It’s been going on for so long now that we can’t even assign blame anymore.

There are definitional differences between the words “military” or “soldier,” “terrorist,” and “insurgent.” Look them up, John. Applying “terrorist” to the IDF means applying it to every single soldier that has ever existed, since every army uses “terror, violence, and intimidation” to achieve their end. And unlike Hamas et al, the IDF does not as a matter of course intentionally and randomly target civilians for death.

There is no equivalency between blowing up a bus full of Israelis and demolishing a Palestinian home after the residents have been evicted. Both are immoral (and the house demolition is utterly counterproductive for the state of Israel), but equating murder with property damage, or equating the targeting of Israeli civilians with the targeting of Palestinian combatants, is the false equivalency here.

Israeli terrorism is quite overwhelming. Labeling it something more palatable like “military” has no bearing upon the realities. Israel was formed by terrorists, the Irgun and the Stern gang come to mind. These were terrorists who used ethnic cleansing to terrorize the population and steal their lands. This pattern has not significantly changed since Israel was made a country, a country in violation of numerous UN resolutions regarding its war crimes and Geneva Conventions violations.

This fake equivalence approach, treating the Palestinians and the Israelis like they were equal forces is nonsensical.

On the one hand, Israel has a modern army, navy, air force and all the plundered loot that corrupt US congress can send their way, in exchange for campaign contributions, contracts and favorable media.

On the other hand, you have a population that has been forcefully moved into a ghetto over decades of non-stop aggression, demonized at every turn whenever one of them fights back with primitive means. They have no media, no armies, no air force, no navy, no money. What they have is some seaside land that is highly coveted by the Israelis.

That’s square one.

The nauseating biases of the US corporate media don’t need to apply here, do they?

I’ll have to go back and edit them to correct the spelling.

Spellcheckers are really handy for those of us who type really fast but with lots of typos, but not so good when you don’t actually know how to spell something….

One quibble that is totally beside the point. “Katusha” should probably be spelled “Katyusha” (i have seen the transliteration that you used and my spell check prefers it, but most Russian speakers would say that it does not convey the vowel sound…a vowel that English doesn’t have.) I only quibble because it’s my favorite song; i think my record is something like four hours of singing it as a loop.

The rockets were named (by soldiers) after an old Russian folk song about a woman pining for her lover who’s gone to war. It became an unofficial anthem and can be performed as a melancholic love song or a marshal march.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrUjAz4Kh5A&NR=1 (other renditions in sidebar)