Hooray for Israel

Now precisely what are you supposed to do in such situations, invite your attackers over for tea and mediation? I think the conventional expectation is that you will strike back, by way of meting out just punishment for unprovoked aggression. Isn't that what you do with criminals? I'd hope so. I'd hope so to the point of working for the ouster of any establishment too cynical or too cowardly or too naive to come down firmly on the lawless.

The terrorists, then, are criminals? What else would you call murderers and mad bombers? The military dimension of Israel's -- and of our -- response to terrorist acts like the above need not obscure the profoundly criminal dimension of attempts to rub out your fellow man in the meanest, cruelest way.

We do well to keep in mind that the same people who hate Israel and work for its demise are the same criminals who hate the United States and wouldn't mind dropping a few hydrogen bombs on it if they knew where to get any -- though they're willing to settle for lesser measures like flying airplanes into skyscrapers.

In an age often unwilling to acknowledge the inherent superiority of one moral position over another, the Israelis inspire. They don't fall for all this modern nonsense or anything resembling it. They know an enemy when they see one. Would that the same might be said of us all.