These are not equal parties. Israel claims to be a modern, democratic state. If it wants to be seen as such, rather than as a brutal, bullying monstosity, it has to give up collective punishment and its fondness for wanton murder and make peace with its neighbors. Opportunities have been offered for over 40 years; Israel sabotages them routinely. (Most recently Hamas was edging toward ‘recognition’ — so what does Israel do? they try to shoot, bomb and starve the Palestinian leadership.)

The Israeli lobby does lead our politicians around by the nose (purse strings and threat of abuse); I’ve worked for ones who knew better but would not speak up. It is up to the people to look at those dead children and say ENOUGH.

Ted Bundy regretted taking the lives of his victims also.

See Juan Cole, here and here.

Americans have to understand that when Israel goes wild and bombs a civilian airport and civilian neighborhoods in Beirut, a lot of the world’s Catholics (Lebanon is partially a Catholic country) and its 1.4 billion Muslims blame the United States for it. Israel is given billions every year by the United States, including sophisticated weaponry that is now being trained on the slums of south Beirut. It should also be remembered that Bin Laden said, at least, that he started thinking about hitting New York when he saw that 1982 Israeli destruction of the skyscrapers or “towers” of Lebanon. How many future Bin Ladens are watching with horror and rage and feelings of revenge as Israel drops bombs on civilian tenement buildings? When will this blow back on Americans? (I mean blow back in other ways than an already painful further spike in petroleum prices).

As I’ve said several times lately, I see blame on all sides here. Most players in this drama — Israeli, Palestinian, etc. — are wrong most of the time.

From the current issue of The Nation:

Less than a year after its disengagement from Gaza, Israel has become deeply re-engaged, in a sharp escalation of fighting that could ignite a third intifada. The proximate cause was a Palestinian guerrilla attack against an Israeli army base, in which two soldiers were killed and one was taken prisoner. In response Israel launched a furious assault on the entire population of Gaza, destroying its only energy plant, which left 700,000 people without power, and seizing more than two dozen Hamas elected officials. Israel’s leading liberal daily, Ha’aretz, warned that “the government is losing its reason…arresting people to use as bargaining chips is the act of a gang, not of a state.” Amnesty International condemned the attacks against civilian infrastructure as a war crime, and the UN’s Relief and Works Agency warned that Gaza is “on the brink of a public health disaster.”

In an exercise of selective memory, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns defended Israel, saying, “Let’s remember who started this. It was the outrageous actions of Hamas in violating Israel’s sovereignty, in taking the soldier hostage.” In fact, the current cycle of violence was set off by weeks of Israeli shellings that culminated in the killing of eight Palestinian civilians on a Gaza beach. On a deeper level, the violence arises from the Israeli strategy of unilateralism, in which even the pretense of negotiations is abandoned and Israel alone decides its final borders, while maintaining control over the territories through closures, military assaults and assassination. After Hamas came to power in January in the Arab world’s most democratic elections, Israel and the United States tried to provoke the government’s collapse by cutting off aid and tax revenues, even though Hamas maintained its yearlong cease-fire and its officials repeatedly declared it could accept a two-state solution or at least a long-term truce. Far from leading to Hamas’s demise, the economic strangulation infuriated Palestinians, convincing many that the United States and Israel care nothing about democracy. After the beach killings, popular outrage finally led Hamas’s military wing to call off its cease-fire.

If the UN won’t roll up their sleeves and defend Israel with troops, expect heavy-handed reprisals from Israel, because they bury their dead at the rate of about 200 per year in various suicide bombings and missile attacks.

Among the Palestinians, there are 2 groups. Moderates who will never like Israel, but are willing to co-exist if they can have a measure of hope for peace and prosperity. This group needs to have the full support and help of the world in forming a free and independent state.. The second group of Palestinians is bent on the destruction of Israel. They do not deserve a place at the table.

This discussion of Israel’s motives does not go far enough. Israel knows that if the UN and/or US decide that the support of Israel is too expensive, they will not rescind the resolution that created that nation. They will tie Israel’s hands and allow the Islamics without a country to do what they will to Israel and make speeches of condemnation afterwards.

“civilian casualties are . . . much deserved in the battle with militant Islam.”

“I would order the whole area [where the two U.S. soldiers were tortured to death] leveled, destroying every man, woman, boy and girl.”

“Americans no longer seem to have what it takes to defeat such a barbaric enemy.”

Note the quite unself-conscious irony of calling the enemy “barbaric” while advocating the mass murder of women and children.

I found out who the guy is, too: he is a Christian minister with a website, Kingdom Foundation Ministries. He’s got LUVVAJESUS slathered all over the place, too. His hero is Joshua and his model for fighting the war on terror is the battle of Jericho.

Have you ever noticed how many people of this ilk pretend they support New Testament values of love, mercy and compassion, but whenever they talk about people like Muslims, gays, or secularists, they suddenly start invoking a wrathful Old Testament God?

Lebanon: Israel’s Crisis Expectations