To me, the fact that the Israeli government is choosing to pursue its ill-advised military action on Gaza so that it can do it under the almost gone (thankfully) Bush administration is enough for me to reject the strategy. It has a shady side to it. They know that the American people are changing, and have spoken for change. But they apparently don't respect the American people enough to wait to hear how that change might affect, for better or worse, and likely for better, because you can't get much worse than things are now, their relationship with their neighbors.

Yet, if not for us arming them, they wouldn't have the overwhelming military force that they have. But shouldn't their experience in Lebanon give them pause to reflect on the wisdom of what looks to me as doing the same thing. You do the same thing in the same way and you ought to expect pretty much the same result. Besides that, the apparently gamble that Israeli leaders are taking that the uprising in the middle east toward them for what they are doing will remain contained sufficiently to allow them to accomplish their goals and continue on into the future. I'm not sure that is a good gamble. We will see.

Our position of not talking to Hamas, a democratically elected government in Gaza, is dumb and is the cause of all of this. While Israeli citizens should be allowed to live without rockets raining down on them, I feel pretty certain that the Israeli government's position on settlements in occupied territories is very aggressive and they are taking a lot of land seized during war. I base this on some time that I spend talking to some folks who were demonstrating and presenting information on a Sunday afternoon at the watertower place park in downtown Chicago one Sunday back a while a go. These were Jewish folks who were protesting the settlement policies of the Israeli government, and apparently they had come down to Watertower park every Sunday for quite a while.

The folks I talked to had detailed maps of settlements and explained how the Israeli government was systematically trying to break up the occupied terrorities by locating settlements in strategic locations. People are losing their land over this, I would guess. This is even against the caution of the U.S. and the unhappiness of many of the world's countries over the policy. I have never been to the middle east, and probably won't make it. So I don't really know what's going on. But, I have learned that there are two sides to conflicts, and if you don't make an effort to understand both sides, you aren't going to solve it.

Police actions against the specific rocket launchers would be hard to argue with. A government has a right and a duty to try and protect its citizens. But this massive assault is way out of proportion, and more and more people are saying it. Israel is running the risk of alienating too many of its allies, and is enflaming the middle east. That long term trend is not going to serve Israel well. Israel should try swapping land for peace. That seems to be the best hope for a path forward. Israel controls the land, so the onus is on them. How this latest military incursion is going to turn out I don't know. I'm not optimistic that it is going to result in a positive outcome, but we shall see. And of course, how the new U.S. administration deals with this and how this might affect Israel's upcoming elections are both important parts of this mix as we move forward.