As much as this is a volitile issue at least it gets people putting thier opinions out there. If only the financial crisis and global warming had as explosive an effect on public discourse...

I was shown this graph when asking a similar question about the Isreali actions:



Assuming it is correct I think it makes the motivation for the offensive clear. It's not a matter of "the cease fire was broken" but that it was enforced with some amount of success for three months and then efforts, for what ever reason, to keep rockets on the ground failed for a consistent period.

There seems to be a problem that the Isreali side treats Hamas as homogenous, almost a single person. I think what the difficulty with Hamas is that it is such a small group that individual personalities play a large roll in the out come of any negotiations.

I think a good question to ask might be "How long is a reasonable amount of time for Hamas to be able to root out the people responsible for re-starting the rocket fire?"

quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo motivation was that Hamas needed to humbled. same with Hezbollah 2006. not sure if that warranted a new thread but whatever

Kind of like Americans need to be humbled?

quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo hate to break it to you but in this sub-forum, bias is prerequisite. if you want a circle jerk, go back to the COR

+1

I'd call it opinions though. Being touchy feely is a great way to just avoid tough topics.

quote:

Originally posted by Krypton A better question is why Palestinians fire rockets. Hint...blockade.

Good point.

Anyone actually know what the cease fire document looked like? Is it even written in english?

quote:

Originally posted by CHRles Correct. Gaza is under a blockade as a result of suicide bombings carried out in previous years, and constant rocket attacks (as primitive as they may be) aimed at the Israeli population. This past Thursday over 80 rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israeli, indiscriminately, and this happened on a daily basis. Just b/c a lot of Israelis didnt die doesnt mean that there weren't any injured, or any people who started panicking. Israel uses its shelters to protect its citizens, and has first rate hospitals. Hamas uses its shelters and tunnels to smuggle weapons, and deliberately hides some of them in school zones. Hamas is getting what it deserves.

This is going back to far. The point of a cease fire is to bury old grievances and work toward re-establishing peace, trade, and mutual prosperity.

Why did Hamas decide that the cease fire wasn't working? Was Isreal not keeping it's side of the bargin or did the organization (hamas) fracture?

quote:

Originally posted by pmoisse Like I said in my previous post, I don't support either side in this shitshow, but if Israel wanted to maintain any kind of moral high-ground, they've blown it.

+1

This is normaly why I don't like to comment on the issue of Israel et al.

For some reason this offensive got me trying to figure it out agian, probably a stupid thing. I've got to remember that untangling the Israel / Palistine debate is not something you can do as a 'hobby' (despite every US president treating it that way...)

...

well back to work and keeping my mouth (fingers?) shut in stupified disbeleif that such a small population of two cultures can be so intensly entangled in a conflict.