My return to the blog

It is time for me to return. I have been following Ha'Aretz, Jerusalem Post, and AlJazeera (English language) report on the current war in Gaza, "Operation Cast Lead." I have somewhat withdrawn from the internet lately. I needed some peace of mind. Many people in Israel and Gaza are praying for some peace of mind as well, not to mention actual peace also.

I'm sure all people who don't live in caves know something about what is happening in Gaza right, now so I won't repeat the details. There is one item in particular that I want to point out: , a debate on AlJazeera from December 25 a couple days before the war in Gaza began. Here are some things I want to point out:

1. The Israeli pundit in the video expresses the general feelings of Jewish Israelis. The Israeli public approves of the air-strikes but far fewer approve a ground operation. The Israeli expresses that feeling.

2. I saw this war coming from a mile away.

3. Is the Palestinian pundit a member of Fatah or Hamas? He isn't so much defending the Hamas regime as he is the Palestinian cause of "Resistance," which I believe has harmed the Palestinians more than it has the Israelis. It's interesting that Palestinians seem to be afraid to condemn other Palestinians in the media. It reminds me of a passage in "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman, where a Palestinian faction broke away from the PLO because they thought that Arafat and his cronies were ineffective but were quickly crushed because of two reasons. The first is that they received support from Syria, which delegitimized this faction. The second is that they criticized the current official "face" of the Palestinians, which was Arafat. Fatah is going to disappear unless they vehemently blame Israel instead of Hamas. This is largely because, for the moment, Hamas and the bleeding and dying people of Gaza are the faces of the Palestinian cause. In my opinion, Palestinian self-criticism is non-existent and would continue to derail the Palestinian cause, which has been hijacked by radical Islamists. Arafat the Corrupt was the first face of Palestine. Hamas the Terrorist is new face.

4. Egyptian support, at least at the official level, is unprecedented and somewhat embarrassing. Israel is finding allies in the Middle East because of a common enemy - radical Islamist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Jordan remains silent, as it always has been but Egypt has been vocal in placing the blame on Hamas. It's worth pointing out that the main opposition to the government in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood. And guess who is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. That's right - Hamas.