You make a big mistake if you think of Hamas and Gaza in terms of what they deserve instead of what would work to defeat them.
Take a lesson from Jewish history. One of the things that kept the Jews together and intensely loyal to their own cultute and people was the outside presssure from constant harassment and, prejudice.
Even the holocaust served to strengthen resolve instead of breaking the spirit. In situations where the outside pressures have been less, falling away and assimiliating into other cultures has been greater. (A rabbi is the source of this lesson.)

By letting hatred numb the mind, one becomes vulnerable to making stupid, self-defeating mistakes.

BTW, fiery and thoughtless rhetoric doesn’t win any converts to the cause. It anatagonizes thus having the opposite effect. Sometimes, you have to choose whether you care more about winning in the long run or about having the temporary pleasue in spouting off and revenge.

I’m out of here as long as this kind of thing is condoned.

Well, since you were dishonest, it’s a relief. To think I was ready to discuss (yet more) concessions Israel might make to the Arabs to reach a peace agreement…

Israel should give nothing to Gaza.

It is sending humanitarian aid (it will still be bashed, though it is not Israel’s “fault” whatsoever that Hamas has taken over Gaza). It should cut off the provision of electricity and other services it has provided for ages (and what thanks that it deserves, does it get? Rocket attacks, bombings…) Let the Arab League deliver humanitarian aid. Any smuggling of weapons should result in a complete cutoff of all aid. Any attacks by Hamas, a terrorist criminal organization, should result in destruction of the offenders and the locations from which attacks are launched.

Laura is advocating genocide

DO NOT LIE!

Domajot:

Humanitarian aid does not lift anyone out of an impoverished and bitter state of mind..

The Arabs have chosen their own fate, to date, and are continuing to do so — by their own choice. Neither Israel nor anybody else is really to blame, not even all the Arab nations exploiting the “refugees” and many other Arabs in the Territories, for the Arabs’ vice and squalor.

Note to Laura: Apparently Cosmo, who has made a number of “unreal” remarks before, doesn’t get out much and expose himself or herself to Jewish women (nor Slavic women, for that matter).

Comment #4
cosmoetica said,

June 20, 2007 at 4:27 pm:

Hmm…Jewish women are usually thought of as being as feminine as Slavic women with facial hair. Nice to know there are exceptions.

BTW, did the editors reprimand the individual who made the nasty comment about Jewish women which prompted my other response for which I had supposedly crossed the line on?

[MvdG: I saw the comment and decided to edit it - thanks for pointing the comment out though. Advocating genocide is, indeed, not allowed and we will not let that "comment be."]

Israel should give nothing to Gaza. These people voted in, and support terrorism, let them suffer the consequences of their decisions. Stop infantalizing the palestinians. No one owes them a damn thing. They can’t continue to reject Israel’s existence, terrorize them and then demand Israel still send humanitarian aid to them. They wanted Israel’s so-called “occupation” to end, well then it should be a completely clean break, let the palestinians be on their own. They can’t have it both ways. Of course this won’t sit well with the lefist commenters on this board. Their convoluted logic is that Israel should continue to provide water, electricity and fuel to those who use that electricity and fuel to wage a genocidal war against it. Gaza should be cutoff and isolated.

[Second edit: I saw that this is the second time in a short amount of time that a comment of you crossed the line. Three strikes you're out. Try to make your point without using extremes.]

It’s risky to ignore the psychological impact,
In trying to isolate Iran, we ignored their need for acknowledgment of their power. They, then, proved their power in nasty ways. (I know, this is a chicken-and-egg hunt, but an important factor, nevetheless)

I don’t claim to have a crystal ball as to what would actually work the best. Still, I think the drive to punish should not obscure a cool-headed assessment of possible results.

I note that after all the pressure put on Hamas to date by Israel and the West, they are parading victorious in Gaza.

Life isn’t fair. Sometimes one just has to calculate how to play the hand dealt in the most wise way.
Currently, I have serious doubts about isolation working.

Like in Iraq, I think we need time to absorb developments as they happen.
Helping Abbas as an interim strategy sounds reasonable, as long as it’s not the final strategy.

Isolating Palestinians in impoverished enclaves in Lebanon has worked only to privide fertile territory into which AlQaeda moves easily.

Since AlQaeda is already in Gaza, I wouldn’t rush to create a situation in which they can flourish. Starvation produces desperation, and desperation leads to desperate measures, including heeding the call of AlQaeda.