For decades the great sham of the Middle East Peace Process has dragged on. And this despicable scam has consisted of only one policy, only one platform and only one plan. Pressuring Israel for more concessions.

Year in and year out, new peace conferences were declared and new plans for peace were hammered out. All of them had one thing in common, they carved up Israel for a non-existent peace.

Concessions & gestures to the Palestinians have consistently been met with increased intransigence with each Israeli concession being met by new Palestinian demands.

The Palestinian side has not made a single concession not even a tiny one such as Hamas & Fatah removing the complete and utter destruction of the Jewish people from their Charters.

The Middle East "peace-process" whose main principle is supposed to be "land for peace" involves a paradox whereby the minuscule democracy of Israel is being forced to provide it's totalitarian neighbours & enemies even more territory.

Arab/Islamic states sworn to the destruction of Israel and who occupy territory covering more than 99.5% of the Middle East itself - an area vast in size and the largest land mass occupied by any ethnic group on the planet - demand more territory from the tiny Jewish state of Israel - which itself consists of less than 0.5% of the region - and who the Arab/Islamic world has repeatedly tried to destroy.

Upon exchanging land in areas of Judea and Samaria - what the world calls the "West Bank" - Israel did not get peace. Instead it got suicide bombers, suicide machine gunners, drive-by terrorists, snipers, mortar bombs, car bombs, fire bombs, grenades, booby traps, explosive packages, remote controlled explosives, forest fires, lynching, and kids bludgeoned to death.

Subsequently Israel built a security barrier to protect itself from the proponents of Palestinian terrorism. For this, and for protecting its own civilians against murder and terror, Israel has been condemned on the World stage.

The principle of "land for peace'"has now died, having again shown it's true face in Gaza, where ceded Israeli territory by withdrawing the entire Jewish population, both dead and alive.

In response former Israeli territory and property was ransacked. Israel ceded Gaza in good faith for peace. It got anything but in return. All Jewish synagogues were desecrated and vandalized. The Jews had even taken their dead from cemeteries with them as they knew from past experience what would happen to those left behind.

Former Jewish towns and villages were turned into Palestinian terrorist training camps and also used to launch tens of thousands of missiles/mortars into neighbouring Jewish villages.

The Jewish withdrawal from Gaza subsequently led to Hamas overpowering the ruling Fatah, throwing many of his opponents off high rise buildings. The populace of Gaza also showing their true face by the election of a terrorist entity sworn to destroy their Jewish neighbours and to replace Israel with an Islamic state of "Palestine".

The massive influx of weapons into Gaza and the thousands of missile, mortar and other terrorist attacks from the terrorist ruled enclave resulted in Israel being forced to impose a blockade on Gaza as another means of protecting its own civilians against murder and terror. Again Israel was condemned for defending itself on the World stage.

Indeed it took 10,000+ Palestinan missiles being launched from Gaza at Jewish civilians before Israel even responded.

Of special note is that during the many thousands of Palestinian missile attacks the International community, the United Nations and the World's media responded with a thunderous silence which was only broken when Israel eventually decided to respond militarily.

Then the World reacted immediately and vociferously - to condemn Israel.

Condemning Israel for defending its own people through either military action or imposing a blockade evades any responsibility on behalf of those who elected Hamas & who launched the attacks which led to the military response and security measure.

Calling it "collective punishment" of the Gazan population just won't wear and absolves the Gazan Palestinians, including Hamas, of any responsibility for their actions. This is totally unacceptable.

To the contrary, it is the residents of Sderot who are "collectively punished" as they trusted the Palestinians to deliver on "land for peace" when Israel withdrew from Gaza, only to be rewarded with many thousands of Palestinian missile attacks upon its civilian poplation instead.

Thousands of young Jewish kids in Sderot suffer from trauma knowing that they only have 15 seconds to find cover before one lands. They live and go to school in bomb shelters. I know, your argument will be that they haven't killed many people. Well, each missile was intended to kill as many innocent Jewish civilians as possible. Perhaps not enough Jews have been killed for people like you.

Israeli kids have suffered collective punishment for one reason only - being Jews. They either live or attend school in bomb-shelters with 15 seconds notice of a missile strike. All because Israel trusted the Palestinians to deliver on their promise of 'land for peace'. Instead of receiving "land for peace" they got a "living hell" from a territory whose populace went on to elect a terrorist entity sworn to destroy them.

Arab apologists dismiss the significance of the Palestinian missiles while pouring contempt upon the Jewish victims of these attacks by ridiculing the relatively small number of fatalities caused by the Palestinian missiles.

Every one of the 10,000+ Palestinian missiles launched from Gaza was intended to kill/injure/maim as many Jewish civilians as possible. If one missile had killed one Israeli over 10,000 would have been casualties, but that still wouldn't have been enough for some or bothered others.
 

The fact that these casualties did not ensue is not Israel's fault & the fact that not enough Jews have been killed for Arab apologists is obviously problematic to those who hate the Jewish people for one reason or another.

The widespread psychological trauma upon thousands of Jewish children due to Palestinian kassem & grad missile attacks has been considerable. It's also led to dozens of fatalities & several hundred injuries. Katyusha rockets, like those used by Hezbollah, have also been fired from Gaza at Beersheba, Ashkelon & Ashdod.

It was the same with the missiles fired at Jewish civilians from the Lebanon. Each projectile was loaded with shrapnel in order to maim or kill as many as possible. Some 100,000 Israelis were either evacuated or moved to bomb shelters during the Lebanese conflict.. Just as in Gaza, the World was more concerned with the civilian casualties in the Lebanon conflict where Arab civilians were again purposely used as human shields with weapons being fired from civilian areas.
 

The blame extended to Israel for defending itself against unprovoked missile attacks was totally disproportionate to any international criticism employed against the Arab/Islamic terrorists firing missiles at Jewish civilians.

Gaza showed the world what to expect. The world refused to listen or heed the danger. Those who will not learn from history are bound to repeat it. The lessons of 1948, 1967, 1973 and many times since are there for all to see. The Arab/Islamic world want all of the Middle East. It's not about boundaries. It's about the very existence of a Jewish state, irrespective of size/borders, in land seen to be forever Islamic.

Israeli acts of self-defence and retaliation against unprovoked Arab/Islamic violence have been criticised and condemned by nations once thought to have been allies of the Jewish state.

Israel can now clearly see that these "part-time allies" now have no real interest in the security of the Jewish people and if Israel's security is left to these nations then Jews will once more face the spectre of a Holocaust.

In truth, Israel strikes only at Palestinians combatants, and with laser precision (literally). If innocents are wounded or killed, it is accidental, and Israeli leaders and citizens express their sincere regrets.

Rather, it is Palestinian suicide bombers who are "indiscriminate," seeking to kill anyone and everyone in their mad quest -- babies, mothers and teenagers -- in bloody deeds extolled by Palestinian society.

If Israel followed the Palestinians example and indiscriminately launched 1000's of home-made missiles loaded with shrapnel into Gazan civilian areas just to terrorise the community, and hope that some hit civilian targets, would the World describe such as a "proportionate" response and lower its condemnation of Israel?

In so doing 1000's of Palestinian children, instead of Jewish kids, would be traumatised and have to go to school in air raid shelters. Would this be a "proportionate" response or lower Israel's international condemnation ?

No, of course not, on both counts. Such would be ridiculous and totally unacceptable. Astute analysts will be only too aware that beneath the spin and expedient rhetoric it is Israel's very right of self defence that is being condemned.

Instead Israel tried to target terrorists directly. Sadly some Palestinian children/civilians do accidentally become casualties but they are not the targets. Unlike the Palestinians who directly target Israeli civilians, firing from their own civilian areas and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The Palestinian terrorists knowing full well that any Israeli response may well incur Palestinian civilian casualties but the terrorists also being prepared to sustain them due to the ensuing condemnation of Israel that they know will erupt.

This is evident as Hamas continues to emphasize and promote the religious ideology that death for Allah is an ideal to be actively pursued. The goal is to convince Palestinians, including women and children, not to fear death but even to face it at the front to protect Hamas fighters. Hamas's placement of its military installations and fighters among civilians reflects this ideology, and senior Hamas representatives have expressed pride that the Palestinians "desire death" with the same intensity that Israelis "desire life."

The following is the full text of the comments by Hamas representative Fathi Hamad: - "For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire life."

Indeed, the attempt to draw a moral equivalence between the Palestinians' deliberate attempts to kill innocents and inspire terror and Israel's military responses to these attacks is akin to identifying the arsonist with the firefighter.

As retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp highlighted to the United Nations in the wake of the Gaza conflict;-

"...The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.

Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.

More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas' way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians. Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare..."

While Israel has ceded Gaza, uprooted thousands of it's civilians, freed thousands of Palestinian prisoners and provided autonomy for over 93% of Palestinians in the disputed territories, there has not been a single concession by the PA, not even the tiny amending of the charters of Hamas, & so called moderates Fatah, which call for the destruction of Israel.

With hindsight it is not surprising that many Israelis have totally lost their faith in the notion of "land for peace". For the Israeli population ceding land has not led to peace but simply to more conflict, more attacks upon Jewish civilians and more war.

Another pull-back, this time from Judea and Samaria, may well be suicidal.

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has already having made demands that the Palestinian Authority/Fatah in what the World calls the "West Bank" should allow the latter to be used as a platform for more Palestinian missile attacks into Israel in much the same manner as Gaza.

Arab/Islamic supporters often speak of Israeli or Western "oppression". What needs to be realised is that because Islam considers itself to be perfect, its adherents can never do wrong, especially in pursuit of the Islamic agenda. All their own violence/aggression is therefore represented as self-defence, while Western/Israeli self-defence is thereby interpreted as aggression.

Arab apologists insist that Hamas is not a "problem" to the Middle East peace process and should be "recognised" as it is the "democratically elected" representative of the Palestinian population in Gaza.

Astute observers respond that if Hamas is not a "problem" then why doesn't it just make the "minor" concession of removing the calls for Israel's annihilation from it's charter - which calls for an Islamic state of "Palestine" upon the ruins of Israel.

The question being asked if why then does Hamas not just recognise the right of Israel to exist, renounce violence and seek a peaceful coexistence with the Jews.

Instead the Hamas charter declares that "...Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it....."

A number of Middle East analysts have drawn attention to the fact that, in terms of their agendas, there is little to choose between Hamas and Fatah. Israel and the World ignores this at their peril.

The following article titled "Fatah and Hamas - Is There REALLY a Difference?" speaks volumes.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/2051