An old New England aphorism says, 'tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are." Yossi Sarid was quoted at length in Saturday's Asharq Alawsat, Saudi Arabia's London-based English language daily of record: "...Meanwhile, Israeli left-wing opposition chief Yossi Sarid demanded yesterday that Israel "stop its cruel war machine" after the killing by tank fire in the southern Gaza Strip of eight Palestinians. "It is no longer possible to explain or justify how so many innocent men, women and children" are killed by the army, Sarid said in remarks on Israeli public radio. "How many times can we say ?we did not intend to?, and who can still believe these excuses?" he added. "The (Israeli) argument that Palestinians knowingly kill our civilians while Israel does it without premeditation is starting to wear out," he also said."When we fire tank shells, not one but three, against homes, the results are predictable," he concluded."Sarid also drew a parallel between deaths of Israelis in bombing attacks and deaths of Palestinians killed by the Israeli Army. "There are rules concerning self-defense and we respect them, but there are also rules for war. Soon the world will no longer see the difference between one attack and another," he said. Sarid is the head of the left-wing Meretz party, which holds 10 seats in the 120-member Knesset."