On a somewhat ceasefire related note... my Canadian government has chosen to blame Hamas for Israel bombing a Palestinian school. Super.

lildorothyparker,

that is awful, but unfortunately not surprising.

This conflict really frustrates me. There is no justice in this, so many children have been killed, so many civilians are being killed-the civilians are really being targeted-I mean bombing schools?!?! The schools provide shelter for the people of Gaza. It makes me sad, the state of this world

I really hope Barack meets his goals of 'bring a long-overdue sense of responsibility and accountability to Washington' through the actions discussed in the two related items above. Its the number one reason why I voted for him. The idea of a chief performance officer is great!

I second Tia's comment.

I second Tia and think lawmakers should keep their deficit cutting ideas to themselves until Obama takes office - if they were so brilliant, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Does anyone really believe the economy won't right itself without massive government intervention? Haven't they learned from the arrogance of the past?

organic - nope. Hence the massive bailouts and stimulus plans and gobbledygook the government feels they need to do.

Does anyone believe the economy will right itself without government intervention?

Organic it will eventually however the recession will be much longer than necessary and history have shown that the sooner governments intervene, the sooner the economy get itself going again.

Maybe should just take advantage of the opportunity, and make this generation in the U.S. a huge test case: no intervention and let the economy sort itself out. However long it takes, whatever losses are incurred - just all part of the experiment. Lives and the world will wait.

Ohhh... that sounds fun steph. Just to play devil's advocate: do we really know that the government intervention has helped? Or will help?

I don't think the bailouts were wise, certainly they were poorly handled. I think at this point, there has to be a stimulus package that keeps or gets the important things moving - I am very encouraged at the idea of an office to monitor things. The idea of more tax cuts now doesn't excite me - I was more interested in Obama's idea of reviewing and overhauling the tax code, but that was before September. I have no faith in the private sector fixing things for the betterment of all, though they happily screwed pretty much everything.

That's really sad!!!

the situation is getting worst there!! people are dying everyday babies, mothers, old people and whole families are killed in a wink...governments are just blaming Hamas and Israel won't stop yet!
yesterday Israel killed 350 people, 176 of them are just kids and 85 are women, do you blame Hamas for that!!!?

OPEN UP YOUR EYES PEOPLE!!! Even if we are Arabs we are human being. neither us nor our babies are terrorists regardless of what you may think.

lildorothyparker - do you think that bombing a Palestinian school is "super"!!? 'cause I didn't get what you mean by that "super"

Exactly, Eya.

All that this killing will accomplish is perpetuating the cycle of anger and hate that will continue to make peace an impossible dream.

lildorothyparker - do you think that bombing a Palestinian school is "super"!!? 'cause I didn't get what you mean by that "super"

Eya, lildororthyparker was NOT saying that bombing a Palestinian school is super. She was being sarcastic in regards to her Canadian governments blinded backing of the Israels, and her Canadian government blaming Hamas for causing Israel to bomb the school. I hope this makes sense.

Yes Jude!killing whole villages and innocent babies in every religious day is unacceptable because it's disrespectful for our religion

Thanks -Tiabia- it was a misunderstanding and I apologies for that =S

Thanks tia! I was definitely being sarcastic with the "super" comment.

Here's the article I was reading: thestar.com/News/World/article/562825

Quote from the article: "Canada blamed Hamas yesterday for endangering civilians in the Gaza Strip after at least 42 Palestinians – including children – were killed by Israeli tank fire while taking shelter in a UN-operated school. Hamas bears a terrible responsibility for this and for the wider deepening humanitarian tragedy," Peter Kent, the new minister of state for foreign affairs, told Reuters in response to the attack."

The Canadian government is usually pretty quiet about commenting on Israeli/Palestinian relations, but apparently it has decided to jump on the "blame the Palestinian" bandwagon.

Thanks for sharin'-Lildorothy and I apologies for the previous comment.

I think that blaming wouldn't help in this situation...

No worries And you're right, blame doesn't seem to be helping so far.

I think that if both sides turned their efforts towards stopping the cycle of mindless violence and hatred, it would do more for peace than all the bombings in the world.

It would help if the U.S. took the side of stopping the violence too. We spend way too much time and effort trying to tilt things.

I have mostly tried to stay away from these threads, because the tone of the comments is so anti-Israel, but I just have to point out something. I have family and friends in Israel and I have to tell you that many in Israel are just as tired of this violence and are just as sick of what is going on in Gaza as the rest of the world. While Israelis are sick of Hamas shooting rockets that kill Israeli civilians, they are now starting to question the scope of their government's response. Unfortunately, the voices of those questioning this action are not widely reported on. While I 100% support Israel's right to defend itself, I cannot condone such wide-scale slaughter. It seems to me that it has moved beyond defense and into "revenge".

Jude, I think you are right, BOTH sides need to turn their efforts to stopping the cycle of violence. Unfortunately, I don't think Hamas is interested in that, much to the detriment of the Palestinians!

lildorthyparker - I think they are blaming Hamas because Israel says that it's forces were coming under fire from Hamas militants who were hiding in the school and that is why they fired on the school in the first place.

MartiniLush, the UN denied those claims. They said that there weren't any fires coming from the school.

I'm not so much anti-Israel as am I anti-their actions, especially in this case. I agree with you and I've said it many times, they absolutely have the right to defend themselves but on a scale like this? It's unnecessary. Israel must be in agreement of a two-state system. They along with the US has repeatedly vetoed a two-party system each and every time that the UN has had it brought up for a vote.

Israel says one thing, the UN rep says another. Part of me thinks that of course Israel would say that rather than admit they screwed up and bombed a school by mistake. Then the other part of me thinks that of course the UN would deny Israel's story, even if it were true, rather than have everyone know that Hamas was holed up in one of their schools. Which story am I supposed to believe? The thing that drives me crazy is that we can't verify either story...

I understand what you're saying Martini, but that seems to be Israel's response to everything. It's a very juvenile "they started it" attitude that is clearly going nowhere fast.

More than anything, this particular bombing irks me because a school was targeted. Yes, Hamas were hiding there, but are a few Hamas members more important than the lives of 42 Palestinian civilians?

I also don't like the attitude my government is adopting. There's a line in the article that I referenced that says "While adding that Ottawa did not yet know much about the incident..." Thus far, Canadian politicians have remained fairly neutral with respect to the Israel/Palestine conflict, but Kent chose to make a loaded statement about something the government knows little about...?

I have a hard time believing anything the UN says. They are more corrupt than Chicago politics.

I am not arguing that Israel is right, I was just saying that I thought that was the reason they were blaming Hamas for the school bombing.

I don't pretend to know what thought went into the Israeli decision to bomb the school. Mistake? Heat of the battle? Something else?? I do think it is sad that Hamas would hide in a school where women and children were being sheltered, if that is what the truth turns out to be, but I don't know that we will ever know the truth behind this incident.

I guess I don't have faith in any of the parties involved to come clean about anything after this whole thing is over. And I have very little hope that this cycle of repeated violence will come to an end in the near future. It is sad for everyone on both sides.

Beautifully put, Martini!

Oh I 100% agree with you Martini, particularly your last point. I think that I'm just letting myself be naive enough to wish that one side would be the bigger person, so to speak.

beautiful post Martini, I've lost faith from both sides. People on both sides are dying and people rather put politics over the lives of their people. When I'm watching this invasion the first thing I ask. What's the objective. Yes I heard Livni, Mansour, and Barak's that it's to weaken Hamas, but even they know that not going to work and will never work. All Hamas needs to do is to have a few members survive and they'll declare a victory just like Hezbolla did. Which begets another question. What's was their objective into going to Lebenon and start that attack. It didn't work.

It's time for every to move beyond the violence and start real talks that has a real objective and offer real solutions into solving this 60 year old conflict that will benefit both Israel and the Palestinian people.

"history have shown that the sooner governments intervene, the sooner the economy get itself going again."

Can't argue with that.

Why do you give Israel the right to defend itself and not for Palestinians? they also have the right to defend themselves!! 60 years of war in which they lost everything;lands, homes, families and freedom
I think that Israel is trying to give excuses for its crimes. yet, they couldn't prove that Hamas militants were hiding in the school, 'cuzz those who died are women and children..

"history have shown that the sooner governments intervene, the sooner the economy get itself going again."

It worked well for Mother Russia.

Eya, I don't think that anyone on here ever said anything about only Israel having the right to defend itself....I think we are all saying that BOTH sides bear some responsibility for this never-ending cycle of violence and that BOTH the Palestinian and Israeli people lose if it continues. Not to speak for anyone else, but at least that's how I feel.

Agreed again Martini.

Eya, I think both Palestinians and Israelis have the right to defend themselves, but I think it's also important to distinguish between Israelis, Palestinians, and the governments that represent the people. The "defending" is perpetuated by political groups rather than the civilians, but the civilians are the one who continue to suffer.

I'd like to actually see Israel talk with Hamas. I know this won't happen because of the terrorism label associated with Hamas, but if the government could just get past that I think peace might actually become a viable option.

This is one of the reasons why I support Obama. Critics disagree with his willingness to meet with, say Raul Castro, but if we continue to ignore these "leaders", progress won't happen.

I've always heard that Israel has a strong peace movement, but it's awfully hard to overcome the noise of people who are in some way benefitting, especially financially, from constant turmoil.