Israel is small in size of course, which is why the intractable conflict between Palestinians and Jews drags so long. But it’s also small in the way things work, as if the sort of soundstages from which America has exported its slick culture haven’t quite been built up as smoothly in Israel, so that you can see the wires from which the angels fly, the cameramen behind the screen, and the clumsy movements of the actors on and off screen.

It is inevitable that a population of 7.3 million will feel compact, as if you might run into Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the street someday and not blink. In fact, one drives by Barak’s high-rise apartment in North Tel Aviv on main highways. Without tremendous pull and with a little bit of patience and luck, a high school senior can get an interview with President Shimon Peres.

But then there is the smallness of the way the government and political parties operate. The way the war, while launched in response to the ending of a cease-fire set up long before President Obama was an inevitability, wrapped itself up tidily just before his inauguration, down to the targeting of his swearing-in ceremony as the deadline to pull out the troops. The way two of the three major parties held political primaries marred by computer breakdowns (Kadima dodged this bullet, but they also were the last party in line). The way Arab-baiting politician Avigdor Lieberman, of Yisrael Beiteinu is treated with kid gloves by his political rivals in other parties, for fear that calling him out will cost them their share of the valuable Russian vote. And then there’s the whole Arab party issue.

It’s not quite as simple as saying the Jews banned the Arab parties from the next elections out of hatred and a desire to keep the enemy down. While the Arab parties stormed out of the Central Election Committee vote to ban them chanting that Israel is, “a fascist, racist state,” there was at least a quasi-reasonable impetus for the call from Yisrael Beiteinu and another right wing party: some Arab members of the Knesset have been known to not only be sympathetic to Hamas, Hezbollah, and other “enemies of the state”, but were reported to have been in contact with those enemies. They’re also reported to have incited their constituency against this and other war efforts, and to unite in protest that at times turns violent.

Of course, that reminds the reader of plenty of other minority movements in the modern world, most obviously the Civil Rights movement in the U.S.A. that at least paved the way to our current president. If the Arabs were to manage a similar rise to near equity and open opportunity, perhaps the one-state solution wouldn’t look so imposing, and Israel would gain huge lumps of political capital, and all of a sudden the brilliant success of Israel over the last 60 years would look broader, more welcoming, and exemplary.

Instead, the country can barely see past its nose, barely past the next threat or the short term needs, which leads to three-week military poundings, Netanyahu’s return, and the banning of the main minority parties. It’s not so much that any of these decisions are on their own completely indefensible (though the last one approaches it); it’s that the big picture, the broader world’s perception, and the collection of these leanings to the right, to fear, and to paranoia all combine to make the general situation in Israel an unpromising, unpleasant one.

And it’s not just Netanyahu, for that matter: Tzipi Livni still flits back and forth between pragmatic diplomacy and militaristic posturing, and Barak, while certainly capable as a Defense Minister, has no one’s trust for the big picture. There is no uniting outsider force that can take Israel to a better place, whether through peace or through some cohesive security policy.

The country seems untroubled by its increasing international isolation, an attitude perhaps born out of 60 years of making it work underneath improbable, impossible circumstances. If we’ve made it this far, goes the thinking, who the hell is going to stop us? And why change what we’re doing?

The smallness permeates the region, there’s no denying that. Hamas’s efforts to declare victory while still trumpeting their tragedy, the constant side-choosing between Egypt and Syria, and Hezbollah’s saber-rattling, all part and parcel to the region’s problems. But Israel relies on its democratic roots, its troubled past, and its supposed moral superiority to act in a strong and bold way to protect itself. Those grounds are challenged when they go as far as to bar the main representatives to the minorities in their own country.

Kernels of hope exist. For one, the ban was quickly overturned. A recent poll suggests that the majority of Israelis want peace. And then there’s everybody’s favorite deus ex machina, President Obama, who might just swoop in and impose peace on all of us. Considering the candidates for Israeli PM are approaching a “six in one basket, half dozen in the other” phase, this may be our only hope, the only change to believe in, and the only way to break us out of our smallness. Which leaves us fighting for our turn in line along with the rest of the world.

The problems strike me when I drive in the north and see the Russian language campaign ads for Tzipi Livni. Livni, the centrist, supposedly noble candidate of Kadima, has responded to snide comments and allaying Russian-immigrant fears about her gender by advertising her “manhood to change the country.” In Hebrew, the ad substitutes “manhood” for “guts.” Either way, she has something to prove in this war.

They strike me when I read editorials from international news sources or take comments from friends back home, who think this war was calculated to take advantage of the last space before Barack Obama comes to power, or of the run-up to the February elections, or the Christmas season lull. It has nothing to do with that, I insist: When Israel and Hamas made their truce last summer, Obama’s presence was hardly inevitable, and Hamas was the one firing rockets in the week after the ceasefire ended. At the very least, Israel is fighting for their own security reasons and not out of bald-faced political opportunism, I contest. But the longer the war drags on, the more I doubt.

The problems strike me when I talk to my grandparents in the States. My grandparents have all the free time in the world to follow Russian-language news from Israel; they are the type of elderly Jews who feared Obama for his purported Islamic background and his likely support of the Palestinians.

They ask me on Skype about my safety, but a minute later state their undying support for Israel, their opinion that Hamas should be destroyed, and that all Israelis are heroes. I think about my mechanic screwing me over or how Israelis drive and bite my tongue.

And there’s little reason to fear my safety, nestled in a cosmopolitan suburb of Tel Aviv, a long 80 KMs from Gaza. Working in an American school even farther north (though not far enough north to be in reach of Hezbollah, if they should decide to join in), I operate in a circle that is not only secure but also completely isolated from the war. Sure, in the lunch room the topic comes up, but being as I don’t speak Hebrew well, I could more or less completely shut out the war if I didn’t get the newspaper each morning.

The problem isn’t quite that, of course: I’m grateful I’m safe and not eager for danger. It’s that much of the country supports the war, and the Hebrew-language press drums up patriotism, and yet no one is really affected by it. While the Gazans’ poverty-stricken lives have now received a new dollop of war, pain, and death, the majority of Israel runs as usual. People watch the news a little bit more and worry about their relatives or friends serving in the army, but the level of tragedy is drastically unbalanced.

It goes beyond justification. Hamas provoked us, they fired rockets, they rejected the cease-fire, they still vow to wipe Israel off the planet, and hence Hamas deserves what they get: that may all be true, but isn’t enough to account for civilian suffering. “But Gazans voted for Hamas and so earned punishment!” – Such is the counter-argument. I think that’s like saying that Americans abroad all deserved ass-kickings because of Bush’s policies.

Most essentially, the imbalance reminds me of a talk I had with my college coach. He, a devout but very open-minded and playfully argumentative Christian, asked me why the Darwin fish is so condoned, seeing how offensive it is to Christianity, a mockery of a symbol hearkening back to a time when being Christian was a dangerous thing.

The only response I could come up with was that when you’re the majority, sometimes you have to overlook the slings and arrows fired against you. When a student teases a teacher, a little brother his older sibling, the responsibility of the more powerful figure is to rise above the slight, meting out discipline only when necessary and productive, without stooping to the level of the weaker party.

In all respects, Hamas is this weaker party. They have much blood on their hands, and are arguably as culpable as Israel in this conflict, if not more so, but it doesn’t matter. From our safe homes we can cheer or protest, plan to support right wing Bibi Netanyahu or left wing war leader Ehud Barak, and call for help from abroad or declare our right to defend ourselves. But Israel, the Israel I live in and most of the country lives in, is not suffering, is not under wartime conditions, and the level of sacrifice there is in the country doesn’t match the pain of our enemies.

So we proceed into week 3, with daily reports about ceasefire resolutions or proposals that show promise but don’t do enough, or that don’t concern us, or that give Hamas too much, and a growing consensus from the military that it’s time to either shit (take out Hamas) or get off the pot (impose our own cease-fire). And from my safe, naïve little neck of the country, getting off the pot can’t happen soon enough, before the real shitstorm begins.

The problem is, it’s probably too late.

I was born outside your state capital of Springfield, Illinois to Jordanian parents who in turn were children of Palestinians in exile. I am an US educated attorney who has spent long hours and days following and studying American culture, history and politics. I have always been fascinated by the dynamics of American society and the promise of the American dream. Therefore, as I followed your campaign over the past year not only did I become deeply moved by your message, but also grasped the historical significance of your victory. Like many of my fellow Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters across the world I celebrated your victory with tears of joy and with screams of jubilation.

Of course our joy was not driven by any misconceptions that your victory would magically alter American policies toward the Middle East. These policies have, and will continue to be, blindly supportive of Israel’s hegemony and its barbaric abuse and erosion of the inalienable rights of Palestinians – which unfortunately has been on full display over the past fortnight.

Our joy was a celebration of the embodiment of our deepest and most noble belief, namely: that at in all matters of humanity, irrespective of time and place, a just cause will always emerge victorious and a suppressed people will always be redeemed. That is why we celebrate Gandhi for leading his people to overcome colonialism; that is why we celebrate Mandela for driving South Africans of all colors to bury apartheid; and that is why we celebrate you as you fulfill the dreams of your forefathers and lead African-Americans as they stake their rightful place in American society. As part of m personal celebration I went out and bought Obama T-Shirts for my family and myself. My T-shirt is of a profile of your face with the word “hope” written across the background, my two year old daughter has a T-shirt of a tree whose leaves are all peace signs and whose roots spell the name “Obama” and my pregnant wife’s simply states: “Mama Loves Obama”! That is certainly true.

However, more impressive than your victory was the method in which it was achieved. You confronted the worst in American society by always presenting its best attributes. You fought politics as usual with principled campaigning. You fought division through inclusion. You fought racism through multi-culturism. You fought negativity with positivity. You fought stagnation with change. You fought fear with hope. You always refused to succumb to those comfortable positions that made American politics mistrusted across the globe by always remaining true to your personal beliefs, your family values and your founding fathers’ most noble ideals.

Your victory, and the manner in which it achieved, inspired us to remain true to our beliefs, values and ideals in order to overcome our misery. We believe in our right to live in our land in peace; we value human life whatever creed, color, religion or race; we have faith that our Creator will judge us by our deeds. We therefore draw inspiration from you to continue to fight for our right to live in our land, while always valuing the sanctity of human life, and doing so in line with the most noble teachings of our faith: moderation and peace.

Like my T-Shirt reads, one must hope. We hope that the day will come when our just cause will follow others and when our people will overcome their struggle. We look forward to reaching our own mountain top to look over and see our children jumping rope rather than ducking bullets; when our parents watch their sons and daughters graduate school and not watch them carried away to be buried as victims of war crimes; when our elderly can live out their years in joy after earning the right to retire after a life fulfilled, not living in fear while their houses collapse over their heads as they lay there hopelessly waiting for food, medicine or relief that is unlikely to arrive.

While Israel unleashes its wrath of collective punishment on the desolate people of Gaza we hope that your Presidency will live up to its mantra and will stand for change. We hope that you will break your silence to speak against the unjust and inhumane persecution of Palestinians. As you taught us, we can only hope. We hope that with your support we can change the world…. YES WE CAN.

In the days leading up to the Israeli Air Force air strike, as Palestinian militants launched more and more rockets in an effort to induce a new cease-fire from Israel, under better terms than the one that expired December 19th, Israeli politicians wavered between preaching patience and calling for attacks, with both sides appearing to have the February elections in mind.

On Christmas, it appeared the calm might extend a little longer: Ehud Barak appeared on a comedy show in Israel (something akin to SNL, and he did a fine job ribbing himself, by all reports), and a news story floated in national newspapers that soldiers were instructed to use up their vacation days this year, because they wouldn’t transfer over to the next year.

Perhaps thinking themselves so clever, Barak and co. then ordered the air strike last Saturday that indeed shocked the Gazans and has lit up the world. And things haven’t slowed down yet.

It should be said that political considerations appear to be out of the picture so far, as Ahron Bregman pointed out in his interview. War in any case will benefit the right wing, and hence the opposition leader and election front runner Benjamin Netanyahu. Ehud Olmert is on his way out and his hoped-for legacy of peace has been postponed, at the least. Tzipi Livni, fresh off a declaration of war principles in Paris, stands to lose out in this war politically anyway, not only because Netanyahu benefits but because her rival on the left, Barak, is running the campaign and stands to gain the most from success. Barak’s actions should be watched to see if he gets greedy in his aims, but for now, he has been restrained.

That said, the objectives of this mission have remained vague. Every pertinent Israeli leader has stated their disinterest in occupying Gaza or waging a long-term ground war. The goal is to weaken Hamas and get them to sue for a cease-fire, allowing Israel to impose better conditions (no rocket fire, for one), but Hamas is nothing if not prideful. And the balance between bringing Hamas to their knees with pinpointed assassinations and enraging them with 400 deaths, a quarter of which the U.N. estimates are civilians, is a very delicate one that Israel has struggled with in the past.

Mainstream Israelis have two sets of memories fueling their views on the conflict. On the one hand, the constant stream of rockets was becoming intolerable even at a low level, and the increase pushed Israel over the brink. “It was too much, I’m glad we’re attacking,” a cab driver told me Sunday, then complaining about Russia’s call for peace by referencing Georgia. “[The war’s] no good, but it’s scary, a rocket hit the house next to mine,” a girl on the train said to me about Beersheeva. Even the leftist Haaretz editorial page acknowledged that time had come to strike, if in a limited fashion.

While the tempers are high, however, in the back of everybody’s mind is the failed war against Lebanon of two years ago. Hezbollah was stronger than Hamas is now, but the failure to damage the operation – in fact, Israel emboldened and strengthened Hezbollah – lingers as a warning for this time around. World opinion also flew in the face of Israeli efforts, and while there is broad support or condoning for Israel now, any significant continuation is bound to harm Israel’s world status again.

So the country is of two minds as we watch the news and the problems in the South. Life goes on with no bumps in central and northern Israel. The citizens watch with battle-hardened anxiety, glad for the “punishment” of Hamas forces but uneager to face the consequences. The political leaders grapple with whether sending in the ground troops will be worth the casualties and swing in opinion, or if enough has been done.

The whole Gaza situation has taken a sick turn in the past two weeks, and the fear is that a certain eerie resonance to two years ago will linger. One can only hope that the Olmert-Livni-Barak trio will decide enough is enough on time, before that echo grows to a roar.

Jonathan Mok: What can you say about the latest Israeli assault against Hamas? Do you think that the Olmert government would like to send a signal to the Obama administration?

Ahron Bregman: The Israeli military operation in Gaza is not about sending a signal to the future Obama administration, but a response to a strong feeling that Hamas has overstepped the mark, by firing rockets into Israel. It is true that thus far there have been few casualties in Israel, but the rockets did disturb life and worryingly – from an Israeli point of view – Hamas obtained medium-range missiles that could reach major populated areas.

For now, Israel enjoys strong American support and it is unlikely that in the foreseen future Washington will stop Israel’s military operations. Like the Israelis, Washington regards Hamas as “the bad guys”.

Jonathan: The responses of various Arab states and Mahmoud Abbas are different this time. While they condemn the Israeli attack, they also blame Hamas for sparking the action. Do you see a new departure from the traditional responses of Arab leaders?

Ahron: Don’t forget that the Palestinian Authority and such countries as Egypt and Jordan regard Hamas as a threat to their own regimes. Egypt, in particular, is upset with Hamas after warning it time and again that the Israelis lose patience with rocket attacks on her towns and cities and that it would be better if Hamas stopped these actions before the Israelis hit back.

Jonathan: Will this Israeli operation be successful? Would it have failed if Gilad Shalit ends up being wounded or killed?

Ahron: The Israelis would have liked to see a different Gaza, where Hamas is not in power and no rockets are fired from there into Israel. Of course, the Israelis would have also liked to see Gilad Shalit released and returned to his family. But it would be difficult to topple Hamas and release Shalit. For now the aims of the IDF operation are limited, namely (in the words of Prime Minister Olmert) “to restore normal life and quiet to residents of the South who, for many years, have suffered from unceasing rocket and mortar fire and terrorism …”

The question, of course, is how this could be achieved? Well, the Israelis hope that by sending a horrifying message and hitting hard at the Gaza Strip, Hamas will eventually ask for a cease fire and when this is agreed upon Hamas will then hesitate to break it by firing again at Israel. Having said that, military campaigns have their own dynamics and it is difficult to predict, at this stage, how things might develop in the future.

Jonathan: Will it be Ehud Barak or Tzipi Livni who will benefit more if this Israeli attack is judged a success?

Ahron: As the minister in charge of the IDF, Ehud Barak supervises the military operation in Gaza. Thus, in the coming days – and we should remember that we are just before general election in Israel – Barak will be the most dominant politician on the Israeli scene.

If things go well then it may help him in the coming election (until recently polls predicted him and his Labour party a humiliating defeat). But if rockets keep landing and the general feeling in Israel being that it is losing the war, then the public will turn its anger and frustration at Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (Prime Minister Olmert is on the way out anyway) and the victor in the general election will probably be Benjamin Netanyahu.

Jonathan: What’s next for Israel and Hamas?

Ahron: In the end, after more blood and misery, the war will end with an indirect agreement between Hamas and Israel, similar in many ways to the deal reached last June.

Hamas will insist on a cessation of Israeli attacks on Gaza and on its people in the West Bank, a reopening of the Gaza border crossings for food and other supplies, and a release of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel will demand a halt to rocket, missile and mortar attacks on her towns and cities.

In an ideal world – and given that the military message Israel sent is fully understood by Hamas – the war should be stopped now. Alas, it is not an ideal world.

Some say that in order to stand in solidarity with Gaza civilians, we must stand in solidarity with Hamas. I have rather mixed feelings on the issue, as you can imagine. I think I can understand why Hamas have become such a popular force in Gaza, but I don’t have to like it either.

In fact, it looks like Hamas’ popularity is the best thing to happen to the Israeli far-right at this crucial juncture.”But what about the civilians being killed?” You will ask. “What about the families getting destroyed?”

“But what about the people that those families wanted into power?” – Will be the counter-question. And no amount of reasoning, no amount of shouting, even pleading, will do a single bit of good.

When I heard about the local Jordanian effort to bring food and clothes into Gaza, the first thing I had to ask was: “this aid is going to civilians, right?” (It is, of course – and the Jordanian government can presently deliver aid where it needs to be delivered, but I had to check)

Supporting Hamas, in any way, shape, or form, is off the table.

And yet, who else do the people of Gaza have, if not Hamas? The very physical realm of Gaza has become a terrible conundrum, a trap. The people protesting on the streets of Amman, yesterday, today, tomorrow, they all know this.

How do you defuse a situation in which civilians have no one left to trust but the very people who can easily, and, it seems, without many regrets – considering the reward that surely awaits the suffering in paradise – get them killed? How do you defuse a situation in which violent death no longer frightens, but hardens, hardens a spirit that has already become steeled with grief and hate?

I ask these questions on a sunny holiday in Amman, Jordan, as my neighbourhood prepares for yet another protest, as the streets lie quiet, despite everyone having a day off for the Islamic New Year. On a beautiful day like this, it’s hard to believe the level of violence that’s going on next door.

I spoke briefly to a few protesters down the street yesterday, and the one thing that stood out in our conversation was the sound of helplessness and frustration in their voices. “The world has to see,” they said. And I agreed. The world sees, and then goes flips the channel back to the ball-game. George W. Bush, in his last days in office, has waved his hand vaguely on the subject of civilian deaths. That’s all.

“Are you American?” They asked. I thought I had done a pretty good job of hiding my slight drawl.

“Ukrainian,” I said.

“A Ukrainian writer in Jordan,” they grinned. It seemed they understood these things after a quick glance. They looked like old hands to me. The protests themselves are part of a cycle these days – the never-ending, grinding cycle of death and outrage.

While living in Amman, I generally do not bring up my father’s cousin, the one who married an Israeli and moved to Israel. How do I explain the level of anti-Semitism at her old job in Ukraine to explain her decision to go? How do I humanize her? And how do I humanize the Palestinians, especially those living in Gaza, when talking to her about the legacy she has now inherited?

One of the jobs of the writer in these times is to be a conduit, but what if there is nothing left to pass on, except for visions of blood?

There are more questions than answers, today. One day, the cool eye of history will judge these events in an insightful, perhaps even impartial manner. But for the people living, and dying, within these moments, these hours, the only thing left is to ask the world to see.

Just today, we are getting news of a fourteen-year-old child losing her life after a typically heavy-handed Israeli raid erupted in violence. Israel is showing the Gazans who’s boss. Vote for Hamas? Pay the price.

And yet, who was it exactly that the Gazans were supposed to vote for? Previous attempts at establishing a measure of good government have failed spectacularly. If you feel that your very existence is under siege, who do you turn to? That’s right, the guys with the guns.

I have no love lost for Islamic hard-liners. However, when I look at Israel’s policies toward this region, it seems to me that at this point, it’s as if no one is even searching for an actual solution. Gaza is troublesome and unstable, and who wants to deal with that? Why not just bleed it dry? Demoralize it to the point of it fading away?

The horrors of European anti-Semitism have paved the way for a series of new horrors elsewhere.

For example, I don’t blame Jews for wanting to leave the beloved, albeit struggling, country of my birth, Ukraine. A Ukrainian gentile is privileged in a way that a Ukrainian Jew is simply not. Swastikas spray-painted on the walls of residential buildings say it all. This side of the issue must be considered if a solution to the conflict can one day be reached.

It’s easy to talk “peace” when you don’t have to worry about grenades flying through your window at any given moment, but I would like to try.

There have been atrocities on both sides of this ongoing debacle, and the ensuing bitterness has solidified into rock-hard contempt. Fundamentalist nihilism has blossomed alongside collective punishment and impotent diplomacy.

Things cannot go on like this indefinitely. A perpetually embattled Israel, surrounded by disgruntled neighbours, is not sustainable. Who wants to live like that? No one wants to live like that.

My question is, how many Muslim, Jewish, and Christian deaths will it take before there is a collective shift in thinking?

During the last three weeks before the onslaught, after an upsurge in rocket attacks coming from the Gaza Strip, Israel had imposed a tight blockade, refusing to allow anything but some humanitarian aid to trickle into the region, and not much of that. Two weeks later, the Israelis opened the doors to allow heating oil only. That same day, three more rockets were fired off at Israel from the Strip.

The Gaza Strip is roughly 25 miles long by 8 miles wide. Except for a seven mile southern border with Egypt, it is surrounded by Israel to the north and east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The area has been occupied almost continuously since the time of ancient Egyptians, with Philistines, Arabs, Christian Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British and the Israelis as overseers. It was even occupied by modern Egypt in the aftermath of the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Israel took control during the 1967 Six-Day War, along with the Golan Heights, the West Bank of the Jordan River, east Jerusalem and the Sinai Peninsula.

Israel withdrew its physical occupation from parts of the Strip in accordance with the 1979 Oslo Accords. The Oslo Accords also affirmed the Palestinian right to self-government. The Palestinian National Authority and Israel then shared control in the Gaza Strip until 2005, when Ariel Sharon unilaterally ended Israeli’s military presence and withdrew all Israeli settlements, making the Strip the first territory to come completely under the PNA. The peace, however, did not to last.

Yasir Arafat’s PLO had become cynically corrupt, tired, and had generally lost its way. As we know, in 2007, Hamas, a militant group and determined foe of Israel, was voted in by the Palestinians to replace the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip, causing a schism with the Fatah party, the PLO’s political wing, which dominates Palestinians in the West Bank.

Since the reluctant withdrawal of the Israeli settlements in 2005, Gaza is almost entirely Palestinian Arab. At least 99 percent of the population are Sunni Muslim with a scattered few Christians. The region saw a massive shift of population following the conflict of 1948, when Israel was created. By 1968, the region had grown in population six times. Right now 1.5 million people live in the Gaza Strip and it has, at 146 square miles, one of the highest population densities in the world. Eighty percent of Gazans live below the U.N.’s poverty level.

Israel and Egypt signed a treaty in 1979 that returned control of the Sinai Peninsula, which borders the Strip, to the Egyptians. As part of that treaty, a 100 meter wide band of land was designated as the Philadelphi corridor was set up as a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt. Israel subsequently built a corrugated sheet metal barrier there during the intifadas of the early 2000s. The barrier is topped by barbed wire.

Egypt and Israel then enacted a military accord in 2005 after the Israeli military pullout. This agreement was ostensibly built on the 1979 peace pact. This pact specified a deployment of 750 Egyptian border guards along the length of the border, which is, remember, seven miles long. These guards were to man the border helping Israel defend against terrorism, arms smuggling and other illegal behavior. That was the deal.

The Rafah Crossing, the only entry-exit point along those seven miles had been controlled by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. The E.U. was to monitor any Palestinian impulses to misbehave on their side of the wall. However, in July 2007, the E.U. pulled out after Hamas defeated Fatah in their elections for the right to speak for the Gazans. At the time of the pullout, Egypt and Israel agreed to shut down the Rafah Crossing, effectively sealing Gaza off from the rest of the world. The Israelis hoped that such a blockade would choke off Hamas-directed mortar and rocket attacks into southern Israel. It did not stop those attacks, but it did stop anything (i.e. heating oil, baby diapers, blankets, coffee and so on) from getting in. It was winter, and it was bitterly cold (Western observes, of course, regularly assume that the entirety of the Middle East is hot year-round).

Last week, Egyptian troops successfully managed to close the breaches, but not before thousands of Gazans broke out of the blockade to flood the nearby Egyptian towns for supplies. Before many of these people could return to their homes, the border slammed shut, trapping hundreds if not thousands of Gazans in Egypt. Israeli authorities pointed out that militants were among those locked outside. The militants, the Israelis claimed, were now free to cross the porous Israeli border elsewhere in order to cause more mayhem. Hamas has denied these allegations.

Those Gazans trapped inside the Gaza Strip are growing unhappy with Hamas’s continuing attacks on Israel from their staging points in Gaza. This, of course, is Israel’s strategy in the first place: squeeze Gaza and the Gazans themselves will stop Hamas’s rocket attacks. But the rockets have continued.

Israel has vowed to keep pounding suspected Hamas hide-outs with air strikes, even in the face of international criticism that Israel is using the rockets as a pretext for collective punishment in Gaza. Israel denies the charge.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he is helpless to stop the Hamas rockets since Hamas took control of Gaza last June. However, on February 4, rockets were fired into Israel from the West Bank, not Gaza, thus provoking Israel to demand that Abbas take stronger action against Hamas.

Enter the assassins.

On February 12th, Imad Mugniyah’s car was blown up with him in it in a tony neighborhood of Damascus. No one has claimed responsibility for killing Mugniyah, a famously elusive militant suspected of masterminding bombings that killed hundreds of American and French troops in Beirut during the 1980s. However, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, pointed the finger at Israel. So have many others, citing the sophistication of the bomb itself as evidence of the involvement of Israeli Intelligence, Mossad.

Israel again denied the charge, and was not the only one to point out that Syria’s intelligence service also had the wherewithal to come up with such a weapon. Syria has also denied the charge. Nasrallah then threatened to intensify his group’s conflict with Israel and to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the world.

If Hezbollah were to strike at Israel outside the borders of Lebanon and Israel, it would be a complete turnaround from the group’s current policy. The last time it did so was in the 1990s, when Mr. Mugniyah, ironically, was accused of planning bombings of Israeli targets in Argentina. Hezbollah has denied any connection to the bombings in Buenos Aires.

Mr. Mugniyah’s murder was followed two days later by an Israeli air strike that killed a Hamas commander in Gaza as well as four other Hammas soldiers.

This is the stink of war. The acrid smell of cordite, blood, fear, fire and grief.

In the Gaza Strip, spring is on the way. Not peace, of course, just spring. Flower boxes are reappearing on window sills, clothes are hung out to dry in the sun. The old men have started playing checkers and backgammon in the coffeehouses.

Life, in some fashion, goes on.