No, I'm not about to use this as an example or engage in cheap rhetoric about repression. I can actually understand the fear and frustration on the part of the IDF as well... after all, they're trying to contain and control what seems to be an unstoppable wave of horrific attacks, and I think I'd probably have a hair trigger in that situation as well. This is the reason why the conflict is a tragedy and shouldn't be characterized in simple black-and-white terms... because the fear and desperation on one side is feeding the fear and desperation on the other.

So, does this mean that I'm engaging in "moral relativism"? No, because morals don't enter into this; the question, again, is not to figure out who gets to be on top of the pyramid of honor and respect, but finding the way out of this conflict. One of the "sons of Brutus" that one should be prepared to set aside is personal honor, at least in my opinion. If, in the end, a thousand people have to set aside their precious honor and sense of righteousness so that one mother doesn't have to bury her child, so be it. Pride is a useless conceit.