[Polar Bear]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Big business keeps the economy alive. Kept many people employed. Still does. Big business was fair to us for over fifty years and still gives us good insurance. Big business builds the car you drive, brings you the food you eat, saves you money by buying in bulk at the grocery store. If the government was run in the black, THEN it would be like big business...

What gracie said.

[Villages PL]

Carl, and I your plan will work.

[Carl in Tampa]

Originally Posted by festusrules

Just need a coin flip. Winner gets Gaza. Loser moves to land donated by their supporters.

The battle in Gaza is not for possession of the land.

The Gaza Strip was taken over from Egypt by Israel in 1967 when Israel won the Six Day War. Thereafter it was populated by Palestinians and Jews, who did not live in harmony.

Then, in 2005, Israel arranged for the complete withdrawal of Jews from the Gaza Strip, leaving it to Palestinians to govern. Israel gave away the land in exchange for expected peace. However, peace did not result.

Gaza became a launching point for terrorist bombings on Israel, particularly suicide bombers who strapped on bombs and detonated them on Israeli buses. To prevent the bombings Israel built a wall around the Gaza Strip. Movement from Gaza into Israel is tightly controlled.

Israel learned that Hamas, governing Gaza, was digging tunnels under the wall, reinforced with concrete that was given to Gaza for building schools, and was using the tunnels to access Israel for terrorism activities. Also, rockets and other military equipment was being brought in by sea. Accordingly Israel instituted a blockade to try to prevent importation of these rockets.

Hamas is a political organization with a charter. One element of this charter is the destruction of Israel. To this end they fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Israel protects themselves with a moderately successful anti-missile system, and fires rockets in return, targeted at the source of the Hamas rockets. Before firing, they drop leaflets on the civilian population telling them to leave before the bombardment. Hamas tells the civilians not to leave, raising the civilian death count.

The present heightened effort of Israel is in support of the effort to find and destroy the tunnels under their walls and finding and destroying the rockets that Hamas holds. The hope is that the population of Gaza will get rid of the Hamas followers in their midst, as the Palestinians on the West Bank have done.

SO, you see the battle is not about possession of Gaza, which the Israelis turned over to the Palestinians years ago.

.