I haven't updated my blog much in the past few months, and my Daily Kos diary even less. When I decided to copy my latest Forbes post to Kos, I couldn't help but see my previous Kos diary right below it. On my blog, "First Punch" has already scrolled off the front.
I regret both the tone of that diary and the original title, which was "Israel’s Original Sin and Continued Hope for Peace", and my re-naming of it to "First Punch" did little to improve it. I no longer believe it is in keeping with the facts, nor do I believe it ever should have been the main point of my post.
That which should have been the main point of my post, and the point that I still agree with, is that it's hard to trace the start of an escalating conflict. If one man punches another after an argument, then it's easy to see when the argument turned into a fight. But when one pushes up to another and the other shoves him away, and one slaps and the other punches, it is much more difficult. Not only is it much more difficult, it's pointless.
My writings are more critical of Israel then they are of Israel's enemies because criticism of Israel's enemies is often superfluous. I don't feel I have to write a critique about a terrorist or a terrorist organization. But I feel it's necessary to criticize a military response to terrorism that kills civilians who had nothing to do with it. But "First Punch" reads too like a once-sided accusation against Israel for the terrible situation in the Middle East.
I won't take it down or re-write it anymore because I should own it, but I do regret its tone and will likely cringe every time I see it here.