Israel & Hamas

After being subject to some 3,000 rocket attacks in the space of a year from Gaza, Israel retaliated against Hamas this past weekend. This time around, in an effort to combat the media campaign against them, Israel has its own YouTube channel and is posting videos of its operations, including some movies of its 'geo-targeting' and taking out military targets with pin-point accuracy (permitting them to obliterate terrorists loading rockets in the back of a pickup truck, for example). YouTube has reportedly deleted some of these IDF videos, but they can be viewed here: "IDF Videos -- See them here" (Power Line, December 30, 2008).

American Catholic has an in-depth analysis by Christopher Blosser in a post entitled "Thoughts on Israel's war with Hamas" (American Catholic, December 27, 2008). Somewhat ironically, the article takes issue at certain points with Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com, who seems to have distanced himself from some of his erstwhile neocon positions.

Curiously enough, at this point not everybody on the Arab street is backing Hamas; Egypt and even the president of the Palestinians (Abbas) are blaming Hamas for provoking the current action. Even some Palestinian Catholics in the West Bank are hoping Israel 'kills Hamas' -- which is precisely their objective (even while sending humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza) -- see Judith Sudilovsky's Catholic News Service article (December 30, 2008).

In an email, C. Blosser notes that this past year, Senator Obama visited the Israeli town of Sderot (frequent victim to rocket attacks, almost on a daily basis), and remarked:

I will work from the moment that I return to America, to tell the story of Sderot and to make sure that the good people who live here are enjoying a future of peace and security and hope…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. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.

One wonders how such language may translate into foreign policy.

[Hat tip to C.B.]