A recent poll among Palestinians shows overwhelming support for the assault.

The population of Israel — Arab and Jew alike — enjoys freedoms that no Palestinians (and no resident of virtually any Middle Eastern nation outside of Israel) enjoy.

y. To put it more succinctly: every Arab in Israel has greater rights than any Arab in Gaza — and those who truly want the Gazans to be free should be adamant supporters of Israel’s attempt to oust their tyrannical government.

What about the Israeli military occupation? Should that be regarded as a form of oppression? Categorically not. The Palestinians have repeatedly attacked Israel, since 1948. Israel’s control of their territory began after it was used to launch a war against Israel in 1967. Israel’s occupation is analogous to America’s occupation of Japan and Germany immediately after World War II. Those nations were rightly occupied because they had been the aggressors in the war. It is they whowere the oppressors. And the occupation was lifted once they were no longer threats to free countries.

I should add that the refusal to allow a Palestinian state is no violation of anyone’s rights. There is no right of “self-determination” to establish a despotic state — a state that categorically rejects individual rights.

The same process has to occur now. The Gazans must come to recognize that their dominant ideology — the notion that Israel, and all Jews, should be exterminated — has led to their own devastation and needs to be renounced. That’s the only way to stop the aggression and to protect the innocent. And that requires total victory over, and unconditional surrender by, Gaza and its government.