Pillar of Cloud

by Mike Packer

           Finally, after two years of consistant rain of rockets from Gaza the Israeli government has decided to retaliate.

          We have been barraged in the last two weeks by the talking heads of our media about why the Government hasn't acted to prevent the suffering of our southern citizens. 12000 rockets have fallen on those citizens surrounding Gaza in the last 12 years. This is the thanks we get for surrendering our hold on the Gaza Strip that was always a hornets nest.
Those media representatives have for the last two weeks kept up a relentless pressure on the Members of Parliament that belong to the ruling party in Israel. This pressure finally forced our PM to take action and as far as I am concerned later than was expected. The PM should have acted months ago but, in my humble opinion, was being reigned in by the political situation in the US in the last few months. I feel that the US election, with all due respect, has nothing to do with the situation in the southern half of my country and should have been dismissed by the PM and his cabinet.

          At long last, after 150 rockets in one week, after a pseudo cease fire by the Hamas regime which was not accepted by all the factions in Gaza, the Israeli Cabinet ordered the retribution that was called for. Ahmed Jaabari, may his name be erased from the book of life, was sent to his just deserves.

         Jaabari was the chief of staff for the armed wing of Hamas and as such deserved what he got. The Israel Defense Forces have, as well as the assassination of Jaabari, attacked rocket stores in Gaza plus a few launching sites of the larger rockets that Hamas has smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels from Sinai under the noses (and probable collaboration) of the Egyptians. This smuggling was going on during Hussni Mubarak's regime which was, supposedly, guarding the Sinai/Israeli border under the "peace" treaty signed by both countries after the Yom Kippur war. The new President of Egypt, Mursi, has recalled his Ambassador to Israel because of Pillar of Cloud ( the name given to this action in Gaza) and has sanctioned Israel over this "barbaric" action. 
         Thankfully, President Obama, has reminded Mursi that Israel has every right to defend itself. Thank you, Mr. President, but we know that already. We have paid enough lip service to the US and we will and should and have given them a taste of what they send us every week. It is our right and our duty to defend the Land of Israel and the citizens that live in it and POTUS should be willing to go a little further than just shaking a finger at Egypt and order his Ambassador to the UN to sanction Hamas in the Security Council and put it in no uncertain terms that the constant rain of rockets must stop or Hamas must suffer the consequences.

         So, here we are in the middle of a military action against Hamas and, lo and behold, our talking heads are back and asking when it will end! I was wondering how long it would take. The questions being asked are "why now, just before elections?" and I am sitting here listening to them and wondering to myself why after pressuring the Government to act they are suddenly asking why. It didn't take me long to realize that the political advantages are being harvested by the media itself to try and influence the electorate and I have a feeling in my gut that they have just created a huge right wing swing in favor of Bibi (for better or worse) and that their strategy has just blown up in their faces. 

         The media campaign has suddenly become so clear that their audacity will only help the right wing to bolster their hold on the Knesset of Israel and then we will be able to finally annex Judea and Samaria as we should have done in 1967. Finally we will be able to offer the residents of Judea and Samaria, Arabs and Jews alike, the chance to emerge from this quagmire and send the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Salafis back to Tunisia where they belong.