Worldwide Java Jag: 2008-01-06

Monday, January 07, 2008

THUDS HEARD IN ASHKELON AND DES MOINES

The thud from incoming missiles was heard last week: one in Ashkelon, Israel and one in Des Moines, Iowa. The first was from a 122mm Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza. The second was the landing of the Obama rocket onto the electoral consciousness. They both signaled massive change and they both displayed, as clearly as a contrail against a blue sky, the differences that define the Mideast and the West.

The Hamas Gazans, either acting on behalf of Iran and Syria or on their own, ratcheted up their resistance last week. As we have been predicting for a while, Hamas has put out the welcome mat for more death and destruction to be visited upon its ancestral home. The extended range and increased lethality of the Iranian made Katyusha is beyond a message. It’s a clear statement that says to the West and to Europe, “Our pain threshold is far greater than you thought.” In response, Israeli jets and attack helicopters went into action. They bombed and rocketed back, killing and maiming resistance fighters and their families, targeting factories and homes too.














Hamas is voting for the status quo: resistance and its consequences. A parallel could be drawn with the air war between Britain and Germany in WWII. The Germans knew that their relentless rocket attacks and air raids on Britain would result in massive retaliation to their cities and industry. Daylight fire bombing of Germany became the norm, but it never deterred Hitler… even when Germany and its storybook cities were piles of rubble. Initially, Germany’s civilians were resolved to fight on, but the scale of the devastation caused them to become dazed and forlorn. Hamas may be counting on the initial unifying effect of being under siege. Expect to see Gazan social life revolve around attending funerals.

After the Israeli response, the Israeli military press releases were unambiguously chilling - the use of the word “routine” to describe the counter attacks; the portrayal of the dead Gazan women and children as victims of Hamas’ use of civilian areas for its military operations. Where formally the Israelis would have announced an investigation into civilian deaths, now there was no pretense of one. More fascinating was there was no call for one because there was no condemnation by the usual suspects, European international humans rights groups.

It seems that an unnamed European country offered to broker a truce, but Hamas’ Kheled Meshaal rejected it. He vowed that the “right to resistance would continue.” In light of his remarks, Israel would be smart to continue the destruction of Gaza by air. There is no need to put boots on the ground and have casualties. The western world has turned its back on the ungrateful Palestinians of Gaza, and, in true Mideast counter logic, it is even possible that the Egyptians and Israelis have collaborated to turn a blind eye to the smuggling of advanced weaponry into Gaza. Both countries know the jihadi/martyrdom loving Gazans will use them and thus hasten the ruin of the place. How else could both the silence from Cairo and the Israel turning Gaza into a free fire zone be interpreted?


A mindset away in Iowa, we heard the second thud. In America we get to vote for change and reject the status quo. The signal sent by the caucuses that the destruction by this Republican administration of (in no particular order): the environment; constitution; mortgage industry; image abroad; currency; manufacturing; trade balances; and domestic budget had to end. Even Wall Street agreed. A massive post New Year’s sell-off promptly sent the Bushies notice that the chickens of policy failure had come home to roost. Every candidate associated with running the country during the last 8 years, i.e., everyone but Obama and Huckabee, was tarred, feathered, and put on the train heading out of town. The plucky, can-do American attitude that we should fix things and make them better for our children was on display in Iowa. It’s possible to exit off the highway of self-destruction.

Perhaps Bush should cancel his visit to Israel next week. Perhaps we need to set an example to our few remaining friends there and send someone who is not afraid of change. After all, he will meet people who, like him, refuse to act out of the box. Both those he will meet and those who don’t acknowledge him, are locked into a mindset of same old same old. Abbas knows what must be said in Arabic in order to break the logjam of occupation. Olmert knows what has to be given up to raise the hopes of the Palestinians, and Haniya knows that death awaits him, as it reached Yassin and Rantisi if he continues to war against his sovereign neighbor.

Odds are we will be hearing more thuds on both fronts.