A response to Kelly Scoles' letter:

Hello again, Kelly,

The first sentence of your letter this week is, I believe, a key to understanding why, over a long period of time, we always seem to disagree on so many basic ideas. There is a fundamental difference in our way of thinking.
You say, "Sometimes a binary choice, one or the other, is not possible." I would say if we are looking for truth, a choice must always be made, even if our choice in good faith proves to be wrong, or we can always admit we simply don't know. Then, at least we can avoid contradiction. If our choice proves to be wrong, after further investigation, the ethical thing to do would be to admit our mistake.

You further state, "Sometimes the solution requires painful admissions, confronting a friend, or defending an enemy." For myself, truth is singular, solid, and exclusive. Offering to split the truth is like Solomon offering to divide that infant child to identify truth in a dispute.

Even Einstein admitted that his theory of a "universal constant" in 1915 was wrong. "After Hubble's discovery that the universe was, in fact, expanding, Einstein called his faulty assumption that the universe is static his "biggest mistake". That was one of those ‘painful admissions.’"

The Israel-Palestine war is not a "tragedy." There is no "fatal flaw" here in an otherwise traditional heroic actor. The evil is baked into the existence of Hamas. This war was begun by eternally diabolical actors, who deliberately and enthusiastically (as their tradition demands) ambushed Israel with wholesale murder in mind. At least educated Christians understand this bloody attack as purely evil, satanic. Only those who don't believe in Satin himself, and eternal spiritual manifestations, refuse to understand this.

You say, "I understand the Israel/Palestine tragedy can engender a visceral response..." That "visceral response" should be delivered to Hamas with the jawbone of an ass. Any accusations of "a lack of proportionality in Israel's response" reveals invincible ignorance. How does one "proportion" a defensive response to the reality of infant beheadings, rape, wholesale family murders and torture of totally innocent civilians? The only justified response to such infamy is total annihilation of the murderers - but Israel, a civilized nation, will forgo extracting an exact "eye for an eye".
You say Israel has been "a Jewish homeland 2000 years prior" [to Palestinian settlement]. You are off by a magnitude of two millennia. "Jews have lived on the land of Israel continuously for almost 4,000 years. Maybe they deserve at least an easement? The land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people, and the Landlord says, "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you." (YHWH).

Your tendency to equate the "righteous belligerents" is a stunning obfuscation of historic fact; the attack of Hamas was carefully premeditated murder. It was "malum in se," an act violating the natural, moral and public principles of a civilized society. Permitting Hamas to survive is tantamount to letting your neighbor create an Ebola Garden next door. It only lives to kill.

Your parenthetical curiosity concerning Israel's lapse of military intelligence is misplaced. That is food for historians. I know it's being deeply investigated. As for Israel "killing humans in a barrel," Hamas habitually uses its own innocent civilians to hide behind, offering them up as human sacrifice, just as they incinerate Israeli babies in front of their mothers. Newly released captured video of this practice is available to satisfy the curious.

Frankly, Kelly, I'm disappointed in your understanding of this crisis. I assume you feel the same way about the Russian Orcs in Ukraine. Before I have finally "shuffled off this mortal coil", I want to go on record as saying: Both Ukraine and Israel are fighting America's wars; they are doing the dying. America should be morally and rationally compelled to assist both countries with maximum assistance, military and civil, to assure they win these wars. That America has squandered TRILLIONS on weather foolishness and gender orientation, doesn't negate the duty to support both Ukraine and Israel. They are holding back the tsunami of Islamo-Communist threats which are about to engulf our country. The threat is not just over there. The threat overflows into America by 8-million invaders, trespassers who support Hamas, hate America, and soon to attack us from within. When this happens, we will learn that our assistance to Ukraine and Israel, though laudable, was done begrudgingly.
“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; For want of a shoe, the horse was lost; For want of a horse, the rider was lost; For want of a rider, the battle was lost; For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.” Benjamin Franklin quoted this old proverb in an edition of Poor Richard's Almanac in 1758.

I strongly recommend that: "... we be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that [we] can take [our] stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:10

I worry that, instead of suiting-up as recommended, we are charging butt naked onto the field of sharp and exploding things.