War As Usual

Israel’s killings may be the start of a bloody cycle

srael has chosen war—again. On Tuesday, it killed at least nine Palestinians, including two children, in an air strike in Gaza, according to the BBC.

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“Asked last week on Israeli television how he could justify
advocating engagement with a terrorist organization that does not
recognize Israel's right to exist, Mr. Halevy ridiculed the stale
assumptions that underlie that question,” Siegman writes.
“Do not look at Hamas’s rhetoric, he said, look at what it does: Hamas
declared a truce 18 months ago and has committed no terrorist acts
against Israel since. In spite of Hamas’s refusal to change its
theological rejection of Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister in the
Hamas-led government, ordered his ministers to seek practical
co-operation with their Israeli counterparts. Mr. Haniyeh also
confirmed that Hamas’s self-declared truce is open-ended.”

Not any more. A girl, Huda Ghaliya, whose father, stepmother and
five siblings were killed in the beach incident, has become a
regionwide symbol as a victim of Israeli brutality. (Israel is now
denying responsibility.)