ALL OUT WAR IN GAZA (FINALLY?) Israeli Air Force Pounds Camps

An eye for an eye, and pretty soon the world is blind. I've forgotten where I picked that phrase up, but it seemed like a pretty good one to a peacenik like myself. Oh for a modern-day John and Yoko to lead a peace march through Central Park to promote the ending of the conflict and the beginning of some meaningful, real diplomacy. I'm sure it hasn't happened during the last 8 years. Every time we are treated to the whiny voice of Conleeeeeza Rice pudding trying to explain how the world works I grow ever more fearful of what they must have in store for us. Is this the longed-for dream of the Bush/Cheney junta? (The world goes to hell in their final days?) Or is this just the nightmare for everybody else? The 300 airstrikes since Saturday on the camps in Gaza and the deaths of over 60 civilians, including women and children, must seem like a godsend to our outgoing warmakers. And don't bore me with the fact that the Israelis were attacked first by rock throwers and homemade bomb makers. Somehow, it's not a fair fight. As a matter of fact, when one stops to think about all the places in the world that are either aflame at this moment or threatening to blow up from the financial fires (Russia, China), you almost have to think that this might have been in the plan. Could President-Elect Obama have a worse start to his new administration? And I'm not even mentioning the millions in job losses and over 250 bankruptcies being recorded every day stateside.

Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers Sunday, pounding smuggling tunnels and a central prison, sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border and approving a reserves callup for a possible ground invasion. Israeli leaders said they would press ahead with the Gaza campaign, despite enraged protests across the Arab world and Syria's decision to break off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state. Israel's foreign minister said the goal was to halt Gaza rocket fire on Israel for good, but not to reoccupy the territory. With the two-day death toll nearing 300 Sunday, crowds of Gazans breached the border wall with Egypt to escape the chaos. Egyptian forces, some firing in the air, tried to push them back into Gaza and an official said one border guard was killed. Hamas, in turn, fired rockets deeper than ever into Israel, near the Israeli port city of Ashdod. . . Israel's intense bombings — some 300 air strikes since midday Saturday — wreaked unprecedented destruction in Gaza, reducing entire buildings to rubble. After nightfall, Israeli aircraft attacked a building in the Jebaliya refugee camp next to Gaza City, killing a 14-month-old baby, a man and two women, Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. Israeli aircraft also bombed the Islamic University and government compound in Gaza City, centers of Hamas power. Witnesses saw fire and smoke at the university, counting six separate airstrikes there just after midnight. Shlomo Brom, a former senior Israeli military official, said it was the deadliest force ever used in decades of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. "Since Hamas took over Gaza (in June 2007), it has become a war between two states, and in war between states, more force is used," he said. European leaders called on both Israel and Hamas to end the bloodshed.

Good luck with that. Suzan _______________________