It is, according to Israel, just the beginning.  A wave of missile attacks on the Gaza Strip, which began on Saturday morning, bombarded security compounds belonging to Hamas, which controls the coastal territory.  Israel defends the attacks on the grounds of repeated terrorist attacks by Hamas. Palestine is claiming 200 dead with hundreds more injured, but all credible sources say that it is impossible to confirm the numbers.

Spokesman for the Isreali Prime Minister, Mark Regev, announced that the attacks were in retaliation for recent terroist attacks against Israel by Hamas.  Hamas claims that Israel was the first to end an uneasy truce.

One week ago today a truce between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt, expired.  This past Wednesday evening, a Hamas guard was confirmed dead by an Israeli air strike.  By late Wednesday evening Hamas began a rocket attack in retaliation for the death.  More than sixty rockets were fired into Israel damaging many structures, but no fatalities or serious injuries were reported.

All of this lead to today’s attacks by Israel on Palestine.

This is the post 9/11 world.  Any country or group can claim a right to war as long as it is followed by the words terrorism.  Let’s forget about the route cause of the problem, it only gets in the way to claiming self-defense.

The Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barack, actually invoked the Bush mantra, “war on terror”.  Under this mantra many believe any action can be justified as long as they are a friend of the United States.  The more terrifying part is that they might be right, at least until January 20th, 2009.

Randall Thomas