(Photo from here.

The unholy slaughter continues...

This, from a July 2 op-ed, made only more relevant by the destruction and deaths of the past week.

If you read the press coverage in the United States, you get a misleading idea about the balance of violence. But, as Amnesty International notes, “Since the beginning of this year, Israeli forces have killed some 150 Palestinians, including some 25 children, and Palestinian armed groups have killed close to 20 Israelis, including two children.”

None of those Israelis, none of those Palestinians, none of those children should have died.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government, Israel’s chief sponsor (to the tune of more than $3 billion in aide a year), does nothing except to give Israel a wink and a nod. “Let the Palestinians sweat a little,” one U.S. aide told the Israeli paper Haaretz.

Israel’s policy of collective punishment is reprehensible.

So, too, is U.S. support for it.

According to today's NYT, the toll since Israel pushed into northern Gaza on Thursday: at least 40 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier killed.

Complete op-ed here.
Complete NYT story here.