Imagine the horror of watching someone drowning before your eyes.   Now imagine watching it in slow motion.   Repeatedly.   For years I have been watching Israel's suicidal spiral with that kind of despair.

I used to explain Israel's current situation by comparing the occupation of the West Bank to the period in American history when Andrew Jackson was president.   He was willing to violate the law of the land and there was no political will to stop him.   His famous contempt for "John  Marshall's decision" paved the way for the Trail of Tears and all the genocide that followed.  Now we learn even this fig leaf of judicial restraint is gone.   In a strange, sad Hanukkah gift to itself, the Israeli Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision declaring extra-judicial executions are now legal.