I don't really know how to proceed in this thread when it seems as though the world has gone mad, as though the slaughter of hundreds of people, mainly civilians, can somehow be coolly justified as any kind of legitimate response to a handful of crude rockets, landing mostly in empty fields, launched from a tiny, besieged strip of land populated largely by desperate refugees, choked off from supplies for over a year, during which, y the way, Israel was the first to break the ceasefire (in November), a ceasefire whose terms Israel never fulfilled because it never lifted the blockade of supplies. I don't know how else to get at this, or what else to say.
For those of you who might care, there are a number of good recent pieces by some permanent fixtures on the Middle East stage. Aaron Miller, by the way, was a high-ranking American diplomat during the Oslo/Camp David process (deputy to Ambassador Ross).
Aaron Miller: Obama should get tough with Israel.
Obama Must Get Tough With Israel to Achieve Peace | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com
Robert Fisk: Why do they hate us, we will ask
Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent
Rashid Khalidi: What you don’t know about Gaza
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/op...khalidi&st=cse
Avi Shlaim: How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
Avi Shlaim: How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe | World news | The Guardian