention
> of destruction. Above all, your Lordships should lend your
> voices to
> the end of the demonisation of Israel and to calm down the
> surging
> anti-Semitism. Your Lordships should recognise the need of
> Israel to
> exist and its legitimacy. It is no more arriviste in the
> Middle East
> than the other 22 Arab states to be found there. There can
> be no
> further removal of six million Jews from the Middle East.
> We must do
> nothing to feed the hatred that surrounds this issue and we
> must do
> everything to look to the future.
>
>
>
>
>

Well quoted, sir !