Demonstration against Israeli bombing of Gaza in London on Saturday.

[SmilleysPeople]

If anyone is intersted.

It's at 12.30pm along Embankment, nearest tubes Embankment and Charing Cross.

It's being organised by Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coaltion and numerous other groups.

I will bump this sporadically, but if anyone else would like to help promote this, plaese bump too.

I will be there.

Monkeytrousers - not "cast" her but "asked her". she refused to answer. hence the silence has grown weighty and assumed importance.

btw MT thanks for your comments there - I would be offended to be accused of being a holocaust denier ( I am not one) if I could take lisalisa seriously. But I don't take her seriously, so it hasn't offended me.

yes bubble - read the thread.

I have been on holiday and haven't read up on this as much as I should have done so please do educate me if I am way off here but ... I don't get why it is (to quote donnie) "there MUST be dialogue with Hamas" when they are terrorists and the same standard was not applied to the US (or UK for that matter) in relation to Al Qaeda etc?

Ah! Yes, thankyou.

stillstanding - the US isn't about to engage in any sort of diplomacy with Hamas and neither is Israel- Britain, I think would, given the right kind of bold leadership ( which I don't see ). Are you saying there has been western dialogue with Al Qua'eda? I am not aware of any. I know that the US and UK has had dialogue with the Taleban.

Is there any hope for behind the scenes negotiations? Both sides will refuse to publicly back down, from what I can see.

well Shimon Peres has said that ' Israel does not intend to re-occupy Gaza' but also made it clear that the Israeli forces will remain in Gaza 'for as long as it takes'. That sounds like reoccupation to me.

Donnie - so you have answered the question. Well done [pat on the head]. It wasn't hard was it? Did MN Towers contact you then?

oh lisalisa...you just can't help yourself can you! never mind,I FORGIVE YOU!

Sorry Lisa but "If she were not she would answer the question to confirm, no - why won't she? How do you know she isn't and what makes you suspect she isn't?" and "She is obviously not going to answer. And we will all need to draw our own conclusions why." is definetly casting aspersions on someones character.

IMHO, silence is the best response to outrageous and plainly cynical questions, like that. (Not that I manage to keep silent myself all the time - but I am getting better )

Rev - can you please not CAT me ? I am not going to talk off board about anything to do with this thread nor divulge my email address ( which I would do by replying) to anyone here. The security situation for the Jews is bad enough - and there are plenty of nutters here!!!

For those reasons the answer to your CAT is no, I am sorry I cannot help you.

Sorry to interrupt the flow here, but just wanted to (belatedly) post this link for Combustiblelemon
1967 war

Would UN forces be able to stop arms and fighters being smuggled in? I read yesterday that Israel wants the tunnels sought out and destroyed. Surely that could be a way forward?

Palestinians need emergency supplies of everything allowed through now and a sustainable future if there is any hope of them seeing Hamas as the only way forward.

Dialogue can;t happen until some time has passed Donnie. Hama's isn't interested in dialogue with Israel - maybe somewhere, some people in Palestine want dialogue - but the only dialogue Hama's knows are rockets, lies and extremism.

I can't see that there can be any dialogue until Hamas is ousted and Palestine gets some kind of real political representation. Hama's exists to destroy Israel. How ever much you feel about Israel, they cannot afford any show of weakness until those around it stop talk of pushing Israel in to the sea.

Donnie - told you it would'nt be hard to answer now didn't I?

And before you dish out forgiveness please check whether your recipient has repented - in this case - no remorse.

I have as hard a head as you - likely harder - comes from having a background of centuries old persecution and a wiped out family curtesy of others who whispered forgiveness 60 years ago. And I don't give up.

UN forces are - IMO - as impotent or as effective as they are allowed by the 'host' nation to be.Peacekeeping forces have been utterly ineffective in Mogadishu, for example, or Darfur. I am not saying the UN is crap but it has severe limitations on what it can do. I do, however , think that perhaps the only way forward is the long term presence of an independent 3rd party. I don't know who though. Not the US, that's for sure.

lisa- I am not expecting any remorse from you - even though you described ALL PALESTINIANS as "a murderous group of people".

Dialogue is alwasy going on, Donnie at some level. That's the real politik part of it. But you also have to play your cards close tyo your chest, and can;'t reveal long term strategies, becasue real deadly enemies will benefit by that.

I think we forget in this country, that politics is a very deadly business and that the enemies of the UK, US, Israel - whatever - are out to kill us if they can. Not just win some hand in a game, but to see us burn.

monkeytrousers - how much time has to pass? the only way forward is through engaging with your enemy.Israel has to understand that Hamas sees Israel as a terrorist occupier, just the same as Israel views Hamas. If you say an absolute NO to the possibility of political interaction then you are damning the Gazans to more suffering.