Israel has learned the important lessons from the Holocaust. The international community has not.
Apparently, 90% of Israelis support the current military action in Gaza, including the bulk of the Israeli Left. I wonder whether that might be because a neighbouring fascist, Islamist government, whose Charter expresses commitment to the complete annihilation of Israel as well as to the genocide of the Jewish people (see the Charter of Hamas), is firing thousands of rockets to deliberately kill Israeli citizens - men, women and children - of which 10% fail to be blocked by the Iron Dome. Not to mention terrorist invasions via tunnels, paid for from Israeli and international aid to Gaza, and built by Hamas, who are hated by the Gazan people.
The UK would never tolerate missile bombardment by a genocidal alien government with impunity, and neither should Israel be expected to do so, especially with memories of the Holocaust in the Jewish psyche. Yes, civilians are being killed in Gaza in the military action. But Hamas have refused to stop firing missiles at Israeli citizens, and are using Gazans as human shields. If military action where citizens were collaterally killed was always wrong, then the Allied raids on Germany could never have taken place, and the Nazis (Hamas's historical counterparts) would have been victorious.
When Jewish people were subjected to the Holocaust, other people looked away and continued unjustly heaping blame on them, stirred up by the propaganda of the fascists who hated them. There were lessons to be learned from this. Israel has learned them. The international community apparently has not.
(My post on Times Comments, 30.7.14, under "Netanyahu left with no easy options."
