The editorial in Financial Times January 4 summarized the Israeli-Gaza conflict objectively:

"Gaza to be sure, was already a cauldron.  But it has got that way in no small part because of flawed western policies: first through allowing the Israeli Palestinian conflict to stew, and then attempting to isolate Hamas -- which was democratically elected three years ago -- and doing nothing to lift the Israeli siege that has turned Gaza into a prison for the 1.5 million inhabitants.

"None of these conflicts is at all easy, but rarely are they responsive to brute military force.  The record suggests force breeds extremism and, in extremis failed states.

"Israel's regular attempts to enhance its security and break the regional logistics by force well illustrate this.  The occupation of Palestinian territory after the 1967 Six Day War has locked it in a deadly embrace with its Palestinian neighbors that only the creation of an independent Palestinian state can break.

Ahmed Ayad of Redmond, Washington in the January 7 Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote the following letter to the editors:

"Your coverage of the current conflict in Gaza is a testament to failure of professional, honest journalism and of simple human conscience.

"You choose to focus on rockets of a legitimate resistance to an illegitimate occupation and breaches of `truce', ignoring the continual blockade of a besieged population and a nonstop, humanitarian crisis.  You parrot that `Hamas has broke the truce' line and ignore the documented 160 plus times Israel has breached such truce through the blockade and through targeted and blanket killings.  You ignore the numerous international resolutions condemning the occupation, the expansions, the killings and the many multiples more that are stonewalled by the blind support of the current and previous U.S. governments that went even beyond the dreams of the bloodiest leader of the Israeli Likud.  You print letters supporting the only point of view they know about, the only view you give them in a sad cycle of ignorance aided and abetted by your coverage and parroted `opinions' and `editorials'.

"It is shameful to see Jews, even Israeli Jews, who cannot afford supporting such atrocities on their conscience express this loudly and forcefully while the U.S. media and the U.S. public are sedated.

Gary E. Kaminski of Buena Vista. PA, in his January 4 letter to the New York Times stated the following:

"The status quo has failed.  The American policy toward Israel and Palestine has done nothing except prolong the suffering of the Palestinian people and enable the Israelis to keep an iron grip on the West Bank while at the same time sealing off Gaza and its 1.5 million people.

"We desperately need a new American approach that is unbiased and gives equal consideration to both sides."

Aviva Cantor of New York City summarized the Israeli and Gaza dark days of war succinctly in the Times on January 4:

This is apparently what the Israeli military is quoted as saying in an article in the Seattle Times January 4 by Isabel Kershner and Taghreed el-Khodary:

"The Israeli military in a statement about the ground campaign stated, `Destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas!'"

The article is datelined Jerusalem, and stated:

"Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza Saturday night, opening a ground war against the militant group Hamas after a week of intense air strikes.