So I guess any nation ought to go into a conflict looking to equilibrate casualties (rather than win the conflict) in order to look good? I'm not arguing that their show of force was the appropriate response, that their settlement policy is just, or any of that. I'm only submitting to you the small possibility that the United States not signing the UN resolution in question may have had to do more with the hidden intents of that resolution than it did any explicit defense of Isreal.

Please do not pretend for a moment that a Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, Russia, Syria, Cuba and a whole host of others on that list are bringing any moral high ground to the argument.

I've spent a lot of time on the Arabian peninsula in the last year or so, one clear lesson learned is that the modern world cannot coexists with Islamocentric organizations like Hamas. Politicized religion of all stripes, and that includes an unelected leader like your beloved Dalai Lama, are the antithesis of progress.