Hamas is responsible for the trouble, not Israel. Ever since 1948 the Israelis have accepted the partition decided by trhe UN. It is the Arabs who do not, and who have launched five wars and the intifada, not to mention the current bombardment.
As for Al in London's single state solution, if the experience of the Christians of Bethlehem who are being persecuted by muslim Arabs (Banksy please note), or in the Gaza strip (the YMCA library was burned down on Friday morning) is anything to go by, it's a non starter. Multicultural society is wobbling badly in Britain. Putting it forward as a possible solution in the Holy Land suggests a grip on reality that is fragile at best.

Stephen Fox, Oxford,

Even though the UN ( yeah right) counts as "excessive" force, what else can Israel do? They had to defend themselves. My prayers are for those civilians who lost their lives, but really, the people who should be blamed is Hamas itself. They should blame themselves, because they endangered those near them.

If any of our countries were to get attacked by rockets, we would do the same. That is a fact.

SM, New York, USA

Occupied people have every right to resist their occupiers.
If the occupation ends the resistance will end too.
Why did Israel biuld its wall in the west bank if the threats to its security is comming from Gaza.
Hamas offered a truce which would have saved Israeli lives and Palestinians but Israel's leaders chose war over a truce.

Israel wants the Palestinians to submit to them and thats the bottom line.

Ann, Chicago, Usa

You say Hamas does not respond to the offer of talks. When was such an offer made and by whom was it made? Is it not a fact that all concerned have so far refused to talk to Hamas?

Further, Hamas had declared a unilateral cease fire which it only abandoned after several Israeli "extra judicial executions".

Israel has never wanted peace with the Palestinians because it feels it has more to gain by a continued state of war.

FM Paris

Fawzan, Paris,

The fact that more than 100 Palestinians and 3 Israelis died is due to the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, firing rockets from schools, hospitals and next to private houses and allowing children to follow terrorists around when fighting, etc. and the care that Israel takes to protect its people. You have not distinguished between Palestinian civilians and fighters nor why so many civilians die. Your statistic could easily read as if Israel has indulged in tit for tat murder by killing 100 Palestinains innnocents for 3 of their own. This plays into the hands of the terrorsts who read the news and grin at seeming like victims. They will not stop using human shields until they find that it makes them look bad and that they are losing the sympathy of Western media.

R Mason, London, UK

I for one am very glad Israel's response was (and will remain) disproportionate. A "proportionate" response would be the indiscriminate targeting of Palestinian children and women.
So while one can argue over the strategy of invading Gaza, I think we should all be very glad that whatever the strategy and the politics--the Israeli response is indeed disproportionate.

Inna, Sacramento, CA, USA

The intention of Hamas has always been to kill as many Jews as possible. If all the thousands of rockets that had been fired from the Gaza Strip over the last seven years had been accurate, we would be looking at five-figure fatality numbers. Israel must act decisively before the terrorist's weapons improve further.

Edward B, Kent, United Kingdom

What a gross discussion on what is or is not proportionate -what is the critics answer to the question anyway ?Even one death is too many for either side ,but the fact that Israels counteroffensive /defense has had more consequences is not the yardstick to be applied -The militants have sent thousands of rockets with deadly intent to kill and maim -thankfully so many have missed .If those militants had any regard for the fate of the Palestinians they would swallow their hatred and false pride and sit down to talk peace after recognising the Israelis right to exist .Israel has repeatedly said that is all they need to do ,but that they cannot negotiate with a people whose only purpose is to obliterate tham .
Let Hamas follow the example of the truly great Arabs ,Sadat and Prince Hussein of Jordan and see how easy peace would be
.Admiration and help from the whole world would surely follow

phil, lancs,

You ask "Any talk of a “proportionate” response is self-defeating. What is proportionate? The question should be: what is effective?"
The answer to that is very simple - effective and proportionate are the same thing. The effective and proportionate response is one that is so terrible in the price that the Palestinians have to pay that they won't think of sending even a single firecracker over the border for generations to come. By that time, hopefully there will be a full peace.

George Alexander, Kfar Saba, Israel

Hamas is responsible for civilian deaths because it operates from civilian areas. Numerous news articles reference members of the Gaza public confronting Israeli soldiers; they know the soldiers will avoid shooting them but they are also responsible if they are killed, as is Hamas for encouraging this dangerous behaviour.

It should be noted that Ashkelon supplies Gaza with most of its electricity and so Hamas obviously does not mind bringing "humanitarian disasters" on their own people. It is not Israel's fault that "Western public opinion" is too uninformed to realise it. Western media could and should be enlightening readers through editorials but instead prefers to AGAIN highlight a verbal error and mistranslation over the word "shoah."

The Times should now state how much of Israel needs to become unlivable due to rocket before Israel is “allowed” to do whatever to takes to stop it. Do this out of that friendship mentioned in the article.

Brad Brzezinski, Ottawa, Canada