No we’re not. No one is happy about Palestinian civilians killed in this war. No one is celebrating. No one is giving out candies.

Of all the lies about Israel, of all the distorted, warped things that are being hurled at us - the claim that we are a bloodthirsty people, bent on murder and destruction, is probably the most hurtful, the most wicked, the most twisted, the most obscene. Nothing could be further than truth. This is truly a modern day blood libel.

Why do you think that the situation in the south of Israel got so bad? Why do you think we left the Hamas alone to grow so strong, to amass ever more powerful weapons, and to use them freely against our citizens for so long? The reason that we deferred dealing with the problem of an ever increasing barrage of rockets showering down on our citizens, every day for years, was specifically our abhorrence of violence, and our reluctance to engage in warfare, knowing the heavy price Palestinian innocents, and not only our own soldiers, would have to pay.

Every single innocent Palestinian life lost in this conflict is a terrible tragedy. I wouldn’t dream of belittling their loss of life in any way, nor the terrible suffering of their loved ones, but I ask you this: With all of Israel’s military might, and taking in account all of the bombing Israel has been doing in the last two and a half weeks in Gaza - in its attempts to stop the relentless Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians - do you not think that if we were so bloodthirsty and murderous, if our aim was a genocide against the Palestinian people, as so many thoughtless, ignorant people so callously claim, would there not be tens of thousands of Palestinians dead in this war, by now, not hundreds?

Yes, one would expect such a massive attack to cause tens of thousands dead, just like there usually are in so many other conflicts around the world. Yet, this is not happening here. And there is a reason for this.

In any situation, Israel always does its utmost to minimize civilian fatalities.

The Hamas knows this only too well, and makes full military use of it. A main combat tactic of Hamas is to use civilians - women and children - as protective shields against Israeli military action. This in itself proves my point, because such a tactic would be useless, were we truly the heartless murderers we are being made out to be.

Here is a film that gives an idea of the great lengths to which the Israeli Air Force goes, to avoid harming innocents during aerial attacks on military targets.