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They should just take the chance to save face that Abbas offer with that referendum, and avoid violence.
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Violence had never left them, as they were being constantly shelled for the last few months. I think they've been rather restrained until now.
Expecting anything other than a retalation for the beach shelling is being naive - just as no-one expects the Israeli leadership to not retaliate at a rocket attack, you can hardly expect Hamas to sit by and do nothing. Their position would be untenable if they let this latest one slide.
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If Hamas go through with this they've had their chance and chosen to not take it.
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Hamas never had a chance - Ehud Olmert is, as I type, in the UK pressing for a unilateral settlement (after doing tours round the world with the same proposal) with Tony Blair for borders of Israel's choosing - Israel has no intention of coming to any kind of bipartide solution to this that would compromise its land grab. Arguably, it never has.
For those who like to say Hamas has been supporting the other groups carrying out attacks, I would merely point you towards the ongoing confrontations between Hamas and other groups in Gaza that have been occurring for some months now - until the beach incident, they've been more interested in killing each other than uniting to kill Israeli's.
Edit: Look at it this way if you believe Hamas' actions are so inexcusable. How many innocent people does Israel have to kill
before a retaliation becomes justified?
The rockets fired into Israel are crude at best, are lucky if they injure someone and the fatality rate (considering the amount fired) is really small - six people have been killed by them in two years according to the Wikipedia page on
Notable Qassam Attacks.
For those who discount Wikipedia, the Israeli Ministry of Information lists only
four deaths from Qassam rockets - shamefully omitting the two Israeli-Arabs who were also victims.
If six deaths from Qassam rockets in two years (going with the larger figure) is enough to warrant Israel's continual bombardment of Gaza and the killing of many innocents, isn't the slaughter of a family of seven Palestinians on a beach, against a background of continual shelling enough to warrant retaliation?
[ 06-12-2006, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]