Things to worry about

Here are two big things to worry about for the New Years. I'm sure there will be others to come.

1) Israel's ugly and ultimately criminal bombardment and invasion of Gaza. There's just no excuse for this nonsense. And no, Jewish apologists everywhere, a few Qassam rockets do not an excuse make.

There's this thing known as proportionality of response. Interesting thing about the concept of proportionality is that when it's violated, those who are signatories to the Geneva Convention by law consider it a war crime.

Objectively speaking, Israel just blew that wide open with its vicious bombing and invasion of Gaza...But of course, Israel does stuff like this about once every year or two.

I found it ironic and sad that representatives of Israel could very well find themselves sitting in the same docket Eichmann warmed over half a century ago because they refuse to recongize the very laws put in place to prevent the same kind of horror happening again.

Of course, that won't happen, but here's hoping it does, nonetheless. The attack on Gaza is merciless and inexcusable morally, politically and legally.

2) Obama--a handful of very worrying trends: Allowing Rick Warren to deliver his invocation, his refusal to denounce the slaughter in Gaza and finally his absymal ideas on an economic stimulus package. A 300 billion tax cut is probably the least efficient way to stimulate the economy. He's obviously doing this to get the Republicans on board and it's just a bad, bad idea. Because Republicans are not about getting on board for anything. They will play obstructionist games and try to wrangle a 700 billion dollar tax cut because they are ideologically rigid that way--and not just a little blind to their own hubris and stupidity. Krugman has a lot more to say about this here.

I knew Obama was more centrist than I was. I just hope he doesn't let the whole post-partisan good guy riff go to his head. The Warren decision was ugly and unncessary, his silence on Gaza is political and cowardly and playing 'tax cuts' games with the Republicans is politically and economically dumb. It cedes the economic frame to their own grossly inept ideologoical bent and will be bad for the economy to boot.

Naturally, if he gets a deal done that includes some tax cuts, I suppose half a loaf is better than none and all of that, but I'm not holding my breath.

The poisonous attack on Gaza

I'm horrified by the recent slaughter in Gaza and know that my view will be marginal at best, even among the progressive community. I'd like to point out a few things, but think it better that those living and writing from Israel do the pointing out. Herewith, the words of columnists from the center of the death that reigns down upon a subjugated people.

From Haaretz, Zvi Barel writes: "Six months ago Israel asked and received a cease-fire from Hamas. It unilaterally violated it when it blew up a tunnel, while still asking Egypt to get the Islamic group to hold its fire." Yet the U.S. media refers that only Hamas violated the ceasefire.

Amira Hass, the paper's correspondent in Gaza, reports: "There are many corpses and wounded, every moment another casualty is added to the list of the dead, and there is no more room in the morgue. Relatives search among the bodies and the wounded in order to bring the dead quickly to burial. A mother whose three school-age children were killed, and are piled one on top of the other in the morgue, screams and then cries, screams again and then is silent."

From the lead Haaretz editorial: "[T]he inherent desire for retribution does not necessarily have to blind us to the view from the day after....Israel's violation of the lull in November expedited the deterioration that gave birth to the war of yesterday. But even if this continues for many days and even weeks, it will end in an agreement, or at least an understanding similar to that reached last June."

The Independent, a major daily in London has an eyewitness account, ending with: "These bombs were launched by Israel, as we had known they would be. The world watched the situation simmer then boil over, but did nothing. There are some who believe that hell is divided into different classes. The ordinary people of Gaza have long been caught in the tormenting underworld. Now, if the world does not heed what has happened here, our situation will worsen. We will be trapped in the first class of hell."

A McClatchy dispatch quotes Daniel Levy, a political analyst in Israel who once served as an adviser to Ehud Barak, who is leading the military campaign against Hamas: "I don't see how this ends well, even if, in two weeks time, it looks like it ends well."

Haaretz has just posted this from another columnist, Tom Segev: "[T]he assault on Gaza does not first and foremost demand moral condemnation - it demands a few historical reminders. Both the justification given for it and the chosen targets are a replay of the same basic assumptions that have proven wrong time after time. Yet Israel still pulls them out of its hat again and again, in one war after another."

And this from another columnist, Akiva Eldar: "The tremendous population density in the Gaza Strip does not allow a "surgical operation" over an extended period that would minimize damage to civilian populations. The difficult images from the Strip will soon replace those of the damage inflicted by Qassam rockets in the western Negev. The scale of losses, which works in 'favor' of the Palestinians, will return Israel to the role of Goliath."

I would add, from a personal perspective, there is hardly any moral equivalence in these actions. Israel has claimed more lives in 48 hours than Hamas has claimed in nearly three years of mostly inept Qassam rocket attacks. David and Goliath, indeed. Need the Israel right and it's military might be reminded that God did not favor Goliath?