That was a remarkably verbose way of avoiding even remotely addressing any part of my question.

You could have taken your skull, bashed it repeatedly on the keyboard, and pressed "Publish my letter," and it would have been more germane.

Dear Glenn,

Just as you make me proud to be an American at a time when there are so many reasons to be ashamed, you also make me proud to be a Jew (I'm assuming you are Jewish) at a time when the actions of Israel and its domestic amen corner are filling me with horror.

The current Israeli actions - not just the current ones - are nothing more than a complete betrayal and repudiation of our entire moral heritage. If Jews can't summon up the courage to speak out for oppressed people, who can?

The six million did not die so that Jews could blow up houses with children inside them.

Thank you for your courage! Someone has got to speak up for our heritage against those who are dragging it through the dirt!

Eve

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.

So, by these rules, it would have been justifiable for an Iraqi citizen to come to the U.S. and bomb a building where George Bush along with his family were staying. The deaths of Laura Bush and his two daughters would have been perfectly justified because, by sheltering Bush, they are responsible for the invasion of Iraq and the hundreds of thousands of deaths and widespread suffering that followed -- in fact, the deaths of his wife and daughters would have been all George Bush's fault and not the bombers, right?

I know it sounds much too simplistic, but as long as the goal to end any conflict is to find a loser, there will never be true winners on either side. If you must win at any cost, the outcome will inevitably be tragic. Tragic for both sides. The loser is vanquished and the winner loses their sole because of the means used to win.

That is true of what Hitler did to the Jews and what the Jews have done and are doing to the Palestinians. How could the goal have been finding a fair outcome when the international community and Jews from around the world created a country through force in the home of another without first gaining permission?

From the start in 1948, Begin and his terrorists used the slaughter of people as their primary weapon. The tactics have not changed on either side as Glenn and so many others have chronicled in recent threads and throughout the Internet. Most tragically, the same tactics are still being used in Gaza with the latest, sophisticated murder weapons provided by my country.

In my simplistic view, the solution lies in both sides wanting to find a win-win outcome. Some have speculated, that left entirely alone with all outsiders withdrawing their influence and support, Israel and Palestine could find a solution. I don’t see how that could happen unless the weapons of war were also removed or the weapons were equalized on both sides. And equalizing weapons has its own nightmare consequences.

The United Nations that helped create this mess, could be an honest broker only the United States will not allow it because the most influential leaders in the US do not want a win-win outcome. They have taken the side of Israel and only want Israel to win. They even let Israel decide what winning means. They turn a blind eye to terrible oppression, as Glenn has pointed, out because they have taken the tribal view of Israel right or wrong.

Again, in a simplistic view, the solution lies with President-elect Obama putting aside all politics, and deciding that he must find a way for a win-win outcome. That means being fair to both sides. That means telling both sides they have to sacrifice and compromise to bring about a fair outcome.

He would have to do this by finding Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are not so psychologically damaged by tribal loyalism and the horrors they have witnessed that they could represent those on both sides who desire a peaceful co-existence. None of the leaders on either side presently meet that requirement.

I know that omooex would tell me he doesn’t see any way that could happen. I don’t either, but a President Obama who was determined to seek a true win-win outcome, devoid of AIPAC and getting reelected in 2012 influence, would be a first step in the right direction. The women of Ireland who said enough were successful. A new president who convinced both sides that he means enough, could possibly achieve the impossible. He will never know unless he tries. At the very least, he could condemn the Gaza attack and merciless Israeli unfair violence and oppressive, colonial, apartheid goals.

Former president Jimmy Carter was not and is not afraid to speak to the truth. Neither was MLK during the Vietnam War or Gandhi after the British left India and the Muslim-Hindu violence ensued. The world was filled with hope by President-elect Obama’s election words and that hope will be significantly dampened by his continued silence.

All his inspiring words during the election will be meaningless to me as long as his voice remains silent. Silence means he wants the injustice and tribalism to continue. That is not the message the world wants to hear from our next president who has created so much hope.

Using the recession/depression and other pressing, critical issues as an excuse to not speak out and act, will not suffice. The blood will be on his hands and he will have to explain that to his daughters and the children of Palestine and the children of Israel when they are killed by suicide bombers in the future.