Teens: war or peace?

-- Mark Vatsel

"As long as there is a religious government like Hamas in Gaza that doesn't believe in Israel, there can't be peace. The Palestinian people who are suffering most from this situation should try to make a new government that is not that religious and extremist."

-- Tuval Danenberg

"On both sides, lots of people have lost faith in peace. Every day we're in intifadas and wars, so we forgot we can make peace. We did make peace with Egypt and Jordan. Until we have someone like Obama, a leader, in Israel and in the Palestinians, there won't be peace."

-- Yael Holzberg

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Q. Will Israel have to give up the territory captured in the 1967 war in order to gain peace?

"I don't think it has to be going back to the '67 borders. We got the land because we won it in a war. I don't think the Palestinians now deserve any part of that land, because they want to conquer all of Israel. I don't think the settlements are that bad right now when we know there's not an option for peace. When we know we have a government that wants peace and also they do, then both sides can come to a real negotiation."

-- Tuval Danenberg

"In this situation, people are afraid to take the first step. The first step [by Israelis] could be to take down settlements, and the first step [by Palestinians] could be recognizing the state of Israel. I think it was a positive thing that [Israel] took down settlements [in Gaza]. Not the way they did it because the settlers don't have homes and Hamas is using this ground to shoot us. But I really think that, in a different way, we have to do this someday because peace is the only option."

-- Itay Harel

"You can't actually go all the way back because we have some built-up parts of Jerusalem and other centers. It is not possible to evacuate built-up parts of Jerusalem; there's no use to the Arabs creating more hatred there."

-- Mark Vatsel

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Q. Palestinians say it's unfair for the United States and Israel to demand that they hold democratic elections, as they did in 2006, and then to refuse to recognize the Hamas government they elected. Do you agree?

"When Hamas took over [in Gaza], we all saw that there was civil war [between Palestinians] and they actually evicted Fatah from there, so I don't think that what's going on in Gaza is a democratic regime."

-- Mark Vatsel

"Palestinians have a right to choose Hamas, but they should know the consequences. Next time they should look at these consequences and think again. Why chose Hamas? They know they don't want Gaza to be bombed."

-- Iddo Gat

"I was up for the operation [in Gaza], but I think when we bomb them, we can't expect them to see Hamas as the main enemy. They will see us."

-- Itay Harel

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Q. Were Israel's recent actions in Gaza justified despite hundreds of civilian casualties?

"I want to stress the cause for the operation because southern communities [in Israel] were bombed [from Gaza] for a very long time. A free state cannot allow that its citizens will be bombarded for a long time. ... The fact that Hamas chose to store weapons and keep military in heavily occupied civilian areas is the main reason many civilians died. Many of the people who died were militants and fighters. I feel sorrow for the innocent people who were killed, but you cannot avoid it if they hide in highly populated areas."

-- Mark Vatsel

"Most of the world thinks we went to war with Gaza. The war was with Hamas; we didn't want to hurt citizens in Gaza."

-- Avner Ben-Abba

"Our problem is that people are expecting change to be like in the movies in Hollywood, like this [snaps fingers]. It never is."

Itay Harel

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Monday: Excerpts from Marjorie Miller's conversations with prominent Palestinians and Israelis.