>>I am in agreement with you Jean. The destruction against the Palestinian civilian populace is beyond the pale.
>
>Jos, have to ask a question. Do you not believe the role that Hamas is playing that contributes to civilian destruction?

The question is framed from a particular perspective. Let’s assume that the claims are true and that Hamas hide their weapons in civilian buildings (and let’s be clear what we mean by “weapons” – these are not Blackhawk helicopters or F-14 Tomcat fighter jets or M1 Abram tanks). Then this is the sequence of events:

1) Hamas hide their weapons amongst the citizenry (as if the civilians have a choice in this matter).
2) IDF know where the weapons are.
3) IDF know there are civilians there.
4) IDF warn civilians to get out.
5) Civilians don't get out or not all.
6) IDF bomb the targets and the civilians anyway.

And the moral high ground is now where?

The bottom line is that 28 Israelis have died from Hamas “rockets” since 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel). Certainly a bad thing. In the last week alone 500+ Palestinians, by far mainly civilian men, women, and children, have been killed … in just a single week. Certainly a no less bad thing.

Recently, the world was in an uproar (and rightly so) that 3 Israeli teenagers were abducted and killed. An unquestionable dreadful event. But, do you know how many Palestinian teenagers have died at the hands of IDF? Any idea at all? Just try and make a guess before reading further. From Media Lens – UK, 02 July 2014:

The missing, ugly reality is that over the last 13 years, on average, one Palestinian child has been killed by Israel every 3 days. Since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000, 1,523 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel's occupation forces. Over the same time period, 129 Israeli children have been killed. Thus, the ratio of Palestinian children to Israeli children killed is more than ten to one. You would be forgiven for not having the slightest inkling of this from Western media coverage. Even in the past few days, in reporting the massive Israeli operation to find the teenagers, only the briefest of nods has been given to the 'five Palestinians, including a number of minors, [who were] killed' in the process. - http://tinyurl.com/o736cwm

But I have read your posts and you draw lines in history and arbitrarily choose when things “started”. And in that way one can justify anything. Like Dragan once commented here on the UT; "everyone only remembers the last punch".