FROM THE "CIVILIZED MURDER" DEPT

Israel's Attorney General makes a ruling on "targeted killings":

JERUSALEM - An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was killed Sunday by Israeli gunfire during a demonstration in the West Bank, while Israel's attorney general told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that "targeted killings" of wanted Palestinians may be used only as a last resort.

The ruling came after recent violence raised concerns about a new escalation in Israeli-Palestinian fighting ahead of Israel's Jan. 28 parliamentary elections.

The Palestinian child, the second killed by Israeli soldiers in as many days, was shot when a group of schoolchildren pelted troops with rocks and bottles in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Troops responded with rubber-coated bullets, also wounding another Palestinian boy, Palestinian witnesses said.

The military said non-lethal methods were used. These methods often include the rubber-coated bullets, which can kill if used from short range.

I dunno, this sounds to me like someone said: "alright, we can turn thousands of endangered whales into perfume and lip gloss, as long as they're 'cold-filtered' and not 'heat-pasturized'". To me, killings are killings, and no matter how "targeted" or civilized they try to make this little policy of theirs, they're going to make a mess anyway, further emflaming the back-and-forth situation in Israel/Palestine. Sigh.