Israel Strikes Empty Ministry Building

In a battle to save a soldier, the Israeli's attacked the Palestinian Prime Minister's office, which they knew was empty at the time. They did this of course to send a message in the only way the Palestinians would understand, with power.

The MSM is wringing their collective hands because of Israel's vow that they would take out PM if Cpl. Gilad Shalit were killed. Again, the rules of middle east diplomacy are far different than he rest of the world and Israel knows this. The Arabs are a tribal people and barbaric at that.

The Israeli's know that either you can play the game according to western standards or you can play to win. They've opted--correctly in my humble opinion--to play to win.

One should note that the Israeli's make it a point to attack when the chance of civilian deaths is minimized while the Palestinians make it a point to kill as many civilians as possible.

DK at Talking Points Memo tenuously links the current conflict in Gaza with the Iraq war:

What U.S. strategic interest is served by Israel's seizing of elected Palestinian officials and bombing of the offices of the Palestinian prime minister?

Others have aptly noted the disproportionate Israeli response to the capture of one of its soldiers. When measured not just against the incident that precipated the current escalation of violence but also against international norms, Israel's conduct has been disproportionate--and self-defeating. (If this report is true, then Israel's conduct is beyond disproportionate.)

But with the United States bogged down in Iraq, another important measuring stick, at least for us, is U.S. strategic interest. By that measure, Israel's actions this past week have been a disaster.

DK has linked the events in Gaza to the Iraq war even though no distinguishable link exists. What Marshall fails to see is that to military men, one soldier is just as important as one hundred soldiers. This response is not "disproportionate" but totally in proportion to what needs to be accomplished. An army that will not defend and protect its soldiers is an army that would never succeed. He falls into the mindest that afflicts many Israel haters in writing that the IDF has 'escalated the violence" beyond "international norms" but fails to report the daily rocket attacks from Gaza or the Palestinian policy of murder that Israel constantly deals with.

The rest of the flawed post attempts to explain how the two events are linked and fails miserably.