Oh those humanitarian Israeli's! Hamas' opinion that Israel doesn't exist is more or less a direct consequence of the relentless Israeli lack of will to recognize any sort of Palestinian sovereignty.
Have you lost your mind? The Palestinian authority has been given control over A areas. Civilian Israeli foot hasn't stepped over the Gaza strip for more than 7 years. Actually, most of the "occupied territories" are palestinian controlled.
One more thing. Getting out of the strip has been a tragedy in Israel's history but it did happen, in hope that there can be peace there. What did we get? Rockets, Terrorists, Hamas. Again - there is no single justification for shooting anything from the Gaza strip.
Really, if you lived in the Gaza strip for 30 years and suddenly a party came up who are pro-militant resistance to the occupation you've spent your entire life under wouldn't you vote for it? I'm sorry to say this, but the Israeli's have brought Hamas on themselves through their reluctance to make way for any progress.
As you said, there are consequences for such votes. When Israel is attacked, it has the right to defend itself. By the way, naval blockade is a way to ensure that the defense is maintained.
When people in Gaza understand that kidnapping soldiers and shooting rockets is not the way, maybe then there is a slight chance of peace. Again, Gaza is totally Palestinian controlled unlike the west bank.
And don't give me that humanitarian Israeli warning. 20 Israeli's died during 2008 as a result of Hamas rockets, Just to put the humanitarian aspect of the Israeli's into proportion: *412 Palestinians died as a direct result of Israeli weapons. Now tell me, what does this behavior foster for the future generations?
There is a huge difference in the numbers for one reason. When Israel is attacked, there is an alarm here called "Tzeva Adom (Red color)" that ensures everybody gets into a protected space within the shortest time available. Moreover, Israel has invested a lot of money in order to protect its citizens by developing the iron dome. Hamas? Most of their money is spent on Iranian rockets and suppression of their opponents. They are constantly sacrificing their population by firing rockets into Israel, which has consequences.
It is almost impossible killing terrorists without hurting innocent people when they are used as human shield. Hence many palestinians get hurt as a result of
their leadership. IDF tries to avoid these killing as much as it can, as I hope you see so in the last 3 days. And if you didn't, remember who is the target for Hamas and who is the target for IDF.
And for the last question. There is no simple solution. Palestinians suicide bombers have killed so many Israelis during the last 20 years. I'd like to think the same way about the Lynch in Ramallah. Did you take these murders into the count?
Both sides have done critical mistakes during the years. However it's impossible and terribly unfair to blame Israel (in the Gaza section).
Rebel,
If that's not another Palestinian scam, it is breaking my heart. However, make sure you also pay as much attention to that Israeli baby who'se got wounded by Hamas rockets. For some reason I cant post photos in here, so just search "kiryat malachi" in google and you'll see it on first page.