Past victimhood is no moral justification for Israel's repressive, draconian "defensive" policies against Palestinian resistance, whether that resistance takes the form of slingshots or backpack explosives. Nothing excuses the killing of innocents on either side, but we do well to remember that terror bombing was midwife to the birth of the state of Israel. Indeed, Israeli historian Benny Morris speculates, "The Arabs may well have learned the value of terrorist bombings from the Jews."

Since there is no overwhelming strategic or moral reason for the United States to continue its "non-negotiable" support of Israel, that country should be treated like any other ally and not like an over-indulged adolescent. It is time Israel makes its own way in the world. To assume it is incapable of doing so is anti-Semitic, and a MAD policy we can no longer afford