Recommended: 7 Things to Consider Before Choosing Sides in the Middle East Conflict

My daughter just pointed me to a current Huffington Post article that is probably the best and most balanced analysis of the current Israel-Hamas war I have seen, written incidentally by someone who grew up in Pakistan in the Muslim culture: 7 Things to Consider Before Choosing Sides in the Middle East Conflict.

I would only add this to his excellent piece - there are constant complaints that while Israel certainly has the right to respond to Hamas rocket attacks, kidnappings and murders, and suicide bombers, its response has been disproportionate.  So think about this. An exactly proportional response would be for Israel to go into Gaza every time an Israeli was killed, and pick at random a man or woman or child off the street and shoot them on the spot. That would be exactly proportional.  Would the world think that was fair, or civilized?  I don't think so.  It's hard to think of what the world would consider a "proportional" Jewish response, but whatever it is it almost certainly wouldn't be enough to deter vicious thugs like Hamas.

So do we want Jews to just acquiesce to brutality, like they did in the Holocaust?  I think what Jews learned from the Holocaust was that Europe (and America for that matter) are not dependable allies, and they had better look out for themselves.  And I think they are right. Now their political choices for handling the enemies around them haven't always been the wisest, but what nation can you point to that has always picked the wisest course - certainly not ours! (As Churchill said -"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else".)