I repeat, anyone who thinks that one side is all right in the Middle East and the other is all wrong is blinded by prejudice. Both sides are deeply bigoted against each other, and both are committing terrorism against each other on a regular basis, but they only call it terrorism when the other guy does it. A victory they win is a "victory"...a victory the other guy wins is a "massacre". Look back to the wars in America between the USA and the Native people, and you will see these same habits of expression used...depending on whose prejudice is engaged in making the statement.

Be that as it may, I appreciate some of the points in the Daniel Gordis article...particularly regarding the hypocrisy of the West, which happily bombs the hell out of people from a safe distance...then criticizes other people for doing it at close range, which is far more dangerous to the attacker's fighting forces.

The fact is, all the parties who go out and commit violence do it in whatever way seems most effective (and politically feasible) to them in achieving their desired objective! They do not do it with humanitarian concerns in mind. If Israel thought that they could achieve their objectives through air bombing alone, I'm sure they would follow that method.

If the Palestinians thought they could achieve their objectives through conventional combat in the open, that's what they would do too. Likewise for the Arab states.

So it goes...each one does what he thinks will WORK, under the present circumstances. It's pragmatism, folks, pragmatism, although it's unrealistic pragmatism in my opinion, because it will not achieve the desired objective...not in either case. It will merely add more fuel to the fire. The USA is now beginning to get seriously worried about this particular fire, I believe...I wonder if they will find a way to put it out? Or has Pandora opened a box that cannot be shut this time?

- LH