The New Republic

The Palestinians of Gaza send their rockets non-stop into Israel. Day in, day out. With pretense and without. The fact is that we do not know what percentage of the Gaza population is not rabid. Probably not many. So this war of rockets will go on and on...and on. In Gaza, there is no war between moderates and fanatics.

Israel has displayed remarkable restraint until it doesn't. Like yesterday and today. And then the Palestinians cry foul, and even Mahmoud Abbas screams "massacre." Hamas says the killing of 19 in Gaza, 15 of them Hamas warriors, one of them a son of a Hamas commander, will prevent the return of Gilad Shalit whose life it has been toying with cynically for more than a year and a half.

For more than a thousand years Jewish blood was cheap, very cheap. It is no more. That is one of the meanings of Zionism and of sovereignty. Anyone who sheds Jewish blood will pay and pay dearly. That is also the only possible alternative to a settlement. But Gaza doesn't want a settlement. It has made its choice.

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