Except for the IDF's whitewash of the incident, all of the evidence points to the IDF as the responsible party. And it wasn't just the civilians on the beach. It was also the civilians killed in the air raid on a civilian neighborhood, and the ongoing bombing in civilian areas of Gaza that Israel has been engaging in since its withdrawal from there. If it was just the one incidednt, you and the IDF might be believable, robomatic, but in the context of the many, many bombings of civilians by the IDF in Gaza, you (and they) just aren't.

CarolC you are lumping many different events together in this post, whereas earlier you referred to the single attack, if that is what it was, on the beach. If you stick to that issue, I repeat that Israel denied her forces were behind that attack. You apparently do not accept that denial. I believe when I state the facts I maintain my believability, since I did not actually witness the events and am not a direct witness, (and I suspect you are similar to me in that respect).

And attacking Palestinians on their own territory by a well planned and executed attack is also an act of war. Unless you don't consider Palestinians to be human beings, in which case, you might just see it as the equivalent of squashing a bug. Clearly, that's how the government of Israel sees it.

You are confusing quite a lot of issues here. Many attacks made by Israel on Palestinian targets are admitted by Israel, typically in trying to hit a known terrorist figure. You are attempting to broadbrush a very nasty issue, that of terrorists hiding "in plain site" among their own civilian population. Does this make the Israelis terrorists also, or does it make the Palestinian militants victimizers of their own people like bank robbers who hide behind hostages? As for considering people to be bugs, that is a creation of your own imagination in an attempt to gain forum debate points.

It was a step in the right direction. Obviously, the government of Israel thinks it's a step toward peace. If they didn't, they wouldn't be working so hard to stop it.

You are casting the government of Israel as a character in your own play by seeking to state their motivation. This says more about your motivation than Israel's. I heard the news of the 'implicit' recognition of Israel and had one main reaction: "Here we go again, more of the non-denial denial" The new Palestinian rulers are once again trying to wheedle material support from all sides by letting the world hear what it wishes to hear. This is very well worn step in an old direction trod many years by Arafat.