To Israel's Army

To the Army commanders and political leaders of Israel,

Your anger against the people of Gaza is with the 20,000 or so Hamas extremists, not the 1.7 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza terrority, so focus your forces on them. Innocent civilians are not your enemy, not the opposition fight force, and not the ones responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel.

Your anger and actions against innocent civilians is not war, it's criminal. I won't argue Hamas rockets have killed innocent Israelis and other people. I won't argue they are owed revenge for the acts against them.

But I will argue attacking innoncent Palestinians isn't the answer when you're killed and injuriing them as a ratio of 10 Palestinians to 1 Israeli. That's not war, that's a slaughter. That's not war, that's criminal as in war crimes against innoncent people.

If you want war, go fight the 20,000 or so Hamas extremists. But really do you have to do that? Why not peace? Why not an economically independent Gaza and Palestinians instead of the oppression you inflict on Gaza and Palestinians.

If you lived as they did, what would you do? Wouldn't you fight? Wouldn't you become an extremist? So what and why don't you understand? Israel has one of the best and most powerful military in the world. You don't need to pummel an enemy into the oblivion.

You need to use it to negotiate peace for the Israel and the Palestinian people. There will always be fighting in the Middle East, Israel is home to three religions, all of which have extremists thinking everyone else is the enemy.

But you, Israel can stand above it in the name of peace. If you tried. If you tried as hard as you fought, as hard as you want to defend Israel and Israelis, and as hard as the world knows you can, if you tried. So why don't you?

If you don't, then we know your fate is doomed to war, war with the Palestinians over lands and independence, war with your neighboring Muslim countries, and war with Iran. Is that what you want? Because if you do, then that's your fate.

But then also, while many in the US, especially our government and military, will support you because you have a rich and powerful lobby here, but the American people won't support you. You will be seen and known as the enemy of peace, the enemy of an oppressed Palestinian people, and the enemy of freedom.

That's what we stand for, independence and freedom. Not what you stand for, if you want war. Your future is in your hands, stand with the world or stand alone. Someday our government and military will have to walk away from you if you continue, if you want war.