This is what I meant before: NEITHER sides cheerleaders EVER defends its acts, but ALWAYS points to the others atrocities to excuse those acts. It is always easier to condemn an opponents unconscionable behavior than defend and allies.

Since we are talking human shields, let us do just that: Human shields are only justified if they PREVENT rather than ABSORB violence, so the innocents used are never endangered, let alone killed. That is not the case here, is it? Israel retaliates against terrorists whether those terrorists hide behind human shields or not, because the alternative is to let terrorism continue with impunity, and thus indefinitely. Human shields do not save a single terrorist for further combat: They just get innocents killed in the line of fire. So why do it? Because globally aired pics of dead kids undermine Israels global support?

That is like the guy at Bundys ranch who said he put his wife and kids out in front, so if the BLM started firing they would be killed first for the cameras, while he opened fire from the rear screaming for vengeance because "they" killed his family. I get the outrage over innocent kids blown apart by bombs—but are we holding the responsible people culpable? If someone sends their kids to play on the freeway, who is responsible for their inevitable death, the parent or driver?

Flip side: If some lunatic runs down the street shooting everything that moves (or does NOT move fast enough,) should cops and everyone else just let him do it if he has a baby strapped to his chest? Should we let him keep killing innocents if the only way to stop him risks killing the innocent he brought along to deter that?

Israel could do the job much more precisely and with far less collateral damage if the IDF just imposed Gaza curfews with checkpoints and house to house weapons searches—but since the two-state agreement, that would no longer be "simply" martial law: It would be INVASION of a sovereign state, followed by more "illegal occupation" and "oppression." And innocents would STILL die, because the same terrorists who WANT kids to die as human shields just to make Israel look bad are just as eager to strap bombs to those kids chests and send them out to blow up Israeli buses and malls, and the IDF has no way to distinguish Palestinian kids playing soccer from Palestinian kids playing "martyr" (just for the record: Martyrs DIE for their beliefs, not KILL for them.)

The Palestinians supporters (or, again, Israels detractors; precious few qualify as the former) act like the US sold Israel so many bombs the soulless IDF can spare plenty to gleefully murder innocent kids just for the sheer bigoted joy of it, and despite all the political consequences (e.g. the US NOT selling them bombs used that way.) The reality is, pretty much everyone in Israel is outraged by the IDF killing innocent Palestinians kids; pretty much everyone on EARTH is—except for SOBs like Hamas, who enthusiastically encourage it because it helps their cause. Thus it is ridiculously unjust to blame the proximate rather than ACTUAL cause.

Yes, I realize I am only criticizing Hamas and their co-murderers rather than defending Israel; again, there is scant DEFENSIBLE behavior on either side.