It’s almost impossible to comprehend the hypocrisy behind American actions in the Middle-East. U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice—a woman whose grasp of Middle-Eastern issues was made acutely apparent during Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon in 2006 (birth pangs, remember?)—recently appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on behalf of the Palestinian civilians currently being bombed into a powder by the IAF.

“I am concerned about the humanitarian condition there and innocent people in the Gaza who are being hurt. We have to remember that the Hamas activities there are responsible for what has happened in Gaza … But, of course, we are concerned about innocent people and we are concerned about the humanitarian situation,” she said after the one-hour breakfast meeting. <<< more

Of course, as the U.S. is always so scrupulously careful to avoid, Rice stopped short of actually asking Israel to demonstrate a little restraint (by immediately halting their campaign of collective violence against the population of Gaza). Instead, Israel responded to Rice by killing a baby and three young children… I might add that Israel listens to everything the United States says. Thus, if it were truly in the American interest to have peace in the Middle-East, it is only as difficult as the incompetents in Washington make it.

As for Israel, killing civilians apparently isn’t a workable policy for retaliating against rocket fire (i.e. the number of rockets fired hasn’t actually decreased) and there are some calling for the reoccupation of Gaza.

“The government will need to contend and make difficult decisions. We are not far from the day in which we will have to go in and reoccupy all of Gaza.” <<< more

That would be very silly indeed.

Tags: Hamas, Israel, IDF, Israel, Ehud Olmert, Gaza, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Palestine, Ismail Haniyeh, Kris Petersen, IAF, harmonicminor