I haven't got a dog in this fight BWM.

However we take these truths to be self evident.

1)   In a war non combatants get killed. In a way Irael is in the same position as the US when it came to conquering Japan. They could have expended more of their own soldiers who had put their lives on the line for their country. Or they could do what they did in Hiroshima. I think most military leaders choose the shortest line between two points. I'm not saying its morally defensible - I just think that's what usually happens.

2) In 1967 when the first big Israeli /Arab conflict kicked off, Israel occupied a narrow atrip of land facing the Med. rather than granting them the land, the Arab nations swaggered about saying they would kick Israel into the sea, and then failed. Look at at all the states alligned and sworn to the destruction of Israel. They occupy great swathes of the earth, they are gifted with mineral wealth. And yet all their people are in poverty. They constantly have begging bowls out to countries like our own whom they consider decadent. Their governments are by words for corruption, and their human rights records stink.

Now I know the fashionable view is that Israel is an abombination. I just can't see it in the simplistic terms that that I get my ears boxed with evry day.