Israel, "summer rain", and collective punishment

Well, it's that time of year again. First come up with the nifty little ethnic-cleansing sounding name for a military operation such as "Summer Rain". Nothing will fix up that ole garden like a good shower. Yep, nothing but hundreds of thousands of gentle artillery shells and 1000 pound bombs to rejuvenate the lawn and quench that nagging thirst…

An Israeli soldier has been kidnapped! Clearly then the only proportional response is to leave 1.3 million people without power – trapped in the dark and under the window-shattering over-flights of the IAF (and artillery shells).

Anyway, It was refreshing to see this debate on Democracy Now this morning between Norman Finkelstein (author of beyond Chutzpah) and Josh Block director of Media Affairs for American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).