Time To P.L.Own It

For weeks I have watched reports of Israel unloading thousands of pounds of artillery on the tiny swatch of land that is Gaza.  While the violence rages on, the international community's reaction to this defensive offensive (or is it an offensive defensive?) runs the gamut.  The loudest voices I am hearing are the ones denouncing Israel for its excessive use of force and condemning the western world's imperial bullying.  My thoughts on Israel notwithstanding -- and the nation that gave us Krav Maga and the Uzi certainly has blood on its hands -- Palestine does not get a pass.  For their part, these most recent actions demonstrate a failure of Palestinians to police their own, namely Hamas.  An analogy:  Imagine some extreme faction of Americans, one not representative of the whole, engaged in violent action on behalf of us all.  Say the Minutemen, those Mexican-hating 'patriots' protecting our southwest border, decided to start firing shoulder-mounted rockets from our backyards in San Diego across the border and into downtown Tijuana, followed soon after by Mexican counterstrikes launched on San Diego.  Sure, as a San Diegan I'd be pissed at Mexico for putting us in the line of fire, but I would be quick to recognize that the most accessible means of protecting my family and my property is take a strong stand against the Minutemen's strikes.  I would expect the leaders of our community to publicly denounce the Minutemen's actions, and I would not stand by quietly while my neighbor fired a rocket from our cul-de-sac back at Mexico.  If we say nothing while an attack is launched from our backyard then we lose some credibility when we lament a bomb dropping on our toolshed.  It is time for the Palestinians to protect themselves by policing their own.  How many of us in that situation would ban together, go pound on the extremist neighbor's door and demand that he quit launching rockets from the roof of our church, from our driveways, or from the yards outside our kids' school?  I am sure we would be more influencial over our own than the U.N.'s distant pleas.  I admit it's not a perfect analogy but you get the point.  Americans are better than average at turning the spotlight on the wacky, over-the-top ideology of the most extreme among us, be they survivalists or elected officials.  A free press is handy for just such a reason, but that's a topic for another day.  For today, it behooves Palestinians to turn the heat up on Hamas.  George Orwell wrote in the 1942 essay "Pacifism and the War", "You're either with us or against us."  So, Palestine, you're either against Hamas or ...