Do you think Israel's actions in current Middle East conflict are justified?

Israel falls into the mindset, that if someone strikes you, you should retaliate no matter who is hurt. Its like if someone is hurt on your block, you should strike at anybody on the other block. Now there are some conditions here. Israel is justified in bombing civilian buildings if they are identified as to where the rockets are coming from. Even the Geneva Convention allows this. But this concept of if you kill some of our civilians, we are going to kill some of yours is wrong, and not a solution. It used to be the case in Northern Ireland. But they found a way to end it.

I've never thought Israel's actions are justifiable.

It's as if a child has a huge, strong friend and the child tells all it's peers that unless they do exactly what the child says, it will beat the snot out of all the others...

As long as the huge, strong friend protects the child, the child will continue to be a little snot with hope of growing into a political, diplomatic, and peace seeking individual.

Israel is justified in its actions and should be commended at the restraint they did. What really needs to be done there is occupation which would put the problem inside Garza.

It's not a yes or no question, because national politics is not a zero sum game. Israel's actions are justified based on what Israel values - namely itself. The people who formed Israel have to survive a hostile world that repeatedly tries to destroy them.

In response they are taking actions that are certainly not justified from an outside point of view. They steal land and harm the indigenous population. The Palestinians certainly did not deserve what Israel has done, and so in that way it is not justified.

Ask yourself this. If you and you family are trapped on an island with another family and there is only enough water for one family -- would your actions be justified? That is the reality for Israelis, or at least it is the reality they see.

ABSOLUTELY NOT . They are slaughtering innocent people with bombs . If Hamas is the problem then address the problem head on , not indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people .

War is a bi_ch. There seldom is any way to pretty it up for the nightly news, especially if the media has an agenda to adhere to. Israel has every right to defend its citizens and territory. I'd like to ask the folks that are supporting the Hamas what they would do if their next door neighbor decided that their goal was to destroy you and started pitching a few sticks of dynamite over your fence on a random basis? Would you consider defending yourself and your family? Especially if the police (U.N.) have known about this problem for some time and has done nothing. The people of Gaza knowingly elected Hamas overwhelmingly as part of their government. That alone should prepare them for the retaliation that was bound to occur, and I have little sympathy for them at this point. Hide and use your weapons amongst the civilian population and what do you expect to happen? Israel has shown remarkable restraint and seems to be doing it's best to avoid collateral damage, but the PR department of Hamas is evidently working overtime to persuade the easily fooled otherwise.

I believe it is justified, as no country would tolerate the firing of missiles into their neighbourhood as long as Israel has. Also they would not have uncovered those tunnels which were dug with the motive of attacking Israel and taking hostages of children and families. I also believe that the Gaza people were not very thankful for the Jews returning Gaza to them by voting for Hamas and letting him use the materials meant for schools and hospitals, to be used to dig underground tunnels to terrorize Israel.