Hamas-Israeli Fighting

Mike Walker

All,

No attempt here to lay blame for the root causes of the extremely complex Palestinian-Israeli issue in the Middle East.

However, the blame for the December 2008 fighting can be laid clearly at the feet of Hamas.

On 14 December 2008, during a celebration of the 21st anniversary of the creation of Hamas, its leaders unilaterally announced that they expected the ceasefire brokered by Egypt would expire on the 19 December deadline.

It should be remembered that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The extremist Sunni Muslim Brotherhood is also the forebearer of al Qaeda.

Israel responded with a plea to extend the ceasefire but warned it would not tolerate renewed attacks on Israel.

The ceasefire had not worked as desired for either side, as have virtually all the preceding agreements, but it did effectively contain the violence between Hamas and Israel to a "tit-for-tat" level.   

Three days later, on 17 December, Hamas fired 20 rockets at Israeli civilian targets.

On 18 December Hamas formally declared that the ceasefire would end the next day, Friday 19 December 2008.  To emphasize the point they fired another 14 missiles at Israeli civilian targets.

On Saturday 27 December Israel responded with large scale strikes against Hamas soldiers and the Hamas military infrastructure.  As a veteran of the war in Iraq, I know that we always strove to keep a standoff distance between our forces and civilians in order to protect them from the fighting.  

I also know that Hamas, like al Qaeda in Iraq, deliberately places its military weaponry, supplies, command and control facilities, etc, in as close a proximity to the civilian population as possible.

Hamas, like al Qaeda in Iraq, does this in order to create the "big lie" that will be broadcast around the world that the Israelis are targeting innocent civilians.  

As an aside, as a long as the media continues to allow the "big lie" to be aired without condemnation, the numbers of innocent civilians killed in modern wars will only continue to increase.  

The modern media has done a great disservice in recklessly blurring the line between legitimate targeting of the military and the unconscionable deliberate targeting/inclusion of civilians by extremists in their operations.

Where this fighting will lead is anyone's guess.  I would keep an keen eye on Hezbollah in Lebanon for indicators of a possible wider war.

Israel miscalculated the strength and willingness of Hezbollah to fight a major campaign in 2006.  

It appears Hamas has miscalculated by ending the ceasefire and stepping up attacks on an Israel that appears prepared and willing to fight a major campaign against them in 2008.

Semper Fi,

Mike

All,

 

There are few subjects that I can talk to ad nauseam but one is the California state education budget and in second place is the California state budget in general.

 

There should be NO bailout by the American taxpayers to fill a huge multi-billion dollar hole created by a broken California budget process and a dysfunctional state government.

 

Much has been said about the fact that California is one of a handful of states that requires 2/3 majority to pass a budget.  Some claim this is the root of the problem.  BUNK! 

 

What is not said is that California is also one of a handful of states that has its elected officials get on a plane to Fantasy Expenditure Island each year when it passes the budget only to have it crash, all too often of late, on the Rocks of Real Revenues during the return trip.

 

I fully support a simple majority to pass a budget in the legislature but IF AND ONLY IF they permanently cancel the flights to Fantasy Expenditure Island.  In other words, the budget must to be rigidly tethered to revenues. 

 

This can be achieved by having the budget process BEGIN with a hard statutory revenue projection that caps expenditures for the Governor and the Legislature. 

 

This can be formulated by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office or the Department of Finance or perhaps some reputable non-partisan committee that includes these offices.  

 

During the budgeting process it may be prudent to allow for well-constrained revisions of the cap based upon revenue changes as reported by the formulating office/committee.

 

In the future, the "rainy day" fund that is now in place (but empty) can be used to get California through extreme/ difficult fiscal situations.

 

But that discussion has nothing to do with socking it to the taxpayers in the other 49 states by making them the enablers of California's irresponsible behavior.

We Californians created this mess all by our lonesome and we need to fix it ourselves.  It won't be any fun but it is the only path to curing the disease.

 Happy holidays from here in sunny and broke California!

Mike