In an article published on the Truthout.org website, American writer Norman Solomon commented on the war in Gaza and condemned the killing of civilians. His title was “A hundred eyes for an eye.” The title sums up very succinctly the Israeli approach. Israeli generals don’t care how many people they kill, how many hospitals they shell or how many families they destroy and displace. So while the world protests and leaders meet and the UN deplores and condemns, the killing goes on.

We have always known that Israel does not respect international law and answers to no one. And at no time has that attitude been clearer than in the last few weeks. The shelling of a UN school, the hitting of hospitals and humanitarian centers and the final shelling of the UN headquarters are just a few examples of how defiant, arrogant and uncaring the Israelis are.

The UN and the Red Cross have protested strongly the targeting of their premises which are used to shelter refugees, but the Israeli claim has always been the same: “We have been fired at from that location.” Of course, nothing is proven.

The shelling on Thursday of the UN relief agency headquarters took place while the UN secretary-general was in the region trying to negotiate a cease-fire. Can there be a stronger indicator of Israel’s contempt for the UN than that? And most importantly, will the UN do anything about it except join the chorus of condemnations that is reverberating throughout the world? Despite all-clear evidence, the UN cannot seem to find itself able to call what Israel is doing “war crimes.” It uses the term as a possibility, but no one has the courage to call the atrocities being committed war crimes. There is plenty of evidence to support such a case if the UN were to pursue it; the alarming number of women and children killed in the fighting is a most glaring piece of evidence. Israel has used phosphorous bombs in shelling UN headquarters and other targets; UN officials have confirmed this, as have hospital staff in Gaza who have had to treat the burns resulting from such bombs.

Newspapers last week carried the story of how the Israeli prime minister forced US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain from voting on a motion she wanted to endorse. The Israeli prime minister and the foreign minister boasted of how they called Rice and US President George W. Bush and got the US to abstain from voting. That is a clear indication of how much power Israel enjoys, and how little the US can do for peace in the Middle East.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, commenting on the UN secretary-general’s demand for a unilateral cease-fire, said: “I don’t believe that there is a logical expectation in the international community that Israel unilaterally cease fire while Hamas continues to target cities, trying to kill our people.” It is the same line that has been used since the beginning by Israel and its supporters — self-defense is the motive. In an interview with the British newspaper, The Guardian, one protester who joined a pro-Israel demonstration in London said that Hamas’ rockets were sending terror into Israeli homes and that children were being traumatized because of them. She went on to support the Israeli attacks as acts of self-defense. But it is really a case of 100 eyes for an eye, and, according to latest news, it has become 1,300 eyes for one.

For the families in Gaza, there is no way out; they are trapped under fire from a vicious enemy. A Palestinian woman talked to MSNBC by phone and described how she lived in a three-bedroom flat with more than 22 people — friends and family — who are fleeing the shelling and bombardment. “We have lost hope in democracy and humanity. We are alone in the world,” she said.

One wonders if those people can ever forgive the world that let this happen to them.

(Editor’s Note: This column was written before Israel’s declaration of a cease-fire.)