Israel and Hamas Intent On Mass Destruction

Watching the escalation in the Israel/Gaza crisis amazes me. I guess as a Western observer I cannot understand the irrational moves by both sides and the intense hatred shown by Israeli's and Palestinians.

Hamas declared the truce over and began rocket attacks. A few people were injured and some damage from the homemade rockets occurred in Israel according to press reports. As retaliation, Israel started a huge bombing attack on Hamas locations which so far as killed well over 300 people, many of whom are women and children.

Now, Hamas is calling for another intifada and the violence seems to be ratcheting up to another level.

I have to ask the question, how many times has Israel met violence with violence and how well has that worked? From where I stand, I don't see any success in the "eye for an eye" strategy.

I do not excuse Hamas which has caused much death and destruction on their own, and I do not excuse Israel either. Both factions are using no-win tactics and expecting different results. I just don't see how either side can justify the death they are causing.

I guess it is easy for me sitting here in the US to look at this and shake my head in wonder. Of course much of the world has watched us attack Iraq and Afghanistan for actions which were arguably not caused by wither country's government yet we rained down death on them all the same. The result? A shaky puppet government in Iraq and a teetering democracy in Afghanistan with enough death and destruction to go around.

It seems to me that doing anything in the Middle East is doomed to failure. There are irreconcilable differences between the various religious and political groups that is not about to be solved at the end of a gun. So why do we insist on doing it?

I guess before I can call Israel or Hamas crazy I need to get our own country to stop its policy of "preemptive attacks" (the Bush Doctrine) and start going to the negotiating table as a first resort.

As far as Israel and Gaza. I firmly believe we can cajole and barter all we want but we will have on effect until both parties will sit down and talk to each other like adults. Right now they are behaving like dangerous petulant children and worse they are armed.

Perhaps the new year will bring some maturity to our foreign policy and maybe we can set an example on how to settle differences without resorting to bombs and guns.