Well, what else is new?

The Courier Journal had an editorial published yesterday dealing with Operation Cast Leads. Here's a brief excerpt:

What is clear is that Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza, unleashed a furious Israeli response by declaring an end to a shaky six-month truce with Israel Dec. 19 and resuming rocket attacks against civilian communities in Israel.

It is not reasonable to insist that Israel accept unprovoked aggression against its people and territory. United Nations and European condemnation of the Israeli air campaign err by offering only tepid calls to Hamas to end the rocket launches.

Israel must be keenly aware, however, of unintended consequences.

Air strikes rarely achieve strategic objectives by themselves, and any escalation involving Israeli ground troops in Gaza may be much harder to end than to begin. Israel's center-left governing coalition doubtless hopes that its firm response will give it an advantage before the Feb. 10 election, but a quagmire would have the opposite effect.

Egypt, which was cracking down on Hamas along its border with Gaza, is now undercut as an Israeli accomplice in Arab eyes. Iran and Hezbollah have heated up their denunciations of Israel.

I'm curious as to what alternative reality the CJ is in because, in case they haven't noticed, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Following that, the Palestinians elected Hamas into the government. Not a good move on their part because Hamas is a TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Since that time, before the truce, Hamas fired over 6,000 rockets into southern Israel. On December 19 of this year, Hamas chose to end the truce and fired 300 rockets into Israel. Israel appealed to the UN Security Council and to the Arab world to get Hamas to stop the attacks. No actions were taken so Israel was forced to defend herself and retaliate. Since when was retalition considered offense?

Hamas has always made it distinctly clear that they don't support Israel's right to exist and that they want Israel wiped off the map.

What's going on in Gaza is not a police action. What's going on is a battle between two armed forces, one of which is a terrorist group (Hamas). The other is the military that defends a country (Israel). If you want to aim your moral outrage at someone, aim it at Hamas, not Israel. Hamas is responsibile for the hositilties and they chose these consequences.

Hamas is funded by Iran.

Americans, and the global community, would rather apply a double standard to Israel. Imagine if your hometown were attacked daily by Canada or Mexico, would you rather the US sit idle and do nothing? No, you'd want them to beat the living daylights out of them. That's exactly what's going on in Israel. Hamas is blasting rockets daily into Israel.

As for the civilian casulties, we hate that they have to happen but Hamas has acknowledged that they are because of where Hamas bases are located, within a civilian area. All those who lost lives are Hamas militants or those placed in the line of fire because of Hamas!