Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud Candidate for Israeli Prime Minister
We fight to defend ourselves, but in so doing we are also fighting a fanatical ideology that seeks to reverse the course of history and throw the civilized world back into a new dark age. The struggle between militant Islam and modernity -- whether fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, India or Gaza -- will decide our common future. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.Jose Saramago, Portuguese Nobel Prize Winning Novelist
... Israel scoffs at the resolutions, decisions and protests and does exactly as it wants ... It has come to the point of prohibiting the entrance of books and musical instruments, as if these ... will endanger the security of Israel. If it was possible to kill through the ridiculous, there would not be one single politician or one single Israeli soldier alive, soldiers who are specialised in cruelty, hold university degrees in scorn, persons who look at the world from the altar of their insolence which stands as the base of their education. We can better understand their Biblical God now that we know his followers. Jehova or Yahweh, or whatever he’s called, is a vengeful and ferocious god that the Israelis keep permanently modern.Huang262 from Southeast Asia, Commenting on a China Daily.com Forum
Remember how the Japanese army made up excuses to invade China? And remember how the US used the Gulf of Tonkin incident to attack Vietnam?
Well, Israel (with US assistance) needs excuses to keep grabbing Palestinian land. Gaza is like a hornets nest. The Israelis poke it, get bitten and scream bloody murder. Then they blow up Palestinian schools, hospitals, etc with American helicopters and jets and take more land. And the process gets repeated over and over. Every time the Palestinians fight back it's a terrorist attack. Every piece of land the Israelis grab is "disputed" land. It will not stop until every Palestinian is pushed into the sea. And all this is happening while the Westerners are "innocently" asking for a referendum for Tibet!
Charles Krauthammer, US, Washington Post
Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating.
Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis -- 6,464 launched from Gaza in the past three years -- deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people.
Abukar Arman, Journalist
In his piece "Moral Clarity in Gaza " which appeared on Washington Post, Krauthammer has this callously offensive declaration to offer: "Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating."
This kind of erroneous moral conviction, coupled with blind U.S. support, is what justifies Israel 's defiance of the International Law and its stubborn pursuit of the ever-failing approach of enforcing a military solution to a political problem.
David Aaronovitch, UK, Writing in the Times Online
The message that has been given out to Palestinians, time and again, is that there is no clear advantage to be gained from being moderate. It has been all stick and no carrot, to the frustration of those, such as Tony Blair, who have tried to create some impetus towards peace.
But why speak about such things when we can hold up placards equating Jews with Nazis, emote over dead babies or talk tough about defending Israeli citizens? It was Shimon Peres, the Israeli President, who said that, far from there being no light at the end of the Middle East tunnel, there was indeed light. The trouble was that there was no tunnel. Bit by bit, inducement by bribe and ceasefire by restraint, we have to construct one.
Subcomandante Marcos, Mexico, Leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army
Maybe our thinking is very simple, and we're lacking the nuances and annotations that are always so necessary in analyses, but to the Zapatistas it looks like there's a professional army murdering a defenseless population.
Who from below and to the left can remain silent?
Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian?We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world
Musa90, Somalian, on Skyscraper.com Message Board
As a Muslim African and being Somali, I support the Palestinians out of the two. Israel is the aggressor and illegally took the land.
But, I think they both get way too much media attention, I can understand it around this period with heavy shelling and major mortalities but even when small things occur between these two they always get heavy international media coverage.
In the Muslim world there are many more crisis's that cause a lot more deaths than this conflict but they get not even a quarter of the amount of coverage by the media.
For instance the Somali civil war more then 20.000 die annually, Darfur genocide in Sudan etc.
That pisses me off.Hope Man and Peace Man, Blogging Together from Sderot and Gaza, Respectively
Hope Man: What me and others are doing is continuing the dialog with friends in Gaza.... The day after the war we want to start finding ways to work together and create a normality. We are only several kilometers apart and that will never change. It is extremely important to widen our dialog and create trust between those that are willing to talk. To share our stories, fears and hopes. The day after the war we need a new beginning. Let's start planting seeds of humanity and trust now.
Peace Man: We have said from the beginning that violence will bring more violence. I hope the world will understand that’s there people want to live safe with dignity and peace . I hope I will have the chance to write you again.