An interesting article at RealClear Politics begins this way:

WASHINGTON -- Next June will mark the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War. For four decades we have been told that the cause of the anger, violence and terror against Israel is its occupation of the territories seized in that war. End the occupation and the "cycle of violence'' ceases.

The problem with this claim was that before Israel came into possession of the West Bank and Gaza in the Six Day War, every Arab state had rejected Israel's right to exist and declared Israel's pre-1967 borders -- now deemed sacred -- to be nothing more than the armistice lines suspending, and not ending, the 1948-49 war to exterminate Israel.

But you don't have to be a historian to understand the intention of Israel's enemies. You only have to read today's newspapers.

Read the whole thing. Some imagine that there is moral equivalency between Israel and those who are at war with them now. That there is a "cycle of violence." I believe that those who think that simply don't understand what's actually going on. Those who are at war with Israel are the bad guys. Sometimes there really is a right side and a wrong side to a conflict. This is one of those times. You'd think the fact that those who are at war with Israel are anti-Semitic, purposely target civilians, think all Jews should die, believe the Holocaust never happened, and danced with glee on 911 would be enough of a clue that they are the bad guys. (Or maybe if we think about what these folks do to women, freedom of speach, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, that would help?) If it walks like a Nazi and talks like a Nazi...

Or maybe some people think that Israel should just continue accepting getting rockets shot into them on a daily basis from Gaza and Lebanon? Not to mention the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers. But then, I'm not a pacifist and I believe that sometimes war is the answer.

Lincoln said that the best way to destroy our enemies is by turning them into our friends. I agree with that. Unfortunately, all too often, the best way is not possible in this sad world.

The current Dry Bones cartoon is also interesting as one thinks about these things.