Talk about defining deviancy down! Palestinian suicide bombers have nail bombs, Israel has dart bombs.

Palestinian officials have condemned Israel’s reported use of tank shells which are said to have sprayed thousands of metal darts at a target in Gaza, killing four Palestinian civilians.

Israeli media said the Israeli army confirmed it used flechettes in an operation near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, south of Gaza City, on Thursday.

Palestinian medical officials said the victims were cut to shreds after being hit by the tiny metal darts, which are dispersed by a tank shell.

Is he insane? I can’t imagine why any British PM would tie his fortunes so closely to the most ignorant man ever to be President of the USA.

For him to argue this:

The world cannot stand by while Iraq is in “flagrant breach” of United Nations resolutions, the UK prime minister has said.

seems dangerous to me, given that one of the key “allies” of the US and UK in the Middle East is Israel, which is certainly in violation of a number of UN resolutions. It only makes the two countries look like hypocrites.

I’m not arguing that Iraq is country of peace and enlightenment, but I also don’t see it as a country that threatens us enough to spend $50+ billion (more than the federal government’s annual spending on primary and secondary education plus medical research) and risk thousands of American lives, to say nothing of de-stablizing much of the Middle East.

The Times has a front page picture and inside article about one of the doubles teams at the U.S. Open: Amir Hadad of Israel and Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan — yes, a Jewish/Muslim doubles team. There’s a video on the CNN/SI site also — they’re adorable. A photo from the U.S. Open site of them is here.

When it’s tank shells (or F-16s) rather than suicide bombs that kill civilians, Americans seem to think it’s not terrorism. Israel shelled people in a bedouin encampment last night, killing a family of four, and wounding others, claiming there was movement in an area near a settlement where Palestinians were forbidden. When I heard about it on NPR this morning, they said it was within an olive grove. I know from my friends in JAtO that now is the time for harvesting olives for oil.
[ CNN – Photo – NY Times – Ha’aretz ]

It’s one of the top stories on the newswires right now, but the NY Times chose to put it on page 9 with a standard-sized headline.

The settlements are being built in areas where these families have lived for generations. To kill them for being in the olive groves that they’ve tended for hundreds of years (or more) is terrorism.