A quick search about Gov. Palin on wikipedia produced the following:

"Palin initially expressed support for the Gravina Island Bridge project, commonly known outside the state as the 'Bridge to Nowhere.' However, once it had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending and federal funding was lost, Palin decided against filling the $320 million gap with state money."

The right somehow managed to spin that into "she's tough on corruption and wasteful spending"

"Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska. After she was announced as McCain's presumptive running mate, she stated that she does not believe that climate change is man-made."

Flip-flop!

"In May 2008, Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. She threatened a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts. She also called unreliable the climate-change models cited by Kempthorne and environmentalists that predict melting of Arctic ice. She said the move to list the bears was premature and was not the appropriate management tool for their welfare at the time."

She doesn't believe in science and she's beholden to Oil interests.

"While running for Governor of Alaska, Palin advocated the teaching of both creationism and evolution in public schools; but the next day, she said, "Creationism doesn't have to be part of the curriculum" and that she would not use "religion as a litmus test, or anybody's personal opinion on evolution or creationism" as criteria for selection to the school board."

Flip-flop!

So let's talk about the issues and about flip-flopping instead of McCain's cynicism or tokenism! Shall we?

Gary Kamiya demonstrates a firm grasp of the facts and an incisive analysis and yet he falls short on two fronts.

First of all, while the bombing campaign may produce more shocking images, the attempt to starve Gaza's population ("putting Gaza on a diet" as they called it) that preceded it is both a more serious and a more heinous crime. It was also a precipitating factor of the current crisis.

Secondly, Kamiya assumes that Israel is earnestly seeking to achieve peace with the indigenous population but its attempts are hamhanded. The facts belie that assumption. If that assumption were true, Israel would have sought to render Hamas less relevant by bolstering apolitical organizations (such as UNRWA) and improving their ability to provide food and basic services to the population. Israeli policies have been having the opposite effects by pushing the population into the arms of the Hamas smugglers.

By their actions the Israelis are deligitimizing the area's impotent governments in favor of fundamentalist organization such as Hezbollah and Hamas. This achieves the twin objectives of weakening the neighboring states and allowing Israel to present itself as a bulwark against America's current bogeyman: Islamic fundamentalism just as it presented itself as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism in an earlier era.

Israel's experiment in human despair has no goals other than the continued dispossession and depopulation of the Palestinians and the perpetuation of this conflict which greatly benefits Israel's military-industrial complex.

Moshe Dayan expressed it best: "We have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave, and we will see where this process leads"

Many of the posters reflexively defend Israeli actions and equate any criticism of said actions with support for Hamas and its ideology but they are missing the point.

The point is that Israel has the option of using carrots in addition to sticks to de-escalate the conflict and de-legitimize Hamas and its tactics. Instead of doing that Israel wields a big stick (restriction on movement, blockade, etc...) and an even bigger stick (aerial bombardment, military operations). This pushes the population into the arms of Hamas and allows them burnish to their credentials as resisters. Gary Kamiya thinks these are unintended consequences that Israel should avoid. I believe that Gary is wrong on that and that this policy is deliberate. Think about it! If you were Israel would you rather face a Ghandi-like character or some fundamentalist villain straight out of central casting that is foaming at the mouth about how he's going to exact terrible revenge and destroy your state even though he doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of achieving either goal?

Israel likes to pretend that any group attacking it is the second coming of the Nazi party and therefore it has no choice but to use maximum force while conveniently ignoring the fact that what made the Nazis so dangerous was that they had control of the formidable German army and the equally formidable German industrial machine. Take a look at Gaza and the West Bank and see how that analogy breaks down. They can't even deal with their sewage...

Just to put things in perspective. If Israel is so concerned about the 20 people that were killed by the Qassam home-made firecrackers over the last 8 years then they should start bombing careless and speeding motorists and anybody who lives near them because they account for roughly 8,000 deaths per year in Israel.