Just one family destroyed, one among thousands. Every human being who listens to this should be pierced through the heart with regret. This is the reality of Israel’s “self-defense.”

And here is the story of another family who lost 48 people.

They [the IOF] left behind their own unique detritus: bullet casings, roasted peanuts in tins with Hebrew script, a plastic bag containing a “High Quality Body Warmer”, dozens of olive-green waste disposal bags, some empty, some stinking full - the troops’ portable toilets.

But most disturbing of all was the graffiti they daubed on the walls of the ground floor. Some was in Hebrew, but much was naively written in English: “Arabs need 2 die”, “Die you all”, “Make war not peace”, “1 is down, 999,999 to go”, and scrawled on an image of a gravestone the words: “Arabs 1948-2009″.

Such behavior certainly gives lie to the pious statements of Tsipi Livni defending the IOF, does it not?

It just slays me how people in the United States can brush all this off, excusing themselves from knowing or caring and — at the same time — casting a suspicious eye at people who pay attention, as if we are the racists for being offended at this sickening genocide, for expecting something other than the pathetic, anemic diversity of opinion in the US, which runs the gamut from full-blown support for Israel all the way over to concern for the possible “malign political effects of military escalation.” That’s the official spectrum of public debate — that’s it!!! The political “middle ground” is between these two camps: the just-do-it-genocide camp, and the please-be-more-careful-with-the-hasbara-genocide camp. Christ, have mercy.

Let’s just be very, very clear: The Racists are the Ones who Believe in Racial Superiority…The Ones Doing the Ethnic Cleansing and BRAGGING About It.

And one other thing…these Palestinians have every right to blame Israel and the world for their suffering. The vast majority of people in the West are in no position to judge how these people feel. Anyone with any sense should be deeply ashamed at the inconceivable amount of human suffering that the United States has brought, whether directly or indirectly, to the Arab World.

Politically correct people, smugly self-righteous, rush to put themselves in Israeli shoes because we’re supposedly likethis — us and Israel. What the hell does that mean, actually? You know, it’s code for saying that we Americans and Israelis are both superior to the Arabs, which of course is a totally racist and by definition anti-semitic attitude. But it is politically correct to be anti-semitic to actual semitic (Arab) people. All this kabuki while the true nature of our relationship with Israel should make American blood boil. But of course, conveniently, most people don’t seem to have a clue about that either. What. A. Racket.

I say put yourself in Palestinian shoes for two minutes. Go look at some pictures, watch some videos, read some stories, and be a human being. Then you can be an American. And after that, if you still want to, you can support Israel. But I will never. I am beyond horrified, and I refuse to apologize for my humanity.

Some Gazans speak privately of their anger at Hamas, blaming the Islamist movement that rules the small territory for dragging them into this conflict. But by far the larger majority are speaking now of their bitter anger at Israel and their deep resentment at the apathy of the Arab world and the rest of the international community, which failed to halt the destruction and the killing.

“We blame everyone,” said Ibrahim Samouni, 45, who lost his wife and four of his sons in the killings at Zeitoun. “We need everyone to look at us and see what has happened here. We are not resistance fighters. We are ordinary people.”

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8