Filibuster Cartoons
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Fair-weather friend of Israel though I may be, I have a hard time evoking too much sympathy for the country in its present conflict against the Hamas-led regime in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Strip, was once part of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian government headed by the moderate president Mahmood Abbas. However, in late 2007 there was a coup in the Gaza region led by members of the terrorist group Hamas, who successfully drove representatives of Abbas’ government out, and consolidated their own power.
The government of Israel, headed by Prime Minister Olmert, for its part, protested the move, but didn’t really do much. Mr. Olmert was in a difficult political situation at the time, and likely did not have enough capital to start a war over the matter. So the Hamas crew were able to get cozy, and in the months that followed began regularly lobbing missiles into Israeli territory.
Finally, now, Israel has said enough is enough, and have begun bombing Gaza in retaliation. This is very politically convienient, because it allows Mr. Olmert and his ministers to look tough and decisive right before next month’s election, in which national security — as usual — looks to be the defining issue.
The war is tragic, as all wars are. And of course no one sympathizes with the Hamas missilie-lobbers. But being a democratic society, I think we often overlook the fact that Israel has a tendancy to coordinate its wars with moments of political opportunism for the ruling regime. Such obervations tend to get lost amid the unwaveringly rah-rah Israel sentiments of the Jewish nation’s western supporters.
