Israel Punches Into Gaza

said the headlines yesterday. Like a prizefighter. Like a sport.

Not: Israeli Military in Terrorist Attack on Civilians in Gaza.

Not: Israel Wreaks Death and Destruction on Palestinians in Gaza.

One Israeli soldier is captured and all Palestinians must die, if necessary, to get him back. Ignore the fact that there are over 15,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Many of them minors. Most of them denied any right to legal representation or trial. All of them subject to the torture that is legal under the Israeli constitution.

Collective punishment of civilian populations is contrary to every tenet of human rights and international law. Israel has long claimed that its presence in Palestine is a war, not a military occupation. Well, in war, soldiers get captured. They get killed. It's a hazard of the job.

Apparently in this war, though, only Palestinians - unarmed civilians, pregnant women, children, the elderly - are supposed to suffer and die. God forbid a single Israeli soldier, armed to the teeth with the most sophisticated murderous weaponry US tax dollars can buy, should go missing.