Several folk have been very eager to jump on the war crimes issue before ANY FACTs have come out. I don't wonder at the timing of this thread.

Unless they find a bunch of bodies in a pit with holes in the back of their skulls, I don't know how you're going to prove war crimes. The Palestinians booby trapped the camp and shot at Israelis who were on foot to attempt to clear areas of noncombatants.

No way we're talking Serbia here.

I think the timing of the question, the raising of the accusations, and the attempt to flood the media with diatribes with no factual content are themselves indications of a rather large and broad brush smear campaign.

The Israelis were there as a warlike response to many acts of war. They weren't there to sell magazines. I understand now that the 'devastation' wrought in Jenin is not as great as represented.

But if the Israelis were convinced that the Palestinian Authority infrastructure was part and parcel of the deluge of homicide attacks, then their response was logical and proportionate. The WISDOM of it is another matter.

The European responses vary from ludicrous to outright anti-semitism. I don't approve of posting wholesale opinion columns into this venue, but consider Oriana Fallaci's recent opus on what's been getting printed. Where were these people when Israelis were the targets? What was the U.N. proposing to do to safeguard innocent civilians who were being blown up in markets and buses?

The Israelis are doing what only they are left to do: Taking care of business.