Does our government find it acceptable for Israel to wage its war of aggression against the Palestinian people, leaving nearly a million people in Gaza without water or power, including hospitals and health care institutions, and bombing the Islamic University in Gaza and destroying bridges and other facilities? Does our government deem it acceptable for Israel to arrest and imprison many of the Palestinian members of the Legislative Council and members of their government? Does our government find it compatible with international law for Israeli air force threatening the Syrian president in his own country?

These vicious attacks, we are told, are a retaliation because Palestinians attacked an Israeli military post and captured an Israeli soldier. Since when is it a crime for a people under illegal foreign occupation to attack the very Israeli army that has been, for 39 years, killing thousands of innocent men,women and children and demolishing their homes, in violation of every article of the Fourth Geneva Convention? Do we understand that the killing, during the last three weeks, of nearly 30 Palestinian innocent civilians, including children and a pregnant mother, as well as killing an entire familiy on a Gaza beach, is a response to to the capture of the Israeli soldier?!! Is the fate of over 8,000 Palestinia men, women and children, held and tortured in Israeli prisons for years, without charge or trial, of no consequence compared to the fate of one Israeli soldier of an occupying army captured in a military action? Is it outrageous for those fighters who hold the Israeli soldier, to offer to release this soldier in return for Israeli release of the women and children held for years in their prisons, without charge or trial?