The moderator dang has actually responded to several comments about their editorial stance re israel-palestine. I don't have time to find them but I've engaged with him personally on this several times over the last couple years.

Basically it boils down to he thinks we have talked about it enough and it annoys him how upset people are about it. And ultimately he considers admiring the technology used in war machines (and terrorism like the pager attack) to be clearly within the editorial remit of HN but that discussing their effects on the people they are used on is borderline so they police it more vigorously.