Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Strip Imperil Obama's Peace Chances

[Scurrilous]

Hamas Response Likely to Attacks That Seem to Stun West

<snip>

"Israel's airstrikes on Gaza today, in retaliation for a nonstop barrage of rocket attacks from Hamas fighters, raised the prospect of an ongoing escalation of violence that could scuttle any hopes the incoming Obama administration harbored of forging an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

"If the casualty reports are accurate, Hamas is going to respond. And this isn't a two- or three-day deal in which the genie is put back in the bottle," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and author of "The Much Too Promised Land." "This takes the already slim chance of an early, active and successful Obama engagement on Israel-Palestinian peace and lowers it to about zero."

Israel has been warning for weeks that it could not tolerate regular rocket attacks launched from Hamas-controlled territory in the Gaza Strip, and it has been laying the groundwork for a new offensive with the collapse this month of a shaky six-month cease-fire. Still, the ferocity and scope of today's Israeli attacks, which killed more than 200, appeared to stun Western governments and analysts. Arab countries condemned Israel, and Saudi Arabia urged the United States to intervene to stop the attacks."

<snip>

"President-elect Barack Obama has voiced sympathy with Israel's predicament. During his visit to Israel last summer, he held a news conference in Sderot, the southern Israeli town that has borne the brunt of the Gaza rocket attacks, saying he does not "think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens."

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Obama said at the time. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

Obama's transition team was more cautious today, adhering to its policy of not commenting on foreign developments because there should be "one president at a time." Brooke Anderson, Obama's national security spokeswoman, said only that Obama "is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza."

Rice also briefed the president-elect by phone today.

There is little doubt, however, that if the situation escalates, it could hand yet another potential crisis to Obama, who will already be inheriting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an unstable situation in Pakistan. If the past is any guidance, the United States will probably come under great pressure to restrain Israel if the tit-for-tat violence grows."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/27/AR2008122700962.html

[sellitman]

1. And Hamas rockets Imperil Obama's Peace Chances.

Oh that's right....this is DU

Sorry

How silly of me.

[tan guera]

2. I'll respond

It sure does.

[tan guera]

3. I can't figure out how to respond to specific posts!

Anybody ?

[Scurrilous]

4. You seem to be doing okay.

What are you having problems with?

[Frank Booth]

5. Maybe that was the point?

And that goes for Hamas lobbing missiles into Israel as well.

Call me cynical, but I have a feeling that the ruling powers on both sides think they benefit by ratcheting up the violence every once in a while.