Saul Singer wrote> ===>these soldiers are doing a service for humanity, not just for the Israelis.<==

Now what service would that be, Mr Singer? A turkey shoot, really, bombing, shooting and sending phosphorus bombs in the midst of civilians with no place to hide? Killing the three daughters of a Gazan doctor *when he was speaking to an Israeli newscaster*? Shelling a UN school, then letting injured children bleed to death by preventing relief workers from reaching them?

If you don't mind, keep the 'services' that Israeli soldiers are rendering for Israel alone. Let the rest of us do without; we'd prefer it that way.

Five days ago, I attempted to answer the question put to us, as to the most likely outcome. Here are elements of confirmation from Mark LeVine, professor of Middle East history at the University of California, Irvine, who writes today:

“… Israel's image as an enlightened and moral democracy - is falling apart… The Red Cross… sharply criticised Israel for preventing medical personnel from reaching wounded Palestinians, some of whom remained trapped for days, slowly starving and dying in the Gazan rubble amidst their dead relatives. Meanwhile, the United Nations has flatly denied Israeli claims that Palestinian fighters were using the UNRWA school compound bombed on January 6, in which 40 civilians were killed, to launch attacks, and has challenged Israel to prove otherwise.

Additionally, numerous flippant remarks by senior Israeli politicians and generals, including Tzipi Livni… are rightly being seen as admissions of war crimes… (Major-General Gadi) Eisenkot's description of this planning ("this is a plan that has already been authorised.") in light of what is now unfolding in Gaza is a clear admission of conspiracy and intent to commit war crimes… On the ground, the evidence mounts ever higher that Israel is systematically violating a host of international laws, including but not limited to Article 56 of the IV Hague Convention of 1907, the First Additional Protocol of the Geneva Convention, the Fourth Geneva Convention (more specifically known as the "Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949", the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the principles of Customary International Humanitarian Law. Israeli commentators and scholars, self-described "loyal" Zionists who served proudly in the army in wars past, are now publicly describing their country, in the words of Oxford University professor Avi Shlaim, as a "rogue" and gangster" state led by "completely unscrupulous leaders".”

Professor LeVine goes on to ask: “Who will save Israel from herself?

Israelis are clearly incapable. Their addiction as a society to the illusion of violence-as-power has reached the level of collective mental illness. Not Palestinians… Not the Middle East Quartet, the European Union, the United Nations, or the Arab League… Not the organised Jewish leadership in the US and Europe… Not the growing progressive Jewish community… and not senior American politicians and policy-makers … During the US presidential race, Barack Obama was ridiculed for being a messiah-like figure. The idea does not sound so funny now. It is hard to imagine anyone less saving Israel… from another four years of mindless violence.” (english.aljazeera.net)

Enough already, Israel is defying the U N and committing war crimes. It is now time for all people of good conscience to start Boycotting Israel just as was done to South Africa. Israel has to import most if it's goods from other countries and as such a Boycott could stand a good chance of working. The World can no longer afford the high costs of stalling tactics of talk, talk, talk, and yada, yada, yada, where Isrrel want to talk peace and refuse to bargain in good faith. The time is now.

Reading about civilians being killed in Gaza makes me compare this to other past wars. There have been some attempts by governments to avoid killing anyone except soldiers, I think of the stylized regiments of the British Empire for instance, marching out in formation in their bright red coats in a straight line. They were defeated by Indian fighters in America who learned their tactics from the Natives.

Or how about the proud armies of Athens & Carthage, to go back further, formally meeting on battlefields to clash with each other away from cities?

But most "wars" are fought on land that is occupied by someone. Those someones always get hurt or killed or at the least impoverished by the war. This war is no exception. War IS destruction.

In feeling pity for the impoverished Palestinians, we need to remember Number 1: that the Arab governments have set these people up. The Gazans are targets on purpose. And Number 2: the Gazans let Hamas take over & keep attacking Israel with rockets from inside their own borders. Self-protection is a right of Israeli‘s as well. .

But Israel is an artificial state, created out of non-Israeli land by non-local peoples with the strong financial & military support of Jews all over the world, using multiple un-attractive techniques like intimidation, force & assassination. People feel sorry for the Jews while deploring the tactics of the Israeli's. Most, even strong supporters of Israel, believe Israel has overstepped it's boundaries too many times & run roughshod over the rights of the poor of Palestine. It's not just what they did, it's HOW they did it that rankles. It's like Bush's invasion of Iraq - few objected to Saddam Hussein & his murderous sons being destroyed, but most people deplore Bush’s heavy-handed, clumsy, arrogant, lying method in doing so.

The Jews of Israel are determined to stay there, they feel justified. The Palestinians are poor & politically the poor are usually the losers & the underdog - but not always, especially when others are egging them on & plying them with weapons. The US, for instance, could never have won the Revolution against the British without Prussian & French assistance & soldiers. As long as the Palestinians & Israeli’s are being propped up, this proxy war will never end. It’s not a war of Israeli's against Palestinians, it’s a war between those who armed the Jews of Palestine & those who armed the Palestinians of Gaza.

Check this link to find out what honest Jews have to say about the true nature of the Zionist entity "Israel":

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7pPq1C5s0SY&NR=1

""saberman1""

""Rarely has the justification for a war been stronger""

Indeed, war is normally justified in the small minds of indiscriminate killers... in this we agree.

""the constant bombardment they have faced from the Hamas terror machine.""

The result of which is 24 dead Israeli's over 8 years, less than the total of deaths Israeli's suffer in auto accidents on major holidays... I wonder when the Zionist Military Dictatorship in Israel is going to start Cluster-Bombing Israel's own highways to clear the automobile-terrorists?

""rare to see a country that tries as hard as Israel to avoid civilian casualties""

Note Zionist Talking Point Memo to be used Everywhere ad nauseum in Western Media: "rare to see a country that tries as hard as Israel to avoid civilian casualties"... I always thought Hitler did a splendid job avoiding civilian casualties, great job!

""If... Russia... intermixed within and hiding behind the civilian population, there would hundreds of thousands of casualities...""

I think the South Ossetia war, that lasted a few days against a US weapons-supplied opponent killed something like 300, not hundreds of thousands.

""I hope Israel continues until it has completely destroyed Hamas' military capabilities.""

What you and all other Zionists hope is that Israel continues until it wipes out all Palestinians in the Gaza strip so that you can get your bloody hands on the 100 Billion Cubic Meters of Natural Gas that is in their possession. It's called "Genocide", but you will lose this war-for-resources too.

""The lands around Israel should become a demilitarized buffer zone""

Like all Zionists, everyone should be "demilitarized" EXCEPT for Zionists. Most of the world is interested in demilitarizing Israel right now, including IAEA Inspections.

""and most of the refugees living there now should be absorbed into the twenty or so nearby Arab nations""

You proved my point, you want the Gaza Strip Cleared so you can take the 100 Billion Cubic Meters of Natural Gas, and nothing else matters, not young starving/injured children laying next to their Dead Mothers, not infrastructure destruction, not White Phosphorous or Cluster Bombs, not Depleted Uranium armaments, not UN Resolutions against you, not any other International Law, not the decency of Humanity, nothing matters to you except your own temporary power.

If Israel is lucky enough to survive the consequences of this War Crime, it will at least finally be subjected by both the international community and the United States to standards which have long been violated by your ruling-regimes. You, saberman1, should yourself begin the humble process of repairing the criminal and moral damage rather than hoping further propaganda will ease your complete loss of morality and international favor.

Rarely has the justification for a war been stronger than it is in the case of Israeli's responses to the constant bombardment they have faced from the Hamas terror machine. Israel's major mistake has been that it waited too long. It is also rare to see a country that tries as hard as Israel to avoid civilian casualties. If such a group of terrorists were next-door to Russia similarly intermixed within and hiding behind the civilian population, there would hundreds of thousands of casualities, not just hundreds. I hope Israel continues until it has completely destroyed Hamas' military capabilities.

Fresh thinking is needed on this whole issue. The lands around Israel should become a demilitarized buffer zone and most of the refugees living there now should be absorbed into the twenty or so nearby Arab nations. These nations have over 99% of the land in the region and enough oil money to provide everyone in the region a good standard of living if they would only use it for that purpose rather than to support Islamic imperialism.

Honestly, the expression of so much inhumanity on PG makes me feel utter despair. Please allow me to try and contribute as positively as I can to this discussion. This is from Nobel Wole Soyinka’s Reith Lectures, delivered at Oxford, “Climate of Fear: The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World”. *

“There has to be a guaranteed zone of the sacrosanct, even among the self-righteous, a zone that, when breached, draws down a sustained universal response. The one of children is one such, and remains beyond expediency. Acceptance of any such violation makes moral cowards of us all, and leaves us in complicity with other cowards of any struggle who lay siege on the helpless….

… this assault took place under the nose of the United Nations… If we have to look for defining moments of despair and desperation within the Community that embraces the Palestinian people, its consciousness of the disdainful dismissal of its worth in international opinion, this surely must rank as one of the foremost --- and there have been, alas, uncountable numbers…

The time for tergiversation is over, it is time for a holistic confrontation of a global dilemma.
No Community, true, dares succumb to an arrogation of power over the lives of its innocents, and the doctrine of “There are not innocents” must be strategically and morally repudiated. To do less is to surrender our self-esteem, deny ourselves all dignity, diminish our own humanity, and indeed forgo our fundamental right to existence.”

----

“I consider it perhaps of some value, however limited, to co-opt… the following excerpt from a letter I recently received… “I am glad that for once I can send good news from Palestine… Reading your Reith Lecture “The Quest for Dignity”… was certainly an uplifting event and certainly an evening where the dignity and nobility of man reigned supreme… You might be interested to know that a relative of ours… sent your article to the commander in chief of the Occupation Israeli forces in our area.”” (Wole Soyinka, Introduction, May 2004)

Let there be hope.

*

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2004/lecture4.shtml

Imagine if Isreal blew up a school on prupsoe and then tried to justify it?

Imagine if Israel was considered by 98% of the Worlds' population to be a rogue terrorist state.

Imagine if Isreal, in it's land grab, became like the Nazi's they once suffered so dearly under?

It's sad. Frankly, to see a proud people become so evil.

Israel no longer makes any sense. And should disband for the greater good of humanity. We don;t need an all Jewish State no more than we need the Taliban to run Afghanistan.

And what Democracy jails Christian missionaries for five years if they give an Israeli a bible?
No democcrcay. Support for Isreal is akin to supporting Germany in 1933.

The world must rise up and stop Israel, teh same way it stopped the Nazis.

And forget about religion. Forget about Jew versus Muslim. This is simply a human rights issue.

Again, who killed Rabin? That says it all.

I am creating my own link -it does not work but it does not matter :

"Reporting Offensive and Disgusting Column/Article"

If you agree, copy and past in your message

If by Moral high ground you mean using the same practices as the Nazi's then yes, you got it!

Israel- the last of Biblical Plagues.

I admit that I am neither Muslim nor Jew but as an outsider I see the Hamas position as similar to the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor and then complained that we overreacted. My thought is that if you never started on 12/7/41, there would have been no atomic attack, so blame yourself. Likewise here, if Hamas wants to send rockets, then they have no right to complain about retaliation. If Hamas wanted the higher ground, they should not have begun the rockets.

My impression is that there are people in the Middle East who remind me of children. They start something and then when the recipient retaliates, they go to complain to the teacher, parent, or whatever. Then they apparently hide behind the women and children. At least the suicide bombers do not do that.

This is totally predictable outcome. Israel claims to have left Gaza and then closes all border crossings creating a prison for 1.5 million citizens. What would you expect?

See President Carter's oped in today's Washington Post.

See Nicholas Kristof's OpEd piece in the NYT today. The fact that Israel has the right to do something about the rocket attacks doesn't mean they have the right to do anything.

You are right! Terrorist A (=State of Israel) is trying to make life for Country (=Palestine) difficult.

You also forget that, for now, Gaza is occupied territory and according to Geneva Convention Rules the occupier (Israel) has a duty and obligation of security of the occupied (the Palestinians), and to keep them safe, feed them, provide fuel, medicine, and yes....musical instruments! Alas, whenever Israelis have an internal political dispute or "contest", they go out and try to beat up defenceless neighbours.

Moral high ground:
"JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 -- The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had found at least 15 bodies and several children -- emaciated but alive -- in a row of shattered houses in the Gaza Strip and accused the Israeli military of preventing ambulances from reaching the site for four days."

I do not think so.

Israel has no moral high ground in the global context. Not after the IDF blew up a UN school shelter killing 40 civilians. UN officials dispute IDF's claim that there was firepower coming from inside the shelter. UNESCO states that IDF had their GPS and UN flags were waving and lit up at night. There is something about babies being killed by tank shells that does not give Israel 'moral high ground' in the face of the world.

None of your cold reasoning can wipe out the images from Gaza that are shown around the world. Do not take consolation in the treatment of The Gaza Offensive by the US media, read the news reports in the rest of the world.

Israel's image has sunk into a swamp.

If killing and murdering innocent people is a high moral ground? If targeting schools is a high moral ground? then Israel and all the Jews in the world like you should be very proud of this badge of honor, and I am sure you and Jews around the world are drinking and toasting the brave Jewish army as it goes about with its very powerful killing machine murdering innocent people killing children by putting bullets in their hearts and and chests and bobming them as they seek refuge in UN school.I think there are no more Jews in the world, and I think that Judaism is no longer the faith of some 17 millions; it is Zionism that is the faith of the Jews, especially American Jews, a Zionism that is nothing but hateful, vengeful murderous and killer religion. Yes, you should be very proud of your faith and what it does to innocent people. The only light the world see coming from Zionist Jews is the light coming from a Jet, a tank or cluster bomb. Yes, you and the American Jewish community should be very proud. I am sure Congress will reward you with an additional $10 Billions so you can go out and replinish all the bombs you used to kill and murder and to steal the land.

Israel only has the "moral high ground" in two countries. The rest of the world sees it differently. Perhaps even Israelis and Americans would see it differently if reporters were allowed into Gaza.

This is a conflict where both sides are wrong.

I don't feel grateful. This is a calculated Israeli attempt to influence a Israeli election and forestall a final settlement of the regional conflict which must address the issues of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and a viable Palestinian state. You have strengthened the moral voice of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East to the long term detriment of our foreign policy.

Please don't do us any more favors like this.

Israel soldiers are very brave fighting the Islamic Hamas terrorists. Israel soldiers are the freedom fighters of the century and all who fight hamas should be given medals for valour. Hamas are the worlds worst cowards who hide behind women and children in schools, mosques and hospitals. Hamas leaders send their own children on suicide missions while they stay in safe houses eating and drinking then having sex. Hamas is even murdering Palestinian children and blaming the Jews, and thats what terrorists do. Hamas followers should challenge their leaders to go on a suicide mission and let them eat and drink and have sex.

The use of airpower from Israel is of course after the US war model. Similarly, the human "collateral" casualties is the logical conclusion of such a tactic.

Hamas' actions of lobbing rockets at Israel's cities is indefensible. But this does not, at least to me, justifies Israel in unleasing its huge air power and killing civilians along the way. Claims that it is making all efforts in minimizing civilian casualties have the same meaning as W's claim that his administration does not torture. The fact remains hundreds of Palestinians have been killed or wounded vs. a few in Israel.

What is more fundamental is that unless Israel is willing to wipe out Gaza, their action will not yield the peace they so desparately seek. I do think there is a lot of values in wiping out Hamas though I don't think it is possible. Didn't Israel at least initially facilitate if not actively helping the founding of Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO in the first place? There may be a few Palestinians who blame Hamas for starting the war, but I believe most will blame Israel for the killing and wounding of their people in the long run.

Not that I have a solution but it does seem to me claiming a moral high ground, if there is such a thing in killing and wounding people, is not going to solve any problem. The issue between Israel and Palestinian is a practical and not a moral one.

Sorry Mr. Singer. Neither you nor Israel, nor the ideolegy of Zionism can claim any "moral high ground." Sixty years of occupation, oppression, the walling in of refugees and then launching a criminal attack upon them show how few morals or scruples Israel has. The current state of Israel, belligerent in nature, should be denounced from all quarters. The fact that except for the support of OUR puppet Congress and President, Israel and her apologisers like yourself have been denounced as nothing more than blood thirsty murderers by the WORLD regarding this and other atrocities should give you a clue of how people regard your moral authority. How can you and other pro-Israeli apologisers look at yourselves in the mirror in the morning and not see the devil?

hello, i was courteous enough to actually read your words... apparently you or the washington post aren't as courteous or perhaps i have encountered yet a gain... a techninoligal gliche just when my words might be to moral or correct to actually print because they would offend somebody pretending to be moral and spiritual and uhhh.. religious.. when a person put forth a line of reasoning and facts and puts it in the form of moral auspices and ideals they only have to post once and then let time or history or events prrove them correct or incorrect so they and others can properly keep score of who ... is who... in reality. the fact that this is my second post and that i still have my oririnal one i wrote in real time on your site then.. copyed and pasted for my records should tell you and the about faith people you possibly have confused moral and MORALE AND YOUR MORALE IS NOT VERY HIGH WHEN YOU PRETEND TO BE THE HONEST SPIRITUAL MORAL ONE AND YOU HAVE TO RESORT TO UH...others means to silence truth lets see how this works out for you mister sir king of kings and gate keeper singer... maybe you should habe been an entertainer and used your voice in music instead of prtending to be a morale figurehead.. you figure appears to have little head or thought processes but i'm the stupid hillbilly who is quite dyslexic thats why i decided not to major in journalism when i discovered i had the ability to actually write if you get better in the next weeks and months please know i'm prayeing for you because i consider you pitifull and need of devine help but i could be wrong pray for me also

".....these soldiers are doing a service for humanity........." Is there anyone out-there that would really drink this kool-aide? The way some of these people under-estimate the American people is beyond insulting.

Why only Jewish names constantly commenting on this atrocity?
When will the American media have the moral courage to stand up to the Israeli lobby and present as many Palestinian voices as they do Israeli?

Not until Americans are presented with both sides of this totally one-sided slaughter, an attack outrageously unfair as the one-sided invasion and resulting blood-bath of Iraq and along with daily pictures of JUST EXACTLY Israel and its evil kindred-spirit [God only knows why!] the U.S. are doing to the Palestinian people. Why is the American media so criminally cowardly.

Israel says what it wants and mostly it is about 99% of the time lies and does what it wants and mostly murders, when it isn't bullying nad abusing the Palestinians and the world ! It just sets on its hands. Not until both sides in this unequal attack is heard from should any American swallow Israel's lies.

I heard on television the other day the the U.S. is pro-Israel.
Who decided that lie?
And for all of you Israeli hacks, remember: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter .... right??????? You genocidal murderers!

When I wore a younger man's shoes I had quite a deal of sympathy for Israel but no longer.
There is no high moral ground in this conflict.
Israel has decided to put up walls around a civilian population and considers it has a right to decide who lives and who dies.
I hate to make the comparison but it is, unfortunately, apt; the last state sponsor of this sort of behaviour were the NAZI's.
Israel is a criminal state as evidenced by its refusal to even consider the many UN resolutions passed relating to the conflict in question.
When Saddam refused to do the same his country was invaded by the US.
When Israel gives the whole world the bird the US does everything it can to prop up this barbarous and vicious religious bigot.
The whole world would be far better off if Israel ceased to exist and a multicultural country took its place.
Nobody will ever be able to convince me that "God told me so" can provide a rational or moral justification for stealing a whole country and then imprisoning and torturing its original inhabitants over a period of fifty+ years.
There was no King David - this is just another myth. At the time that the 'first kingdom' was supposed to exist the Israeli's were just a few goat herders living in the mountains.
No inscription in the whole of Egypt mentions Moses (and the Egyptians were a people who delighted in writing down just about everything that ever happened in their kingdom). Why no mention of Moses? Because the whole story is a myth that was written more than six hundred years after the fact as a way to lay claim to a tract of land. A thousand an a half years later Israel still has its feet planted in thin air. Their claim to the land is entirely based on an ancient mythology that says "God says so".

This column is such a joke!!! We should be proud of the conscripted soldiers that march into a palestinian ghetto. You're a joke for writing this. You've doled out $50,000 worth of punishment for a $500 crime. Israel is the biggest headache besides Saudi Arabia that the United States has. We need to drop Israel as soon as possible. I hate the Palestinians just as much as the Israelis, but this is ridiculous. We're supposed to be proud of a country that bars journalists so the atrocities cannot be shown on television. We're supposed to be proud of soldiers that shoot Palestinian children for throwing rocks?? How the hell are you allowed to post this on this website???? You are a journalist, good god, be objective. Clown!

LeeH1 writes: "So many people are saying that the voices of the Palestinians are not being heard in the US. I wish the Washington Post and many other American newspapers would actually re-print translations of Arab editorials, cartoons and reports from Arab newspapers. Especially Iraqi newspapers."

Thank you for your support, LeeH1. I totally agree with you.

Without going into all of Professor Chomsky's work on the media "Manufacturing Consent", it needs be said, I believe, that it is not only the Palestinians who are not heard in the US. It is the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Chinese, Venezuelans, Cubans, etc. Do you remember the incidents and the controversy which surrounded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Columbia? It says it all: too many people did not even want to listen, did not even want the man to be at Columbia, did not want Americans to hear what President Ahmadinejad had to say, could not and would not even understand, after the fact, what he had been saying. --- That attitude has nothing to do with a free society advocating free speech!!!

We need to HEAR those countryies' leaders, and other representatives from all major socio-political groups in those countries. We need to know what they think by listening to them speaking freely and repeatedly to Americans. That is what freedom of speech is all about.

Not long ago, Mr. Zakaria interviewed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on his GPS, as well as the former Premier of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. Those were remarkable interviews in which to learn something re: their perception of the US.

There need be many more of those. The media need to give Americans public access, in prime time, to the intelligentsia of at least all major countries, beginning with all those mentioned in Mark Leonard's "What Does China Think?"... Americans would not believe, then, what China has become, compared to what they still imagine China is.

Back to the Palestinians, Americans need to hear often and at length what all the representatives of the Palestinians really and truly think, want and actively seek.

Let us hope someone from US media is listening and/or reading this stuff.

Regards.

Imagine country A occupying country B for 40 years, where A is trying to claim its war is a defensive action and B is chided as the aggressor in trying to liberate itself. What sort of moral judgment would have trouble distinguishing between the two?

Of course "israel has the moral high moral ground:it only murdered over 700 palestinians and maimed three thousand,the overwhelming majority are civilans,women and children in only 12 days.

Of course"israel" has the higher moral ground:it turned Gaza into Aushwitz #2;quelling the Gaza uprising with such savagry is worse than when the nazis quelled the Warsaw uprising.

The racist, apartheid,militaristic,occupying jewish ethno-theocrcay is an absloute evil and only evil can it beget.Sincle its illigitiamte creation,the racist entity has brought nothing to the Arab East except hate, violence,destruction and death.It was built by illegal immigrants,terrorist gangs and ethnic cleansing and it survivs by committing svagary,barbarities and mass murder,collective punihsmnet and starvation of a whole prople with a siege.Why? Because the victimized Palestinians resist occupation,demand their stolen homeland back and refuse to submit collective punishmnet.

Nazi Germany vanished into oblivion-zionist "israel" is in fact following suit,sooner than later.

"israel" is the shame of al humanity.

So many people are saying that the voices of the Palestinians are not being heard in the US. I wish the Washington Post and many other American newspapers would actually re-print translations of Arab editorials, cartoons and reports from Arab newspapers. Especialy Iraqi newspapers.

MEMRI.org is the only one doing this, and I'm surprised at the hate, ignorance and intolerance that is spilled out of the Arab press. However, it is good to see their opinions, and in their own words. Far too often we hear one thing from the Palestinians in English, and the world hears other things in Arabic. Frequently, they are not the same. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEMRI

For those of you who find it necessary to pepper your posts with personal insults, your arguments are weakened and your positions often dismissed.

As for moral high ground in the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict - there is none. Both parties have drug their countrymen into a bog of barbarism and violence that leaves no ones hands fee of innocent blood. So let's stop this charade of moral certitude of position and get down to the brass tacks of crafting compromise that can stand the test of the extremists on both sides. For in my view Hamas (a former proxy of the Israelis and current lapdog of Iran) and the Israeli right (Zionist colonizers) are the factions responsible for the continued blood shed. Neither wants lasting peace at the cost of their own myopic and fuedal aspirations. Finally the situation requires an objective, non-partisan United States willing to lambaste Israeli aggression just fervently as it condemns Hamas terror.

JDGillis:
You mention what is going on in "Palestine"--land that is actually Israel--read your Bible, mensa. The only occupation is and has been by the beasts who subject their own women, children & old folks to atrocity after atrocity for the sake of pure hate. Israel doesn't continually day-in and day-out bomb the civilian population in Judea or Samaria for years & years. They don't bomb restaurants and nightclubs to kill civilians. They DO take every every paletinian casualty into their hospitals and give them state-of-the-art care. And sorry about your lack of biblical knowledge but Genesis 12:1-3 was an unconditional promise, princess.
Get your own universe, Hoss.

The lies of the zionists never stop. The title Israel's Moral High Ground is pure propaganda. apartheid israel surrounds palestininas with high walls, steals their lands, demolish their homes, created 6 million refugees and this psychotic writer talks about moral high ground.

I'm stunned--appalled!
How can there be so many misinformed, misguided anti-Israel skanks out there?? Be sure of one thing- I have not one drop of Jewish blood in my veins. But Israel is clearly a society just trying to exist. They don't control Judea or Samaria (the real names of the "west bank" and " gaza"). Quite frankly I can't fathom why they ever gave them back to the animals blinded by hate that have been sending homicide bombers (not suicide--when you intend to murder others it's called HOMICIDE!) in to kill the Israeli civilians.; 40 dead in a UN school? Good job, UN, once again. Just like your marvelous efforts via UNIFIL. What a joke! The UN & EU are so irrelevant! BTW, why is everyone crying about civilian casualties? There is a war on--in your front yard-- get the heck out of dodge, grandma! Or else throw the criminal hiding in your house/school/mosque out. The IDF gives them a heads-up before they root out the scumbags every time. What military force has ever done that in history?? Look what USSR/USA/UK did to Berlin towards the end of WWII. Crushed everything/everyone moving for as far as the eye could see. No fuss about that "collateral damage, eh? Where is the outrage for these terrorists using there own women & children as human shields by hiding amongst them & taking pot-shots from there? Really, now! Everything they do is illegal. People, there IS a difference in morality and righteousness in this conflict. Stop supporting the terrorist PA-- and I mean both Fatah & Hamas--both are criminal murdering gangs of thugs supplied by Russia & Iran.
The Triune God of all creation will never abandon His chosen people. Why would you fight Him on it? This is His universe. Create your own if you don't like it.

Why has the indigenous population of Palestine chosen to fight rather than accept Israel within its 1948 borders? Perhaps because the ZioNazis let their intentions of ethnically cleansing the indigenous population of Palestine be known as far back as 1897 when the founder of ZioNazism Theodor Herzl, stated that once in power: "We would spirit the penniless population (i.e. the Palestinians) across the borders" and later by David Ben Gurion who stated in 1938: "After we become a strong force, as the result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish partition and expand into the whole of Palestine."

So much for the myth that it was the Indigenous population of Palestine that rejected the partition.

The ZioNazi’s chosen method of realizing their sinister goal was a systematic reign of terror that included massacres, dispossession and expulsion that continues to this day.

"Our fathers had reached the frontiers which were recognized in the UN Partition Plan of 1947 (56% of the land). Our generation reached the frontiers of 1949 (78% of the land. Now the Six Day Generation (of 1967) has managed to reach Suez, Jordan and the Golan Heights. This is not the end." - ZioNazi terrorist Moshe Dyan

The only question remaining is how much innocent blood must be spilled to satisfy the ZioNazi’s lust for land.

"" pvilso24 Author Profile Page:

Very sad. Moral blindness and Jew-hatred abound.""

You live in a different world pvilso24 and appear to be hiding ruthless violence behind a false-veil of religion. If you notice, out of 296 comments on this thread NOT ONE attacks the Jewish religion or its practitioners. What is being attacked is disproportional military violence, something barred under the Geneva Conventions.

Tell me pvilso24, if you are religious? If so, does your God sanction innocent killings? Because if so, you have a different God than the other 90% of humans who claim to have one. What would be the name of this killer-God? I can tell you there is no God that sanctions the spilling of innocent blood and I don't have to have a religion to tell you that objective truth.

Anytime people criticize the illegal actions of Israel, there's always a swarm of deceivers who try to derail those criticisms with "antisemitism", and "everybody hates the Jews" baloney, and this diversionary defense has been elevated over the past 50 years into an art form worthy of historical note. Having lived and worked with many actual "Jewish" people over my lifetime I can testify that their religion has played no role whatsoever in my dealings or relationships with them. I've neither come to fear nor reverence the Jewish religion itself. But we here in this thread are not talking about religion are we?

What we are talking about is whether Israel has a "moral high-ground" in its military attack on the Palestinian people of Gaza. But maybe you hate "central realities"?

Israel is a first-world military power backed both monetarily and through advanced weapons sales by the United States military apparatus. In violation of numerous UN Resolutions, Non-Compliant with the IAEA, and at more or less constant War with most of its neighbors throughout its tiny 60 year history. Seemingly unrestrained in its use of banned weaponry including White Phosphorous and Cluster munitions and continually preaching to the world the need for War On Iran who has strong relations with its neighbors, complies with the IAEA, has not committed a War of Aggression in some 350 years and possesses no stated desire for War with anyone.

No, Israel is not acting out of any "religious" sense at all, it is using a false-religious defense to defend its War Crimes. These kinds of things eventually come to an end, and history will show far more similarity between today's Israel and Nazi Germany than between Nazi Germany and the Global anti-war movement.

"Wisdom is known of all her children"

And can we stop the nonsensical argument that there was true peace prior to 1948? For proponents of that view, go take a look at how Islam overlords governed lands they subjugated. There was only "peace" because non-Muslims were suppressed, were denied equal rights, and had no place in government. How nice of Muslim civil leadership to let non-Muslims continue to own their shops and operate small businesses: as history shows, anti-Jewish (and anti-Christian) pogroms in Ottoman lands hardly suggest a peaceful existence.

The faux outrage of the hard-left, unlikely allies of radical Islam, never ceases to amaze. Islam menaces the entire Middle East and North Africa - and there is no peace ANYWHERE Islam bumps up geographically against another religion. So, to say that the radical Islamic behavior behind Hamas is a unique response to Israeli excess begs this question: what about Muslim violence everywhere else? Islam is a uniquely violent religion, everywhere at where with adherents of other faiths - Jews in Israel, Catholics in East Timor and Phillipines, Buddhists in Thailand and China, Hindus in India and Pakistan (and even tiny Sri Lanka). So, all you apologists for "the Palestinians," your foolish equation of "Zionism" with "Naziism," and your insistence that the truth is suppressed - knock it off. The truth is on plain display every day - there is no peace where Islam is influential.

CARACAS, Venezuela — On Tuesday, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the Ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the Embassy of Israel, in protest over the offensive in Gaza.

"Now I hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community speaks out against this barbarism." Chavez said.

"The president of Israel should be taken before an international court together with the president of the United States, if the world had any conscience" he said, in an appearance on state television. (FOX and Reuters)

Very sad. Moral blindness and Jew-hatred abound.

Hamas defenders here have drank the Jew-hatred fed daily to Pal children and Left-wing media. Hitler would be proud.

Hamas sacrifices children on both sides. Israelis have dropped warnings and placed thousands of cell phone calls to Gazans to evacuate targetted areas. The IDF seeks to minimize death. Hamas celebrates death.

Jewish children hide in bunkers... in Gaza, only the militants hide in bunkers... the children are human shields.

Try reading the Hamas Charter or the Geneva Convention.. or studying the history of British-ruled Palestine. But such would require abandoning myths.

Sadly, unless Hamas is defeated and the culture of death and Jew-hate is ended.. the Palestinians will never get a State. Betrayed by their leaders, betrayed by their Arab allies, and falsely encouraged by their Jew-hating Western friends... very tragic indeed.

It is not like Mexico firing rockets into the Texas. It is more like a group of Native Americans fire some rockets at Texas and kill one person, and then the governement goes in and kills 500 Native Americans including hundreds of civilians. That would be a better analogy. Such a response would be extremely disproportionate. The Israelis' response is unjust because it has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths.

Typical of Genocidal Defenders, you dismiss factual references, like Israel's desire for control of 100 Billion Cubic Meters of Natural Gas in Palestinian Waters... of course, your idea of "fairy tales" may include denial of this fact, and also that Israel has provided a steady stream of main-stream fear-mongering and war-mongering towards Iran, and your fairy-tales may also deny the direct involvement of Israel inside the PNAC (that's Project for a New American Century) that is directly responsible for the Bush administration... funny though, that the PNAC document itself proves it's no "conspiracy theory", but "conspiracy fact", and likely will form the basis of soon to be initiated War Crimes Tribunals against those responsible...

"Deny, deny, deny" does not a truth make MichaelNJ.

channing1:

If you follow my discussion with Citizen you can see that we were talking about mainstream media, not about Islamic conspiracy-theory websites. Naturally, on those websites you can find plenty of stories you will never see on any serious publication, American or foreign. That's because those stories are fairy tales. Judging by the rest of your post, you seem to be exactly the kind of person who would believe in fairy tales.

"" MichaelNJ Author Profile Page:

Citizen:

Deciding which one of us is gullible should be fairly easy. If you truly believe that “the true voice of Palestinians is barely ever heard, in the US”, then you should have no problem pointing to any Palestinian viewpoints or facts which can be found in foreign media but not in the US media""

How about 100 Billion Cubic Meters of Natural Gas lying in Palestinian Waters? Look here and follow links to Non-US Press reports:

http://www.shiachat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=234956531&mode=threaded

Of course Israel, like the US would NEVER consider invading another sovereign nation to gain access to its natural resources... I mean, Israel would not actually kill innocent men, women and their children and destroy all their civil infrastructure just for energy would they? And they'd never disguise it as "Defense", or propagandize lies about garage-made "WMD's", or assassinate legitimately elected officials, would they MichaelNJ? Oh, and of course, the BBC, this paper, NYT, CNN, and the rest of One-Way Broadcast Rights for NEWS are not reporting anything about the possible relevance of 100 Billion Cubic Meters of Palestinian Natural Gas in Israel's attempted complete destruction of Gaza... Oh no, MichaelNJ, you sound sooo convincing!

Actually, I've come to the conclusion as I stated down-thread:

1. Israel invaded now to take advantage of Bush-Criminal's last days and in hopes of Provoking Iran and others into the PNAC-Crafted WWIII;

2. Disguise Regional Genocide (in the way of free energy) as "Defense" simultaneously deploying known assets/ownerships in Western Press;

3. Gain Default-Access to 100 Billion Cubic Meters of Natural Gas.

No adult, and certainly no child would sanely consider violently invading their neighbor to get what they have... I understand even the God of the Jews despises this. You think 24 Israeli deaths over the past eight years justifies the Genocide of the Gaza Strip, think again before it's too late to repent!

And just as we speak, Daoud Kuttab is back with a new rant, full of the usual nonsense, self-contradictions and harebrained analyses. Oh yes, the voice of the poor Palestinians is barely ever heard. What you wanted to say is "the voice of intelligent Palestinians is never heard". That's true. The idiots, on the other hand, are all over the place.

Citizen:

Deciding which one of us is gullible should be fairly easy. If you truly believe that “the true voice of Palestinians is barely ever heard, in the US”, then you should have no problem pointing to any Palestinian viewpoints or facts which can be found in foreign media but not in the US media. Go ahead.

MichaelNJ : 1. “the true voice of Palestinians ... is all over the place... Everything that’s going on in Gaza is being reported instantly all over the world ... Every army in the world does that..."

Michael, you are more gullible than I thought. Obviously, I overestimated you; but I am proud I did. I would have been sorry, had I had the misfortune to underestimate you instead.

Citizenofwhatever:

1. “the true voice of Palestinians is barely ever heard, in the US”: That, of course depends on where you get your information. I get mine primarily from the mainstream media, and there the Palestinian voice is all over the place. Just look at the front page of the newspaper you are reading now, and then at commentary columns, and you will see for yourself.

2. Censorship my foot. Everything that’s going on in Gaza is being reported instantly all over the world (see UN school story, for instance). The Israeli press is as free and as reliable as any in the world, and is the source of much of the news that you see in other media. I would not expect someone who gets his information from Arab conspiracy-theory outlets to know that, but the Israeli press is more critical of its own government than any foreign press, when criticism is warranted. There is nothing unusual about restricting the movement of the press in active war zones. Every army in the world does that. It helps saves lives and keep gullible reporters from being shot and from shooting themselves in the foot, as so many did in Jenin 2003.

MichaelNJ: "All the posters boo-hoo-hooing here over the "one sided coverage" of the American media who are "not bringing the whole truth" to the American public are welcome to read..."

You must know better than that, Michael.

The American media reporting is totally one-sided, first and foremost because Palestinians, like the vast majority of Muslims, are constantly dehumanized by being systematically demonized in the American media. As a consequence the true voice of Palestinians is barely ever heard, in the US.

Another major reason why media reporting from Gaza is necessarily one-sided, is because outside observers (particularly journalists) are not permitted to travel freely to, and throughout Gaza, by Israeli authorities. Such Israeli censorship, such Israeli lack of transparency and of accountability is quite common. It has characterized past Israeli operations of every kind. It therefore remains, to this day, the best evidence available that, as you wrote, "one-sided coverage is correct", for it is imposed through strict censorship and denied access. Those who act in a civilized fashion generally need not resort to such degrading practises.

Now you are free to believe all the Israeli censored, self-serving blabber as much as you want; just don't expect me to do so, least of all now that I have heard the above Singer's latest song.

Moral high ground is an interesting way to characterize actions undertaken with the premise that an Israeli life is more valuable than a Palestinian life. That kind of calculation will never add up to justice.

All the posters boo-hoo-hooing here over the "one sided coverage" of the American media who are "not bringing the whole truth" to the American public are welcome to read the top article in the Wash Post about the UN school. Lots of coverage of what the UN people have to say, lots of coverage of Palestinian sources, pictures of crying children, not a single word of Israel's report that the school was being used by Hamas people to fire at israeli troops while hiding behind civilians, in the best tradition of Arab terrorists. Yup, one-sided coverage is correct.

slshelton wrote: "...they (Israel) are left with little choice, fight or vanish. What would you choose?"

Prime example of binary thinking, shshelton! ... I'm not impressed. As they like to say, why not try "thinking outside the box" for a change?

What would I choose?

Peace.

Peace is their unique reasonable, sustainable option.

Assuming it is not already too late, they have no other choice but peace, should they wish to survive.

After having shown no respect for the community of nations for decades, after showing nothing but contempt for international law, the Geneva conventions and international tribunals, they now have chosen (like the US in Iraq), to drag the whole world forcibly beyond outrage, beyond inhumanity, even beyond words.

That degree of barbarism and of savagery requires they be boycotted in every possible manner by, and totally excluded from, the civilized world, and for as long as it may take. Without even a last glance, all decent people, one by one, ought to walk away and abandon them in that deep hole they still consider their "moral high ground"; for with supreme, evil arrogance, it obviously lies out of every decent human being's reach.

People who think Israel kills children intentionally are insane. Israel consistently takes great efforts to avoid killing civilians, both because of their morals and because civilian deaths only hurt their efforts. When the US accidentally hits a wedding party in Afghanistan, we understand that mistakes happen in war. Be reasonable with Israel too.

The civilian suffering is a tragedy, but it is an unavoidable aspect of war, and the blame falls on whoever chose the route of war. In this, there is no doubt: Hamas rained rockets on Israel, knowing full well what it would mean. Hamas is committed to eternal war with Israel, rejecting peace of any kind and wanting only its destruction. They have chosen this path, as have the Palestinians who voted for them. They have the choice -- Israel has no choice.

For those who criticize Israel, what choice do they have but to defend themselves against attack? Hamas is arming themselves for all-out war in which they would massacre as many Jews as possible. It is horrible when innocent Palestinians die, but dealing with them now is better than waiting for the bloodbath later. If you were Israel, what would you do? Let Hamas keep attacking, get stronger, until they slaughter you all? Or try for peace, but do what you must to defend yourself against murders who reject it?

Israel does not want this fight, they don't want the occupation either. But for Israel, there is no choice. Palestinians have the choice, and they choose war. That's why Israel has the moral high ground.

"-By taking on Hamas, Israelis deserve the gratitude of decent people everywhere. More than that, by sending in troops to fight them on the ground, Israel is risking its precious soldiers to minimize Palestinian casualties. These soldiers risk becoming martyrs to human rights and the Geneva Convention because they are fighting in places where other countries, including the U.S., might have called in an artillery or air strike and been done with it. We should be proud of them and least have the decency to honor their sacrifice.

Finally, these soldiers are doing a service for humanity---"

Thank you, I would prefer not to be included in your version of "humanity".

"Israelis should not be expected to live with the specter of rockets falling in Sderot and Ashkelon."

Excellent point, Levgid. So what's your solution? What are they supposed to do about it?

Like Mr. Cohen's article in the Washington Post today, yours too, Mr. Singer, is practiced in the art of dissimulation. "Israelis deserve the gratitude of decent people everywhere?" Is this why so many decent people everywhere, including Israel (and yes, even in the United States despite the overwhelmingly one-sided media coverage) are expressing revulsion at Israel's actions? What gives Israel the right to bomb schools and hospitals? (Imagine what Palestinians would be called if they engaged in such despicable action within Israel - oh yes, terrorists, and rightly so!) And please tell your readers: Where exactly does Israel expect civilians to find shelter in the most densely populated sliver of land on the face of this earth, namely Gaza? Perhaps the UN school, which was shelled by the IDF? But let's look at the facts. Rockets from Gaza - illegal, numerous and fully deserving of condemnation - have killed 20 Israelis since 2003. Various Israeli assaults on Gaza since 2005 (when settlers were withdrawn) have killed 1700 Palestinians, several hundred of them children. This is not counting the current invasion, which has killed 630 in Gaza, over a hundred of them children. Israel's punishing blockade of Gaza - illegal by international conventions - persisted through the recently expired 6-month truce with Hamas, and has caused severe shortages in Gaza of food, fuel, medicines, and electricity. And this blockade, as you must know, was in place prior to Hamas's rise to power in Gaza in 2006. Oh yes, you probably know too that Israel supported the emergence of Hamas's precursor, a chapter of the Egyptian Islamic Brotherhood, as a political counterpoint to Fatah and PLO - the classic ruling tactic of sowing division. Iran's influence on Hamas came later. So forgive me if I think you article is a brazen apology for Israeli occupation and - let's call a spade a spade - colonialism. Israelis should not be expected to live with the specter of rockets falling in Sderot and Ashkelon. But should the refugees in Gaza (many of whom, as you well know, were illegally dispossessed of their farmlands in Ashkelon be expected to live in sub-human conditions, with hundreds of their children dead (and still dying) from Israeli military assaults and chronic malnutrition (directly linked to Israel's relentless blockade, according a recent report of the International Committee of the Red Cross)? Strange isn't it that there is more criticism and soul-searching of Israel's siege of Gaza in Israel than in the United States? At a protest rally in Tel Aviv 2 days ago there was a sign that read: WANT HAMAS OUT? GIVE GAZA HOPE NOT WAR. Amen.

The only hope for long-term peace in Palestine is the eradication of Hamas. Even Hamas says this. If Israel leaves Hamas intact, there will be never-ending violence in Palestine. In the long run, it is more humane for Israel to get this over with right now. Let Israel unify the West Bank and Gaza under a single Fatah or UN mandate, and get on with the peace process.

You are kidding, right? Shame on you because you caused your own death? You should be ashamed to have posted this column!

Israel is now facing a Palestinian leadership comprised largeley of religious fanatics because it failed to offer the secular-minded Palestinian leadership of years past a deal they could accept - 1967 borders, East Jerusalem, and a contiguous land entity not chopped into "batustans" by Israeli military access roads connecting a gulag of Jewish settlements.

I read this on the day that the Israeli Army has apparently struck near a United Nations school, killing dozens of people seeking refuge from the fighting. I'm sorry: as a Jew, this is no moral high ground I can recognize. I was taught that we were to be a light among the nations.

Putting aside morality just for one moment: what, Saul Singer, do you imagine Israel will look like in a generation? I never hear the apologists for these wars play out their long-term consequences -- just ridiculous fantasies like "we'll merge Gaza back into Egypt and the West Bank into Jordan." What is your vision of the future? Do you even have one?

I agree with the majority of the comments with respect the Mr. Goebbles' (also known as Mr. Sanger!) shameless attempt to educate us on Israel's moral high-ground to inititae another mass murder of Palestinians..I don't know who the jewish lobby and Israel-control MSM in USA are trying to fool, the world public opinion is solidly on the side of facts: Isreal's illegal occupation and subjugation of Palestinians like cattle for over forty years is the root cause of various attemps by Palesitinians to free themselves from the death-trap that Isreal has imposed on them.. Now that the only supporter of Israel's fascist tactics, the infintely pliable US govt (manipulated by the endless supply of Jewish money to get the so-called US reps elected to Congress) is on a path to economic decline and concurrent loss of real power and influence, it's a matter of time before the Israeli fascist regime is brought to justice for its numerous crimes against the Palestinians..

This piece is disgusting. As far as I'm concerned, Israel is an illegal entity set up by the US and UK after WWII. Calling the Palestinians terrorists is like calling the US Revolutionaries terrorists. If the Israelis walled off my city, stole land from me and my neighbors, and blockaded my city, I would fight to the death with the rest of my neighbors. That's called WAR, not terrorism. I find Israel's moral high ground equivalent to Apartheid!!!! Moral high ground my foot!!! Shame on the Israelis for perpetrating the same kinds of crimes against another people as were perpetrated against them.

To all of you folks criticizing Israel, what would you have done to prevent the 7,000 missiles launched into Israel over the past several years?
If one searches hard enough, one will find pictures of Israeli children killed and maimed by Hamas weapons. How would you folks address this? Besides, the atrocities committed by Muslims on each other rival anything Israel has done. "Shiite suicide bomber explodes a bomb killing 37 Sunnis. Israel is blamed"

Terrorist group A attacking country B, when country B colonize terrorist's group A land, looks like legitimate resistance to me. Why Palestinians should stop their attack on Israel while Israel continue to colonize their land? Palestinians, being denied Statehood, doesn't possess an army to defend themselves, so their only mean to stop Israel's ramping colonization is terrorism, and sometime this tactic works (think about Algeria's colonial struggle with France). The sad this is that Israel political system, being utterly unstable, hasn't be able to stop the most radical elements of their society until recently, and right now Palestinian chances to acquire a viable State with territorial integrity is slim and they are desperate. Consequently, Israel is somehow responsible of the radicalization of the Palestinian society, and now they have to deal with the religiously-driven Hammas instead of the secular Fattah in Gaza...
If Israel want a high moral ground then Israelis should renounce to collective punishment tactics and apologize for past ones, stop colonize Palestinian land and accept Palestinian Statehood with enough concessions to make it economically viable.
If Israel want the high moral ground, then Israelis should propose to Palestinians to collectively renounce to Jerusalem as their Capital and instead give to the International community sovereignty on the "Holiest" town.

sovereign give it

There is little to say about the comments of Mr. Singer except that they distinctly recall the justifications of Nazi Germany, in a different historical and cultural context, for exterminating the Jews, and the excuses of the Turks in attempting to destroy the Armenian nation. The parallels of argument, actions and result are chilling, especially since they are approved of by the U.S. Government. Using massive force against a helpless, blockaded population with no effective means to resist is simply a crime against humanity. Moral leaders around the world, who are not intent on defending Israel, overwhelmingly condemn this atrocity. Only messianic ideas can cut off a government from recognizing the human consequences of the pursuit of is divinely justified supreme cause.

1. Green-Light from the US lame duck guarantees zero consequences and plenty of opportunity for Expanding ME War, therefore commit War Crimes including White Phosphorous and Cluster Bombs in Built-Up areas in the Hopes of Provoking War with Iran and the PNAC-Crafted WWIII;

2. Disguise Genocide as "Defense" using a relentless Propaganda Campaign through Global Western Media outlets, meanwhile slaughtering as many Palestinians as possible, clearing the Gaza Strip of civilization;

3. Gain Default-Access to Natural Gas Reserves located in Palestinian Waters to solve Israel's "problem" with Energy;

Three Birds with One Death Star.

"By taking on Hamas, Israelis deserve the gratitude of decent people everywhere."

Close, but no thallium cigar. By butchering civilians taking shelter in a UN school, the Israeli government deserves the contempt of decent people everywhere.

Trust me, there is no moral confusion on this issue whatsoever. Only the morally confused themselves would claim so.

how many school children does Israel need to kill to maintain their high moral ground? I heard 40 were killed today - is the number 400, 4000, 40000, or maybe 400000?

I am ashamed to say that you are part of the same human race as I am, since you seem to think killing children in their schools is the "high moral ground".

I will not knowingly buy a thing marked "made in Israel" ever again.

Your commentary made me want to throw up.

Thank you Israel for slaughtering innocent children and their mothers, after stealing their land. Thanks so very much.

As a supporter of Irael, I can only wince when reading your comments. Americans are a chastened lot just now, and are casting a sceptical eye towards the typical military response.

The US war in Iraq and the Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon have established a new set of metrics. As it appears that the author has failed to take notice - or perhaps has turned a deaf ear - let me be specific.

Israel is destroying its international standing just as the US has spent the last seven years doing. The American electorate has thrown the bums out and is charting a new course. The current government in Israel, sadly, hews to the same failed policies and presumes the same level of US support. This will not be forthcoming.

There is no moral equivalence between Hamas and the government of Israel. However, it is not so simple. There is an "immoral equivalence" between certain actions undertaken by the two parties, and the American electorate has taken notice.

Do you remember all those good, Israel-supporting conservatives who came out so vigorously against Russian aggression and overreaction to Georgian rockets fired on the South Ossettians? Now that certain grandstanding politicians have returned to silence in the face of facts, Americans are beginning to see both sides of that conflict and our sympathies do not lie with one side only. And neither do we cast blame in a single direction.

Likewise, Israel. There is a sea-change ongoing. Interested parties take note.

The Washington Post and most other media in the US are only presenting the US/Israeli side of things. How about an editorial from an Muslim newspaper.

The funny thing is the map of the world in my kids CCD classes doesn't have a country called israel on it. Just a big space called palistine.

BOBSNODGRASS WROTE: "By the way, who won World War I? It looked like an Allied victory in 1919. Georges Clemenceau of France crowed about permanent eradication of German militarism. Lloyd George called for punishing the Kaiser. The Treaty of Versailles took away German land and saddled Germany with punitive reparations. That vicious treaty brought on World War II and millions of deaths."

Exactly. Hamas = The chickens have come home to roost. You reap what you sow - biblical, isn't it?

Israel became the official homeland of the jews in 1947. But it has been their homeland for thousands of years. Before 47, "Palestine" was a designation of the British for the area now known as Israel and Jordan... With the Arab population residing on what is now Jordan and the Jewish population residing in what is now called Israel.

In 1923, the British divided the "Palestine" portion of the Ottoman Empire into two administrative districts. Jews would be permitted only west of the Jordan river. In effect, the British had "chopped off" 75% of the originally proposed Jewish Palestinian homeland to form an Arab Palestinian nation called Trans-Jordan (meaning "across the Jordan River"). This territory east of the Jordan River was given to Emir Abdullah (from Hejaz, now Saudi Arabia) who was not even an Arab-"Palestinian!" This portion of Palestine was renamed Trans-Jordan and would again be renamed "Jordan" in 1946.

In other words, the eastern 3/4 of Palestine would be renamed TWICE, in effect, erasing all connection to the name "Palestine!" However, the bottom line is that the Palestinian Arabs had THEIR "Arab Palestinian" homeland. The remaining 25% of Palestine (now WEST of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish Palestinian homeland.

Arabs don't want Israel to behave, they want Israel gone. It has always been their home. Take a close look at this PRESENT DAY MAP of the Middle East in which you can see that 22 Arab and/or Muslim [Iran is not considered Arab] nations completely engulf Israel. It sucks that Israel is so aggressive, but they are left with little choice, fight or vanish. What would you choose?

Decent people don't use their religion and grievances over what a European nation did to them to take over a land and a people of a different religion who had nothing whatsoever to do with what happened in Europe.

They don't say "Sure!" when a few big western powers tell them, "We feel guilty, how would you like a nice new house here on these other people's property? I mean, they're just a bunch of faceless, ignorant Arabs, who cares? If they cause you any trouble, we'll make sure you can beat them to a pulp."

High moral ground? Singer is without any moral ground in making such claims. Study the history! The Palestinians are the ones who have been abused since 1948. No wonder they are so angry toward the Jews--in addition to fighting for their own historic and human rights. Good results cannot come from bad actions!

I disagree. How can Israel have the high ground when it deprived Palestinians of electricity, food and water ever since Hamas took power in a legitimate election? The IDF are shooting fish in a barrel- they send a text message, maybe a few Palestinians have cell phones, but where can they hide? Now, the Palestinians aren’t noble. Both Israel and the Palestinians are led by evil men willing to sacrifice human life for short term political advantage. There's no high ground on either side, just machismo and a suicide pact.

By the way, who won World War I? It looked like an Allied victory in 1919. Georges Clemenceau of France crowed about permanent eradication of German militarism. Lloyd George called for punishing the Kaiser. The Treaty of Versailles took away German land and saddled Germany with punitive reparations. That vicious treaty brought on World War II and millions of deaths. Bush, Rice and the Israelis would impose the same kind of settlement on the Palestinians. Rice doesn’t even bother to consult with Palestinians. She meets with Saudis and Israelis and decides what the US can shove down the throats of the Palestinians. Likud leader Moshe Feiglin calls for banning minority Arab citizens from the Israeli parliament, encouraging non-Jews to leave Israel, and pulling Israel out of the United Nations. Sound familiar? He, Netanyahu and the neocons will bring a much wider war and blame it on Iran. The US will pay for its insane militarism and sponsorship of Israeli militarism. Israel can’t claim any moral status. Those chickens will come home to roost. The more that the IDF kill, the more future suffering for the US and Israel...

Singer's column in internet parlance is known as "trolling" - deliberately designed to inflame passions.

This just in: IDF Strike on U.N. Gaza school kills 40.

Yes, the high moral ground. Of course.

Is Israel also on the high moral ground for having ousted the Palestinian people from their homeland after many centuries, not even allowing them to remain in a part of the land the returning Jews took from them after almost two thousand years?

Is israel also on the high moral ground for all the atrocities they have committed against Palestinians since 1948?

Is Israel also on the high moral ground for invading and occupying the tiny bit of land that was left to the Palestinians?

Is Israel also on the high moral ground for stealing nuclear weapons information from the United States so that it could lord it over the Mid-East where nothing but trouble has brewed since they were permitted to set up their state--despite the claim that it was originally decreed to them by God Almighty--when they were still worshiping idols?

Is Israel on the high moral ground for using its various influences in the United States to receive the largest foreign and military aid of any country in the world?

The right questions are not being asked!

Moral high ground? Neither side can claim that. The equation of actions between Hamas and Israel is as exact as has been described so far.

The funny thing about intent is you can claim your intent is whatever you want it to be, and from there you can justify anything. What is REALLY disgusting is Israel bombing crowded markets and then the likes of Saul Singer claiming a moral victory. The dishonesty of the argument is revolting.

Dead children are dead children, and are as inevitable in a bombing campaign as from a suicide vest. There is moral equivalence to Israeli and Hamas actions period.

Hitler's said he was doing the world a favor when he tried to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the planet.

Israel's claims to be cleaning up Hamas is just an excuse for committing shoah against the Palestinians, whom Israels loathe with a violent passion, including their children.

There are three countries in this world that consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

The US, UK, and Israel. All the pro-israel BS in the US is just that -BS. How can we side against a nation that is fighting to regain land that is rightfully theirs, that WE STOLE FROM THEM?

Israel as a nation should never have been created, it was arrogant for the US and UK to have done, and has caused more global political issues than many other things done in the last 50 years.

I have no sympathy for the plight of israelis.

Sincerely,
A white Irish-American.

WOW, so many critics of this article.

The fact that Hamas is the legally elected government of Gaza simply states that it is A-OKAY for the citizens of Gaza to be used as "sacrificial lambs" by their chosen leaders, in Hamas....it means they are willing "sacrificial lambs." Well, they are, now, reaping what Hamas is sowing them, death, suffering, more, death, more, suffering...and on and on till the end of time.

This is pure Israeli BS!!!

Mr. Singer has a nice smile. I wonder if he would be smiling if he lived in Gaza City. By the way, White House web site says that the President and his family are mourning the death of the family cat, while US financed bombs are killing people in Gaza.

FORTY people killed, 45 wounded, in 2nd attack on school sheltering refugees from the bombing. A total of 2,800 now injured. (from Jazeera non-stop superb coverage of Gaza war in UK).

WPost - thanks for the "report offensive comments" link. How about also providing a "Report Offensive Column/Article" link? Then again, "offensive" is too mild a word for this sick propaganda piece - repulsive is more appropriate.

Unfortunately almost every adult is guilty in this mess: the Palestinian and Israeli children are the only innocent ones. The Holy Land is like a light that shines brightly and reveals everyone's sins: Christian, Muslim, Jew, and Aetheist alike. Its not a pretty sight.

"Jewish American for Israel; Is anyone surprised by THAT?!"

Of course not...this clown would be blowing up buildings in DC if it meant Israel would be able to build illegal settlements on a few more acres of land in the West Bank.

Do yourself a favor and boycott US companies that heavily do business with the state sponsor of terror that is Israel and publicly support their occupation. Starbucks, Sara Lee, and Intel are 3 major ones to name a couple. Write them on their corporate websites stating that you cannot support these companies that have the same blood on the hands as Israel.

Israeli definition of "high ground":

Srike on 2nd UN school kills 30
AP – 14 mins ago
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli airstrike outside a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip has risen to 30.

Jewish American for Israel; Is anyone surprised by THAT?!

More blatant pro israeli propaganda from the WaPo. At some point, looking back at history, one has to ask, why have the jews been hated by so many for so long. For all of recorded history it seems, that the jews have been the "victims", hated and persecuted for what? I don't think it has been because they were just standing around doing nothing. Through out history the jewish people have either been running away from somewhere, or being kicked out of somewhere. These zionists claim that the jews are gods chosen people, and israel is the promised land, and that gives them the right to take it from the palestinians. Is it just me, or does it seem odd that if the jews were indeed gods chosen people, wouldn't he have promised them a real nice land, that wasn't in the middle of millions of people that hate them and want them dead. Florida maybe? But getting back to today I guess the question we should be asking is, other than billions of dollars poorer, because of the aid we give them, spied on and hated by millions of people around the world that would not otherwise hate us, what do we the people get from our alliance with israel?

Mr. Saul Singer reflects many Israeli's sentiment of being legend in his own mind. I am surprised Washington Post chose to print such a biased piece.
When Palestinians are locked in a prison called Gaza, Israel is respecting human rights and ensuring peace. Palestinians were really rewarded by a fortified prison by respecting the truce.
When palestinians launch those crude rockets you make a legitimate response by dropping tons of bombs. Any civilian casualty is Hamas' fault. Because they are using civilians as shields. Yet you do not let journalists move in and verify your unilateral claim.

If Israel wants to make peace, the ball is in their court. Hamas and suicide bombing are only a smoke screen to keep the occupied land. We are talking about a 60 year old Palestine problem. Hamas was created by Israel 20 years back. Suicide bombing is 10 years old. What did Israel do about peace before Hamas came into being. When there is a will, there is a solution.
There is longstanding UN resolution on MidEast peace. Arab countries accepted it, but Israel didn't.
Palestinians are refugees for the longest time of history. They live in Israeli occupation, but they do not have any right of a citizen. Show me another example anywhere in the world where people are living in an occupation for so long as refugees.

Are you kidding me? This is rationalization, not logic.

Hamas bombs the desert, and Israel kills 580 Palestinians, including women and children. The latest victims were refugees at a UN school.

This isn't exactly going to play well on the world stage, and few will believe Israel's claim of moral high ground.

Hamas is the legally elected government of Gaza, not a terrorist organization operating in a stateless region. Thus when Hamas launches rockets at Israel, it is an act of war by a legally elected government against another country. What else can Israel do?

Why does Hamsa fire rockets? I don't really know, but the Israeli blockade of Gaza, done to insure Israeli security, doesn't help.

One other point, Israel would not send ground troops into action just to reduce civilian casualties. They went in because the air strikes alone could not do the job.

I want to say that the conflict in the middle east or between israel and the arab nations will never end if the Attitude of the author and everyone else whom seem afraid to critisise Israel and tell them the truth,one has to study the history all the way,it was the arabs/Palestinians that sold land to Jews who were being persucuted elsewhere,that to me is a gesture of welcome,then as the israelis bought more land ,they forced the arabs out..tell me that is wrong,and lets stop the distractions of what the Bible does or doesn't say and Holocaust is not a ticket to immunity,the violence from hamas is not excusable ,but the anger is understandable,Israel must act with respect of international laws and lets drop words like "precious" when refering to certain people,to me all life is precious as all blood and value is equal,unless we think other are more special..now to stop the wars ,the root ,source of the fight must be adressed!what right did the British have to give away palestinian land?can today decendants of the babylon kingdom ,if they exist ,return to the middle east and demand land back?or the american indians to chase away all who emigrated to their land including President-elect Obama?so the truth is no one can lay claim to any inch or land?we found it here and migration is a historic fact,people moved all over to seek survival and if they wrote their bibles and claim a god gave them ,am sure we will call them crazy?arabs have title deed to prove the land was theirs ,Why is the UN and everyone ignnoring that evidence?so real peace is to treat all human beings as same,and we share the little land we find,all the billions being wasted dropping bombs and killing kids,might as well be utilise to buid their lives and i guarantee the smile on their faces will bring paradise now?how about that Saul Singer?Brian

"Terrorist Group?" How about "elected government." Israel is forever trumpeting its legitimacy due to the fact it is a democracy. Guess what? Hamas was democratically elected too. So who are you to simply dismiss them as illegitimate? They are the chosen representatives of the Palestinian people, and they are doing far more to represent the interests of those people than anyone else. Shame on you for denying the Palestinians their right to a government of their own choosing, or to defend themselves against a much bigger, better armed neighbor who has had its boot on their throat for the past two generations. Until Israel acknowledges that it is a colony of foreigners in an arab country and makes a good faith effort to get along with its native population (think: South Africa), there will never be peace.

....We profoundly disagree with this article....although we firmly believe in Israel's right to exist, we cannot abide with the slaughter of the innocents...especially kids....the sad irony is that the Gaza ghettos and the actions therein resemble too closely, tho ones run by the Germans in the forties....this the kind of stuff of which war crimes are made....

Mr Singer, this is well written and I believe it is right on point. Thank you for your insight into this conflict.

Hmmm...Segregate a population into a small area. Put a wall around it. Surround it with a vastly more powerful military. Deny them the means to run an economy. Hasn't this play been run before?

The defiant holder of a slingshot now stands on higher moral ground than the pilot of a helicopter loaded with weapons of mass destruction.

I'm so glad to hear someone talk about how Hamas hides behind children for protection. It's disgusting and it totally undermines Hamas's legitimacy. The Palestinians are ultimately responsible for their own leadership. They have not taken that responsibility. What I don't understand is why the press rarely talks about this when discussing the "humanitarian crisis" supposedly created by Israel. I’m sure many of these poor people were forced to be used as human shields by Hamas

Mr. Singer,

How DARE you say that Israel is doing me a favor, sir. There is no good guy in this conflict. There are only two opposing thug governments in a fight to the mutual death.

Israel is doing me an incredible disservice, but that matters not because I am not physically affected. Stop thinking about whether the Israeli gov. is doing good by the world and start understanding how Israeli government is trampling over the civilians of Palestine and Israel.

Israels "high ground' is standing on a bucket at the bottom of a dry well.

this tripe from the JPost editor is equivalent to claiming that the Nazis exterminating Jews would be seen as a service to humanity. the victims of Shoah are turning in their graves, and cursing this (i hesitate to call him a man) "creature" who's staining their memory.

There is and will never be a justification for killing civilians indiscriminately. One can try to rationalize it but it is always immoral.

A 6 years goal, making an informed judgment regarding the war?

How about some human decency? The USA and his allies uses word such as peace, liberty and democracy to cover up for the wars its perpetrate all over the world.

The WEST has failed. The American economy just exposed its weaknesses, its foreign policies will be too.

Saul - Well put...re Hamas and similar destructive organizations, consider the usseful neologism "demopath" [derived from democratic pathology] &/or see Richard Landes augeanstables.com where he defines them as "those who use democratic language & invoke human rights only when it serves their interests, & not when it calls for self-criticism or self-restraint."

Anything new here? Imperial wars, at least those waged from the time of the Spanish conquistadors in the Americas to that of American soldiers in Viet Nam, Iraq, and beyond, end up looking very much the same in a very crude sense: dehumanization of the 'locals' is a reality, and propaganda spin is a necessity, because the personnel attrition ratio is around 100/1 (dominant/subservient).

Israel's Fundamental Law (the law of Return) claims that you and I, as Jews, are born superior in rights to all non-Jews, contrary to the Human Rights Declaration. What "moral ground" is there here ??
Or is the right to citizenship in the Holy Land a minor question...just as Rosa Park's right to sit in a Montgomery bus ?
Or would you contends that, like the ruling pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm, All men are born equal, but we, Jews, are born "more equalé than others...at least regarding the Holy Land ?

This article is written as if the problem was black and white. The largely ineffectual although its terrorising effect was considerable, missile firing from Hamas can be compared with the collective punishment and consequent suffering of the entire Gaza population by the rigid control of all its borders.

The west, with Israeli compliance supported a rampantly incompetent and corrupt Palestinian 'government' for years, and vilified Hamas. So when elections came, the only way for the man in the street in Gaza to show how he felt was to elect Hamas. The lesson is there to be learned, but no, lets try and bomb them into submission is the populist and only apparent reaction from top Israelis. This is is policy that has failed time after time, sowing the seeds of violence in many forms, not least missiles and suicide bombers.

I know that the Palestinians are not easy to negotiate with. Nor are Israelis. But bombing them and relying on superior might is only a solution for fools.

We decent people of the world should be grateful for all the killing of innocent civilians and for the siege and injustice that the Israeli state delivers on the Palestinian people? Hmmmm

Jose Ramirez

Well now, where is the moral high ground of the international community to have, in effect, created this whole debacle in the first place? This is not a "right" or "left" issue, it is an issue about all Palestinians, Jewish, non-Jewish alike to live in peace and stability within a territory well identifie3 over the centuries as "Palestine". The Zionism as created by Theodore Herzl is as much to blame for this mess as are the Islamists; but even more to blame is the international community, we in America, the UN, for failing to generate the sense of "oneness" for all Palestinians. Do you mean to tell me that peoples of different cultural, ethnic origins, religions cannot unite as one peoples under principles of democracy and live together in reasonable harmony. Since when in this modern historical era does one group think it deserves land or the right to do this or that in self-serving identity notions over the rights of others? The Nazis tried that and got their butts rightfully kicked. Both sides in the Palestinian Middle East have become extremist and radical beyond belief and it has become a disease. Where is the honesty, the objectivity, the morality in what either side has done since the end of WWII, and perhaps even before with regard to the issues of Palestine? Moderation, mutual cooperation, tolerance is the key along with common sense. And the international communbity, including these United States and certainly the UN should step in and put those qualities to work, along with a war crimes tribunal. Israel, Gaza, West Bank? Bah, Humbug! There is Palestine. Unify the idiots and "ret real", finally!

Couldn't agree with you more. Every nation wanting to live in peace and eliminate terrorism from the face of the earth should thank Israel immensly and follow in its foot step. It is time for the world to stand against militants and terrorists (whatever one wants to call) collectively and show, retaliation will be immensly punishing.

Why negotiate peace when the other side keeps on breaking it over and over again.

//Imagine terrorist group A attacking country B, where A is trying to maximize civilian casualties on both sides and B is trying to minimize them. What sort of moral judgment would have trouble distinguishing between the two?//

Yes, well, it's dead Palestinian civilians I see pictures of, not so much Israeli, so I'm having a little trouble with this overly simplistic, self-serving, black and white premise of how blockading and bombing civilians, turning Gaza into the Warsaw ghetto, is Israel taking the moral high ground for which the world should send thank-you notes. It would seem that after their own suffering, Jewish people would understand the wrongness of this scapegoating all one's troubles on a group of people they would like to just see go away.

This screed is eerily reminiscent of the "kill a commie for Christ" diatribes of the 50s and early 60s, wherein wars in Korea and Vietnam were deified because they fought the ultimate evil of "godless communism."
Israel has "precious soldiers." The people of Palestine, meanwhile, are apparently precious only to God. These are truly depressing opinions for an allegedly religious person.

Sure and Madoff is another example of the Jewish high moral ground. Give it up Saul, the days you could sell camel fart to the Bedouins are over. For neither we are the fools you believe, nor you guys are as clever as you think.

Keep bleeding them, and they will happily keep bleeding you. It is as simple as that. Period.

Israel deserves nothing but loathing and condemnation from peace and freedom loving people everywhere.

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

My thanks to Mr. Singer and the Washington Post for posting an editorial which has elicited such a large number of comments. While I disagree with about ninety-five percent of what has been written here, the content is instructive in its own way.

I cannot claim to be a cheerleader for the IDF, but I do think this defense force, as any other around the world, has the mission to provide for the country's security. That's their job. Just as the military in Sri Lanka face the Tamil Tigers or the police in northern Mexico fight against drug gangs.

I suspect that Israel at present is doing the right thing, and this right thing is a very messy business. One confirmation of the correctness of this action would be attacks by Hizbollah from Libanon. Whatever lingering doubt I may still have about current Israeli policy would at that point vanish completely.

It is a war crime to deprive people of electricity, water, fuel, & medical supplies through blockades, prior to or during a war. It is a further war crime to bomb hospitals, medical workers, ambulances, children and women -- and fathers, too. Watching last nights (illegal, US) white phosphorus bombs and huge fire balls raining on Palestinians was terrifying. The lies sound like those about Iraq, all over but WORSE. Those who support, or are quiet about, Israel's war crimes are themselves accomplices to these same war crimes. That includes Obama, much of US Mainstream Media and some of the arab states. "How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as mass murderer and a war criminal?" Harold Pinter, Nobel speech.

lets hear the palestinian side wapo

Your conclusion might be true if your premise were true.

But the last time I checked, Hamas had killed 4 Israelis, Israel had killed over 500 Palestinians, and Israel had killed 4 Israelis.

So if one side had minimized civilian (or military) casualties in this particular conflict, it would have to have been Hamas.

In truth, this action seems more about upcoming Israeli elections than the Hamas rocket problem, which might have been solved in another way. One possibility would be to allow more food and medical aid. But that might not have seemed tough enough on Hamas, whereas invading Gaza seems amply tough.

For any solution to the seemingly never-ending Palestine-Israel conflict, the Hamas-staged terrorism has to end. Period. And for this, peace-loving and sensible Palestinians - and the world - will have to stop Hamas from waging their mindless "jihad" against Israel. Because this kind of violence will not yield any result ever towards the realisation of the state of Palestine. By being in a perpetual denial mode about the right of existence of the state of Israel by the hard core fundamentalists and extremists in Hamas - and others sharing the same ideology - they are simply fooling themselves and all Palestinians and are being the biggest barriers in a peaceful and sustainable solution to the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.

The powerful nations of the world should intervene immediately and prevent the present crisis from taking an uglier turn and escalating into one of the biggest humanitarian crises. The division of the disputed land into two separate states should be enforced immediately without any intervention by any nation into another. And in this, both Palestinians and Israelis have to cooperate completely.

Live and let live. Please.

You know Saul, I might agree with you IF ISRAELI BABIES AND CHILDREN WERE BEING KILLED, MAIMED, INJURED, AND BEING BROUGHT BLEEDING AND IN PARTS DUE TO DEADLY, FURIOUS AND NONDISCRIMINATING ISRAELI FIREPOWER INTO HOSPITALS AND MAKE-SHIFT EMERGENCY CARE STATIONS ALL DAY AND NIGHT LONG IN GAZA, LIKE WE ARE SEEING WITH ARAB WOMEN AND CHILDREN- BUT WE ARE NOT SEEING THAT WITH ISRAELIS, ARE WE SAUL? WE'RE NOT SEEING ANY ISRAELI WOMEN AND CHILDREN BEING KILLED, MAIMED INJURED AT ALL-ONLY ONLY ONLY THE EVER-DISPENSABLE ARAB POPULATION, RIGHT, SAUL?

THERE IS NO PROPORTIONALITY HERE SAUL! I REALIZE IT'S OKAY FOR YOU TO SEE DEAD GAZAN ARAB WOMEN AND CHILDREN, BUT NO DEAD ISRAELIS, BUT SUCH THINKING IS TWISTED TWISTED TWISTED!

I JUST RETURNED FROM MOROCCO-ALL OVER THE COUNTRY I WAS, AND EVERYWHERE I WENT, ALL TOWNS, VILLAGES, CITIES-THEY HAD THE TV ON-AND IT WAS ALL AL-JAZEERA TV ALL OF THE TIME-AND THERE YOU SAW THE FACE OF THIS FURIOUS ISRAELI FIREFIGHT THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENTS ALL OVER THE SCREENS-IT MAKES A VERY POWERFUL IMPRESSION ALL OVER THE MODERATE ARAB WORLD-IT IS SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE HERE, OR IN ISRAEL,-SO IT MAKES IT OH SO MUCH CLEANER, DOESN'T IT?

THIS MAD, NON-SENSICAL, HUGELY DISPROPORTIONAL AND IMMORAL ISRAELI INCURSION MUST STOP-BECAUSE, AS ALWAYS, HAMAS IS ONLY THE PROXY, IT IS IS THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN THAT MUST BE SHUT DOWN-YOU SEE, IRAN NEVER HAS TO HAVE THESE HORRIFIC WARS AFFECT THEIR OWN PEOPLE, DO THEY? NO, THE BLOOD OF IRANINAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE NOT SEEN! IRAN JUST FUNDS THE PROXY FIGHTERS HAMAS AND HIZBOLLAH WHILE THEIR OWN POPULATION REMAINS FREE OF BLOODSHED!

LET'S BRING THE BLOODSHED TO IRAN, NOW, WHY NOT? LET'S LET THE IRANIANS SEE WHAT IT IS LIKE, SINCE THEY SO DON'T CARE FOR THE CARNAGE THEY WREAK IN THE REGION-AND THE ISRAELIS, WELL, I CAN SAY, THEY ARE AS TWISTED AS IRAN, WHEN THEY DO WHAT THEY DO-THEY WILL NOT ELIMINATE HAMAS, THEY WILL MAKE HAMAS STRONGER, WITH THIS INDISCRIMINATE AND WANTON KILLING OF INNOCENTS, THIS USING OF A SLEDGEHAMMER THAT DOES NOT GET AT THE TRUE SOURCE OF HAMAS' POWER-IRAN!

THE WORLD MUST DEAL WITH THE REAL SOURCE FROM WHICH ALL TERRORISM FLOWS-IRAN-BUT ISRAELI WON'T TAKE THAT ONE ON, WILL THEY? NO, THEY JUST WANT TO CONTINUE THEIR MACHISMO EXCERSIZE IN POWER-THUS GAINING THE ENMITY OF THE ENTIRE ARAB WORLD IN THE PROCESS-GO AFTER THE REAL

ccdocmo, thank you for the info.

The history of Israel's High moral ground:
1- prior to 1948 Zionists invented the terrorist attacks on civillian targets " ask the brits"
2- 1948 Israel to be founded on the blood and flesh of Palastinians of both faith " Muslims & Christains".
3- 1967 attempt at the Zionist dream to expand to Greater Israel between thr 2 rivers " Nile & Euphrates" killing more Inocents.
4- Plant a Cancer in the US to Plague all Policy makers known as The Israel Lobby (please read the book THE ISRAEL LOBBY).
5- Refusing to abid by any of the UN resolutions by continuing to grab more land for settlements and denying the basic human rights to non jews.
6- Israel a western nation with a rich economy and nuclear arsenal continues to fleece the american taxpayer out of several billions of our dollars in the form of aid and loan guarantees on which our goverment pays interest since it is the only forign aid due in full at the start of every year.
7-Israel still holds the Golan hights and refuses to return them as the majority of its settlers in it continue to farm the land and steal its natural resources to sell it on the worlds markets.
8- Israel still diverts the majority of water form southern lebanon to its settlers.
9-How long can the Zionist propaganda be sold to the rest of the world in not Israel high moral ground but it is the worlds very low moral ground as we continue to permit it.

Do what you always do, and get what you always got, want something different do something different.

If Israel wants peace they should STOP fighting and KILLING people, and start dialoging with people instead. Dialog leads to PEACE, killing leads to WAR. Simple.

Patrick

For the last 60 years or so peace in the world was achieved by a “balance of fear”. The so called cold war kept the balances. As long as the game in the Middle East is unequal no peace will come into the region.

This article is a joke of the year.

ISRAEL IS USING DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) IN GAZA.

Go here to read the story AND see the disturbing pictures.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6990

During the six months truce, Gaza strip was surrounded by Israel, nothing come in neither going out, so during the truce Israel was fighting Hamas and Palestinians by cutting food, electricity, medicine and more and more. In another word Gaza people were dying slowly. And just for readers information during the truce 20 people was killed by Israel, 270 were arrested, and the wall consumed thousands of land pieces. After all of this i think Hamas has the right to refuse the proposal to extend the truce as there is no point to do so. And also for the information Hamas did nothing against these acts against Israel. Now the truce is over so nothing prevents Hamas to strike again.

And about this "Finally, these soldiers are doing a service for humanity, not just for the Israelis"
I think using white phosphor and using multi tons bombs over a 4 floor building –Full of children and women to kill one member of Hamas is very very far from humanity.

And one last thing, to people saying Israel has the right to do such so, ok let us go reverse from now, Israel has the right to hit Hamas because of the missiles, back further Hamas has the right to hit Israel because it killed a lot of Palestinians, going back Israel killed them because they killed Israelis, and going back to 1948 Palestinians has the right to kill Israelis because they captured Palestine and killed a lot of Palestinians, and please no body go further cause he will reach the Arab Canaanites.

Zionism and nazism are two of the most dangerous racist ideologies in human history . Zionism has three ingredients:
1-nazi-like mentality.The nazis say they are aryans superior to others and have rights the others do not have.The zionists say they are chosen by God,superior and have rights the others do not have. every zionist can reside in Palestina but the original inhabitants cannot.

2- Apartheid: the Palestinians should live in gettos like in SouthAfrica before.

3- settlements on the land of others and massacring the others if necessary like the US with the indians.

Unfortunately they control the important institutions of the US:1- the media including the Washingtonpost,Nytimes, Fox news,..etc
2- Hollywood
3-Wallstreet
4-The Pentagon
5- the congress. No one can get into congress without the support of AIPAC. Even the president elect have had to submit to AIPAC and have had to appoint an Israeli to be heading his staff
The grip is so strong that people who speak are punished by at least silencing them

It is disgusting to speak of morality. For me morality means treating everybody as equal irrespective of race,religion or world view and respecting the human rights of every humanbeing
especially the right to live.

So, what's the end game for the Gaza conflict? Will it be the same old same old, were Israel occupies for a while then withdraws and the cycle repeats? Certainly with the Bush administration leaving, our 'hands off anything goes' Israel policy will end. In this regard, the next administration should offer concrete plans, along with shuttle diplomacy, and force if necessary, to bring a permanent peace to the region.

(Bush certainly brought about the current Gaza mess with his 'democracy' push in the Middle East. The Iraqi invasion did nothing but increase war tensions and hand the country over to Iran. Additionally, calling for Palestinian elections brought Hamas into power in Gaza. Lebanon was just about destroyed. More of Bush's 'democracy' in the Middle East would have certainly brought down the Egyptian government. Thank Ala and God for working together to bring about the end of the Bush legacy.)

But Gaza is small potatoes compare with the Iranian problem. If Israel attacks and delays Iranian nukes, Iran will certainly close the straights to oil shipments, if not destroy the Saudi oil terminals and refineries. Certainly, the US leadership must realize that the US economy, already faltering, would collapse without that oil.

Not only should take out Hamas but also relocate all Muslims from Israel, Gaza and West Bank to other Muhammadan countries. It can then have friendly non-Muslims, such as Christians, Buddhists etc settle in Israel.

All the land belongs to Israel and it will be just compensation for the land that Muhammad, the founder of Islam, stole from the Jews after massacring thousands of them in what is today Saudi Arabia.

Imagine for a moment that the ruling forces in Cuba began firing rockets at the U.S. mainland on a daily basis that was steadily increasing in intensity.

How long would it be before the U.S. government went in with all guns blazing?

Would U.S. firepower claim innocent victims and if so, would this prompt the U.S. to stop and allow the rocket firing to continue?

Let us say that Miami was the main target.

Would the good citizens of that city stand idly by adopting a "grin and bear it" attitude?

The answers are self evident.

I feel the people doing all the complaining are anti semites of one degree or another.

When Russia invaded Georgia did the world come crashing down on both sides demanding an end to the bloodshed?

If anti-Russian forces in the Ukraine were to begin firing rockets indiscriminately onto Russian soil would the Russians twiddle their thumbs and adopt a "boys will be boys"attitude or would they come down on the Ukrainians like a ton of bricks?

And yet the wolves come out when Israel tries to defend itself against the depredations of a gang of thugs and criminals supported financed, equipped and nurtured by Iran which is a mortal enemy of the United States.

This reminds one of the caterwauling of the pro-Nazis like Lindbergh in the German-American Bund in the late 30s as they strove to tell us what a nice fellow Hitler was.

David A. Jewell
Philadelphia

The simple fact is that the Philistines could have had a state in peace, but chose war on MANY occasions- INSTEAD:

The Philistines would have had a state IN PEACE in 1937 with the Peel Plan, but they violently rejected it.

They would have had a state IN PEACE in 1939 with the MacDonald White Paper, but they violently rejected it (and Jews would have even been restricted from BUYING land from Arabs).

They would have had a state IN PEACE in 1948 with UN 181, but they violently rejected it (and actually claimed that the UN had no such mandate!).

They could have had a state IN PEACE in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza from 1948-1967 without any Jews- because the Arabs had ethnically cleansed every last one; but they violently rejected it. In fact, that's exactly when they established Fatah (1959) and the PLO (1964).

They could have had a state IN PEACE after 1967, but instead, the entire Arab world issued the Khartoum Resolutions:

A. No peace with Israel
B. No recognition of Israel
C. No negotiations with Israel

They would have had a state IN PEACE in 2000 with the Oslo Accords, but they violently rejected it- as always.

The Arabs will just have to learn to "make do" with their own 99.9% of the Middle East- including all of the oil, and stop trying to steal OUR tiny 1/10th of 1% without oil. The Philistines won't have a state here in Israel, and if they don't stop their violence, they won't even exist here anymore. They will be gone.

And THEN there will be peace.

One man, one vote in palestine. End Apartheid in the captured territories, treat people with respect, and the violence will go away. There is no "high moral ground" for Israel in this tit for tat; nor any for the USA who tests its weapons on Arab civilians. Shame on both.

Fact:- Palestinian Jews and Arabs mostly lived in Peace until the Demography of that land was changed by the influx of european Jews escaping tyranny in europe.

Fact:- these european Jews then resorted to terrorism to achieve thier goals, "A jewish State".

Fact:- "Irgun", "Hagannah", and the "Stern Gang" bombed the British out of Palestine to achieve thier goals.

Fact:- ever since that time the Jews have used every device to ensure control of that unhappy land, displaced people, stolen land, stolen water rights and murdered any Palestinian who stood in thier way.

The only reason in my opinion that the Jews can get away with thier horrific crimes is because the USA bolsters the Jews with billions of dollars of aid, and have become the USs proxy in that region.

Why.? because the USA wants to Re-Draw the map of the Middle East after the British defeated the Ottoman Empire, and carved up the spoils of that war for itself and the French.

Why.? because of the USAs insatiable greed for oil, on a global scale.

My conclusion:- these "Israelis have become just as tyrannical as the Nazis in WW2.

The entire world needs a resolution to this problem that allows other terrorists world wide to use Palestine as the reason for thier Jihads.

Who ? is going to grasp the nettle?,can Obama do it after nailing his colours to the mast of the jewish lobby in the US?. dont hold your breath.!!!

The glaring point most absent this peice of fluff is that Israel nurtured the development of Hamas in an attempt to diminish the power of the PLO (to avoid concessions in peace negotiations). So I wouldn't be so fast to thank Israel for anything....

It is disgusting to find such articles in a serious paper.

How can anyone talk about "high moral grounds" of a country which has murdered more than hundred children in a week and has starved a million and a half people.

Enough is enough!

Israel has a terrorist state with an illegal atomic bomb -which everybody ignores - and with a most sophisticated weaponry in the world, attacking an armless, occupied population. Its own Jew jihadists come from all over the world with the benediction of their own countries.

The Israeli state is endangering its people's future and the future of the world. The Israelis have managed to build an economically and militarily powerful country, but have utterly failed in ensuring peace and security to all. Their greed and thirst for land is blinding them and will lead the world to further catastrophes.

The world has to wake up and be more logical, more just. We are in the 21st Century; We can't go backward to thousand years B.C., nor to the myths of the elected people of God!!

I did not think the Washington Post was so blatantly biased.

B.S. (starts with B, ends with T).

We don't let China's PLA simply murder 100's of Tibetans, nor should we allow indiscriminate bombing and killing of Gaza by the Israeli Army. Get used to it!

There appears to be no solution to the firing of rockets by Hamas and the retaliation by Israel. These two opposing forces need a mediated reconciliation. The Palistinians need (and are entitled to) a Palistinian state. Force is not the solution. Both sides must be willing to negotiate (give as well as receive) a humane settlement. The Palistinian people must be able to see 'light at the end of the tunnel'. There must be hope. There must be the chance for each person to realize their dreams, just as other free nations have. Only peaceful means will see this through. Radicalism destroys all hope, and leaves very deep scars, that provide barriers well into the future. The majority of nations on this earth would be willing to help out, if peaceful means were used instead of bloodshed. Every person is entitled to their own beliefs. This is not a crime. Forcing your own beliefs on another person, is.

The idea that knocking over Gaza is going to put a thumb in Iran's eye is the stupidest thing I've read in the last thirty minutes. My guess what happens? "More of the same," but given the brutality level of the current Israeli campaign, the result could easily be "much more of the same."

More Zionist propaganda. It is not even remotely interesting anymore.

It seems that the whole Middle East has resorted to 'lynching parties'. The P.L.O, Hamas, etc. reminds us of the Irish Republican Army's use of terrorism against Britain and each other (protestants versus catholics). Is there a solution? The scriptures are full of historic battles that were fought over religious (or non-religious) beliefs. If there is only one God (for those that believe in God), then someone must be wrong. I'M GLAD IT IS NOT ME!!!!!!!

dear writer:
I think you mentioned the Hamas rockets hiting the Israeli side at the time you didn't mention what runnibg over heads of the palestinians in Gaza where as 30% of casaulties were kids others women the taotal died since 10 days of offensive exceeded 500 palestinians died by F16 fighters, after total siege for more than 2yrs ago, what a kind of holocaust committed by the most armed forces raiding civilians.
the crisis or the holocaust committed nowdays supported by Westerners ignored humanity values and the rights of people to live in peace around the world, Palestinians have the right to resist occupation to gain their independence as others, since then why the world didn't verify the concept of "resistance" to identify "terrorism" to classify any of actions around the world.
every agree that all have the right to live peacefully not only Israelies, we condemn all kinds of wars, according to the UN resolutions and the free world values.
ocassioonally how many resolutions already issued by the UN since the Arab- Israeli conflict and haven't been applied by int'l community.
which humanity values you are calling upon? Human is human nothing else?????

It is a pity that we human beings never learn anything from the history, every wrong doer had a perfect justification, for that matter, Hitler supposedly had a very sound justification for what he did to the Jews. So it is no wonder that Mr. Soul has a justification for equally heinous acts now being committed by the state of Israel

JDGILLIS wrote : "dotellen - You ignore one big fact in that Hamas did not even exist until after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza ..."
-------
And you ignore the fact that the "West Bank" (of Jordan, actually the east side of Israel) was part of the land granted to the peaceful Israeli farmers in 1948. Jordan was the initial agressor. Israel reclaimed the land in 1967.

You also ignore the fact that the 19 Arab states that surround Israel cound have offered refuge to the so-called "Palestinians" at any time in the last 50--60 years. But instead they let these people fight and be killed. Perhaps they deliberately only provide them with minimal armament to increase the sympathy factor.

To JUANCHO7:

Would you rather watch the boring episodes of U.S. politics found on CNN?

Hey! Washington Post, why don't you put an end to this Roman circus of fanaticism, ignorance, racism, stupidity, intolerance, prejudice, genocidal instincts, blunt antisemitism and plain hate that has become your "All comments" section on Saul Singer's article titled "Israel's Moral High Ground"? 202 "comments" is 200 hundred too many, given the circumstances.
A Uruguayan (non-jew)

I should have phrased it as:

Imagine Country B creating living conditions for a far larger number of People C that lead to the rise of Terrorist Group A.

What moral obligation does World D have to stop the irresponsible actions of a member nation that threatens innocent civilians worldwide?

In addition, what type of ridicule would a writer S deserve for posting: "Imagine terrorist group A attacking country B, where A is trying to maximize civilian casualties on both sides and B is trying to minimize them. What sort of moral judgment would have trouble distinguishing between the two?"

Murder is murder????????????????

Within every 'civilized' country, murderers are sought after, in order to bring them to justice. Why aren't the Palistinians helping the Israeli police forces prosecute the Hamas murderers? Why aren't they fingering them? The Israeli people are left with no alternative, but, bring justice to the murderers. Even the scriptures tell us to judge people for their crimes against the laws given unto us by Moses. Without laws, where are we? The human races cannot survive without them.

Israel creates conditions that drive people to desperation. Some of those people resort to violence. Then someone claims Israel has the moral high ground? Seriously?

Israel, West Bank and Gaza are logically one area (look at a map). Israel keeps trying to annex more. So, how about let all those people vote in a single election and then let those representatives work out the solution. PS if non-resident Israelis get to vote then same for the 6 million non-resident Palestinians.

I don't get it. As others have asked - is this guy Singer for real? If this is a joke it is a very sick one.

Murder is murder.

Mr. Singer I suggest you take in the movie "Waltz with Bashir" this weekend it may clear the fog of war from your eyes which seems to conveniently blur your vision as far as human suffering goes at least non-jewish suffering.

My greatest fear, is the nations of the world taking action against the peaceful Muslems. Every time that the terrorists carry out their dastardly deeds, all Muslems become suspect. Normal people go about their business without constantly thinking of how they will kill their neighbours. These same 'normal' people become easy targets for extremists. It is reaching a point, that no one trusts anyone that even remotely resembles their own view of what a terrorist should look like or act like. We all saw what happened to the Japanese population in Canada and the U.S. after Pearl Harbour. If your personal safety is in jeopardy (or thought to be so), all other things in this world become meaningless, until you fix this problem (ie. Maslow's hierarchy of social needs). If our governments/police forces/military forces cannot protect us, then I guess everyone should be armed. We would then create a whole new 'wild west'.

The hardcore bigots here really make it harder to legitimately criticize the Israelis. Israel is not Germany, and Israel is going to stay put. Unfortunately the bigots spoil the forum with sheer ignorance.

Israel committed greater mayhem in 2006 in Lebanon and nobody noticed, it was tragic. In that respect any attention is an improvement.

We seem to have forgotten the many suicide bombings that took place in Israel, before the building of 'the wall'. It seems, that every time that Israel offers a helping hand to the Palistinians, they find some way to carry out their hatred, that maximizes civilian casualties.

I believe, that the Muslem extremists worldwide, are going to make a very grave mistake, that will turn the whole world against them. They do not care who their targets are. They even kill each other. When you keep playing with fire, you will eventually get burned.

Israel, where god sat when he made the rest of the world.

Israeli policy has no morality. It appears that what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is reminiscent of what Hitler did to the Jewish community in the Warsaw ghettos, prior to World War II. Israel has been blockading the Gaza Strip for months and has been restricting the water supplies, electricity, and basic access to medical care to over 1.5 million Palestinians. Israel has been continuously violating Palestinian sovereignty and has suffocated the traditional Palestinian coastal economic livlihood with its naval blockade of Palestine.
Not to mention that Israel has been occupying the West Bank of Palestine for over 40 years, continuing to expel Palestinians from their villages, demolishing homes, confiscating land, and continuing to build Israeli settlements on former Palestinian lands. All of these acts are in blatant violation of the most basic moral and ethical values of humanity, as well as international laws and UN resolutions.
What moral ground is Saul Singer talking about when he speaks about Israel?

All I know is that if I had israel for a neighbor, I would have alot of nuclear weapons to protect myself from their 'lebensraum' coveting of my land.

wow, the author and the some of the comenters seem to forget a few things: when hamas was legitimately elected, they had to fight off a coup by us-backed fatah, they did not stage a coup; israel, not hamas, broke the ceasefire when they blew up the tunnels and entered gaza, this happened before the rockets restarted.

Israeli leaders from Ben Gurion to Sharon have stated since 1947 their goal to drive all the Arabs out of all territories to the Jordan River.

Now more than ever, it is time to arm all the eleven tribes of God with nuclear weapons.

Israel is Arpartheid and only a nuclear armed Syria, Egypt, Jordan and IRan can stop these murdering lying bunch.

Israelis have now stolen an additional one third of the West Bank since the Iraq war began thanks in most part to Israel.

Israel is not worth one American life or dime.

It is the responsibility and duty of all who value freedom and equality to stop Israel and if necessary, turn the tables and have military occupation of Israel by nuclear armed Syria and Iran, Egypt and Jordan. And take their jobs, bulldoze their homes and place tanks in their school yards.

Israel is but one of twelve tribes of GOD, and they have killed and stolen for their land.

Boycott all Israeli products and fight to remove any in congress that give anything to Israel until they move back to 1947 boundaries and pay us $700 BILLION for the Iraq war and $100 Billion for the damage to New York and the Pentagon and $300 MILLION to every family of those that died 9/11 for Israeli terror and land theft.

Israel has stated from 1947 that they will steal ALL THE LAND, that fact alone can never be eclipsed by any other nation's threats.

Israel is a disgrace to all humanity and a plague on Judaism.

Wow, a genuine fanatic. So blinded be his righteousness that he is "disgusted" by the equation of the plight of Israelis vs. Palestinians.

Fanatics usually have a tough time not only from holding themselves superior to all others not of their tribe but with the end justifying the means. It turns out that peace in Israel that results from the annihilation of the Palestinians is not acceptable to civilization (the non-fanatics).

The HAMAS missiles only targeted civilians, the Israelis have always targeted combatants, with some collateral effect. I believe Israel is perfectly justified in protecting its civilians. We would have wished the Indian government had behaved more responsibly in defending its citizens in the aftermath of Mumbai. It is precisely to stop the incidents like Mumbai it is necessary to act proactively.

Is this guy for real? At least 12 Palestinian children were murdered today. Today!
Propagandists, please go away.

I don’t know what to make of Saul Singer’s article. Is this fellow for real? I guess Saul Singer forgets that in today’s world the truth manages to reach the masses. Gone are the days when wealthy and powerful press barons were feeding a pack of lies to further their own selfish interests. Israel’s dark side has been exposed for all to see. It will take a miracle for Israel to get the bloodstains off its hand. Israel has abused the trust of its Western allies and tarnished their reputation by its thoughtless behavior. It is feeding terrorism and instability. US citizens will not for long tolerate the use its weapons to kill civilians. Israel’s high road now runs through the raw sewers of Gaza.

The best thing for Israel is to stop the bloodshed now and join the ranks of civilized nations. Continuation of this crime will surely put Israel in the ranks of Pol Pot and Third Reich. It sickens me to listing to Mark Regev and Tzipi Livni’s repeating their hollow justification for this massive incursion. This is perhaps the worse thing Israel has done for itself. Spare us the pain Mr. Singer. Take up some other day job. You are no good at sanitizing crime.

Get used it - Israel has already lost.

Israel does not have the moral high ground at all. It is a terrorist state murdering women and children.

You are joking, right? Compare the number of civilians killed by the Israeli Defense Force and Hamas and then tell me with a straight face that Israel has the high moral ground. Puhleeze.

That doesn't even count the repeated human rights violations by the IDF and the government of Israel, as recorded by B'tselem, the Israeli Human Rights organization. And, of course, the continued relentless march of the settlers into the West Bank.

No, Israel's hands are not clean. All "right thinking people" do not celebrate your new war.

THANK YOU for telling it like it is. Let's hope the haters who read this site will finally get the message.

@randomguy:
Erroneous comparison with the Spanish and natives in Latin America; everywhere you visit you see the descendants of the natives, mixed a thousand times.

It was the more civilized British and Americans who killed all they could and put the survivors in concentration camps, aka reservations.

Perhaps that's the example our Israeli friends are following, with Gaza as a reservation and pesky natives getting uppity.

I have always contended that human empathy is a virtue that can only be express by someone that has some degree of humanity. A man that lacks the ability to put his feet into the shoes of another is a man without soul. Mr. Singer’s editorial in the Washington Post 01-05-09 titled; Israel’s moral high ground confirmed my position. It seems as if words like proportionality, integrity and objectivity are meaningless symbols in Mr. Singer’s vocabulary.
“Give me liberty or death” is still the most famous declaration made in American history. This assertion was made by the founding father Patrick Henry. I guess the Palestinians have no human rights to such freedom.

AIPACISWAR, you might want to take a refresher course in world history before you comment again. I hardly consider bombing buses, night clubs and cafes military defense. In the last 10 years how many bombings against civilians has Hamas perpetrated? Do you know? That doesn't even include attacks by the Islamic Jihad or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Just because the numbers of Israeli dead aren't as high as the Palestinians doesn't mean they don't happen.

Also, WWII and Normandy were not "capitalist Christian invasion"s as you so ignorantly put it. By calling it that you belittle every true fight for liberation (and no, I don't mean Iraq) that occurs. Not all of Hamas' battles actually works toward true liberation, their killing of random Israelis and citizens is, at best, palliative and leads to no real solution. And the so-called "white kid from the Bronx" (I wonder how all the non-white WWII veterans feel about that comment) suicide missions in Normandy didn't carry out their attacks place in crowded, unsuspecting markets. The fact that you imply Israel is a modern day comparison of Nazi Germany is just beyond all sense.

You want and so many others to paint Hamas and all Palestinians as innocent victims. You're trying too hard to make yourself look like a compassionate, open-minded free thinker you completely ignore half the facts. Example: A former member of the PLO murders a 4 year old child and her father in cold blood and then there are demands that he be let free. What did Israel get in return? Two more dead bodies. And he celebrated as a hero no less! Spending time in prison for murder isn't oppression, it's punishment. How exactly was killing that girl a means to the end anyway? (ie: protecting Palestinians and achieving an independent Palestine.) In any other country in the world there wouldn't be a snowballs chance in hell that he ever would have been released from prison, and that's if he was lucky.

I don't absolve Israel of their sins or claim they they have no blood of innocents on their hands, in fact they need to stop the bombing and incursion immediately. But your arguments are completely flawed to no end. And don't tell me they have the right to innocent Israelis every time Gaza is bombed without provocation. They don't, no one does.

An eye for an eye makes us all blind.

We apparently have different definitions of decent people. The decent people I know are quite angry about Israels senseless slaughter of Palestinians.

It was easy for Abbas to tell Hamas to continue the cease fire. It was the Palestinians in Gaza that were being starved. Abbas was fat, dumb and happy watching Israel build more settlements in the West Bank.

Israel blocked food and medicine from the Palestinians for more than 6 months. You find starving 1.3 million people something that decent people applaud. Not the decent people that I know.

Did you also applaud Israel when they dropped one million cluster bombs covering villages in Lebanon?

You are aware aren't you that of all the children that Israel is killing and wounding? Oh that's right your decent people applaud that.

Not my the decent people I know. The decent people I know used to support Israel, now they think that Israel was a major mistake. The decent people I know are tired of Israel's mass murders. The decent people I know are sick of Israel's lies. Gaza is an Israeli prison camp for 1.3 million Palestinians.

Israel has already admitted they will neither defeat Hamas nor stop the rocket fire. So what point is there other than to kill Palestinians?

ZIONISM is a racist ideology like Fascism and Nazism.
They share the perception that one race is purer and more entitled
than an other weaker race - God's chosen people.
Apartheid israel is portrayed in the "US free media" as the
only democracy in the middle east by a zionist propaganda machine that controls this
media, therefore americans have no idea about the ethnic cleansing committed against
the palestinians for over 60 years.
Travel to the west bank and gaza to see true apartheid where palestinians are surrounded
by high walls on 10% of their homeland.

To the writer of this BS: Imaging country B put a siege on 1.5 million people for 2 years, kill their children, starve them to death, take their land, destroy their properties and make their life hell in a large prison. Is County B peaceful? I think with you twisted mind and facts you will say yes. You are like the Israeli Zionist, bunch of liars and war criminals. No one will believe your cheap lies after seeing all these blooded bodies of children and massive destruction of Gaza.

I will never forget the description of a Washington lawyer who had served in the Israeli army as a medic and he described a Palestinian woman who was about to give birth: he described her as an animal, basically that she was inured to pain and somehow was a lower form of life (than Israeli women).

I know little of the history of the conflict, but I would venture to say that when one side views that other as subhuman (even those who are NOT terrorists), and not worthy of full citizenship, or equal rights, or human rights, you will never have peace.

Israel, like the Islamist jihadists in Gaza, has a "moral high ground?'. What ever happened to the concept of the Mandatory for Palestine confirmed by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922 which gave Jewish folks a sense of home land in Palestine and safeguarded the civil, legal and religious rights of all Palestinians equally without regard to race or religion? Hmmmm? What we've seen since 1948 in the territory of Palestine is simply a geopolitical farce, conflictl, with nefarious creation of "facts on the ground". Its long overdue for the international community and UN to step in, take charge, and create a single Palestinian self-governing political entity under democratic principles with a permanent UN/NGO presence. Instead of working to calm and unify a territory we, the US, have effectively done quite the opposite and in the process created a debacle of the first order.

This blog is being censored. Don't bother arguing against the Zionist perspective. Any serious comment (i.e.: based on facts and links to urls) will not be posted.

The relentless barrage of pro-Israel propaganda continues from the Washington Post. I would guess that a few of Israel's lobbyists and lapdogs are starting to get a bit worried right now. They realize that Americans are starting to see through the bluster and figure out who the real aggressor is. In a terrible twist of fate, the brutally oppressed victims of World War II have become the barbaric oppressors of today. The moral degradation of Israel is truly a sad sight to witness. Shame on the government of Israel for their evil and criminal attack on innocent women and children.

Only the Palestinians themselves can decide that they want a real state, rather than the illusion of retaking all of Mandate Palestine.

Only the Palestinians themselves can decide that obtaining the best deal they can get is better than war.

Only the Palestinians themselves can decide that the lives of their children are more valuable than the deaths of their children.

Only the Palestinians themselves can choose to support leaders who are rational.

Only the Palestinians themselves can decide that a war that can never be won is not worth wasting Palestinian lives.

Only the Palestinians themselves can decide that Allah demands life over death.

Coincidentally Wolf "Israel can do no wrong" Blitzer worked for the Jerusalem Post. All of our finest information providers....

" In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. He was assassinated by right-wing Israeli radical Yigal Amir, who was opposed to Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol. "

Israel invaded Lebanon because TWO soldiers were kidnapped. Can you imagine what they would have done if a Palestinian had killed Rabin? Their double standards are patently OUTRAGEOUS.

nolannelson

Hamas rockets have killed 30 people in ten YEARS. During that time thousands of Palestinians have been killed, and the live of those not killed has been degraded to prison camp conditions. Your logic is without morals.

It is, clearly the Israeli right wing, afraid to lose the upcoming elections, that is perpetrating war crimes.

Hey who killed Yitzak Rabin?

Wow. The tolerance of the American public is astounding. This is an absolutely disgusting display of arrogance by Israel. But what about Egypt blocking the refugees from entering? Could that be because of all of the military aide they receive from America? I think so. Israel could have moved troops to the other side of the fence and easily kept an eye on rocket launching militants. But those poor people are being treated like dirt in their own homeland. I don't know how the two sides will ever achieve peace, but this military offensive is despicable.

Israel will only be able to continue as a ethnically chauvinistic state through ever-increasing repression and violence. If Mr. Singer wants a right-wing state, he will likely be happy. If he wants a democratic state, he and others who wish for a constitutional democracy will have to swallow hard and press for a one-state solution. The lesson of the last 10 years is that a two-state solution will only leave zealots in charge on both sides, with periodic outbursts of violence as we are witnessing now.

In current confrontations, Israel and their supporters must understand selective moral outrage leads worldwide condemnation. Acceptable political analysis offers the gullible a tortured rhetoric linking tightly focused visions of shattered hometown settings to fabricated motives equivalent to Sudanese militia.

Under these logics Israel is castigated for killing civilians. However, the clear and obvious reading of Articles 28 and 29 of the Fourth Geneva Convention says terrorist organizations such as Hammas are responsible for those deaths.

These civilians qualify as Protected Persons within Hammas’ physical control, and cannot be used to render certain points and areas immune from military operations. Terrorist organizations choose first to use the Arab people as biodegradable sandbags, and in death display them as props for advancing political agendas.

Infamous quotes by Zionist leaders during WW2 give insight to the goals of the Zionists, and it doesn't appear to be to save Europe’s Jewish masses.

"One cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews in Poland." Chairman of the Jewish Agency Yitzhak (Izaak) Greenbaum, 18 February 1943

"If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative." (David Ben-Gurion, 1938

The Zionist you see only wanted strong young Jewish "pioneers"; the old and very young were better sacrificed to garner support for their aspirations in Palestine after the war.

I wonder how different the situation would be today had the Zionists who founded Israel placed the value of Jewish lives over that of a cow.

I thought that Hamas was voted into power by the Palistinians in Gaza. Are they not to blame for the current fighting as much as Hamas? Until Israel took steps of war in order to respond to rocket attacks, I'm sure that the Palistinians were enjoying these rocket attacks. Remember the rejoicing throughout the Arab world on 9-11?

markoller

If you have a thought, post it. Your RIDICULOUS anti Semitic bigotry hurts the cause, makes us look like idiots. Please stop.

Imagine how happy the Israelis were back when we were at the height of our anti-Muslim bigotry trip under Bush, zillions of gun owning Americans wanting to kill Muslims, all Muslims lumped into one pot, Iraqis confused with Saudis, Iranians though of as Arabs, no understanding of tribes, just see a bearded Arab and kill kill kill. Israel must have loved that ugly and recent episode in our history. Perfect for them. Send Lieberman in to get us more money!

And that is where they are going, trying to get us attacked in retaliation for their acts, and off redneck America goes, war with Iran. Israelis don't have a goal in Gaza, they are manipulating reactionary Muslims to get us back on the war train. When a bomb goes of here, I'm blaming Israel.

Who's running our country? Rahm Israel Emanuel is going to be the new chief of staff for President Obama. He volunteered for the Israeli Army during the Gulf War-- not the US army! (Boy, our free press kept that one from us for a long time--thank you Michael Schuer and antiwar.com).

I guess that says it all about what country Mr. Emanuel prefers. Forget about change! The USA is a banana republic.

Zionist leaders deliberately obstructed every effort to save Europen Jews in order to create sympathy for Jewish state in Palestine. What did they care about penniless Eastern European Jews. See http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/holocaust.htm

dotellen - You ignore one big fact in that Hamas did not even exist until after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza and had already started its campaign to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians, so your argument is not accurate. Since it was the Palestinians who were first attacked by Zionists with modern weapons with the intention of wiping them out, they have the right to fight back using any and all means at their disposal.

Sure they may be bringing a knife to a gun fight, but you gotta give them credit for their bravery for not down without a fight, and who knows; perhaps if they hold out long enough the good guys in the Calvary will finally come to their aid and help them defeat the villains.

Put your US congressman on notice: You carry water for Israel YOU ARE OUT! At least we can stop our hand in this sickness.

If the Moral High Ground is so apparent, so black/white, so obvious...

Then why is it being endlessly and ceaselessly explained?

How about someone explaining what Israel's Moral GOAL is? What do they hope to accomplish? Militarily? Politically? Security-wise?

This campaign seems to be a military campaign for the sake of having a military campaign. Certainly doesn't seem Israel has much to gain by killing more innocent Palestinians.

"The Author" totally ignores the subject of what Israel's goals are and how they hope to achieve them. As Usual, the powerful State heralds itself as it blows the legs off of children, "We're the Good Guys! We're Right!"

crazy article - basically totally off the charts - babbling about high moral ground while combat troops bombard civilian areas. There is no high moral ground involved - only short sighted israeli politicians and the stupid palestinian leadership.

The main consequence of the Gaza invasion is likely a further islamic radicalization and creation of transglobal terrorist groups that will target innocent israelis. Another 20-30 year cycle of killings and counter-killings...

And, yes, there is always the bogeyman of iran to fallback on...

markoller

If you have a thought, post it. We don't need your choice of URLs, anyone of us can find the same bs.

This piece is preposterous, and the WaPo criminal for running it.

Israel has within its grasp (and has for decades) the key to a workable peace process, and refuses to use it.

If Israel really wants to stop the rocket attacks, it can start by stopping all settlement expansion ANYWHERE in the occupied territories. Right this minute!

To any self respecting Palestinian, and hundreds of millions of people across the world, settlement expansion is THEFT, and theft equals oppression.

If I buy the Israeli line, then land theft is a biblical right and killing those who protest with homemade rockets is OK as well.

No way. Murder is murder, and Israel is knee-deep in the blood of of countless Palestinians, just as it was knee-deep in the blood of Lebanon several years ago.

Zionists contributed to Nazi anti-Semitism and the extermination of the Jews. See "Zionism and the Holocaust" at http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/holocaust.htm and "The Brutal Role of Zionism in the Holocaust" at http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/antisemitism/holocaust/index.cfm

I was watching "Band of Brothers," the superb realistic recounting of the 101st Airborne in Europe. A US soldier was at the open door of an aircraft waiting to jump down into the hell of Normandy. He was convinced he was about to die, and accepted it as a suicide mission.

So, if you are a white kid from the Bronx doing a capitalist Christian invasion it is ok to be a suicide attacker....

Do I have to finish, or is the double-standard obvious?

Do you not understand that you are completely biased Mr Singer?

"What's the most likely outcome of the Gaza invasion?"

Most likely the scales will begin to fall from the eyes of the American people and we will see them as they really are,i.e., a ruthless, expansionist power which covets Palestinian land and means to continue its decades long effort of grinding the Palestinians into the dust until they have it all. Perhaps we will also see that the Israeli lobby is so powerful that it is causing us to act against our own best interests and that a change is desperately needed.

Israel has been steadily losing positive influence for the last 10 years or so, but doesn't seem to get it. Once most of the world approved of Israel's conduct - which is not the same as saying it was correct - but that rubber-stamp approval seemed to make them drunk with unaccountability. The balance really began to shift when Israel invaded Lebanon, and quite a few people quietly cheered for Hezbollah who don't particularly agree with their goals, and would normally have supported Israel.

It seems so simple to me - stop the illegitimate acts that would be viewed with fury if they were perpetrated against Israel, such as using the security barrier to steal more of the West Bank, and allowing more settlements and more expansion even after your own government rules it illegal. Stop with the sophomoric remarks meant to garner big laughs from sympathizers, like "putting the Palestinians on a diet" and pushing them into the sea. Israeli heroes like Peres and Sharon were quite candid in their characterization of the Palestinians as vermin, and in their desire to push them off what remains of their land - read their writings.

I agree with Mr. Singer. If you were attacked by a crazy man with a knife, and defend yourself by shooting the would-be murderer with a gun, why should you be blamed for defending yourself with the better weapon? It is the goal of Hamas to murder every living Jew in Israel. Their incompetence does not make them saints.

To those who think that the Palestinian cause is doomed because they are outgunned by Israel I would remind them that the Mau Mau in Kenya were similarly "outgunned" by the British. Who rules Kenya now?

To those who think that the Palestinian cause is doomed because they are outgunned by Israel I would remind them that the Mau Mau in Kenya were similarly "otgunned" by the British. Who rules Kenya now?

Israel's moral cesspool.

"By taking on Hamas, Israelis deserve the gratitude of decent people everywhere"

On the other hand, by murdering indiscriminately whole bunches of Palestinian refugees, Israelis deserve the contempt of decent people everywhere.

So where is the truth?
The truth is that murder is murder, and WHOEVER commits it is wrong. Even Moses killed a man, and both he and God knew he had done wrong.

If there isn't a way other than murder for murder to settle disputes, we're all dead.
Then nobody will care who's right.

Can you imagine, all the children in Gaza must be completely terrorized and half deafened, to the point of mental illness, by jets dropping bombs with yards of their homes. How absolutely heartless. I wouldn't harm a child because I was chasing a felon, the ends don't justify the means. Hamas has never threatened Israel's national security, only it's sound sleep.

Some rockets land in Israel, people have to take shelter, rarely is anyone even injured. Not good not good at all, but you don't ruin the futures of hundreds of thousands of children in retaliation, not if you have morals.

On the other hand these types of military actions are never forgotten by those who suffer them. Israel is shooting itself in the foot for the long term. This does not help their security, it harms it.

I will never vote for any US politician who carries water for Israel and I will fight them tooth and nail. We need to get back to the Eisenhower/Kennedy policies of keeping Israel in check. These attacks are for their upcoming elections, think of that; military attacks that terrorize children, just to gain in the polls and win high office. Lovely! Who the heck is Israel's PR consultant, Dick Cheney?

AN INTERESTING NOTE:

I am a Christian. I have corresponded with many Jewish 'teachers'. There is a concensus, that Israel proper, and many of the 'jews' living throughout the world, are in fact 'non-jews'. Many of the descendants of the tribe of Judah, did not marry in accordance with the rules given unto them. In Israel today, there are many people that are actually Palestinians, but believe that they are Jews. The improper marriages resulted in the loss of being 'God's chosen people'. A nice can of worms,.....isn't it?

ROCKS & SUICIDES AGAINST F16s

Sadly, Israel has two problems to solve.

The first, and perhaps most serious, is an apartheid government which operates the largest concentration camp in the world. The United Nations defines apartheid as a crime against humanity and ranks it with genocide. Israel knows this, but feels it has little choice since it would cease to exist as a state on the principle of one-man, one vote and full legal and political equality for its Arab population. It is simple outnumbered and therefore, if you are not a Jew, you are not equal. It is racial preservation no different than the apartheid policies of the Afrikaner National Party and for essentially the same reasons.

The second problem is the imbalance of weaponry. Israel will never treat seriously with an unarmed population incapable of adequately defending its interests. The political temptation to define Palestinian interests solely in favor Israel is far too great. Simply put, there is no military reason to make any real political concession. Palestine, in Israeli terms, must be dealt with by diktat. A state too weak to defend itself, let alone its interests, commands no bargaining power in the middle east.

Home made rockets, AK47s, suicide bombers, these are all hopeless against the firepower of a modern military state. Israel, if anyone, knows how very hopeless it is because it was not so long ago that they were the bomb throwers!

Israel makes certain that the Palestinians remain unarmed and militarily helpless for if they possessed equal weapons, Israel would withdraw or destroy Palestine with its very substantial nuclear arsenal.

In the present Gaza conflict, there is no equality, no true test of arms or honor, no resolution of political questions, it is merely a vicious, unconscionable slaughter - 4 Israeli dead against thousands of Palestinians - a slaughter to maintain supremacy, to maintain apartheid, to maintain a theocracy.

Under these conditions, any people is justified in its use of force to fight apartheid - it is a criminal act under international law.

I would like to report iffensive comment to WAPO about their reporter, Saul Singer. Would that work?

We have to ask ourselves, why this world is in so much turmoil, so much terrorism, the 9/11 disaster, the answer is simple -" Israel" is the cancer in the middle east. How can the U.S. win the hearts and minds of the arab world when we have Israel dictating how to run our country, when they are using american weapons to kill women and children in Palestine. Israel will never live in peace, they are war criminals, land thieves , they dont want peace-where is the sovereignty of the United States when Israel /APAC are running us.

Israel seems to think that everything they do has the 'moral highground'. This distorted view comes about because it values Jewish life higher than others, at least a 100 to 1, the current kill ratio.
What is so pathetic it that Israel can't see that it has won, it has a jewish state, but will never have peace until the Palistinians have a state too. But noooo! Israel has to have more land, keep those nasty arabs subservient and broken. Israel deserves Hamas, it is of its own making

i am a decent person and the IDF does NOT have my gratitude.

certain media sources and the israeli government attempt to paint this as a problem which began with the broken ceasefire and qassam rockets being fired into israel's territory. but those who have been studying this situation for a long period of time know better.

i don't agree with hamas' rockets being fired.

but its obvious israel is blockading gaza to its demise. any person being strangled to death will lash out frantically. these rockets (which are a joke compared to israeli, bunker busting missiles, courtesy of the USA) have killed fewer israelis in the last decade than israel has killed in the past 24 hrs.

it takes very little research effort to find video/photos of armed ILLEGAL settlers shooting at palestinians, palestinian olive groves being bulldozed, palestinian crops ruined because water is cut off, palestinian fishing boats shots at, humanitarian boats rammed by the israeli navy, palestinian civilians used at human shields by the IDF, media shot and killed by the IDF, palestinian civilians abused, buried alive, murdered by the IDF...

to witness these events is to know israel does NOT have the moral high ground. israel receives international condemnation because the world has witnessed its brutality. no matter how hard some wish to white wash this genocide, the colour keeps turning blood red.

Israel, like the Bush/Cheney regime, does not know a thing about morality, or care. Israel can only get away with its murderous history because of the U.S. backing it up. Its despicable behavior , decade after decade, reflects the lack of moral ground it is on. Bush, with a pathetic legacy of failure and deceit, will hang on to the only friend he has even though that requires supporting the continued murdering of women, children and others who did nothing to anyone.

Mr Saul Singer is a moral-convict. Commenting on moral high ground, he is acting Guebels, what else? I understand Israelis are victim & terrified by Hamas, but, did not Israel seeded Hamas to deter PLO? So funny! We forget things quickly, in fact, history is a fuss, like 'Animal House'!

Israel might as well win this war, but, they are loosing the broader peace! How can you expect killing thousands of lives and expect to live in peace?

I may sound to support other side, not really no! I am supporting Israel, Israeli leaders need to change the strategy, I don't think they are really smart, even after 60 years, they could not bring peace! I wonder, do they really want peace?

Horrible - Saul, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should read JACAVER's comments. When I read the title of your article my mind went back to what JACAVER had written about Himmel...I just was not sure of the name.

Hamas reminds me of an unruly kid that causes trouble in school and then wonders why he is being punished. Israel is not without blame in this conflict, but Hamas is incapable of rational behavior. As a result, many of the Arab countries do not want to be drawn into a conflict they know could have been avoided.

Palestinians have been under Jewish control completely for decades. Especilay Gaza strip, borders, sea, air, land, what comes in and out and who comes in and out. Gaza is the size of one large American city. Imagine 1.5 M people being stuck in there for years and years to come. Israel is just hoping that Palestinians will give up on their hope and submit to Israel and do whatever Jews want them to do. Israel stole more land then they got from UN resolution in 1947. Nobody hears Palestinian cry for simple freedom without nazi control of them. The only thing they got left is to fight for their cause and if they have to shoot rockets into Israel in hopes that Israel will leave that teritory, well so be it and they shall do it. Now, who will prevail, we will see, but Israel will not live in peace as long Arabs and Palestinians are without Palestine land given back to them. Hamas might be terrorist in the eyes of George Bush and Shimon Perez but both of them are full of crap as soonn they open their mouth and start deffending killers of Muslims, but Hamas is fighting for the Palestinian cause not some Islamic country.
By the way WAPO, nice page set up, brand new fresh look.

It's disgusting to assume that anyone owes their thanks to Israel for the terror they are inflicting. I find it difficult to imagine killing children for land and claiming a moral high ground.

Extremists on the Palestinian side want to see all Jews shipped off to Europe. Extremists on the Israeli side want to see all Palestinians shipped off to the Sinai. It just is not going to happen. Both sides must learn to live together.

That means two truly independent countries or a single secular country. Until protagonists on both sides come to that conclusion, this mess will just continue.

Unfortunately, all statements to the contrary, neither side wants that kind of peace. Both sides would much rather persevere for a thousand years in the hope of total domination over the other, a victory that will never happen.

You cannot achieve genuine peace by subjugation of the other side; the subjugated will never accept it, and neither should they, whether they be Israeli or Palestinian.

The issue is mostly existential. Israel exists, Palestine currently does not. Would Israelis accept the Palestinian's status if the roles were reversed? Of course not. It is crazy to imagine any people accepting it. High moral ground? Bollocks!

I am imagining terrorist country A and terrorist country B. B occupies A. A's citizens live in camps and get to have power, food, shelter when B lets them. A doesn't like being occupied by B. A
A group of people from A throws bombs at B. B throws bombs at A. A throws bombs at B. B flies bombing missions at A. B invades A and destoys churches, schools and slaughters civilians. B thinks killing children OK because A is terrorist country. B wins. Start over.

Dear Mr. Singer:

Even your expression has con man written all over it. Do you also claim that Al Qaeda kamakazis were to blame for the destruction of the Twin Towers? If so, forget all the other impossibilities and simply explain the cartoon like jet crashes.

http://ghostplane.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FAWi_u1hg&NR=1

If these are not the real CNN and helicopter videos, show us the real videos, and explain why the television networks refuse to broadcast the genuine videos in slow motion.

"Finally, these soldiers are doing a service for humanity, not just for the Israelis"

Only a Jew could say that.

Himmler use to say the same of the SS, "we are doing a dirty job that needs to be done for the sake of western civilization, someday people will thank us for having rid Europe of all Jews"

I am not anti-semitic, but to me Gaza today is the 21st century version of the Warsaw ghetto of 1944, nothing but hunger, disease, death and misery with no hope for a better future, growing up in a place like that makes it easy to recruit young, hopeless man to become suicide bombers, they are already dead anyway, they have no future whatsoever.

I wouldn't be surprised if Singer gets a bonus for every comment made on his pathetic 'editorial'. He probably doesn't even believe what he's writing. Who could, really? (and be able to sleep).
This is how the washington post keeps it's readers, I guess. It's the 'Jerry Springer' phenomenon. If the public doesn't respond to actual news with substance, just give em garbage to wallow in and fight amongst themselves.