A few weeks back, I posted an article here, "Israeli War Crimes in Gaza," [http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1379], which was met with some, shall we say, disputation?

The piece was not designed to be an exercise in flame-throwing or in anti-Semitism, charges which usually follow any critique, no matter how objective, of the state of Israel

Rather, the article attempted to distinguish the unvarnished truth about the admittedly-provoked 2009 attack on Gaza.

One Jewish critic of the exercise of grossly disproportionate power and the wildly disproportionate civilian casualties between the combatants, the emininent jurist, Richard Goldstone, was rudely dismissed as a wayward judge who had suffered a "moral inversion."

In sum, his implicit immorality rested on the very shaky premise that the military actions of the Israeli Defense Force, the IDF, were all justifiable and well within the bounds of Geneva Convention war prohibitions.

That's as credible as Mengele saying his experiments fostered racial cleansing.

Apparently, Judge Goldstone is not unique in his beliefs and if anyone suffered from a moral inversion, more precisely, a moral perversion, it was Israeli leaders, IDF commanders, and the soldiers who executed their orders.

"I was just following orders" didn't work at Nuremberg. It shouldn't work for the IDF.

In a pre-new year un-varnished confession by Larry Derfner of Jeusalempost.com titled, "Rattling the Cage, a Taboo Question for Israelis," Derfner takes strong issue with the propaganda of his government, regarding the civilian death count and the atrocities committed by his own nation against thousands of innocent Gazans.

Derfner's taboo point is well taken in his concluding observations.

"We can't go to Gaza, but we have to start using our imagination," he writes. "We have to dare to put ourselves in those people's place. And we have to stop doing to them what we would never allow anyone to do to us. Otherwise, we Israelis have no conscience, and little by little we become capable of anything."

Well put, Mr. Derfner, but now you should be prepared for accusations of "moral inversion," and worse.

You should be ready to refute "official" refutations of your allegations in whole or in part that Israel "sent F-16s, Apache helicopters, white phosphorous, drones, tanks and battalions" into Gaza.

You should be ready to be smeared as badly or worse than was Mr. Goldstone for saying, "Aside from choking the flow of goods to Gaza by land, we blockade their entire coast. We don't allow ships to sail into Gaza or out... We also blockade Gaza's airspace, preventing planes from flying in or out. Does anybody stop planes from flying in and out of Israel?"

Most cogently, Derfner writes, "Would we [Israel] stand for it if someone did?"

I doubt it, Larry, not with America subsidizing, watching and protecting Israel's back and lower back, those billions of aid we send, and those state of military arts, technology, and weaponry we give Israel so it can fend off Gazans throwing rocks and tossing the occasional antiquated missile into Sderot.

Conceding that life in Sderot is still a helluva lot better than Gazan life won't make you many friends at home anymore than candidate Obama's comment on visiting that town gained him Arab votes.

Barack ponticated in fatherly fashion, "If missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that:" http://bit.ly/7ywrig

Obama well knows he, Michelle, and the kids will be as safe as bugs in rugs, that is, unless next year's Christmas Day bomber flies over Hawaii.

In that case, he'd run away.