Gaza map

Obviously, the firing of unguided missiles into Israel is a violation of international law, but so is Israel’s disproportionate response committed with jets, tanks, and sophisticated artillery. Hamas does not even suggest that it has tried to limit civilian casualties as it cynically fires its rockets in Israel’s general direction, but claims, on the part of Israel, that it has attempted to avoid civilian causalities does not eliminate responsibility for causing them.

The cycle of violence seems set in stone. There can be no purpose in arguing about who did what to whom and when, but in such a situation the response of the outside world (especially that of the United States) is very important, because only outsiders have the ability to make this stop. Sadly and predictably, the response of the Bush administration has been both irresponsible and one-sided. As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, so it goes.

Nevertheless, the discussion on "Left, Right And Center" should not include unchallenged misstatements of fact such as occurred during last week’s discussion of the mess in Gaza when Tony Blankley approvingly repeated Charles Krauthammer’s erroneous contention that Israel had ended its occupation in September 2005. Then, of course, it gets repeated in these posts. Despite what was said I suspect that at least Mr. Blankley realizes that “occupation” is not measured simply by the presence of troops, but just to remind others: in International Law it is defined as, “the effective control of a power over a territory to which that power has no sovereign title.” Thus Israel’s blockade of Gaza was enough to establish continued occupation.