Nightmare in Gaza

I can hardly bear to read the news reports. It just gets uglier every day. Cernig tells me they're using cluster bombs. I've heard they're using White Phosporous. Three schools bombed. Women and children dead. Thousands injured. The backlash is spreading everywhere, with random Jews under attack all over Europe.

I in no way excuse Hamas for their part in this, but to me the Israeli response to their provocation looks like the equivalent of bombing an entire city block to get rid of a few pesky flies in your house. But whatever it is, this surely isn't going to lead to peaceful co-existence. Juan Cole reminds me today of why such a vigorous military campaign is so dangerous.

In 1996, Israeli jets bombed a UN building where civilians had taken refuge at Cana/ Qana in south Lebanon, killing 102 persons; in the place where Jesus is said to have made water into wine, Israeli bombs wrought a different sort of transformation. In the distant, picturesque port of Hamburg, a young graduate student studying traditional architecture of Aleppo saw footage like this on the news [graphic]. He was consumed with anguish and the desire for revenge. As soon as operation Grapes of Wrath had begun the week before, he had written out a martyrdom will, indicating his willingness to die avenging the victims, killed in that operation--with airplanes and bombs that were a free gift from the United States. His name was Muhammad Atta. Five years later he piloted American Airlines 11 into the World Trade Center.

Violence begets violence. There's got to be a better way to resolve this than with bombs.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News.]