A few words on Israel...

No news is good news out of Gaza tonight, but we still need to keep prospective on what's really going on here.

From Metro:

...Unrestrained by the rules of international legality, and indifferent to the most elementary considera-tions of morality, Israel is bombing into the Stone Age a besieged, battered and largely defenseless society of 1.5 million people. At the time of writing, it had killed at least 437 people, wounded more than 2,300, and flattened every building in sight. The final casualties will undoubtedly be higher.

How has Israel managed to get away with such behavior? The short answer is that there is no serious countervailing pressure on the Jewish state, neither from a weak and divided Arab world, nor from the European Union, still struggling to become a coherent political entity, nor from emerging powers such as China and Russia. The total absence of any balance of power means that Israel has been able to do as it pleases.

The world is a jungle, largely because the U.S. administration of outgoing President George W. Bush has made it so. Bush’s illegal war in Iraq; his unbridled “Global War on Terror;” his cross-border air strikes; his subversion of the rule of law and of the Geneva Conventions; his license for the use of torture and for detention without trial: All these have given Israel the freedom to do likewise.

Instead of seeking to resolve long-running conflicts and promote peace, the Bush administration has instead fanned the flames of war. The world is praying that President-elect Barack Obama will bring about a sharp and decisive change of direction in American foreign policy...

I can't really put all the blame of Israel's actions on Bush; the Middle East has been a mess due in large part to blind U.S. support for 60 years. Furthermore, one can't honestly expect Obama to really "change" foreign policy towards the Jewish state when he gets into the White House, considering recent statements...