Morality isn't subject to situational interpretation

There is absolutely no moral equivalence between 1,500 dead civilians, 30% of who are believed to be children, in 4 weeks, and 28 dead Israelis from wildly inaccurate and very ineffective rocket attacks over a thirteen-year period. [source].  None.

Those who claim Israel acted appropriately by attacking civilians in Gaza, are practicing the same moral relativism that allowed Americans to say, 10 years ago, "Americans do not torture ... well ... except when ..."

True moral principles are not applied selectively; only when it's convenient; only when it meets the approval of the public; they are individual, non-negotiable, and immutable.  They are not influenced by propaganda or politics.

And they are not determined by the State or by the Church or by the Republican Party or the U.S. Army or Marine Corps or the Boy Scouts of America.

Friends, when you let someone else – or worse, an institution – decide morality for you; you are acting immorally. All morality – my morality; yours – is individual; it isn't determined by any institution.

We do not excuse our own actions by pointing to the actions of others. Others are not responsible for how we behave; we can never blame our own behavior on others; that is a basic principle of honor, and a long-standing principle of manhood.