There is so much that I don’t understand about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

My one huge reaction is this. Yeah, I understand why Israel must respond to rockets being dropped indiscriminately into their towns, killing civilians. But the Israeli response, to me, has been so unsymmetrical. We are talking about innocent men, women and children being killed that had nothing to do with the rocket attacks. Schools are being blown up. If indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians is unacceptable, how is the killing of many more Palestinian civilians acceptable?

And I will also add this. The Gaza Strip has been walled off from the rest of Israel, and the reports on the living conditions within Gaza paint a horrific picture, even before the latest round of Israeli attacks. To me, this sounds very much like a ghetto, where the undesirables have been banished. After what happened to the Jews in Poland in the 30’s and 40’s, I would think that Israel would be very careful of role reversals here.

I am not saying that I support, in any way, Hamas firing rockets at Israel. That is just flat out terrorism. There is no other word for it. Even if the rockets don’t kill anyone, the emotional and physical reaction still achieves the same goal as if it had killed someone. But I cannot get over the feeling that Israel has lost any moral superiority they may have once had in their conflict with the Palestinians. What they are currently doing in Gaza is nothing short of inhuman.

Here is an excerpt from a column in the Washington Post by President Carter on this issue.

After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that time, Israel rejected international efforts to obtain a cease-fire, with full support from Washington. Seventeen mosques, the American International School, many private homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by courageous medical volunteers from many nations, as the fortunate ones operate on the wounded by light from diesel-powered generators.

I am just so weary of the brain-dead stupidity of the human race. If we all go the way of the mastodon due to global climate change, I really believe that would be a just punishment for all the inhumanity our species exhibited in the last 4000 years or so. “Civilized peoples”, indeed.