Hamas Has Been a Disaster for the Palestinian People; Israel Has No Choice But to Put Hamas Into Its Place

Governments around the world have been quick to issue statements condemning the latest fighting between Israel and Hamas and called for a cease-fire between the two sides.

A CEASE-FIRE??!

Hamas is responsible for most of the civilian casualties. They're positioning their military hardware next to schools, apartment buildings and houses, and not allowing the residents to flee for their lives when they know that Israel is destroying Hamas hardware whenever and wherever they find it. Hamas knows full well what will happen when their hardware is hit by Israeli bombs while sitting next to an occupied building: noncombatants die.

Israel was content to leave Gaza alone, until Hamas broke the cease-fire and began firing rockets into southern Israel, which provoked the Israelis to fire back.

As far as this talk of a cease-fire goes, it would be like asking the United States to negotiate a cease-fire with al-Qaeda. Why should Israel be made to agree to a cease-fire with a terror group bent on it's destruction?

Hamas has proven it can't run a picnic, let alone the Palestinian government. Yet the Palestinian people voted for Hamas and got exactly the type of government that they wanted. All that Hamas has brought is death and destruction to the Palestinian people. I wonder if the majority of Palestinians will be thinking about that the next time they have an election.

Palestinian Civil War Breaks Out: Fatah Gets Creamed By Hamas in Gaza

Hamas launched a full-scale attack on the Fatah political and security apparatus, defeating Fatah in several battles and then executing the surviving Fatah fighters. Noncombatants were caught in the crossfire for hours as Fatah and Hamas threw everything that they had at each other.

Hamas won and captured most of the Gaza Strip.

Fatah members of the government fled to the West Bank, including Prime Minister Abbas, who dissolved the Hamas-lead government. Hamas said "hooey" to that, of course, and pressed their attacks.

There will be no real winners in this civil war. Hamas and Fatah are both terrorist organizations, and now the Palestinian people are paying a terrible price for their decision to elect a government that was going to stand up to Israel on their behalf.

Instead, it's brought ruin down on their heads.

Pelosi Made a Fool Out of Herself on Her Mideast Trip: Her Lack of Understanding of Israeli/Syrian Relations Really Showed

I am of the opinion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent trip to the Middle East was a unmitigated fiasco.

House Speaker Pelosi not only carried our nasty internal politics onto the world stage for all to see, but her short-lived foray into international relations proved that she needs to practice her listening skills, her sensitivity to the needs of our allies, and the way she expresses her views to foreign leaders.

Not only did she misunderstand Israel's point of view, but she didn't listen to them, then misrepresented their views (publicly) to the Syrian government. She did make a clarification later on, but it was too little, too late.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert issued a statement and corrected our wayward goodwill ambassador.

Nice going, Speaker Pelosi. Next time, stay home and run the House--as you were elected to do. And that goes for Congressional Republicans, too, who have met with Syria's leadership on less-publicized trips recently.