The Christmas season didn’t bring too much promise of peace to everyone around the world. The Middle East is living their worst fear, and it has nothing to do with Santa Claus jumping down their chimneys. Just 8 days ago, the truce between Israel and the Palestinian entity was still alive and for all intents and purposes, 2009 was supposed to be the year of ‘hope’ and restoration.
According this morning CNN/BBC reports (the closest thing to fair news that I can find) Israeli air strikes pounded targets in Gaza and killed at least 170 people. Unfortunately this is not one of the alarm sounding statements, this has ignited renewed tensions throughout the region.
The story even gets dismal as the militant group Hamas, which controls the government in Gaza, vowed to retaliate. Depending on which side of the story you’re on, ‘retaliation’ is a chicken and egg debate because Hamas had been responsible for several rocket attacks into Israel.
This day in history is not one of those that I had been looking forward to, the first anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Pakistan withdrawing troops from the Afghanistan border to the Indian border in anticipation of India stashing troops to attack. And now Israel and Hamas in this potentially explosive crossfire.
The cease fire expired a week ago after a wild after a tense six-month truce between the Hamas government in Gaza and Israel. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Hamas agreed to end militant attacks on Israel from Gaza, and Israel agreed to halt raids inside the territory and ease its blockade on humanitarian goods.
F-16 Bombers, missiles and warplanes; so much for the good tidings of the Christmas season.
