[Sh**ter]: Don't shoot rockets or the weight of a National Army will descend upon you.

Investment opportunity for you, Sh**ter: Print bumper stickers with that on them, and sell them at the next NRA convention. They'll sell like hotcakes, I tellya....

Cheers,

to proudly proclaim that "We are all Gazans now" ?

Your post Glenn has truly shocked me. But the shock is many fold. The fact that that wretched Friedman can express such criminal views and not be immediately arrested is bad enough. Far worse is the fact that such views can be now be openly expressed in a major once respected paper such as the NYT only shows how far down a dangerous and dark path America has now travelled since 9/11.

And that path that America is now on, started on that day. You could hear it in what was said that day and on the days that followed shortly after. "You are with us or you are with the terrorists" was not a rhetorical statement but an order. And to ensure that "you would be with us" the Patriot Act was passed and the Department of Homeland Security instituted to ensure compliance as I believe Americans will find to their cost.

Friedman doesn't talk just for himself. He is the just one of the Lord Haw Haws employed by the machine to impart their message. Their voices are now becoming more strident and uncompromising because they know that the structures are now in place to institute the emergency rule as and when they see fit to do so.

Friedman's extolling of the virtues of ensuring compliance by punishing a civilian population should be born in mind when casting one's mind back to 9/11.

Americans, far and wide and without delay need to re examine whether or not their own population might not also have already been punished in order to get them to comply with plans that although perhaps little understood then become more apparent with the passage of time.

Dr Ray Griffin a leading light of the 9/11 truth movement has already talked of a National Faith that has been engendered and cultivated by the government since that day. Its only a people so inculcated that could read Friedman's article and not be immediately alarmed by what they are actually reading, what he actually means and what actual repercussions of what he might be saying they might have in store for Americans themselves.

It's not just the economy stupid.

Dark days lie ahead on other fronts as well, of which the collapsed economy and subsequent bailout may very well be part of the plan.

Your analysis meshes with GGforAG!'s.

Clearly, Israel has been sabotaging negotiations for decades. But is there any hard evidence for sabotaging negotiations as national or even party policy?

That would be a great connection to be able to make ...

Glenn,

Two organizations say it has been confirmed while others do not. Israelis Rain 'Phosphorus Bombs' Over Gaza. Here's what Mel Freykberg wrote for IPS recently:

RAMALLAH - "There is no doubt that Israel is using phosphorus bombs over Gaza. Israel is flagrantly violating the Fourth Geneva Convention," says Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza.

"This is not the first time we have documented Israel using this kind of prohibited weapon against Gaza's civilian population," Sourani told IPS on phone from Gaza.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed Sourani's assessment in a statement it released on Friday. Its researchers said they had seen "multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over Gaza city."

"I've been on the border for the last few days watching the Israeli artillery firing white phosphorus shells into refugee camps," Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at HRW told France TV channel 24.

Here are the "not so sure" folks:

Ann Sophie Bonefeld from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem was more cautious. "We haven't been able to confirm if Israel is using phosphorus bombs in Gaza," she told IPS.

Chiara Stefanini, spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Jerusalem told IPS, "We have no evidence of phosphorus being used at this point in time. It is still too early to comment."

depicted in all its guesome ferocity. The pike is one of the most predatory freshwater fish whose appetite is insatiable and even cannibalistic. The image of one of these creatures trying to devour the other of the same species results in the death of both. The American war-machine is draining American resources, in lives, money and reputation the Israeli war-machine is oiled by the USA so that around 6 million people of European heritage may prevail over multitudes of "small fry". As time goes by, the big predator fish, the USA, will become weaker and hungry so that, finally, it may decide to devour Israel before Israel devours the United States. It may be too late but the inevitable result is mutually-inflicted death.

" Three we kept behind glass,

Jungled in weed: three inches, four,

And four and a half: red fry to them-

Suddenly there were two. Finally one

With a sag belly and the grin it was born with.

And indeed they spare nobody.

Two, six pounds each, over two feet long

High and dry and dead in the willow-herb-

One jammed past its gills down the other's gullet:

The outside eye stared: as a vice locks-

The same iron in this eye

Though its film shrank in death."

This conflict has been consistent for over 30 years. When I was in high school we would try to understand why certain Palestinian were targeted for assassination. One day a friend and I were really trying to make sense of this when he blurted out "The idea is to kill the moderates and ensure there is always a radical enemy to fight" I believe the Israeli strategy continues to make sure the Palestinian leadership is always too extreme to allow for a two state solution. The methods may change but the goal remains.

"We get it - you believe it is morally superior to fail at terrorizing Israel than to succeed at paciifying Gazan rocket fire."

-- Natty-J

We? Please do not presume to speak for me. Or are there more than one of you in there?

You're missing the point entirely. What Glenn is actually saying is that the government of Israel is denuding itself of any moral case against Hamas by lowering itself to the exact SAME behaviour, but in this case on a much larger scale.

Those who shriek out the silly rhetorical charge of "moral equivalence" also miss the same point: whoever deliberately kills civilians to achieve ... well, nothing in this case ... is wrong. Evil, stupid, and wrong.

It is a crime no matter who does it, no matter what the circumstances, no matter who orders you to do it, no matter what those civilians leaders did to you.

I know, the wests own war crimes makes it hard for us to apply this standard, so we prefer to hide behind all sorts of rhetorical devices and shrieking hysteria, but nevertheless we signed up for the rule of laws, not men. Those laws are nothing more than a figleaf for the naked exercise of power if they're not applied to everyone, all the time.