Anti-Climacus

LINK: More on Israel and self-defense. A few interesting thoughts:

A fairly serious undercut to the moral posture of the Bush Administration. Who knew they could embrace relativism?

"Echoes of all of the foregoing criticisms could be heard in Tuesday's press briefing with White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. According to Fleischer, "Israel needs to be mindful of the consequences of its actions in order to preserve the path to peace in the Middle East. The president views this as a heavy-handed action that is not consistent with dedication to peace in the Middle East." When a journalist challenged Fleischer to differentiate between Israel's bombing of the Gaza home of Shehadeh and the American bombings in Afghani cities, the press secretary replied, "It is inaccurate to compare the two. And the crucial difference here being that in this instance, in Gaza, this was a deliberate attack against a building in which civilians were known to be located. What's always important is in pursuit of the military objectives, as the United States does in Afghanistan, to always exercise every restraint to minimize those losses of life. But in this case, what happened in Gaza was a knowing attack against a building in which innocents were found.""

and:

"Lastly, some commentators claimed that the Hamas was on the verge of agreeing to a ceasefire with Israel. The unasked question is what is Israel's interest in a ceasefire with the Hamas? The Hamas covenant explicitly calls for the elimination of Israel and the mass killing of Jews. They have pursued that policy doggedly, as their bloody record shows. On the contrary, if the Hamas really was seeking a ceasefire, that is a sure sign that the current Israeli policy of targeted killings has been working and it should be pursued with increased vigor. According to Israeli secret-service reports, the Hamas has already lost its entire leadership infrastructure in Judea and Samaria thanks to Israeli counterterror activities there. Ultimately, a "ceasefire" will be obtained by virtue of the fact that there will remain no Hamas leaders alive or freely roaming the cities of Gaza, either."