"Schrecklichkeit." Do you know what that word means?

According to the BBC, the Israeli Defense Forces are deliberately shooting women and children in the head.

Some Palestinian civilians in Gaza say Israeli forces shot at them as they tried to leave their homes - in some cases bearing white flags.

One testimony heard by the BBC and human rights group B'tselem describes Israeli forces shooting a woman in the head after she stepped out of her house carrying a piece of white cloth, in response to an Israeli loudhailer announcement.

"The Israeli army was saying: 'This is the Israeli Defence Forces, we are asking all the people to leave their homes and go to the school. Ladies first, then men.'

"We decided to send the women first, two by two," he said.

First to step outside was the wife of his cousin, Rawhiya al-Najar, 48.

"The army was about 15 metres (50 feet) away from the house or less. They shot her in the head," he said.

The woman's daughter was shot in the thigh but crawled back inside the house, he said.

The people of Gaza are running out of places to bury their dead. Worse,

"We buried them quickly," said Iyad Samouni, 26, speaking from al-Awda hospital in Gaza City, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds. "We were afraid we'd be shelled. My relatives were trying to open other graves to prepare for the other dead, but we didn't get time."

He said the family fled the graveyard after they came under fire from a warplane

Firing on civilians as they try to bury their dead. Keep that image in your mind. To me, it recalls the opening scene of Forbidden Games -- the Nazi warplanes firing on lines of innocent French refugees.

The IDF has rained phosphorous bombs on the UN compound, on schools -- and even on the Red Cross!

Ignore the bullshit about "rocket attacks." That's not what this attack is about. This is about a long-standing plan to make life so miserable for the Palestinians that they either die or relocate. Learn the truth about the occupation of Gaza.

Imagine if your home state were occupied by a foreign power which wanted you either dead or gone. Imagine if you were continually bullied by outsiders who coveted the land you consider home. You would probably support a counter-insurgency so hard-knuckled as to make Hamas look like a bunch of petunia-gatherers.

The Israelis have revived the Nazi practice of Schrecklichkeit.

That term that may be unfamiliar to you. It was defined for a mass audience on the day that World War II ended in Europe. On V-E day, all of the radio networks broadcast a stirring presentation by Norman Corwin called "On a Note of Triumph." You can find the script here.

I draw your attention to this passage:

NARRATOR:
(TO NAZI) Will you explain why Rotterdam was bombed--and thousands of its people killed-- after the city had surrendered?

THE GERMAN:
Ja, sure. Schrecklichkeit.

NARRATOR:
What is that?

THE GERMAN:
Frightfulness, it means.

NARRATOR:
Frightfulness?

THE GERMAN:
Ja. That was our plan.

NARRATOR:
You mean... Schrecklichkeit is an official policy of the German High Command?

THE GERMAN:
(NODDING) Ja.

I wonder what Norman Corwin -- one of the great true liberals -- would think of the BBC report referenced above? And what, I wonder, would he make of this...?

Right in front of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.” Rally attendees described the people of Gaza to me as a “cancer,” called for Israel to “wipe them all out,” insisting, “They are forcing us to kill their children in order to defend our own children.” A young woman told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.” “They are not distinguishing between civilians and military, so why should we?”

Or how about this? Consider the obscene language of propagandist Tom Friedman, who defends the murder of innocent Lebanese:

Israel's counterstrategy was to use its Air Force to pummel Hezbollah and, while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large. It was not pretty, but it was logical. Israel basically said that when dealing with a nonstate actor, Hezbollah, nested among civilians, the only long-term source of deterrence was to exact enough pain on the civilians - the families and employers of the militants - to restrain Hezbollah in the future.

That, friends, is Schrecklichkeit.

A word about the "nested among civilians" canard. Do you really think that all Israeli soldiers are stationed X number of yards away from civilians? If so, you are very naive. Mossad headquarters (and this was a closely guarded secret until recently) is located in a densely-populated area of Tel Aviv -- right next to a hospital!

Back to Friedman. Let us consider his view of the current Gaza barbarity:

In Gaza, I still can't tell if Israel is trying to eradicate Hamas or trying to "educate" Hamas, by inflicting a heavy death toll on Hamas militants and heavy pain on the Gaza population. If it is out to destroy Hamas, casualties will be horrific and the aftermath could be Somalia-like chaos. If it is out to educate Hamas, Israel may have achieved its aims.

More than six decades after V-E day, a prominent columnist advocates Schrecklichkeit.

In our newspapers.

What has happened to our nation? How did our proud "note of triumph" become a wail for our lost humanity?