Columnist Tom Friedman, in the June 27 edition of the New York Times, updates a medieval blood libel against Jews by comparing the tactics of Israel's defense forces in counter-terrorism operations to Syrian dictator Hafez Assad's massacre of tens of thousands of civilians in putting down a fundamentalist uprising in the town of Hama in 1982. The father of today's Syrian leader indiscriminately and deliberately used the full brutal force of his army -- tanks, warplanes, mass executions -- to obliterate most of Hama.  Fatality estimates range as high as 40,000, of which only about 1,000 were combatants. The massacre is known as the "single deadliest act by any Arab government against its own people."Yet, Friedman avers that the IDF used "Hama rules" when it fought against Hezb'allah in southern Lebanon; also in Gaza and the West Bank during the second intifada, and, more recently, in last year's incursion...(Read Full Post)