Why not answer?

What's the wait?

Why cannot zenwick equivocate?

And might you not argue there is no such thing in nature as a surface that is perfectly non-reflective, therefore there is no such thing as perfect black, therefore any surface that appears black only appears black in relation to something less dark, but in relation to something darker it would appear grey or even white, so in fact black is white? It appears you are prepared to make this argument.

1. If the leaders of a neighboring territory are sending rockets into your territory, and refuse to stop, it is entirely within rights - indeed within responsibility - to kill them.

2. Those leaders know you have cause to kill them.

3. Any adult members of their family who shelter with them are not innocent - are in fact complicit in their crimes for sheltering with them.

4. Any children who they or other adults cause to be sheltered with them are being used as human shields, which is a war crime.

5. The prime responsibility for the deaths of these children in this case is with the Hamas leaders.

6. Calling out those who understand this, and support Israel, as if there were something racist going on, is the worst sort of name calling - in fact, racist itself.

I am baffled as to why you care in the least who I might be. Are you waiting for an invitation to come over to my house for coffee? How about if we discuss the issues here, like ladies and gentlemen.

Because Jews are taught the absolute sacredness of all human life (yes, I know you folks who know nothing about Judaism are rolling your eyes), the idea of expanding settlements seemed elegant. Basically, you blow up my child in a discotheque with a bomb, I'll respond by building another house on what used to be your land. I think that idea was persuasive.

A few things about this: obviously, this notion of the "absolute sacredness of all human life" is regularly on display in the relations between Israel and the Palestinians, but thanks for the reminder. Second, my eyes are only rolling at the notion, implicit in your comment, that one must be Jewish to understand the importance of life's sacredness (you'll deny, probably, that you said anything of the kind, which is why I used the word implicit). That's merely a religious variation of our cursed belief in American exceptionalism.

PDA: Rather, they have been about the American reaction to these events, and how looking at this reaction can inform our understanding of the American political/media complex. I find this much more interesting than another 1000-comment spiral into "Greenwaltz is a self-hating Jew" vs. "Israel did 9/11." I know it'll only be another few pages before the Troll Wars take over the comments section, so please, can't we discuss the actual post?

I completely agree and have been frustrated (more than is usual) with the comments the past few days. There's this weird, what, pathology (?) that seems to take over. It's truly mysterious to me. In any case, a nice kernel from today's post is this:

More to the point: for those who insist that others put themselves in the position of a resident of Sderot -- as though that will, by itself, prove the justifiability of the Israeli attack -- the idea literally never occurs to them that they ought to imagine what it's like to live under foreign occupation for 4 decades (and, despite the 2005 "withdrawal from Gaza," Israel continues to occupy and expand its settlements on Palestinian land and to control and severely restrict many key aspects of Gazan life). No thought is given to what it is like, what emotions it generates, what horrible acts start to appear justifiable, when you have a hostile foreign army control your borders and airspace and internal affairs for 40 years, one which builds walls around you, imposes the most intensely humiliating conditions on your daily life, blockades your land so that you're barred from exiting and prevented from accessing basic nutrition and medical needs for your children to the point where a substantial portion of the underage population suffers from stunted growth. (my bold)

I do believe, with eyes rolling, that half this planet's population is in need of a remedial course in the fundamentals of being human (course material will include my soon-to-be-released book Humanity for Dummies).

I am grateful to Glenn for applying his intelligence, decency and impartiality to this situation. I wonder what, if anything, could cause the "tribalists" to wake up to the moral squalor of their position. To see what they have allowed themselves to become. Nothing seems to get through. That is how defensiveness works, I guess. Just in case, here are two points to consider:

1. Moral actions generally are self-evidently moral. If you find yourself vehemently justifying something it is generally because deep down you already know it is wrong. The more fervid the justification, the more acute the internal distress it is expressing. Truth does not need passion or intensity to be recognized as truth. Intensity is a product of the will to believe, and the will to persuade, and becomes stronger when the relationship to truth is weaker.

2. The present approach is not working, and will work even less well as America's ability to project power into the region recedes in the coming years due to the erosion of US wealth and power and the concurrent increase in wealth and power of other countries.

3. No solution has any chance of working which does not see the simple truth that the Palestinians are as human as you and me. Until that is seen all actions and polices will be tainted by an ugliness which may be subtle but which will bear fruit

in unjust and inhumane actions -- and resentment and reaction.

4. To quote the Black-Eyed Peas: "Where is the love, y'all?" That's really what it comes down to.

This is just another golden preamble

To another zenwick ramble

Dum dee dum

The shape of what's to come...