What Does the Gaza Strip Conflict Mean?

One of the more truthful and applicable lines spoken within recent memory was ironically from a Law & Order episode, regarding a man that had been put to death for a heinous crime:

"It's too much and it's not enough."

With the current war on terrorism, it is our duty to defend ourselves, yet we are obligated to realize where we fit in. As we are supplying arms and funds to Israel more than any other nation through the course of this particular conflict (among others), we cannot help but consider where our conflicts end and the others begin.

What we try to decipher in this episode is what the current Gaza strip crisis means to America. Is it a sound byte? Is it more of the same? Where did all of this begin and why is it still happening? Also, what constitutes defense?

Conducted by Rick Vanderslice in Dallas on January 17th, 2009 with writer/podcaster John Selig and writer/poet R.J. Jackson.

Outside articles mentioned or otherwise related:

http://www.alternet.org/audits/119921

http://www.alternet.org/audits/119374

Full explanation of the Geneva Conventions:

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/CONVPRES

The ethical doctrine of the Israel Defense Forces:

http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/about/doctrine/ethics.htm

Al legal brief by Al-Haq, a Palestinian human-rights group, on the war on Gaza:

http://www.alhaq.org/pdfs/Legal_Brief_Gaza_Cast_Lead_Jan.pdf