"The idea that the Palestinians prefer rockets over feeding and caring for their children......"
This is a diversionary tactic by a defender of atrocities, to move the discussion away from the subject in hand - the taking and ill-treatment of hostages (in this case, the Palestinian people) - to Israeli expansionism.
Installing a blockade to deprive the people of Gaza of the essentials of life and livelihood and then calculating how far the hostage-takers can go before they threaten the lives of people (we are talking about human beings, men, women and children of all ages, most of them struggling to live already) is obscene and has echoes of recent history that should send shivers down the spines of anybody who is aware of that history.
I suggest that if Bruce wishes to discuss the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, then he opens a new thread - this is about human rights abuses.
Jim Carroll