This Wk. In Armageddon

McClatchy:

As Israeli tanks, artillery batteries and troops stepped up preparations for a possible ground offensive, Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that the attacks wouldn't end until the military had delivered a "severe blow" to Hamas. "We are in an all-out war against Hamas," Barak told a special session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

Israel Expands List of Targets to Include Group's Vast Support Network in Gaza

"There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel," said a senior Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"Hamas's civilian infrastructure is a very, very sensitive target. If you want to put pressure on them, this is how," said Matti Steinberg, a former top adviser to Israel's domestic security service and an expert on Islamist organizations.

Golly, in the good old days (mostly lip service, of course, to ideals very far from fulfillment then & now) there would have been whining about attacks on civilian populations, cries of "This isn't very gentlemanly," ad nauseum. Or some mention that deliberate attacks on civilians are, are, oh, what is that word? Mmm ... terrorism, that's right. But if the attacking is done from the air against civilian "infrastructure" (any civilians maimed or killed are therefore collateral infrastructure damage, of course) & someone or another has been quoted as saying it's "all-out war," then it's perfectly acceptable.

Meanwhile:

GAZA (Reuters) –Israel rejected any truce with Hamas Islamists on Tuesday and said it was ready for "long weeks of action" on a fourth day of the fiercest air offensive in the Gaza Strip in decades. As Israeli armored vehicles and troops were massed along the border for a possible invasion, Israeli warplanes pressed on with strikes, killing 12 Palestinians, including a pair of sisters, aged 10 and 12, in attacks on Hamas targets.

Threatening to back up their shock & awe w/ boots on the ground, are they? Turning quite another cheek. Not nearly as much fun a few thousand klicks east, where rational thought, or simple fear of atomic annihilation, would appear to be holding things together.

On Monday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the country's powerful army chief General Ashfaq Kayani called for calm with India. "Pakistan and India need to engage in dialogue to address their differences," Zardari told visiting Chinese vice foreign minister He Yafei.

Buck up, nihilists. Anything can (&, barring entropy, eventually will) happen in a random, meaningless cosmos.