My sympathy goes out to the poor occupants of Gaza. Their leaders are totally focused on importing arms and installing rocket launchers in the midst of residential neigborhoods, instead of addressing the economy or welfare of the people of Gaza. The Israelis evacuated Gaza in 2005, leaving the Gazans to govern themselves. The Gazans voted for Hamas, a party which is only interested in war against Israel. Gazans have been fed a steady diet of war cries and hatred with tunnels to import missles but Hamas has installed no air raid sirens and no shelters, preferring to sacrifice innocents to the inevitable outcome of rocket launching.

Israel is the size of Vermont, but nearly receives the most U.S. financial aide of any country in the world. They treat some of their citizens unequally. They build walls around certain populations. They steal their land. And they are trying to starve the Gazans..Oh so familiar is this process: build a wall around people, and force them to starve. Think Lodz, Warsaw. I no longer wish to support Israel with my tax $$. If they are such an advanced civilization as Mitt Romney claimed, then they should be able to make it on their own. Can they is the question? I stand with the millions of fair-minded Jews here in the US and in the middle east...Desperate people do desperate things. http://alicerothchild.com/ Z

Yet ANOTHER clueless Israel hater, who can't be bothered to look into the history of Israel and the Palestinians since 1948. Who stared the 1967 war, the 1973 war? Who murdered 11 Israel athletes at Mucich in 1972? And who cheered and fired guns in CELEBRATION when America was attacked on 9/1/2001? The Palestinians, who also cheered when Hezbolla fired rockets at israel, and when Sadaam fired Scuds. ALL at Israeli civilians. Back in the 197o's Palestinians had JOBS in Israel. Then they sent SUICIDE BOMBERS. The Palestinans killed their Golden Goose.

How ironic it is that the Gaza ghetto, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, is the focus of US and Israeli disdain.  The comment "rockets are fired  from heavily populated areas"is nonsense.  There are no open areas in Ghaza!

This is shameful treatment of human beings by a rightwing Israeli government and the US has looked the other way.

As is always the case when ideology triumphs over reason the innocent suffer.  Naturally there will be those who prefer to say this one started it or that one started it or this one is more guilty than the other.  But to the child caught in the crossfire whether Israeli or Palestinian it really doesn't matter much who started what. 

Ms. Roy writes an article on what amounts to selecive vision of man and many will find she has failed to pick out the appropriate villian.  The fact is all of us are the villians.  Who pressures the US to do something solid, tangible to correct the situation.  Where are the Palestinian people pressing for an end to the nonsense, the Israeli's pressing for an end.  In a world of ideology, zealotry we find masses of people force fed stupidity and slogans and false promises of heaven on all sides.  The children, they are merely collateral damage. 

Always we humans as political creatures look first to who is at fault and second to a solution.  Forget the first and you might well find the latter.  However with so much ideology, zealotry and belief in their own righteousness I don't see any breakthroughs in the near future.  So children on both sides will die and both sides will pray to their god and know they are right and both will fail to see what is wrong right before their eyes. 

And, by the way, I and millions watched, in horror on TV in 1972 when ABC "Wide World of Sports" announcer Jim McKay told the World "They're all GONE!" ..On that day, Where were YOU?

…All reasons why Hamas should recognize Israel's rights to exist. It’s really not all that complicated Ms. Roy. Recognize Israel. But Hamas just can't do it. How can they when they're entire platform is driven by their hatred and commitment to destroying Israel. There could be peace, but a stubborn Hamas won't take two simple steps. First, recognize Israel's right to exist -- a few words that would go a long way and two – and this requires no action at all -- stop firing rockets into Israel. I also notice that you failed to mention Egypt's blockade of Gaza. Was that just an accidental omission or is that Egypt’s blockade is acceptable but not Israel’s because, well, it’s Israel. Obviously you’re aware of Egypt’s action so I’ll go with the latter. I find it quite interesting that rarely is Egypt disparaged for their suppression or lack of assistance to an Arab brother, but Israel is incessantly disparaged for just defending itself against a malevolent terrorist group. In your next postulation try limiting the bias and using more neutrality.

I think, as Jeff Jacoby pointed out the other day in his op ed, when he referenced the Hamas charter: “Our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave,” avows the hate-drenched Hamas charter. Success will not come, declares Article 7, “until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!’”.  Perhaps Ms. Roy this is why Israel is, and rightfully so, so vigilant when it comes to securing their own borders and making certain that their self-identified sworn enemy, and radical, extremist faction, is kept in a most limited state. 

Slaves will revolt.  They always have…eventually.  And then the masters will condemn them for doing so and punish them self-righteously.  One can win the battle but lose the war.  One can win a thousand battles and still lose the war.  One can win the war…and still lose the war.  Look at World War One.  Because those that had the power to create a real peace in 1919 did not use that power wisely, another 60 million people had to die in World War Two.  But there was no telling the Frenchman in 1919 that there could ever be peace with the Hun.  This situation is as depressing as it gets.  If Israel thinks going back to the 1967 borders is intolerable, wait till they see what the alternative is.  And it will not be “peace in our time.”

Sara Roy's opinion piece "Where's our humanity for Gaza?" is filled with
inaccuracies and is written from a one-sided perspective that ignores reality.

To frame the picture in a context that Ms. Roy might be able to understand,
Palestinians were firing hundreds of rockets into Israel, finally precipitating
eight days of Israeli retaliation; there were 140 Palestinian fatalities, an
unfortunate but extraordinarily low number for such a conflict, reported in
often-graphic detail by journalists and NGOs alike.
By contrast, there have been over 35,000 deaths in Syria’s civil war, to which
these same self-proclaimed humanitarians pay little heed.

During the fighting Israel continued to supply electricity, food, water and other
assistance to Gaza's civilians in order to minimize their distress. 
Contrary to the malicious accusations of Israel’s critics, including the bogus
profanity of “genocide”, the only disproportionate response in the recent
fighting was that of journalists, NGOs and politicians who consider any Israeli
military success inherently unfair.

May I remind Ms. Roy that Gaza is not "occupied" by anyone other than the Gazans themselves.  Their misery is self-inflicted; the 7800 acres of agricultural land that
Israel abandoned when they left Gaza in 2005 were destroyed by the Arabs
within a week.  As for the blockade, what sane country would open its borders unconditionally to a neighboring people who have proven in word and deed that
they mean to destroy it?

This author is well qualified to tell us of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is hardly surprising that rockets would be fired when, from the other side,  tanks and additional weaponry have invaded their land and destroyed their livelihoods and environment.  Of course, they fight back in any way they can. As of now, the two state solution has not materialized. 

The brutal Israeli occupation of Gaza created Hamas. What other response could Palestinians afford? Their population is being brutalized by the embargo of all of life's essentials. In what universe does a people embrace their occupiers? There will be no peace until Palestinians can achieve self-determination and freedom.

The humanity of Gaza is constantly punished by its own leadership.  Israel has the right and responsibility of protecting itself and its citizens.  When Hamas--and other Arab "leaders"--decide to accept Israel's right to exist in its own homeland, you can be sure that Gaza's economy and people will thrive.  The refugees, in Gaza, in the Palestinian Authority territories and in Lebanon are the product of their handlers.  Don't blame Israel.

Another "Israel's the bad guy" essay that adds nothing, no new ideas, no new insights, not even a fair and balanced analysis. Thanks for another waste of space. Remind me why I still pay for this rag.

It is not about our Humanity... That is the problem... Stop blaming us... It is their humanity, Their war, their people... Lay blame where it should go...  Let's fix our own problems first... Those who want to stay violent it is their business, not ours... 

A government (Hamas) that espouses hate, revenge and murder isn't paying much attention to the needs of its citizens. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Hamas welcomes Israeli retaliation because the deaths of Palestinians (especially women and children)generate sympathy for them and criticism of Israel.

If anyone is curious about the Charter of the elected government of Gaza, Hamas, here is a link to the Hamas Charter: http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/documents/charter.html Reading that Charter, would anyone believe that Hamas would ever truly negotiate a true peace with Israel, regardless of the economic cost, or the lives lost, of its own people?

The author writes "The Gaza Strip is now in its 46th year of occupation [...]" without telling us who she thinks is "occup[ying]" Gaza. If she mean that Hamas "occupies" Gaza, having first taken over by force of arms from the Palestinian Authority, and then run elections the fairness of which is at the very least questionable, she may have a point.

But if she implies that Israel still "occupies" Gaza, she hasn't noticed that Israel withdrew from Gaza several years ago -- a withdrawal followed by thousands of rockets raining on southern Israel.

More likely, the Globe's editors aren't paying enough attention at what they allow to appear in print. We expect more from them.

"Kitch"  I would simply state this premise.  We all understand what Hamas represents.  I'm quite sure you can find zealots who will say they are the saviors of the Palestinians, but they are no more worth listening to than those who say Israel is blameless for its current situation or that the UN and the western powers did not lie to the Arabs in both wars.  It is simple enough to blame or point out the faults, never mind faults, purely ludicrous positions taken by some Muslim Imam's and some Arab political leaders.  But one can also easily find terrorism, bad policy, massacres in the Palestine camps during the wars, plenty of extremist acts by the Israeli's.  But it serves no purpose.  It does not lead to solutions nor peace. 

The author of the article whether she is biased towards the Palestinians or not raises an important question.  the UN, the US step into eastern Europe to impose a peace, they step into Libya to impose a peace, they try to step into varying African states to impose a peace, but where is the push to impose a peace upon the Middle East.  Are we saying we are impotent?  I don't think so.  No what we are saying is we do not wish to impose a peace upon Israel.  To frame a peace, to gurantee borders, to say an attack upon one or the other is an attack upon the US or that the US will treat any agressor with a rapid and violent response.  Sixty years and the guarantee is unofficial.  So the question is indeed where is our humanity?

Sara Roy is morally bankrupt so-called academic who is an apologist for the Hamas regime that violently took control of Gaza. The rulers of Hamas lack humanity as they have imposed an extremist Islamist program that persecutes women, gays and lesbians, and Arab Christians. How can I forget, Hamas also want to murder all of the Jews in the State of Israel and beyond. Where is the humanity of the Hamas regime? It does not exist. The Palestinians within Gaza can blame Hamas for bringing violence, pain and destruction to Gaza. The terrorist Palestinians in Hamas have chosen to utilize their ample resources (including very generous aid from Arab Countries and the EU) to wage a war against the Jews rather than to help educate, clothe, feed, and advance their own people. Sara Roy can sit in the comfort of her plush office at Harvard while she gives cover to the Hamas regime that grinds the Palestinians into a dead-end. Sara Roy is a typical armchair revolutionary. She has no skin in the game. What does she care if Palestinians suffer at the hands of their extremist leadership? Not one bit. What a hypocrite. In closing, Ms. Roy fails to note that Gaza is under the repressive occupation of Hamas. Israel evacuated Hamas many years ago and is now paying the price as the genocidal Islamists launch rockets at Israel from behind the cover of women and children.

Yes where is the humanity? To paraphrase Golda Meir, peace can only come when the Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israelis. Maybe oversimplification some might say, but there so much truth in her simple statement. When Hamas proclaims in its charter their aim to annihilate the Jewish pigs and when it teaches its children that Jews kill Palestinian children in order to drain their blood and use it for ritual purposes, where is the humanity? And by the way, does Roy have any admonishments for a culture and body politic that has resulted in 30,000 Arab deaths in Syria?