Apprise me of the bits of the Holy Book that sanction those things, Islamophobe. There are over a billion Muslims on this planet, almost all of them peace-loving people. If you define Islam by those atrocities (and atrocities they are), you are defining yourself as a bigot and an Islamophobe. Your choice.

Ebbie, Steve and others have argued forcibly that it is a crime for Israel to strike back at Hamas because they are surrounded by civilians.

The overwhelming feeling I get is that the IDF don't really care who they are "striking back at". As they kill mainly civilians, including children playing on the beach, young men watching the World Cup in a coffee bar, people in an old folks' home and families sheltering in school buildings run by the UN, one might conclude that they aren't very good at "striking back at Hamas", even in these days of smart warfare. One gets the sneaky feeling that it doesn't matter if they kill 500 or so children in a month because they will always be able to blame Hamas for using them as human shields. Something for which you haven't got a scrap of evidence. Look back at every recent conflict involving us versus Muslims. The Muslims were all using human shields. According to us, of course. It's the modern way of explaining away, er, "collateral damage", Keith, trotted out routinely, always without evidence.