“The comparison doesn’t hold. Apartheid involved — and I didn’t realise this until put right by a Saffie only yesterday — the deliberate resegregation of communities that had once been mixed”

You conveniently ignore the fact that 80% of Gazans were originally in Israel proper, or are the children of such persons. At that time they were not segregated from their Jewish neighbours. Obviously a Palestinian trapped in Gaza is entitled to reflect on how his predicament is not altogether different from that of a black South African trapped in a Bantustan.

Indeed.

But that’s nothing to the Hell I give the Catholics.

Yeah.

Skeptic’s right that is a good point viz the Hamas flags. Evidence of ideological totalitarianism perhaps?

If they’d kept the UN very simple and practical the Chinese would’ve come in by now and made everyone play nice.

The way this is going there’s going to be a Big Fat War!

I believe this trend goes hand in hand with the disappearance of moderate pro-Palestinian positions. It’s getting uglier on both sides, on the ground in Gaza and elsewhere in the world.

While I don’t disagree with Israel having the right to defend its citizens, somebody has got to figure out how to weaken Hamas effectively: killing people in Gaza is only the answer if they intend on annihilating everybody in Hamas, which strikes me as near to impossible, and will be a blow to their legitimacy in working with a post-Hamas Gaza. Anything less means Hamas gains martyrs, and more support from beleaguered Palestinians who can’t see a way out. Israel needs to find a carrot to go with their stick. They may have a right to continue (and they may not), but should they?

As for @20: I can pretty much guarantee that Adrien is as much of a pain in the ass to Muslims as he is to Jews.

All you see in Gaza now is a sea of Green – flags, towels on heads, etc. It is a different story in the West Bank where the Palestinian national flag still flutters.

Actually, that’s a good point.

Your steely resolve in the company of Yids is admirable. But tell me, are you similarly resolute in the company of Muhammadans?

1. It is time people stopped referring to the Hamastanians as “Palestinians”. Has anyone noticed that since Hamas assumed the Gaza caliphate, public displays of the Palestinian flag have basically vanished? All you see in Gaza now is a sea of Green – flags, towels on heads, etc. It is a different story in the West Bank where the Palestinian national flag still flutters.

2. I have always snorted at this specious “Palestinian” national identity as a ruse cooked up by the KGB following their bitchslapping in 1967. The Hamastanians in Gaza are not fighting for a small enclave to call their nation state. They are simply a link in a semi-regionally-articulated imperialist Islamist campaign.

3. The root cause of this is simple. It is called “The Koran”.

4. And why do people keep talking about this “truce”? Who signed it? It does not appear on the Net. And since when has Gaza been a nation state, a member of the UN, with the legitimacy to enter into agreements with legitimate nation states like Israel?

5. Meanwhile in Oz, the Luvvies are stepping their “Human Rights Act” jihad. Why? To provide complete access to Australia for Muslims across the globe. This is not an “Australian” Bill of Rights!

6. The Israelis have every right to keep up the offensive until the Hamastanians say “Uncle” and agree to every single condition Israel demands.

7. Israel has made it clear it intends to “change the rules of the game”.

May they triumph.