This from Ira Weiss a champion of peace in the Middle East:

Gershon Baskin has dealt directly with Hamas loyalists and officials more than any other Israeli alive. For years, as director of IPCRI, he had friendly personal relations with dozens of members of Hamas. He was the person who negotiated the release of Shalit who had been kidnapped and was being held by Hamas. He is probably the only Israeli whose opinions about Hamas motives I take seriously. These are his latest comments about the current situation.

"From my information, Hamas has refused all ceasefire plans. They want the Israeli ground operation. They want to blow up some tanks - they have anti-tanks rockets, They want to kill some soldiers and they want to abduct a soldier.

"The people of Gaza want this to end. Someone in Gaza who refused to curse Abu Mazen was shot in the legs by Hamas.

"People in Gaza are afraid to go out to the streets to tell Hamas to stop.

"Meanwhile Hamas rockets continue to fall all over Israel and Israeli planes are continuing to drop bombs in Gaza. Israelis have defenses, Gazans do not."