Terrorism takes many forms. One man's terrorism is nearly always another man's defense of the faith, or honor, or country, or rights, or tribe or family. Terrorism, always, is as easy to defend for those on one side as it is easy to condemn for those on the other. The terrorists on the wrong side are mad men, or ideologues, or fanatics. But mad men, ideologues and fanatics, great and small, can always justify what they've done. Special insight into the mind of God is a favorite excuse. Think Jihad, Pogrom, Crusade, Inquisition, Slavery, the "Troubles" and "Manifest Destiny," to name but a few. Perceived threats to "civilization" or the "national culture" also rank high. Think Holocaust, India-Pakistan, China-Tibet, the Indian Wars, Lynch mobs, Jim Crow. The peoples of the middle east still cite horrors recorded in the most ancient religious texts as excuses for atrocities committed in the 21st century. Cities wiped from the face of the earth and peoples murdered and enslaved or worse create long memories filled with hate. There are Americans who still spit hate at the mere mention of the French and Indians, much less the burning of Atlanta. And two numbers . . . 9 and 11 . . . still gin up furies that match or exceed all the pain and suffering and loss associated with the horrors of that day. War, of course, is war. Terror has long been a tool of war . . . as well as a tactic of choice by those unable to stand and fight toe to toe with their enemies. The one thing that terrorist and victims alike feel especially compelled to condemn in others (or justify in themselves) however, is the murder of innocents. Usually those "innocents" are defined as non combatants, especially women, children, the old and sometimes even the wounded. Killing or maiming them, whether deliberately or "by accident" creates resentments and breeds hatreds that last for centuries, if not longer. The Germans soon discovered the true consequences of bombing population centers in Britain. It only made the British angrier and more determined. The Japanese sowed similar dragons' teeth in China and the rest of southeast Asia. The Allies, east and west, reaped the same whirlwind. Bombing German cities did less to win the war than to boost the determination of German troops. On the eastern front our Soviet allies, furious at atrocities commiteded as the Germans moved east, committed unspeakable atrocities against German civilians as the Red Army rolled west. Germans fought to the end in hopeless engagements in the streets of Berlin rather than submit. So, what about Gaza? The Israelis, of course, cannot and will not submit to terrorism from any quarter. They know the meaning of terrorism on an unspeakable scale and the consequences of failure to resist it. They also know what it means to be a victim and the power of the phrase, "Never Again." In Gaza the Israeli right has gone too far and, they know it. At some indefinable point they crossed a hard to define line. The justice of the ends was overshadowed by the horrors of the means they had used to achieve them. And at some point Israel realized what that means for the future strength and security of Israel. Their leadership knows that, at some point, Israel had no real need to use tactics that put them on the wrong side of moral outrage. And the Israelis not only know better, they are better than that. They have proven it time and time again: On the battlefield. In the pursuit of the Munich terrorists. In Israel itself, under conditions that, comparatively speaking, make Hamas bouncing of rockets off the Iron Dome seem insignificant. The disproportionate killing of innocents in the Gaza fight has hurt Israel. It has strengthened the resolve of their enemies. It has provided fuel for their enemy's fund raising and recruitment efforts. And, as we are already seeing in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and here in the US, it provides antisemites of all stripes, religious and non-religious, with fuel for their fires of hate. Israel's current leadership, arguably with good intentions, has done their country a great disservice. Israelis know better ways to handle these problems. They need to find and elect leaders with the wisdom, and power and political courage to use them.