What Israel and U.S. Fail to Understand »

Israeli leaders are in the midst of a crucial election season where the hawkish Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been leading in the election campaign to unseat the present Israeli coalition. Accordingly, his rivals, the newly elected Kadima Party leader and foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the shrinking Labor Party, have been eager for some maneuver to outdo Netanyahu. The opportunity came when Israel's political godfather, the United States, has been preoccupied with the country's "very sick" economy as well as pace-setting transition in American leadership. Their short-sighted option was to invade the densely populated Gaza Strip in the hope it would not have the same disastrous results as Israel's war on Hezbollah two years ago.

Although the Israeli reasoning for their assault has been the Gaza shelling of southern Israeli towns, the suspicion has been all along the elimination of Hamas and restoration of the West Bank regime of moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has unsuccessfully been negotiating with Israel for a year.

Furthermore, it came as no great surprise when Bush gave a tacit green light to the Israeli assault, accompanied by his deadly silence over the high civilian toll in the first week of the invasion.

This prompted U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to break his silence and express his deep concern over the high civilian casualties.

"After January 20, I'm going to have plenty to say about the issue, and I am not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign, that starting at the beginning of our administration, we are going to be engaged effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict in the Middle East." He stressed, "that's something I am committed to."

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