The new euro coin adds insult to injury. 9 percent of Turks have a favorable view of the US. The West really needs some help dealing with one of the few secular Muslim countries on the planet.
If the Israeli pols are doing this to win an election, or to demonstrate a "don't fuck with the Jews" bravado, it's clearly unjust. If they're doing it because they honestly think it is the best way to advance peace, their consciences, while troubled, may be clear.
Could the emergence of dramatically equal forms of marriage strengthen the model of male-female equality within straight marriage and undermine slightly the fundamentalist insistence on the subordination of wives? Yes. But only in so far as 1 percent of marriages change the 99 percent. The Christianist right always under-estimate the cultural power of the 99 percent with respect to the 1.
There is no "just war" excuse for Hamas' murderous terrorism or for its refusal to acknowledge or peacefully co-exist with Israel. But there's no reading of traditional just war theory that can defend what Israel is now doing.
The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back
