Israel Rallies Behind Netanyahu

Current polling has some 90% (!) of Israelis supporting Netanyahu.

Meanwhile Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have basically lined up against Hamas and so aligned themselves with Israel.

Support at home and from the usually hostile neighbors will give Israel a lot more leeway to act. The New York Times reports on this and complains that Egypt, et al's choice is making everything worse by impeding a ceasefire.  You know, ceasefires would probably be more feasible if Kerry weren't an idiot, Hamas didn't consistently break them by refusing to stop firing rockets, and - let's be brutally honest - they didn't help the aggressor.

"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ruined everything"

This open disgust comes from Haaretz, Israel's version of the New York Times.  Looks like more smart diplomacy in action.

This sums it up:

Kerry's recent efforts to negotiate a ceasefire have come to nothing in part because his proposals treat Hamas as a legitimate organization with legitimate security needs, as opposed to a group listed by Kerry's State Department as a terror organization devoted to the physical elimination of one of America's closest allies. 

Astronaut's-Eye View: Gaza From the International Space Station

My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel pic.twitter.com/jNGWxHilSy
— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) July 23, 2014

Tunnel Vision: Digging Trenches in Military History

A history professor at the University of St. Andrews takes a look in light of the current conflict in Gaza and Hamas tunnels.

UPDATE: It keeps getting worse the more we dig into the topic.

Oh, Snap

Zing!

Down the Rabbit Hole: Hamas Tunnels

Infrastructure.

The Middle East Friendship Chart

Obviously it's reductive and imperfect (where is Jordan?  I didn't see Lebanon either), but this chart is an interesting attempt to begin to think about the complexity of relationships in the Middle East.  I kind of want to add "Frenemies" as another relationship option and "Kurds/Kurdistan" as another player.  Note, though, how ISIS is pretty much hated by everybody.

Cartoon Commentary on Hamas in Gaza

As Israel-bashing in the media and commentariat reaches new heights (or depths?), maybe we can remember just how the current Gaza situation started.  Palestinian civilians are suffering for it, but I'm pretty sure Hamas doesn't care about civilians.

Quote of the Day as Israel Hits Hamas

Around the 8:30 mark: "Sometimes you just have to fight against people who want to murder you."

Headline of the Day: "The Purple Prose of Cairo"

Great wordplay with a movie title, not to mention all too fitting for the content. Here's a blurb from the substance:

In the battle of Gaza, Egypt is the fact-checker. Egypt is the referee. Egypt is the peacemaker.

That’s what Egypt says.  But Egypt is none of these things. What Egypt has done, at best, is to douse a fire that was ignited and fed by Egypt.

According to the New York Times, at a weekend briefing in Cairo, Egyptian officials “sought to blame Israel for the conflict while at the same time maintaining Egypt’s role as an intermediary pressing both sides for peace.” A senior Egyptian official, quoted by the Times, accused the West of “double standards” for embracing Israel’s, but not Gaza’s, right to self-defense. The official said “the blame should be directed toward the occupation,” and he chided Western media for reporting that Hamas had fired “rockets” when in fact Hamas was only launching crude “projectiles.” On Tuesday, Egypt’s state news agency boasted that thanks to the ceaseless diplomatic toil of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, “the farce of Israeli aggression” would soon end.

Oh, yes. Do tell us all about farces, projectiles, aggression, blame, and double standards.

Dear Security Council ...

Here is a fascinating (and grim) look at the multiple letters sent to the Security Council by Israel's ambassador to the UN. Dating from February 27 to November 12 of this year, these missives detail the increasing rocket attacks from Gaza (as well as the Security Council's silence). Yep, nobody cares about people firing rockets into Israel, but heaven forfend the Israelis get sick of it and fight back, so cue now massive scurryings and utterings at the same UN.

"Just War": History, Thoughts, and Perspectives

I also think people these days bandy about the term "just war" while having almost no idea of what it means aside from "we don't like what Israel is doing." Anyway, do take a look here.  Are you perhaps Jacksonian in your outlook?  Perhaps Clausewitzian?  Thoughts on "proportionality"? (I dare say that's just not "the Chicago Way" ... but do you want to get Capone or not?) 

Thoughts on Gaza

So I read this morning in the Jerusalem Post that 75,000 reservists have been OK'd.  That's a lot of reservists.  For what exactly might they be mobilizing?  While we've been distracted by Benghazi, Petraeus's peccadillos, and Twinkie-pocalypse, trouble's been brewing in Gaza as Hamas rockets aim for Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  

Where Israel's concerned, let's recall what Macbeth said: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly" ... i.e., before the UN and everybody else poke their nose in there and tries to stop the Israelis from doing/completing whatever they're now thinking of doing.

Twitter Fight and Real War: The IDF and Hamas

One of the amusing/annoying aspects of Twitter as a social media platform is the way that "Twitter fights" erupt on it constantly with people hurling 140-character insults and zingers at each other.  Yesterday, though, as some friends and I were just discussing, the online Twitter fight and actual warfare slammed together in one of the most surreal, "what is reality?" moments I've ever seen online.  To wit: as the IDF and Hamas were mixing it up on the ground in the Gaza Strip, both parties were also mixing it up on Twitter in real time.  Buzzfeed has coverage, as does Twitchy.  (Seriously, though, I don't get why the IDF now doesn't have a gazillion followers on Twitter.)