"... we have no solution, that you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wants to can leave -- and we will see where this process leads? In five years we may have 200,000 less people -- and that is a matter of enorous importance." -- Moshe Dayan encouraging the transfer of Gaza strip refugees to Jordan (from Noam Chomsky's Deterring Democracy, 1992, p.434, quoted in Nur Masalha's A Land Without A People, 1997 p.92).

"In our country there is room only for the Jews. We shall say to the Arabs: Get out! If they don't agree, if they resist, we shall drive them out by force."
--Professor Ben-Zion Dinur Israel's First Minister of Education, 1954 from History of the Haganah

Pretty good definition of "ethnic cleansing", wouldn't you say? And there are more, but that will do for now.

Daniel - "I think you should consider where this argument places you personally and morally. Remember, they are murdering civilians, not fighting a revolutionary war against the state (in the sense that Castro or the Sandinistas arguably did). Think about it Bowser .. "

And who are the Israeli's murdering? "Militants". By definition, it seems, everyone the Israelis murder is a "militant". Won't fly. I wouldn't want to argue "morality" on either side of this.

I'm not saying the Palestinians are "right". I'm saying there is a logic and reason for their actions, just as there is a logic and reason for the Israelis actions.

This action was carried to civilians from the first:

Israeli Researcher Uncovers 1948 Bloodbath by Wafa Amr (Reuters 01/19/2000)
Deir Yassin Massacre

"After the Palmach men left [Deir Yassin], the men of the [Irgun and Stern Gang] started a shameful massacre of the inhabitants...[The massacre] was carried out...when the village was in Jewish hands, and without the inhabitants having taken any provocative action..." Meir Pa'il, official Haganah observer on the scene, Yediot Ahranot, April 29, 1972)

"All of the killed, with very few exceptions, were old men, women or children. The dead we found were all unjust victims, and none of them had died with a weapon in their hands." --Eliyahu Arieli, Haganah member who arrived at Deir Yassin shortly after the massacre, O Jerusalem, Collins and Lapierre, 1972

This is a pox on both their houses, and I do not see any moral supriority in using tanks, helicopters and rockets to kill civilians over using suicide bombers.

One other factor - the mindset a people must have to resort to suicide bombers. They must regard their situation as helpless.