The ultimate tragic irony is that the American Left bears considerable responsibility for the death of the Palestinian children they claim to "care" about.

Try a little thought experiment:

Suppose that Hamas had fired its thousands of Qassams from military bases in Gaza and stored its additional weapons in supply depots. Then suppose that in an effort to protect itself, Israel launched an air campaign that targeted the military bases and supply depots, and 300 Hamas terrorists were killed.

Would anyone care? Probably not. Most people would say, "good riddance."

However, we know that Hamas fired its rockets from locations near towns, and stored its weapons in schools and mosques. Now when Israel attempts to fight back, it kills 300 terrorists PLUS 200 innocent people. The world is "horrified".

What's the difference between the two scenarios? The difference is that Hamas used innocent civilians as "human shields" both to protect themselves, and to make sure that innocent civilians were killed in order to arouse the sympathy of the American Left.

If the use of innocent civilians as human shields incited disgust among the Left, and led to a loss of support for Hamas and the Palestinians, Hamas would stop using it as a tactic. But it does work; American and European leftists fall for it every time. That ensures that Hamas will continue to do it and more innocents will die.

By rewarding the use of human shields with condemnation of the Israelis instead of a flat out refusal to deal with any group that uses human shields, Palestinians "supporters" guarantee that the entire Palestinian population will remain hostages to Hamas.

The people who claim to be so outraged about the death of Palestinian children actually have the power to put a stop to it, by refusing to countenance any group that uses that tactic, but I'm not holding my breath. No one cares about the Palestinians except to parade self-righteously around liberal websites.

F chet:

"... you have to figure out a new strategy to use when your enemy employs them. I, at least, believe it is morally wrong to shoot at a terrorist standing in a crowd of preschoolers, no matter how many people have been killed by said terrorist, or his or her terrorist organization. And besides being morally wrong, it is also stupid."

They will continue using human shields as long as you and others on the Left continue to reward them for doing so.

It is not stupid; the Palestinians are not stupid people even though their "supporters" treat them as though they are. Their goal is to get someone to force Israel to give them what they have failed to win for themselves.

They've recognized that they cannot militarily defeat Israel. They know that Qassam rockets are not going to get the Israelis to withdraw from anything. The goal of Hamas is to get world opinion on their side by flooding the airwaves with dead Palestinian children. So they have to make sure that lots of Palestinian children are killed, and they do that by deliberately putting soldiers and weapons in schools and mosques.

It's working great! Step 1: Hamas deliberately puts weapons in schools. Step 2: Israelis bomb the weapons caches and innocent children are killed. Step 3: Broadcast lots of footage of dead Palestinians children. Step 4: Have the Left condemn Israel for killing innocent children. Repeat as necessary.

The Left falls for it every time.

The power to prevent the killing of Palestinian children is in YOUR hands. If you reward Hamas for the deaths of those children, they will just find make more children hostage and repeat the cycle. YOU can break the cycle, but you have to choose to do so.

peeps1:

"But your assertion that anyone who doesn't support Isreal's actions actually help to kill Palestinian children who are blown up by Isreali bombs would be sickening if it wasn't so unbeleivably stupid."

That's not my assertion. My assertion is that anyone who rewards Hamas for using children as human shields is simply encouraging them to use more children as human shields. They put their OWN children in the line of fire just to impress you with Israel's "brutality" and you've fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

peeps1:

"I am not "rewarding" Hamas. By your logic, the only thing any thinking or feeling person can do is support Isreal or they are contributing to the death of children."

There are not only two choices.

Of course you are rewarding Hamas. They use their own children as human shields precisely so the American Left will bemoan the loss of innocent lives. If people made it clear that there could be no negotiations or concessions of any kind unless and until Palestinians stopped deliberately placing their OWN people in the line of fire, they'll just keep doing it.

I'm wondering if there is any other time in recorded history where a group of people has used their own children as human shields. I can't think of any. Can you?

Hank007:

"Nice try with the lie that Hamas uses children as human shields."

Hamas is not keeping it a secret. They actually boast that they use children, women and elderly people as human shields. For example:

"For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry in which excel the women and all the people of this land: The older people excel, the jihadists excel and the children excel. Consequently, [the Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, older people and jihadists against the Zionist bombing machine that is telling the Zionist enemy we want death just as much as you desire life."

If you prefer, you can watch the video on youtube.