Don't we love democracy? Especially in the UN Security Council? When the majority of nations have been condemning Israel's actions for the past many many years. However the democratic VETO of United States has always protected Israel from sanctions or actions against it. Not once/twice/thrice but 82 TIMIES!!! That's like saying Obama wins 90percent of votes in the election and Bush uses his Veto to Nullify the election and continue his reign.

Isn't it nice to know the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim people all lived harmoniously together in the region before Israel was 'created' in that land? I like how the media makes it seem like a religious problem when a large percentage of Palestinians are Christians. Many of the Torah following Jewish people (and not the Talmud followers) condemn brutal force and the Palestinian holocaust. Hamas and such 'resistance' are part of this same disease - an excuse to continue savagery.

The real plight is of innocent people who die so that a greater Israel can be formed. One that stretches from the Nile to the Euphrates (hint: each symbolized by the blue stripe on the flag with the six-pointed star reigning in between). Plus, there is no concept of that star in Judaism. The rest of the worldly conflicts are there to secure the neighboring areas from any future resistance to this goal (i.e. Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan).

To the Jews, follow your Torah, to the Christians, follow your Bible, and the the Muslims, follow your Quran and you will find you all have the same God and the same enemy. And you will find that enemy if you research into what the star really means.

"an eye for an eye"...
until both sides are blind.
some intelligent comments here, from both perspectives.
Mark, can you forward this to the Knesset and the Hamas homepage?
......

which one is the good guy and which one is the terrorist? they both sound the same to me...

which one is the good guy and which one is the terrorist?

The Fiore piece is such a perfect summary of the truth of this - how dare grown people allow the deaths of innocent children for the sake of their differences.

Namaste,
Tina Louise
Arms Against War

I am tired of having to accept that Isreal has the right to do what they will because Jews were killed in WWII. While Isreal was established on the backs of militant Jews in the area we know as Palestine, disagreeing with the state of Isreal does not mean that one is also an anti-semite. If that were the case, if I were to disagree with the actions of China, than it would be fair to also say that I hate all Budhists.

That boths sides are to blame is completely true ... but that one side is told that if they only stop fighting it'll fix the problem, leaving the other side free to act in 'the best interests of the safety of their people', it makes it difficult to end things.

The best analogy that I've heard is that if you're an older sibling and your younger sibling starts poking you, and it irritates you, you don't then have the right to slug your younger sibling, just because you're bigger and stronger than them.

What was a "Palestinian" before 1948? What is Palestine? There has never been such a nation.

BTW the land the Israelis were "given" was mostly thought of as worthless desert and wasteland at the time--- then the people built infrastructure, irrigation, and brought forth life from the desert--- meanwhile *EVERY* Arab neighbor declared WAR on them and attacked them with the intention of destroying them completely---- and they LOST, and Israel captured some territory--- Most of which they did give back anyway!

Oh, and BTW.... Countries like Lebanon and parts of Syria actually exist on land that was once part of Israel---- and WILL be again.

I also think the Israeli's prefer peace. If HAMAS stopped shooting, Israel would not shoot anymore, either. If Israel stops, HAMAS declares it a victory and then continues to attack.

After reading some of the comments, I need to add a further comment. Israel couldn't be expected to simply absorb rocket attacks and not respond. It has been absorbing rocket attacks for two years now, and this after it completely pulled out of Gaza, uprooting the settlers there, which, by the way, was a national trauma in itself. Hamas chose to end the truce and even then Israel did not react immediately. Finally, after continued rocket bombardment, Israel acted. Hamas could end the conflict at any time by agreeing to a cease fire which so far it has refused to do.

Still, I agree with you, Mark, that the Middle East conflict is full of mutual absurdity caused by two sides that are blind to the pain of the other.

Great cartoon, Mark! It says it all. And I support Israel!

The "pertinent facts" are these:
Peace is in the hands of the Arabs.
If the Israelis stop shooting, the Arabs will continue to shoot.
But if the Arabs stop shooting, the shooting is over.
That is the main fact. As horrible as the war is in Gaza today, in the Hamas view, stopping the rocket fire is even more horrible!

Less pertinent, but still important facts:

Deliberately shooting at civiliansis never, ever, "legitimate resistance"- and the civilians being rocketed are in Israel, not the west bank.

A million Arabs pushed out of Israel, and a million Israelis pushed out of Arab lands. (What happened to the Jews of Libya, anyway?) The world needs an even swap: give the Arabs pushed out of Israel the land and wealth taken from Israelis pushed out of Arab lands, and call it a day. Japan lost the Kuriles, Bolivia lost that little chunk in the west along the Pacific, Mexico lost a lot, Poland lost a huge piece, and everyone else manages to put it behind. The Arabs loose one worthless little blop on the map, and they can't get over it.

Swami

Missiles to keep the peace? Like hell!

After a few sucky cartoons you finnally came up with a good one. All of this is just an afternote to the mistake Isreal made in not handing over the West Bank and Gaza back to the Arabs back in 1967, this will not ever end and you captured the mantality and the absurdity of it.

One land with two peoples claiming all of it with a fanatical fervor, think anything but this is going to happen.

Anyway I'd be all for the State of Isreal going away if it wasn't for the tens of millions of a--holes that want to finish what Hitler started for no other reason then they are Jews. The Isrealis should have simply been more concerned with finding some place where they could be safer and free rather then the borders on some map and old biblical claims and shared their lands with the Arabs rather then trying to take it all.

Anyway, the Middle East has never, in it's five thousand years of recorded history, never known peace. I doubt they'd start trying to now.

Well Mark, it you call it "Rocket Science" but it is really "Rocket profit" for the Chinese that made these rockets. Did Hellitburns'n move to China?

- StupidPeopleTrick

I have NO sympathy for the Israelis. They should have consulted their friendly real estate agent before moving in because they would have then known that it was a hostile neighborhood. It would be like you or I knowingly moving into moving a bad area of town and then complaining because we get mugged all the time.

Also, Mark tends to gloss over the gross injustice that was done to the Palestinians back in 1948 just for the sake of peace. But you cannot have peace without justice. No justice, no peace. It's just that simple. Do you really think that the Palestinians would have been raising hell all of this time just for the fun of it? Do you really think that the Palestinians are just lying about having a legitimate claim to the land?

The only solution is a one state solution.

Israel is occupying Palestinian lands, and instead of conforming to the security council's resolution and retreat from Palestinian occupied lands, it brings settlers, women and children, and build settlements on the occupied lands to impose new reality defying the international law. Hamas is rocketing Israelis occupying the occupied lands, which is a legitimate resistance according to the international law. Israel, instead of stopping building settlements in occupied lands, and retreating from the occupied lands, they make a massacre to erase Gaza from the map. After all this, Hamas is considered terrorists! and Israel is defending itself. Hamas is hiding among civilians and Israel is protecting its citizens! What kind of logic is this? Hamas is not hiding among anybody, hamas are the natives, they belong to Gaza, its their land, they are the dwellers, the owners, if they leave Gaza, where do they go? well I know if settlers leave Gaza where will they go, they will be conforming to UN resolution. So who is hiding among civilians here? who is occupying the other? is it Palestinians who are occupying Israel or Israel is occupying Palestine? Is there any justice in this world?
Levni says “we don’t have any problems with Palestinians our problem is with hamas”, in other words, “we want to occupy Palestinian lands and siege Palestinians, if they accept then we don’t have any problem with them, we only have problems with those who refuse to be occupied or to be in siege”
I hope you are enjoying the inevitable bloodshed of children.
If this coward operation weakens hamas it is going to weaken them in favour of al-qaeda.
Let me explain more, among the alleged “terrorist” groups, Hamas and Hizbollah are considered moderate, or even retreating, because they are concerned with national liberation, that is: liberating only my country from the occupier. As Nassrallah said: freeing Palestine is the Palestinian business, we support them with moral solidarity, but we are Lebanese, freeing Lebanese territories is our only business.
That is what is called national liberation movement.
While al-qaeda members believe in international liberation, that is to say: we are not going to be able to free our territories unless we destroy the imperialist system. We belong to the world and we have to liberate the world from such a system. (you know they are closer to Bush’s pattern of thinking – democratizing the world or freeing the world)
So when Israel commits such a massacre for babies and children and women, and the “civilized” world find excuses for Israel, and blame the victim instead of blaming the aggressor, the new generation will grow to believe that it is really not a problem of Israeli occupation, it is a problem of international imperialist system which backs Israel. By now, I know some youth who started to say: it seems that bin Laden was right, our battle is not on our lands, we are not allowed to free our lands because of the accomplice of the world.
Again, when people are occupied what usually they do? What did French do when they were occupied by the Nazi? What did George Washington do when he was leading the independence war? What did Churchill do when he was facing Germany? What usually people do to liberate their occupied lands?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkZ-gCPbRYM&feature=channel_page

The original mistakes have been made 60 year ago, all the current conflicts are just a foot note in the history of Israel-Palestine dispute. Israel will never stop assuming it can pushover Palestine, Palestine will always be the size of an ant with an ego of elephant.

By the way very nice video, RESPECT !

Having viewed this baseless equivocation of Israel & terrorists which deliberately leaves out pertinent facts (it would have to, of course, in order to equivocate), I see I have no further need to ever see anything else you do.

Susan, DC

Isn't disassociation from responsibility for our actions one of our greatest tricks?

But instead of just making inanely snide comments, allow me to galvanize some discussion.

Has anyone here come up with a non-violent solution to the idiocy going on in Israel/Palestine? Failing that, has anyone here come up with a violent solution that doesn't involve killing everyone in the area?

Oh, credit where due. Mr. Fiore, excellent work. A perfect summary of the morbid slapstick comedy of the sands.

Awesome! It's so true for much of the world...
Israel seems to be overreacting; it's definitely counter-productive to kill people to save people.
Of course, there doesn't seem to be any really good options for either side at this state. (Peaceful Diplomacy? Bah! It never helps anyway)
(Phil Hobby has returned!)

This is pretty much what the whole Middle East is like. It boils down to "It's your fault!" and "No, it's your fault!" The whole war is horrible, but I feel that Israel has the right to defend themselves. They've had to deal with this BS for long enough. As long as the US doesn't send troops, I'm fine with their counterattack.

Hey Mark, how about doing a skit where the US or Israel (with all their military technology and power) employ the same tactics that Hamas or Al-Qaeda uses against Arab targets (who lack the technology) - and Hamas and Al- Qaeda respond the way US/Israel does? I think that would be both hysterically funny and poignant. You could have dirty and ragged American suicide bombers mid-quoting Bible psalms as they assail peaceful Arabs who always restrain themselves out of conscience and mercy. Hammer it home with the Arabs turning on their own people in the name of homeland security and crazed Americans willfully blind and in total denial.

Respectfully,
Mike

"Rocket Science" is up! Check out the latest from Gaza and weigh in with your comments.

-Mark