Israel has a right to respond to the rocket fire. Just
keep the response proportionate is all that I ask. I
really do not have much hope for negotiations until
Hamas sees itself as ready to recognize Israel's right
to exist.

This anniversary should be an occasion to call on Israel to respect international law in all its operations in Gaza and the West Bank and to go forward with the independent investigation into Operation Cast Lead which the the Goldstone report has recommended and APN has endorsed.

Yitzak Rabin said that Israeli policy ought to be to pursue peace as if terror did not exist and to combat terror as if the peace process did not exist. Only the second is being done.

He also declared that he wanted to make peace with the Palestinians before Iran got "the bomb." This warning is not being given enough heed. Peace with the Palestinians is not only necessary; it is becoming urgent.

As long as Israel occupies the Westbank and humiliates Palestinians everyday and keeps on building settlements and shielding the settlers, it feeds into Hamas’ believe that Israel does not want peace, that Israel is not to be trusted.

Gaza and the occupation of the Westbank are one problem.

Only a diplomatic solution will secure Israel.

Toetie

I'm a long time memebre of Peace now, and live in a Kibbutz not far from Gaza! I have friends who live in Gaza and do not understand their leadership. Ulmert and Barak have each offered the Palestinians 96%-98% of the distputed territories [wrong called "Occupied Territories"], including Jerusalem as the Capital City of Palestine! They recievd negative answeres. What more can Israel do? Maybe Dinegagemant from the West Bank too, and let them make up their mind... Their is no partner for peace right now, which us very upsetting but true.

I strongly believe that if the Palestinians had a stronger leadership which would come up to the plate to negotiate with Israel they would have their own state. They vote for leaders who do not negotiate because they either are afraid for their own lives (yet willing to sacrifice their young people's lives) or they do not believe Israel should even exist. It is time for the Palestinians to really believe in their own culture and existence; vote for competent leaders; and build an infrastructure which will protect them and allow them to flourish.

Peace and justice for the Palestinian people is the only means of calming the hatred that is ignited against Israel and inciting adherence to Hamas and there radical stance against Israel. The people of Gaza being treated in an inhuman way (not allowing much needed food and medicine to enter) and the settlements by fanatic jews on Palestinian land are among the reasons for what is called terrorism, suicide bombers and rockets into Israel that Israelis and Jews everywhere deplore. But they should also deplore the causes. For this they must be properly informed and historically knowledgeable. Or they must be capable of understanding and empathizing with another people's plight and not be blinded by nationalism.

Einstein wrote in a 1928 letter to Heinrich York-Steiner:

"The time has come...that this movement avoid the danger of degenerating into blind nationalism. In my view, one must....achieve the insight that resentment towards the Arabs must be replaced by psychological understanding and an honest will to cooperate with them."

Einstein expressed doubts about the ability of this understanding coming to pass.

I suggest that Peace Now have the book Einstein On Israel and Zionism edited by Fred Jerome published in Israel. It is full of wisdom about what it means to be a Jew, it's humanitarian and egalitarian roots.

I have been to Gaza recently. It is the largest open air prison on earth. The Geneva Conventions specifically permit those living under occupation to resist that occupation. The French Resistance did it, the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto did it. Even the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza does not relieve the oppression of the siege and blockade there. The US must take a firm stand against this or there will be no solution.

It is good to hear that Israel has responded to the Haiti earthquake disaster with humanitarian relief. A similar gesture towards the people of Gaza could be a landmark breakthrough toward mutual respect and mutual interests.

Thanks for your even mentioning the urgency of a negotiated settlement...including Hamas. The conditions placed on Hamas to "recognize Israel's right to exist [with "as a Jewish state" now added] -- while seeming a resonable one to Israelis -- is an unreasonable one for Palestinians. I've read some wonderful explanations as to how that phrase "Israel's right to exist" connotates a right for Zionists to have ethnically cleansed the indigenous people from their land in Palestine. Many credible sources cite Hamas as willing to recognize Israel when Israel recognizes Palestinians' right to exist. Arafat recognized Israel's right to exist on 78% of historic Palestine and got nothing in return. My understanding is that Hamas has agreed to a Palestinian state on 1967 borders if this is what Palestinians agree to. However, Netanyahu recently --according to Israeli press -- has stated he'll never grant such a thing.

When people say Barak and Olmert offered 90-something percent of the West Bank to Palestinians, you must look at the conditions under what those percentages might have been offered. Jeff Halper of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions has the best analogy I've heard, which is that of a prison in which prisoners occupy the largest percentage of space -- but the 5 or so percent occupied by the guards is what maintains control. Palestinians need sovereignty -- not a series of disconnected bantustans the likes of which Barak offered at Camp David. Please let no one be asking/expecting Palestinians to settle for anything less than Israelis or Americans would want for themselves.

Also, many do not realize that Gaza remained occupied after disengagement, because under international law any nation that maintains control over borders is an occupying power. Israel had and still has an obligation under international law to care for the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, but it has not and is not fulfilling those obligations.

I think the elephant in the room must be addressed: UN Res 194 granting a Right of Return to the refugees from the 1948 war. Israeli negotiators, as well as Palestinian and American negotiators, all say they were close at the Taba Summit to an agreement on how to deal with Res 194 and the Right of Return -- but then Barak pulled the plug and let Sharon go to the Haram al Sharif, thereby igniting the second uprising and more delay of the "peace process." PLEASE REMEMBER, everyone, that not only Arab states but also non-Arab Muslim states have an offer still on the table from 2002 for peace and normalized relations with an Israel demarcated by the Green Line with E. Jerusalem as its capital. We are spending too many lives and resources upholding Israel's occupation and illegal settlement project. Time to talk earnestly, and for America to stop acting -- like former US negotiator Aaron David Miller says -- "as Israel's lawyer." The needs, and rights, freedom and security of ALL people must be considered equally and law applied evenly to all. IMHO.

Aside from a very few responses, all I see above is a continued state of denial regarding Israel's direct culpability for the state of the Palestinians, the quality of their leadership, and even as the intro states; "A year after Operation Cast Lead, renewed rocket fire from the Gaza Strip threatens to ignite another war" continued 'blame the victim' rhetoric as though the rockets would be coming had Israel, even for a while, adhered to the truce agreements it made in bad faith, six months before beginning the Gaza Massacre (aka ’Cast Lead’). After all, Israel’s already proven that stopping the rockets has nothing to do with whether or not Israel opens the gates to Gaza, allows Gazans access to the world beyond the barriers, or even relieves Gazans of the fear of Israeli attack.

Israel's not done one damn thing to promote peace but rather has intentionally provoked people pushed beyond reason into responding as best they can - the better for Israel to justify the next attack with U.S.-made F-16s & DIME weapons in violation of U.S. law. The rockets from Gaza aren't a symbol of Palestinian intransigence, they're a completely predictable response to a continued inhumane hermetic seal on Gaza (now being augmented by the perfidious Hosni Mubarak) and a complete loss of the sense there’s anything to be gained by not firing rockets.

Statements like those of Itai Lavi above (one wonders... a hasbara plant?) demonstrate that too many Israelis remain completely oblivious to the fact that no Israeli "concession" has ever provided for a viable Palestinian state but have provided just enough ‘smoke’ to make statements such as Lavi’s believable to all to willing to believe.

Until the U.S. & the world at large understands that Israel has no interest in "Peace" as we understand it, or the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, but intends by hook or by crook (probably the latter), to establish "Greater Israel" between the Jordan + the Golan, and the Med; the Litani, and the Sinai; we will continue this useless and circular dance in which Israel & the U.S. make demands, give concessions, withdraw concessions, and make new demands as though, all the while, real people aren't living, dying, and suffering in the hell of the most extreme oppression imaginable.

Please people, get real!

I'm old enough to have lived with the Israel question since before there was an Israel, though I have only visited it once. (My maternal grandpa, Sam Dana, sold bonds for Israel when I was barely conscious of the world.) Now in my 70s, I have grown more and more pessimistic that the US or its client Israel will ever grant the Palestinians the basic human right to exist as a viable political entity. And why should they? With the unquestioning support of the world's only "superpower" the Israelis can--and will--call all the shots. And if/when the Palestinians respond in kind, they/we will cry, "Terrorists!" or "Violence-mongers!" I don't expect to see real peace in Israel-Palestine in my lifetime. Shame on us!

Israel's actions, before and since its inception, continue to cause enmity between the Palestinians and Israelis. The feelings of distrust bordering on hate must be fairly prevalent among a people who have been systematically "cleansed" from their homeland and consistently humiliated, tortured, demonized, and denied basic human rights.

The real danger to Israel however, now lies, not so much in these imprisoned people, but in the way the rest of the world (including more and more American Jews) are now viewing the State of Israel. My own feelings toward the country which I lived in for 12 years is nothing short of disgust.

Israel needs its friends to survive, yet it is losing friends - people who still strive to cling to basic decency and fight for the rights of all human beings.

The assault on Gaza and the continued deprivation of its inhabitants has served as a wakeup call to fair-minded people throughout the world. We are now mobilizing and will make our voices heard until Israel stops its aggression toward its neighbors and comes honestly to the table of peace to negotiate a fair settlement of the catastrophe.

Your message is not to be expected from a sincere organization working for peace, since you claim Hamas's rockets might ignite another war in Gaza. You are insinuating that Hamas action is the cause, and the excuse for Israeli barbaric war crimes. If you want to be an advocate to peace, you should be uncomfortable with any relation to fascist Israeli system which should be a shameful cause to all its supporters. Israel is a rouge outlaw entity should be blockaded by all humanity
for its savagery that started with its occupation and ethnic cleansing perpetrated against the real owners of Palestine in 1948, and continued genocides blockades, including the Zion Wall. Your organization should ask all decent American Jews to dissociate themselves of this Zionist and criminal state of Israel. Ask the American Jewry, why while enjoying and practicing US way of life and our democratic freedom, justice and pursuit of happiness, can support the Israeli regime which denies the Palestinians their rights in their own country, let alone its inhumane and and brutal occupation.

The War in Gaza has demonstrated that conflicts between communities can not be resolved by violence nor violence may be a solution to security threats. While Israel is entitled to the right to self defense that is embedded in international law, the military force used during the war is very questionable and should have legitimately investigated by civilian authorities.

Professor Gad Barzilai
University of Washington

My greatest displeasure with APN for allowing itself to be the ground for the spouting of hatred. The presence of legitimate discussion and debate is to be applauded. However peace organizations cannot allow themselves to be forums for hate or legitimizers of terror. A report abuse button must be placed so that users can raise red flags and administrators can remove inciteful comments. Ziad Mughrabi's comment must be the first to be deleted with its talk of a fascist zionist entity. By having lax policies in preventing itself from being used by supporters of violence and terror, the APN defeats its purpose of promoting peace.