My day job keeps me busy, You may have noticed many of my recent posts have been after 10pm on HZ time which is after 1am my time... soothing your misplaced indignation is NOT high on my TO DO list.

How do I suggest Israel respond? Not that it matters what I think but they shouldn't respond with war crimes: White Phosphorus, collective punishment, and depriving civilians of food, water, and power...

The rhetoric coming out of Israel makes it clear the Israelis are setting the stage for far worse war crimes with the President of Israel saying ALL Gaza residents are responsible. Remember - half the population is 18 and under.

But what I think they should do is irrelevant. Even if Israel had the most kind and enlightened leadership at this time, there would still be no way they could NOT respond brutally. The populace- quite understandably- wants vengeance. And of course the leadership they have is militant right wing and desperate to change the narrative to something other than their failures.

The moment Hamas did this they doomed 10's perhaps 100's of thousands of Palestinian civilians to death.

The death toll will be chilling, Israel is telling a million people to evacuate when they know they have no-where to go... its simply words so when the death toll skyrockets over the next few days Israel can say "we warned them!". And the US has decided to stand behind whatever atrocities are to come...We WILL regret this.

The US should back and assist an Israeli response to this evil, but we should NOT ignore the war crimes. 'Friends don't let friends commit war crimes'.

Not only will Israel lose the moral high ground, but the USA will as well... when all our talk about human rights goes silent as the war crimes are broadcast world wide.

Buck, you seem to think I am somehow Anti-Israel, I am not. I am not a fan of any religion, but I have found the Jewish religion and culture far less offensive than most. But I recognize that Israeli policies have created the conditions for extremism to flourish- That does NOT in any way excuse this breathtakingly evil assault on Israel... But that Evil does not excuse the evil of war crimes in response.

You and I both know that no matter how successful Israel is in this war, it will only amplify the problem in the long term.

You bring up our attacks in Iraq in misplaced vengeance for 9-11... That wasn't moral or justified either... if I remember correctly, we BOTH said so at the time... I am just being consistent.

All that being said- reality being what it is- there is no way the evil Hamas committed can result in anything but a brutal bloody punishment of all Palestinians.

That's the problem with evil... it is infectious.