They've chosen...

Last year I said that the Israeli removal from Gaza was a challenge to the Palestinians and their supporters. The challenge was that having been given much of what they wanted, this would be the final opportunity for the Palestinians to demonstrate that they do want peace and are capable of living in a two-state situation next to Israel.

Well, the Palestinians have made their choice. With help from Syria and Iran, they have demonstrated conclusively, for all to see that they will never accept anything but the destruction of Israel.

Now, those whose first instinct is to blame Israel need to answer the question: How do you get along with people who will settle for nothing but your utter destruction?

The best that CNN/New York Times/NPR can come up with now is that the Israeli responses to acts of war upon them is: "disproportionate". Of course, they never bother to tell us what constitutes "proportionate".

Despite the avalanche of evidence to the contrary, there are still people in this country who believe that we can negotiate with, appease or co-opt the kind of people who run Al Qaeda/Hezbollah/Hamas. The behavior of these people can no longer be considered just obtuseness, it is arrant cowardice and verges upon treason.

What we should do is send a Marine Division over to help the Israelis and exact a bit of revenge against Hezbollah for 1983's Beirut barracks bombing.