If the blood orgy between Israelis and Palestinians were a sporting event this would be the score as of now. No end in sight.

This latest Israeli onslaught brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year to some 650, at least a third of whom are unarmed civilians, including 70 children. In the same period, Palestinian armed groups have killed 25 Israelis, 16 of them civilians, including four children. In the past eight years the Israeli-Palestinian violence has cost the lives of some 5,000 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis. Most of the victims on both sides have been unarmed civilians, including some 900 Palestinian and 120 Israeli children.

[more photos at CNN]

Amnesty International

And like sports hooligans around the world, too many are cheering the the results.

Intoxicated by dreams of revenge both sides are sleepwalking through any real ideas of how bring security and happiness to their populations. As a couple of articles posted yesterday pointed out the Israelis seem entirely gripped by the notion that with enough violence the Palestinians will “learn a lesson.” Despite 40 years experience which suggests other lessons, deadly to Israelis, are being learned.

Equally, one has to ask, “what the f*** are the Hamas militants, with their sporadic rocket fire into Israel, trying to do?” Really, beyond poking an eye for the satisfaction of the imagined injury, what is the strategy, and does it have anything to do with Palestian lives? In whose interest, actually, are the rockets being fired?

Laura Rosen at her War and Piece blog has a series of thoughtful posts from various sources, well worth spending part of an hour reading through.

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