There comes a time when the endless comments that war is a messy business and innocents die no longer can be allowed to be used as a response to needless carnage taking place in the Middle East. If my counting is correct this is day 19 of the latest fighting in the Israeli-Palestinian blood-letting, and reports are coming in that 1,000 people have died in Gaza. The vast majority of them are not the militants, but instead innocent civilians. Of that number a crushing percentage are truly innocent children.
The bloodshed on the news is just staggering, and while both sides have reason for blame to placed at their feet there is more of the shame and condemnation to be carried by Israel.
While there is no justification for the missiles fired into Israel there is also no way to condone the Israeli land grabs and power tactics that have waged for decades against those who also call this place home. An economic blockade of Gaze was never going to result in anything positive for Israel. The Jewish state needs to be mindful that the world does care for the underdogs who fight for rights no matter where they reside.
While there needs to be tough judgment against Hamas for the way they conduct their brand of warfare it also needs to be plainly stated the Israel is playing the aggressor here as they are prone to do and overreact with the result of killing civilians in numbers that must not be allowed to continue.
The report that most stunned me–and there are so many–was of a family of 25 who was hosting a Hamas fighter for dinner as they observed the break in the Ramadan fast. All were killed when Israel unleashed a missile strike. There is no civilized nation with real morals that mean something other than as a talking point who would unleash the military in this fashion. It simply does not make sense in any humane sense, and in a military/political context only stokes the anger and resentment that creates more problems for Israel in the long run.
Israel is out of joint over the inclusion of Hamas into the unity government that needed to be a step in the ownership of responsibility within the Palestinian government. Israel does not like those who they have crapped on to form a united front and so worked to turn the killing of the three teenagers several weeks ago into the pretext of a military strike that could achieve their purpose.
And now there are 1,000 deaths in Gaza.
Israel conducting themselves in the fashion we have again seen over the past 19 days makes one thing sure. There will be more young minds that watch the buildings explode and fall in Gaza and the funerals take place every day and who will turn their attention to retribution.
And who can blame them?
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Hamas is a terrorist organization using civilians as human shields. It is Hamas that puts weapons in schools, hospitals, and “mosques.” They are responsible for the civilian dead. No civilized nation would ever tolerate rocket attacks and tunnels for terrorists.
Isreal should continue to destroy Hamas. To halt the ground offensive now would be a complete waste and would never appease the weak, terrorist-loving western liberals. I pray they continue until Hamas is destroyed and the Palestinians have learned their lesson.
If Hamas cared at all about the civilians–which they certainly do not–they would begin by disarming and recognizing Isreal’s right to exist.