This is such a complicated idea, and I find myself on both sides and none whenever I think about it. The Us and Them side is biological and fundamental, but the global consciousness side is what I believe the hope of our species to be. I wish all humans could treat each other the same way and collaborate and so on but we aren't wired that way, probably never will be; and there's an argument to be made that even if we were, the necessary homogenization would be worse than the benefits.

I do condemn them for slaughtering other humans. There's a line somewhere.

So do I, and so, I think, does the author of this piece. He's trying to make a sort of utilitarian argument -- what does he say in the last paragraph about shifting probabilities -- which implies a line.

The line is different for everyone. Right now it's Netanyahu's line that matters -- or is it Ya'alon's? Or the Israeli voting mass's? The Jerusalem Post did a poll; looks like your average Jew wants to stick it to Gaza. No one is surprised, but you're damn straight Netanyahu had to incorporate that into his decisions on Sunday.