Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents: ANALYSIS / Hamas seems to want a cease-fire - but with Qassams
Talkback
Title:12 Get your facts straight.
Name:Michael
City: UKState:
"And when Israel kills and arrests "miltants" (your term) then terrorists have a right again to target civilians. Shame on you!!"

For a start, the term militants is Haaretz`s term not mine. I have no idea who precisely was abducted by the IDF and why the IDF wanted them. Neither do you.

Secondly, saying that Israel started this round of tit for tat does not indicate I regard the Qassams as legitimate does it? Qassams fired at innocent civilians are a war crime.

However, the Qassams are the one weapons Hamas and Islamic Jihad have against Israel. If Israel launches a military action, it knows it will get Qassam retaliation. That`s a statement of fact, not a moral judgement.

So you ask yourself Robert, why does the IDF stir things up just as Hamas is trying to decide on the ceasfire? When Hamas and Hezbollah killed IDF soldiers and abducted some, the IDF invaded Gaza and Lebanon. Why would you expect Islamic Jihad just to sit back and do nothing?