Say you have a grown up daughter studying in university. You give her a handsome allowance which allows her to rent a nice apartment and lead a comfortable life. You find out that she is in love with a criminal who has been involved in murder, robbery and other crimes. You tell her not to associate with the thug but she goes ahead and marries him anyway. So you stop her allowance. The thug comes and threatens your life if you do not pay up. Do you not have a right to shoot at him in self defence or do you give in because your daughter has the right to 'love' anyone she wants? The Palestinians were given billions in international aid but instead of building a viable state the money was wasted due to massive corruption and hostility to Israel. While people starved Soha Arafat went shopping in Paris. Then Ariel Sharon withdrew all settlers from Gaza but instead of voting for peace the Palestinians voted for Hamas, a terrorist organisation committed to the total destruction of Isarael. They are holding an Israeli soldier they kidnapped, encouraging indiscriminate firing of Kassam rockets aimed at civilians and are killing Palestinians belonging to the Fatah group. The Palestinians in Gaza are totally dependent on UN aid for food, fuel and medicines but instead of gratitude they claim that the world should negotiate with Hamas because they have been 'democratically' elected. Democracy does not end with marking a paper. Democracy means rule of law, respect of human rights and peace with neighbours. However Israel must make sure that Palestinians are not seen as victims by the international community by limiting their response to criminals and avoiding any civilian casualty.