While I would agre with the author, there is no room for "racist grunts (as if we were) at sporting events," neither is there room for pity and handwringing in the face of this brutal enemy. A society defending itself against a brutal and savage enemy cannot afford this luxury. A society that is consumed with pity and handwringing at the hands of savages like Hamas beasts is finished.

We aren't responsible for most of the deaths - Hamas is!!! How dare you give support to our enemies' claims!! And how 'indifferent' are we when we have set up a hospital on the border to treat Gazans who were wounded during the war??It is only the victor who does such a thing.

Sir- I am sad to see that you honestly feel that we have lost our humanity. You think we are 'indifferent' to the suffering of innocents? We are not. What we are is no longer willing to accept blame or responsibility when a terrorist band of barbarians callously use their own civilians as shields. I am sorry you feel the need to apologize for our national self defense. It is people who feel as you do that kept us from reacting long ago and saving those Israelis killed in the interim by Hamas and the Palestians who died as their 'leaders' had more time to acquire the weapons they fired from their midst. I feel for every mother, but I wont sacrifice my child for theirs - that is not humanity-and for that I don't apologize.

Sure, we should all feel guilty about self-defense. We can always expect this kind of drivel from bleeding-heart liberal fools who can't distinguish between victim & aggressor. Where on earth does all this guilt & anguish come from? What kind of psychological malady is this a symptom of? Does Hamas feel guilty about the death of it's own civilians brought about by it's own irresponsible actions? Do ANY of our enemies mourn our dead? No, they rejoice in the streets & pass out sweets. I don't feel like writing a thesis on morality but I will make one comment. Morality is not some abstract set of concepts that exists somewhere in heaven or wherever. Morality exists here on Earth & is intimately connected to real life situations. Certainly, there is room for discussion as to what constitutes moral action but it cannot be removed from actual circumstances. Self-defense from genocidal maniacs & ideologically disturbed lunatics is not immoral - on the contrary, it is our obligation & duty. There are indeed consequences & this is just unfortunate reality. Millions upon millions of people died during WWII yet no one would question the ultimate morality of that conflict. Why? Because the outcome of defeat would have been the triumph of a greater evil. It is no different today. This man's opinion, far from being moral, is absolutely immoral.

Gadi, do you know for a fact that "hundreds of children" were killed because I don't and given the track record of the Palestinians you'll forgive me if I take their claims with a pinch of salt. The Israeli woman who was "indifferent" had a son in combat fighting the people who were hiding in places like the doctor's home. I would say she was not indifferent rather she had her priorities right, which is that Israeli lives should not be risked because the Palestinians choose to put their civilian's lives at risk. The domestic critics are being slammed because without knowing any facts they choose to believe enemy propaganda despite copious evidence that what the enemy is saying is not true. They are being slammed because they happily spread lies which are made all the more credible when people point at Ha'aretz or Btselem and go "even Israelis say.....". How can we demand accuracy and fairness off the BBC, CNN or even Al Jazeera when we don't ask it off Ha'aretz? Where do you think the lies about "4million cluster bombs in South Lebanon" came from? An Israeli journalist, a lie that has had material negative effect on Israel's security. If that is not treachery then what is?

We are being attacked and terrorised for 60 years and we still feed and give electricity and water to the enemy. What's the problem? Should we also stop defending ourselves for the erev rav approval? Short of jumping ourselves into the sea nothing will placate the self haters.

Nothing worth saving anyway; awful people, nasty racist ideology. Can't imagine you are going to get much aliya from now on, apart maybe from the type of Zionist thugs the US will be happy to get rid of.

Israeli society is so indifferent to death oh child? during WWII the US society were indifferent to the killing of hundred thousand of german and japanese child.... Where do we draw the line? yes ...to the end of kassam

I would guess that the average empathy in Israel with what happened in Gaza is far bigger than the average empathy in Western countries that participate in the "war against terror" in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, with far greater human suffering. I cannot remember the last time I heard anybody express real sorrow for what our people are doing there. It is deemed necessary, and that is it.

I just don't believe the arabs, full stop end of story ve sof pasuk The can cry until tomorrow, not my problem.

Hamas opened up a can of whoopass, by messing with the wrong bully. After shooting at us for 8 years with hardly a response, we finally got tired of this sh*t and beat the living cr*p out of Hamas. Hamas' pompous declaration, "Gaza will be your graveyard!" soon turned into desparate cries, "UN, Turkey, Egypt, Europe, anybody... Tell them to stop!!! They're killing us!!! Holocaust!!! Genocide!!!" So we did stop. Oh yeah, some civilians died in the process. Tough sh*t. That's what happens when terrorists shoot from civilians' homes, schools and refugee camps. So next time we'll just urge Hamas to come and fight the IDF face-to-face, instead of behind human shields... I'm sure they'll comply, after all, they care so much about their own civilians! Anyway, the only thing left to do now is give a tzalash to Ashkenazi. End of incisive debate.

Terry #5 has written a thesis on morality despite his protestations to the contrary and it should be compulsory reading for every politician and national leader because it says it all

I'm sorry, I haven't seen a single person saying it's ok that civilians were hurt and killed. Gadi, if you feel guilty, maybe you did something wrong. But don't try to impose the sense of guilt on others. Actually this article would reflect reality if you were to replace the word "us" with the word "arabs." None of our neighbours care about how many innocent Israelis are getting killed. Gadi, how do you manage to sleep at night?

You have expressed what many feel. If there were someone to organize all of us maybe we could influence others or at least show that we haven't all become heartless.

then we'll never bring down the death rate on the roads, and never learn to take our fingers of the trigger. I suggest that Livni asks those whom we have just killed, whether they are aware that they were killed unintentionally. If they don't answer, we'll have to assume she's wrong.

Gadi, you ask some very important questions. I dont mean to dismiss them...I have grappled myself with the after effects of the "war" whilst always "comforting" myself with the knowledge that it was a battle - to the death for those involved, and it was a necessary one. I am just happy that in Israel we can assess and debate, discuss and challenge. Unfortunately, you are part of an initiative that has proven to be naive in the past for actually believing that there is "someone out there" for us to talk to. The death of innocents (women or children, young or old) is and was tragic...but do not lose sight of the geopolitical consequences which at some point will determine whether 1,000 innocent lives are lost, or 1,000,000 - Iran on Israel's doorstep, Hamas, Hezbollah...at the end of the day, we do need to look out for numero uno, and that my friend, is us.

Why is there no question why Gaza people are indiferent to thousands of rockets launched from their back yard? Why do the Palestinians celebrate when Jews are killed? Why does UN, EU, USA do nothing to eliminate daily bombing of Israeli civilians? Why do Arab states such as Egypt encourage or at least not interfere with arms smuggling into Israel? But Gadi Baltianski is a "good doer" : he does not live in Sderot and does not have a family there. He was not part of self imposed restraint that the Israeli government did on itself until "enough was enough". When somebody stops protecting self it means that decadence is taking over. Indeed, what Gideon Levy and Israeli snob academic elitists do to destroy Israel and Israeli society I feel that decadence is taking over. This is terrible deterioration of Israel and Jewish values which suggest that "HABA LEHOGEHA HASHKEM LEHORGO". This is the same self destruction that brought us Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz. Our intellectual thoughtful leaders preached that we should not resist the Nazis, we should not fight them because the Germans could be hurt, they could be injured. So Gadi, let us stand in line to the ovens of Gaza. Let us adverize that we can be destroyed not from the outside but from within. Haaretz, Ynet and others will always be glad to give the stage to expose our rottt.

Asking the moral question is always essential before, during, and after the conflict. But Baltiansky should recall the phrase, "one who is kind to the cruel will be cruel to the innocent." The search for peace begun at Oslo exemplifies this quote. For when the Oslo process brought Arafat to Gaza a period of being kind to the cruel began. The result was cruelty to innocent Palestinians subjected to Fatah dictatorship and now Hamas, to the mass indoctrination of Palestinian children in hate, to the suicide bombings of hundreds of Israeli children and civilians, and to a buildup of strength and armaments by the terror groups in rocket range of Israel that required the morally challenging response the author decries with its many civilian casualties. It would have been better to pursue more patient diplomacy under the Madrid framework and to distinguish reasonable opponents from ideologically radical and unswerving enemies who adhere to methods of cruelty to Jews and to their own people. This approach may not have received the headlines the White House lawn handshake received. But it would have spared both sides the civilian toll extracted these past 15 years and perhaps, with genuine outreach by Israel to the locals in the territories as Moshe Arens had urged, may have given time for true Arab peace partners to emerge.

After trying to evade 6000 rockets sent from a completely evacuated Gaza, attacking 700.000 Southern area Israeli civilians, it was high time to react back to Hamas. Remember: 55% of Gazans are uer the age of 17. Ten to a room, almost all their time goes running the streets and imitating Hamas. All Hamas had to do is hide behind them while shooting.

See how terrorist rocket launchers and other military weapons are nestled in residential neighborhoods and houses of worship: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129347 Hamas leaders hiding in basement of Israel-built hospital in Gaza: Militants hiding in Shifa Hospital becuase they know it will not be targeted by Israel http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054569.html WATCH: IDF uncovers booby-trapped school next to Gaza zoo http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054533.html Sick. Hamas Is Proud That It Uses Women And Children As Human Shields http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1710.htm And this channel has a lot: http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk Including the mosque: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwP_LusgPAw&feature=channel_page A school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXXUOs27lI&feature=channel_page Hamas Gunmen Fire At IDF Helicopters Whilst Surrounded By Civilians http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3b_1232299324 SEE THE PHILISTINE TERRORISTS USING UN AMBULANCES IN BATTLE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLd0URED_tE AND WATCH THE PHILISTINES TRY TO SMUGGLE A SUICIDE BOMBER BELT IN ANOTHER AMBULANCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpXOwN9hy5M DID THE ARAB WOMAN AND CHILD KNOW? ARE THEY PART OF THE RUSE? AND FROM THE WASHINGTON POST BACK IN 2002: Word that the army was approaching raced through Jabalya's warren of narrow alleyways and trash-choked streets, and hundreds of the camp's young militants, armed and unarmed, raced south toward Gaza City to escape by car and on foot. Many headed for the main hospital, calculating that it was unlikely to be hit by the Israelis. http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/cra0231.htm The Islamic terrorists bear ALL responsibility.

I hope that Mr Baltiansky will read that mail, cause really, I'm ashamed to read his. He's blaming us for killing children, he's blaming us to become indifferent. Where was he when bombs fell on innocent children living first in Goush Katif, then in Sderot and now in Ashkelon and Ashdod? They are not children? They are not innocent people? These want to live in peace, the children in gaza are not afraid to hold weapons and vomit insanities against us. In our schools, people learn maths or science, there, they learn how to kill us. Where are his eyes? And he wants a debate! well, he should come here and talk to the people who lost one of them. He should talk to the children that lost their mother bc of a grad. She was not a fighter, she just came out of a gym center. The same for all the people that are injured in our hospitals. He just should go and visit some of them. They are hundreds just in Soroka. Then he'll be able to talk. For the moment, he has just the right to shut up. We prise life, they prise death. Just for that, he should stop talking and defending them. If children have been killed, that's not our fault but his friends from hamas's one. Just know it.

How did we become indifferent to seven years of shelling Sderot and the surrounding areas. When Gadi Blatiansky comes back from a N. Tel Aviv coffee shop I suggest he makes an appointment with a good psychiatrist because he's not a well person. Mike

This war was IMPOSED on us , we did'nt and do not like it . We don't rejoyce when innocent children are killed , yes there are innocent children taken away to be used as human shields . Had we been as you describe us , then not 1200 gazans would have been killed but the tenfold or even more . As most Israelis i want to live in peace , but not at any price . To live in peace you need a partner who wants it too . The Geneva accords , great ! had we been Swiss citizens with France , Germany , Austria and Italy as neighboors . But we are'nt , and have other kind of neighboors

I don't know anyone who is indifferent to the suffering - on BOTH sides. However, there does appear to be a consensus that the Gazan action was absolutely necessary.

good job someone is protecting you. it leaves you with a choice to make a financial donation to the people of gaza, or to do voluntary work there, or even, live in sderot instead of tel aviv, as you probably wouldn't want to live in sderot to relieve your soul searching, when it is being bombed on a daily basis .

We need government officials who knows how to talk in diplomatic way that does not appear aggressive. Israeli officials do not realize they do not come across in a very dignified and sophisticated way like many American Officials do. Therefore foreigners do not want to hear plight of Jews. We need to elect officials who are not just smart but also charismatic and great orators both in hebrew and in english.Let's take a lesson from America. Look at their new president. Second, Israel would have look better if they offered compensation to the men women and children not involved with Hamas. Like placing many of them in shelters in israel before Israel went to war.