If you keep on excusing, you eventually give your blessing to the slave camp, to cowardly force, to organized executioners, to the cynicism of great political monsters; you finally hand over your brothers~~Albert Camus

The outbreak of major fighting between Hamas and Fateh in Gaza this past weekend is dismissed in the major US media as another example of the Arab's continuing inability to work together for their greater good.

Global warming and Israel are two of my most important issues. I am an American Jew who was raised with the question, "Is it good for Israel," though we also were none too keen on the right wingers in Israel and the first invasion of Lebanon. I am an avid history buff, including, but not exclusively, Jewish history. Much of my historical reading leads me to the conclusion that my survival and my son's survival are improved significantly by the existance of Israel. That is important to me. But I also recognize that much of what I feel about Israel can apply to Palestine as well. I have written about this in the past and will not review it here. That is not my purpose.

ALL of us are faced with global warming. This will cut across all borders, all divisions, all people. We must all address it. United we have a chance. Excessively divided, we will find ourselves screwed by our own stupidity. THAT is what I am writing about: a more united approach to dealing with economic and environmental problems, with the ancient/modern land of Canaan as my focus.

Imagine the horror of watching someone drowning before your eyes.   Now imagine watching it in slow motion.   Repeatedly.   For years I have been watching Israel's suicidal spiral with that kind of despair.

I used to explain Israel's current situation by comparing the occupation of the West Bank to the period in American history when Andrew Jackson was president.   He was willing to violate the law of the land and there was no political will to stop him.   His famous contempt for "John  Marshall's decision" paved the way for the Trail of Tears and all the genocide that followed.  Now we learn even this fig leaf of judicial restraint is gone.   In a strange, sad Hanukkah gift to itself, the Israeli Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision declaring extra-judicial executions are now legal.   

Everybody is angry, including Palestine, and everybody has a right to be angry -- except Palestine. Everybody has a right to exist on their own land -- except Palestine.

Finally.  Someone has noticed what is going on in the Middle East.  The UK Telegraph  reports that Britain is "furious" with Israel because of the damage it is causing in Gaza.  Is it because of the wholesale slaughter of innocent Palestinians -- the bombing of a Gaza beach that turned the entire family of 12-year-old Huda Ghalia into a smoking pile of human flesh and scattered body parts?  No?  Then, perhaps it is using innocent Palestinians as human shields, gunning down children as they scurry fearfully to school, burying the wounded alive Jenin-style...

Or maybe Britain is at long last enraged by the massacre of 19 Palestine refugees, mostly women and children, in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun on Nov. 8.  Maybe Britain was aware of the little-reported six-day seige which had ended just the day before the assault when Israeli ground forces had been withdrawn from Beit Hanoun after slaughtering 50 and injuring many more. In response to the public outcry at the Nov. 8 slaughter, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert explained that it was caused by a mere "technical error."  Olmert did admit he was "uncomfortable" with the "event," but said military operations in Gaza would continue, and that further mistakes "may happen."

Tonight at 7 PST and 10 EST, Link TV will be doing another special edition of Mosaic.  Mosaic is a really cool show that brings together news segments from all over the Middle East.

The diary below was originally posted earlier today on my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

In July 1947, George F. Kennan published an article in the quarterly edition of Foreign Affairs entitled "Sources of Soviet Conduct." Kennan originally drafted the article as a paper for Defense Secretary James Forrestal. When he submitted it to Foreign Affairs, Kennan used the moniker "Mr. X." The piece was known as "containment" and is credited with guiding American foreign policy under presidents of both parties during the cold war.

Yesterday, while I was standing in line in the post office, people who had never previously met were arguing passionately about the slaughter in Lebanon. It reminded me of 9/11, except the conversation had flipped over somehow. On 9/11, the Muslim family that owns the corner grocery was practicing community diplomacy, handing out free sodas and assuring nervous neighbors that terrorism wasn't part of their culture. Yesterday, non-Muslims were promising their Muslim neighbors that the U.S. doesn't support the murder of civilians.    

As the terrorist group Hamas swept 76 of 132 seats in Wednesday's Palestinian legislative elections, the fingernails of extremism ground their way mockingly across the blackboard of Democracy -- the world aghast.

But the shock wasn't shared by everybody. Over a half million Palestinians actually voted to put these people in power.

What drove them to show such widespread support for a group so widely regarded as a bloodthirsty, cowardly gang of terrorists?

Simple. Those who voted for Hamas don't see them as terrorists. That's why they voted to give a stiff middle finger to those of us who do.

Hamas won a solid victory in Palestine, raising considerable concerns around the world as a "terrorist" group gains power. There is no question that the rise to power of an extremist group of any sort is worrisome. And Hamas does advocate terrorism and oppression of women. Hamas are extremists. But so are many governments that America supports. The extremism of Hamas is a concern. But there is one problem with opposing the Hamas government: they were democratically elected.

Whatever our approach to dealing with the Hamas government, we have to start from this beginning: they were democratically elected.