Israel-Hamas

Doing my best to pay as little attention as possible to this "crisis," but couldn't help but overhear some criticism of Israel's actions and this old term "proportionate response." Apparently, people think Israel has a right to defend themselves, but only "proportionately." And I guess that means...what exactly? If one Israeli is killed, then Israel is allowed to kill one Palestinian in response? Is that the basic moral calculus? Absurd. Utterly absurd. The point to war is to win. Not to have equal losses on both sides. It surprises me to hear "intelligent" Americans saying such things -- we haven't ever had equal losses on the battlefield -- in any war. Imagine saying in WW2, "let's fight the Japanese, but only kill one of theirs for every one of ours that were killed in Pearl Harbor."

Hamas chooses perpetual war -- their reason for being is perpetual war against Israel -- and so every now and again Israel fights them and then is criticized for it. The international community puts pressure on Israel to hold back and allow Hamas to rearm and the cycle continues. Very strange.