Glenn, playing what he has deemed the "is it justified" game:

"An Israeli civilian was killed Wednesday in a rocket attack by Hamas militants from Gaza, the first such fatality in nine months.

Unjustified. Despicable. Heinous.

In a second Israeli airstrike carried out amid the rocket fire, two Palestinian youths were killed and 12 other civilians were wounded, Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, director of emergency medical services in Gaza, said.

Justified.

How did I do?"

Unbelievably badly.

Contrary to the bizarre accusations leveled by you and the other blind Palestinian apologists in this thread, I have never once suggested or hinted that it is justified for Israel to deliberately (or recklessly) kill Palestinian civilians. I deplore it.

I believe that it is never justified for anyone to target civilians. It is absolutely unjustified for Palestinians to murder Israeli civilians. It is equally unjustified for Israelis to murder Palestinian civilians. (Which Israel has, without question, done.) You obviously cannot, and will not, say the same. When Palestinians murder Israeli civilians, it's pretty much OK with you. (I've given you several opportunities to say otherwise, and you refuse.)

You are little better than Martin Peretz or Norman Podhoretz. They regard Arabs & Muslims as less than human; you regard Israelis the same way.

Armagednoutahere: "That's such a cheap, chickenshit shot to take, and you know damn well that isn't what anybody thinks. I'm shocked. I really am."

Sorry to shock you, but to excuse or justify the cold-blooded murder of innocent people is to deny the humanity of the victims. Glenn cannot bring himself to say that it is just plain wrong for Palestinians to murder Israeli civilians. As such, he is (and others here are) declining to accord Israeli lives the same value as other human lives. Period.

LWM: Yes, you are correct. I do not believe that the terror-bombing of German civilians by the US and UK in WW2 was justified. To the contrary, it was mass murder. Some years ago, I visited Auschwitz and Dresden on the same trip, and did not think for a moment that the former justified the latter.

"Any reading of things anybody here has said as somehow a justification for the murder of innocent civilians is a lack of understanding on your part."

No, it isn't. Glenn has specifically refused to characterize the murder of Israeli civilians by Palestinians as unjustified. It follows, necessarily, that he believes such murders have at least some justification. There is simply no other interpretation.

"Do you think it's ok for Israel to respond to the rocket attacks if it risks even the slightest possibility that an innocent civilian might be killed? If so you're justifying the slaughter of innocent civilians in the same way."

Unless one is an absolute pacifist, one must accept the unfortunate reality that civilian casualties are an inevitable by-product of legitimate military actions. To some here, any Israeli action against any Palestinians, under any circumstances, is inherently illegitimate. I disagree with that view. I think Israel has the right to respond to attacks on it (as does every other nation). When it responds, it has a moral obligation to avoid and minimize civilian casualties as best it can. There have been times when Israel has execrably, indefensibly ignored that obligation. In those instances, it cannot claim moral superiority to its enemies.

Regardless of what some may think, I am not an apologist for Israel at all. I just get annoyed by apologists for Palestinian terrorism.

In my opinion, anyone who believes there is any moral high ground to be claimed in this ghastly conflict is irrationally romanticizing one side or the other. That's not my bag.

Armagednoutahere: "By now I think many Americans like me feel that Israel is being as unfair to Palestinians as the Germans were to the Jews."

And you accused me of taking a cheap shot? With that remark, you have crossed a pretty significant line. There are three possible explanations: (1) you are completely uneducated, and wholly ignorant of modern European and Middle Eastern history; (2) you lack the most basic reasoning skills; or (3) you think that making obviously absurd, outrageous Nazi comparisons is a super-clever way to score points when discussing Israel with Jews. I'm leaning toward (3), so go to hell, asshole.

Greenbaum shows us a picture. It appears to be a group of emaciated people with numbers on their arms, looking through a barbwire fence with sunken eyes. We don't know who these people are, or what they might have done to land themselves in this predicament. We will presume, as Greenbaum does, that these people have been deprived of food and otherwise mistreated by their captors, whoever their captors may be.

With that presumption, what the fuck did Josef Goebbels have to do with these people's mistreatment? Did he go to the so-called "concentration camp" and personally instruct the guards to withhold food from those specific individuals? Huh? DID he? Oh, you dirty liars, you.