The pogrom continues.....what else is new?

I'm going w/option C. I don't care.

For about a week prior to this barbarism, Gaza had been hitting Israel with Rocket and Mortar attacks. So it would seem to me that Israel acted in retaliation, which is their right as a Soveriegn Nation. Opponents, however, say that Olmert acted in his own best interests and did it to remove power from Hamas.
I think the sheer Aggression in these Attacks is what surprised people the most. Hamas even offered to renew the ceasefire if Israel reopened Gaza's border crossings.
The whole Israel experiment is a disaster and shows what happens when Britain (or any other Nation) plays puppet master with whole Countries and Peoples lives. Having said that, I do not think that Israel should cease to exist, nor should Palestine. I am simply lamenting the whole quagmire and I would love to have an easy answer magicallyappear and solve everyones problems.
Anyway, it seems to me that Isreal's actions were counterproductive, as things only escalate.
Countries act like fueding siblings and human lives are destroyed in the process. Welcome to the Holy Land.

Another "victory" for Israel. Although this is not his doing, this turns into the first mistake of the Obama regime. The Arab Language feeder service, Al Jazeera, or whatever it's called, ran lots of split screen views showing Barack Hussein golfing in Hawaii, and all the poor little kids named Hussein perishing in the streets of Gaza. It was great theater and did Obama tons of damage in the world of Mohammed.

It kinda made a bad situation worse, but I wouldn't sit idle and let the assholes chuck rockets at me.

Israel as of late has been more aggressive than it usually is. I sense that nationalism is on the rise there. Witness the rise of Avigdor Lieberman as a potent political force, an ardent Israeli nationalist and a theocrat. Some polls also suggest that Likud, the Israeli right wing party, might be making a comeback this year, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at its head. These trends do not augury well for peace in the region.

Relations with the US and Israel have been troubled recently. Much of it is stemming from our reluctance to get aggressive with the Iranians. The Israelis wanted us earlier last year to grant them permission to use Iraqi airspace to attack Iranian military facilities. In addition, they were looking for our support, logistical and otherwise, for an attack against Iran. We didn't grant them permission to attack and the Israelis have not been happy since.

Fast forward to late 2008. A brokered cease-fire between the Palestinians and the Israelis expired in December. No real attempts were made to renew it, so when the deal expired, both sides began attacking each other. Israel used the opportunity to clear out the Gaza Strip of militant forces, hence the ferocious nature of the attacks. These Palestinian militants are allied with Hamas, who gets funding and support from Hezbollah, which in turn takes orders from Iran. So in essence, this is a proxy war between Israel and Iran. Israel, which is becoming more nationalist, and Iran, which is a religious theocracy, are locked in battle. The only thing preventing an all out war between is US reluctance to back Israel in such a war. The tenuous situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and nearby Pakistan all no doubt play into their calculations.

The realists which have controlled US foreign policy making since the end of 2006, and that will likely also do so during an Obama administration, fear the repercussions of a widespread Middle Eastern war. That's why I believe that a regional conflict is unlikely in the near term. But there is always the chance that a nationalist government in Israel will push ahead irregardless of US or world opinion. The key question is, will Israel be willing to defy the US. Doing so will put immense pressures on our strategic alliance with them, possibly even fraying it.

Israel is doing the right thing- which in this case means the only thing they could do. There is a never ending effort on the part of the American left to portray Israel as Nazis, the Palestinians as the Jews. This is, of course, a lie. Israel is a legal state. She has the right to exist, the right to defend herself, and the right to retaliate after being attacked. Shame on the media- both here and abroad- for going out of their way to portray Israel as the aggressor and the villain in this situation.

Let's try a different tack here. Your grandfather is given an opportunity to start his own business from scratch. Essentailly, he's given sand and asked to turn it to wheat fields. Or an auto shop. Or a web site. Let's use the web site as an example. He works his ass off and is on his way to making a success of it. As he ages, he hands control of it to his son who follows in his father's foot steps and continues to grow it. His vision of the web site expands from merely a business, to an entity that not only benefits its workers and families, but begins to produce a product that benefits those who use it, via exporting of more than ancillary products, technology and ideas. This vision expands as the father hands the reigns over to his son. The company is extremely successful and has the best of everything and, among those who have failed to progress by accepting modern technology into their lives and continue to barely survive under the control of feudal sweat shop bosses, stands out like a diamond in the rough...making them a target of the "less fortunate".

So, the feudal sweat shop bosses, while keeping one boot on the necks of their own people, begin an assault on the successful business. They learn enough to start sending viruses and trojan horses that are directed at wounding the successful web site. They organize enough to "hit" the web site with so much activity that it overloads the servers...which begins to diminish the quality of the site. The site's owner now has to divert essential resources just to maintain its presence on the web. They are under assault. The site's owner, open to discussing this, agrees to be blackmailed into paying the feudal sweat shop bosses with shares of stock in the company, just for some peace and quiet. Once agreed upon and under the illusion that the problems will cease, they continue to be bombarded with viruses and trojan horses. In addition, site employees are now fearful to exit the compound offices, as the feudal sweat shop bosses begin to position snipers...in hospital windows and nursery schools...and begin to pick-off site employees as they finish their shifts and begin to head home to their families.

The owner of the web site now is forced into a defensive posture and asks to negotiate a truce. The feudal sweat shop bosses send in delgates who promise a cease fire if the web site owner is willing to hand over even more of its stock ownership to them. The site owner agrees. The viruses, trojan horses and sniping continue. The feudal sweat shop owners are armed with relatively primitive technology, by today's standards. But, the web site still has deep pockets and has in its arsenal, a dream team of some of the most aggressive and vicious lawyers on the planet, who are the site's last line of defense. If they don't use them, they will cease to exist. Each side has a different goal in mind. One dreams of peace and quiet, while the other dreams of the total annihilation of the other. Still under cyber assault, what do they do to stop this reign of terror on a company that took three generations to build? What company would sit by, idly, and allow themselves to be targeted for destruction like this? What company wouldn't unleash all of their legal power to defend their very existence? They can't reason with the feudal sweat shop bosses. So they take 'em to court and use every available means at their disposal to talk some sense into them. They don't send in their junior lawyers and clerks. They send in, as their last means of defense, their dream team and unleash, with overwhelming force, which is the only thing the sweat shop bosses can relate to. The court determines that in order for peace to come, some of the sweat shop bosses must be put out of business, which means that many of their employees will lose their jobs.

But, there are a lot of sweat shop bosses and as some fall, others take their places and the viruses and trojan horses continue to assault the site's servers. The site's owner continues to sue and more sweat shop bosses are put out of business. More take their place.

How does all of this benefit the web site owner? It gives him and his site a chance to survive. In fact, it's his only chance of survival. And what about all of those poor people who have lived in fear under the boots of their own feudal sweat shop bosses for all of those years? They had nothing to do with any of this. But, if the web site owner didn't defend itself by fighting back, how much sympathy would his employees get when the site went out of business and this once thriving location was razed and turned back to sand?

A big story, and one that is getting interpreted a different way depending on the slant of the network or news source.

One utterly surreal moment for me in this tragic tale is the annointing of "Joe the Plumber" of recent election fame as a war correspondent. Apparently this doofus is going to get the real story, and in his words "let the average Joe over there" have their voice heard. For those among you who believe in counting the signs of the Apocalypse, chalk another one up.

Oddly, most Americans are of the opinion, based on the crack, even-handed reporting of the non-agenda-driven US press, that Israel has unilaterally invaded Gaza without provocation. They also sometimes imply that Israel's response to deadly rocket fire from the Palestinians in Gaza is "out of proportion, " in their "hard-news" coverage. At some point, the Palestinians will throw out the Hamas government, but only if Israel's retaliatory strikes are "proportional" to their available firepower. Hamas will continue its irresponsible and impotent attacks on Israel until the Palestinian people realize how futile and infuriating it is.

Anybody with any historical knowledge at all will know that there has always been fighting in the Middle East. The accounts of Middle Eastern fighting goes clear back as far as the Bible, and speaking from a Biblical point of view, when true peace is achieved then the Lord's return is right around the corner. I know there will be people who will analyze and will pick apart what I have said, but I believe what the Bible says. There are things literally unfolding before our eyes every day.

Not that I want anybody killed, but thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel by Hamas with only a few casualties, somebody definitely needs to be fired.