<"War" seems to excuse every Israeli action. And, the Palestinians are "terrorists".

Until Palestine puts a stop to the war crimes they publicly, and privately, commit, yes.

What I have trouble understanding is why in your reasoning "war" doesn't justify the Palestinian actions, too? Why are they "terrorist", and the Israelis at "war"?

Obviously both sides are at war, B, it’s just that Palestine is so stupid that they’re the only ones fighting, and it’s literally driving them all crazy and prompting illegal acts daily. They don’t get it any more than you. They’re outclassed, and the towel should have been thrown into the ring decades ago. Pride, however, will end up destroying Palestine -- that is, unless the collective intelligence finally figures out that their only means of survival is in the ousting of Arafat.

Wouldn't seem to make sense. Not all Palestinians are "soldiers", no every man, woman and child of them who are displaced, shot at, terrorized.

And every Israeli target picked is a military target? That’s a claim Israel makes, and they make it very well. Try it with a Hamas-supported bomber.

It's now the Israelis who are trying to drive out the Palestinians. At least since 1967. Look at the map. (At one time the Arabs would have loved to get rid of the Jews. They've accepted the reality now.)

Well, Palestine is a global undesirable. I don’t think I would like the idea of the Hamas setting up camp in my neighborhood either.

When Palestine outlaws, and then assists Israel in the eradication of the Hamas, they will become a respected society. Until then, they are nothing but a disorganized band of criminals. There can be no two ways about it.

"In our country there is room only for the Jews. We shall say to the Arabs: Get out! If they don't agree, if they resist, we shall drive them out by force."
--Professor Ben-Zion Dinur Israel's First Minister of Education, 1954 from History of the Haganah

Yes. We had a large number of high-ranking bigots in the U.S. about that time as well.

Why is Israeli ethnic cleansing OK, and it's not OK anywhere in the rest of the world? Wasn't OK in Bosnia, for instance, but is in the Middle East, is for the Israelis to do.

What ethnic cleansing are you speaking of? Please specify. Maybe it was the U.S. bombing the hell out of the ill-equipped Taliban, burying them under tons of mountain rubble?

Or, does "war" cover that? The Israelis get to be at "war", the Israeli state gets to sponsor terrorism, practice ethnic cleansing, and no one else does? It's "war", but somehow it's a "war" where if anyone strikes back it's not fair, it's "terrorism".

War has never covered ethnic cleansing.

Throughout history, ethnic cleansing has been a strategy of war, but it was never right, and is considered illegal according to the Article of War. We seek now to enlighten anyone radically different from us. Barring that, we ignore them to death with embargoes.

Many might say, “So long as we don’t have to put up with the obnoxious victims, it seems to be okay to complain when they are killed, and to possibly even try the killers.” This, of course, is wrong, both morally and physically, and it is a mindset I would never condone. Killing is just plain wrong, regardless of who the victim is. This wrong, however, comes in degrees. For instance, I do support capital punishment, but I do not condone premeditated murder. And even here, there is gray area, but I won’t go into politics with it.

The trouble is that the targets of Israeli forces are chosen as retaliatory strikes against suicide bombers. As the Hamas is difficult to pin down (since the population likes to play hide and seek with them), there are collateral victims to these strikes. Palestinian targets, on the other hand, are completely random, and the more kids they kill in the process, the better.

Just curious. Wouldn't seem to make sense. But then, that may be "war", too.

No, that’s called human nature (which has never made sense, as human nature is generally counter-productive, and more so when the humans involved are just plain knuts), but we’re trying to fix that as well -- for, at least, centuries.

Dan