Israel: 48hour Truce? Not so Much.

They kept the bombs coming. Good for them.

The reporting I've heard on all but the most conservative press outlets is heavily pro-Hamas/anti-Israel. Boo. What you don't hear much of at all, is that over half the dead are uniformed Hamas fighters. How many more "civilians" are unconventional warriors in the Jihad? It is a number you are guaranteed never to know.

There are also "civilian" casualties. That's what happens in a war. How many casualties would there be if the place was carpet-bombed like we did to Germany to win WWII? More? Yes? Then be quiet. Hamas shoots at civilians on purpose. Israel is trying to hit military targets; the civilians living next to military targets shouldn't be surprised to catch a case of dead. We live <30 miles from a military installation and it wouldn't surprise me to see a mushroom cloud before I got disintegrated; that's life in a time of standing armies.

FINALLY, Olmert is speaking truth to the world: "If conditions ripen to the point that we assess they promise a safer existence in southern Israel, we will consider it. We're not they're yet" That is, we will continue until our enemy is done for.

I was listening to NPR this morning and they had a guest who was #2 (loser #1) in the Palestinian presidential elections. There were a few not-so-softball questions but it sounded about like a Palestinian-national advertisement piece instead of reportage. Oh well, what else do you expect from NPR? They rolled sound from a guy whose daughter was injured in an Israeli air raid. She was knocked unconscious while already in-hospital for a stomach pain, when Israel struck a mosque next door. Sounds terrible right? Except that the mosques are command and control centers for Hamas, in addition to houses of prayer to a false god.

The reporters are trying to stick with "if it bleeds, it leads" reporting, but this presents a problem for objectivity: the Palestinians are finally getting squished, so we get to see the Palestinian casualties almost exclusively. Don't be mistaken: Israel is in the right in this action. Note also that, including what will be allowed in today, 6,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid are going to Gaza, and some of the critically ill are being allowed into Israel for treatment.

I just hope the current fighting doesn't lead to WWIII directly. I suppose we shall see.