Gaza Fighting

I woke up this morning thinking I would write a post about Israel's ongoing settlement idiocy, including the new building in East Jerusalem. Instead, I'll save that for later and comment on the reaction to events in Gaza:

"At least 17 Palestinains were killed earlier on Tuesday in raids on Gaza City. Of those, at least 14 were members of armed groups, and 13 of them were Hamas militants. One of the other fatalities was a 65-year-old man, Palestinians said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the raids as 'a massacre' which would not be forgotten by the Palestinians.

"'There was a massacre today against our people, and we say to the world that our people will not remain silent against such crimes,' he said."

Israel, frankly, wants nothing to do with Gaza. So why did all this happen?

"President Shimon Peres said as long as Gaza militants continue to fire rockets into the Jewish state, 'we are left without a choice but to answer and stop it.'"

This massacre talk is clearly over the top. In fairness, I think Abbas knows this and is just playing to the street. In broader terms, this shows how much power Hamas still has to derail the peace process.