After a good start, the Obama administration’s response to the democratic revolution in Egypt has begun to exude the odor of betrayal, falling back on the sordid option of backing a new and improved dictatorship. But this time the Egyptian street will not meekly go along.
If nothing else, this assault on decency by the Israeli government was clearly intended to derail the peace talks that President Barack Obama has encouraged. But instead of calling Israel on its savagery, the U.S. is virtually alone in the world in its embarrassingly mild rebuke.
So, why didn’t they give peace a chance? Why did the leaders of Hamas and Israel not wait for the incoming U.S. president’s inauguration before mutually escalating hostilities?
What a difference 40 years makes. Robert Scheer takes a look at current events in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from a historical perspective, tracing the dramatic developments among regional and religious factions since the end of the Six-Day War.