Balanced according to Guardian

The latest Guardian leader on the developments in Gaza probably caused its author (or authors, as the case might be - you never know with these people) a serious bout of indigestion. Trying to artificially balance the wobbly logical structure, throwing on the scales some truths, some evasions and some half-truths could harm the most robust stomach.

...there has always been a grim inevitability about the offensive - codenamed Summer Rain - that Ehud Olmert unleashed yesterday to try to free a soldier abducted by Palestinian fighters.

Why is that? Doesn't the fact that the steady flow of Qassams started immediately after the disengagement have something to do with it?

Bombing bridges may have some military logic, but the destruction of a power station seems intended solely to intimidate and inflict collective punishment.

Please - stop that whining about collective punishment. The Palestinians themselves excel in the whining as it is. Hiding the "freedom fighters" after their individual crimes are perpetrated, allowing them to launch Qassams from the most populated neighborhoods counts as collective crime in my book. Imagine London being bombarded and tell us what would the enlightened Brits have done in our place. Just a second, London was bombarded actually? And? Oh, that Dresden story - no, we would not mention it, after all it was so looong ago. Besides, Jupiter and bull and all that stuff...

The brutal truth, though, is that Israel has killed many more Palestinians in its attacks on the Gaza Strip - the distinction between preemption and retaliation now bloodily blurred.

We can hardly teach Europeans anything about bloody. We should not mention all these tens of millions lying in mass graves all over the bloody continent. Must be sensitive, after all some of the graves are quite fresh. And again: Jupiter and bull, Jupiter and bull... Could we mention the word "war"? Please?

Ironically, at this menacing moment, prospects for negotiation may have improved - at least on paper - thanks to Mr Abbas's agreement with Hamas.

The irony is sometimes is the eyes of the beholder, it looks like. Read "Palestinian Prisoners' document may end the peace process" about the great sham called "Mr Abbas's agreement with Hamas". I shall just quote the ditty here:

There was a old gent named Abbas;
Who smiled as he rode on Hamas.
They came back from the ride;
With Abbas inside,
And the smile on the face of Hamas.

Somebody is selling some major bull here, and it is amazing how willing are some people to buy into it wholeheartedly. I wonder why.

But there can clearly be no negotiations until the guns fall silent and the harsh cycle of attack, retaliation and vengeance is broken.

Ditto. Something we could all agree with, at least. Now go and tell this to Hamas and all the other members of the alphabet soup of the gangs as well.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com