Two Three things and then I’m going to the gym before Gaza makes me throw my computer at the wall. When you look at Israel/Palestine and feel yourself starting to say words like justified, just step back. Focusing on who’s justified in doing what to whom is the surest way to become a fanatic, able to rationalize the worst excesses of your side and neglect the worthy aspirations of the other. The only justice that matters here is the justice of the goal of two states, side by side, peace and security, etc etc you know the rest. Everything else is a question of wisdom. That’s the one thing.

The other second thing. Israel’s inability to win in Lebanon in 2006 appears to be haunting Israeli policymakers. Ethan Bronner wrote yesterday that "expung[ing] the ghost" of the Lebanese invasion is weighing heavily on the minds of the war cabinet. Consider:

"In the cabinet room today there was an energy, a feeling that after so long of showing restraint we had finally acted,” said Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking of the weekly government meeting that he attended.

That does not sound like people who are considering the facts of Gaza on their own terms. It sounds more like people caught up in a national psychodrama. And such people do not often get the outcomes they intend.

Please stop the bombardment of Gaza before it’s too late.

Update: Actually, one more thing. The frequency of the use of the word "seriousness" occurs in inverse proportion to the actual seriousness of s/he who uses it.