British colonialism, the Soviet gulag and America's dropping of an atomic bomb, he argued, "can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face." So how do people defend the indefensible? Through "euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." By obscuring the truth.

So it is, more than 70 years later, with Israeli policy toward the Gaza Strip. The truth is too brutal to honestly defend. Why are thousands of Palestinians risking their lives by running toward the Israeli snipers who guard the fence that encloses Gaza? Because Gaza is becoming uninhabitable. That's not hyperbole. The United Nations says that Gaza will be "unlivable" by 2020, maybe sooner.

Hamas bears some of the blame for that: Its refusal to recognize Israel, its decades of terrorist attacks and its authoritarianism have all worsened Gaza's plight.