Lisa, First of all, let me say that I'm sorry when any innocent people get killed. Here are just some thoughts I have...not necessarily coherent or unified. First of all, I confess to a certain numbness and sympathy fatigue, and I presume a lot of people whom you have a problem with feel the same way. Shoving down my throat a heavily edited video of a girl running on a pearly white beach with sirens in the background does not garner sympathy. It's like when T.V. dramas amp up the violence year after year after year and kill off characters in a violent manner to get ratings up. You become immune. Why should I feel more horrified about this than Israelis who are getting killed by rocket attacks but don't have the convenience of a camera crew standing there? Or the kids being slaughtered in Sudan? I got off the subway just after a sixteen year old kid got shot and killed at a stop in Brooklyn five years ago. It was terrible. But there were no camera crews. It didn't even get covered in the local paper. So, I guess I've gotten a bad case of sympathy fatigue when it comes to the Palestinians. It's terrible, and I confess to it. I feel sorry for the family, but I also ask: Who is this girl? Why isn't she bloody? Why is she still alive, without a cut, if everyone else is slaughtered? I know I'm politically incorrect and unenlightened. But I can't seem to help it. And what's so brilliant about shutterfool’s post? It sounds pretty scornful of the pro-Israeli blogosphere. Of course some Israeli bloggers are insecure and might even sound insensitive. Unfortunately, I know how they feel. Look at Al Dura and the Jenin fiascos, and the incessant focus on the situation over there, in contrast to media indifference about other parts of the world, where genocide is taking place. Kids in Brooklyn getting shot. And shutterfool's, "we will continue to occupy them and they will hate us," seems like a cheap political potshot. I mean, didn't a withdrawal from Gaza take place under Sharon, and isn’t a withdrawal being planned right now? And Norm’s citing of Human Rights Watch, without noting its anti-Israel agenda and Marc Garlasco’s history of disseminating propaganda, or at LEAST pointing out the obvious discrepancies in the Palestinian film and Garlasco’s claim of having found a crater, is disingenuous. You don’t have to be a forensic specialist or “military expert” to know that one man’s statements after a crime scene has been significantly compromised wouldn’t pass a litmus test in an article about a Bronx murder case. So why is it heralded in this situation in a war zone? There is legitimate doubt about Garlasco. Bloggers and writers have the right to acknowledge it, without being written off as insecure reactionaries. I understand your apparent fatigue with all the ugly machinations – claims and counter claims, I'm tired of it, too – but I still think it's necessary for Israelis and Jews to defend the country that represents them from being vilified. It might all seem petty and distasteful, but what are the options, given ceaseless propaganda from the other side? I’d love to hear some realistic alternatives if you have any. You started out this thread by excoriating “both sides” for being political, but your position of pontificating about the tragedy on “both sides”, and linking to bloggers who basically dismiss Israelis who are concerned about media bias and are angry about the poor coverage, is as political as any other stance. Maybe you share my fatigue, but we are voicing it in different ways. Who knows.