The Israeli forces bombarded Gaza. The bombardment continued on Saturday killing 15 what they call militants.
In his AIPAC speech, President Obama said "When the chips are down, I have Israel's back," before the talk with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Did the US 'have the Israel's back' this time? The Israeli started the bombardment right after his talk with the US President and speech in the Congress where he targeted the Iranian nuclear programs.
What then did they talk about in the meeting? And what if the US can not stop the Israel's military aggression, what do you expect the Palestinians to do? The Israeli are indeed riding on the back of this important election year. How could any of the Presidential candidates deal with the risk of losing supports from lawmakers that are funded by PAC's supported by Israeli backers?
Or perhaps it is because the US can not say much to Israeli forces when it itself is bombarding Pakistani people. Just yesterday, the US drones killed 12 'militants' in Pakistan. In Yemen, 25 Yemenis are killed by the US drones on Saturday. Somalia is another one of the places where the US drone attacks are killing people.
This is a crucial time when Egyptians are selecting the Presidential candidates for the coming up election in May. The dominant parties 'based on Islamic principles' now occupy more than 70% of the Parliament seats. The air bombings of the Israeli forces and the US drones would give them a very good reason to select hard liners.
The Qur'an burning incident is bad enough in all Islam nations to rise up against the US. The President apologized for the not-intentional blasphemy. If the US is to have the support of the Islam nations, it now should at least accuse Israel of the Gaza attacks. Why could the US stop the aggressive actions of the Israel forces just because this indeed is the election year?
The dilemma of the election year is that the Administration seek to boost the economy. The gas prices must go lower or it lags the economy, the vital factor in the coming-up election this year. The opposition parties are all busy creating crises in the region, as if the problem arose just for these occasions.
The need to boost the economy affects the other important job agenda of the Administration as well. The US's trade deficit with China now is ever increasing. The President touts his policies of getting the jobs back from overseas. But the non-manufacturing economy based upon trades and sales demands otherwise. The retailers and big corporations are shipping jobs overseas for cheap labor.
President Obama in the phone conversation with the newly elected Russian counterpart 'celebrated' the win. Could this be for the election as well? More than 10,000 Russian people gathered to demand cleaner election. The protesters claim that the same groups of people voted at multiple polling locations, and the Putin's votes were counted more than 10% higher than the actual votes. The US and EU support for the Russian citizens will matter to hold the Russian government accountable.
The US election year affects on a whole lot of issues abroad as well. Let us hope "the winning cause" does not negatively affect the strained relations with the Islam nations and does not end in compromising to nations under dictatorship. Let us hope the 'internal struggle' that comes along with the election gives chances to those who seek to jump at the occasions and start out aggression or oppression.
In his AIPAC speech, President Obama said "When the chips are down, I have Israel's back," before the talk with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Did the US 'have the Israel's back' this time? The Israeli started the bombardment right after his talk with the US President and speech in the Congress where he targeted the Iranian nuclear programs.
What then did they talk about in the meeting? And what if the US can not stop the Israel's military aggression, what do you expect the Palestinians to do? The Israeli are indeed riding on the back of this important election year. How could any of the Presidential candidates deal with the risk of losing supports from lawmakers that are funded by PAC's supported by Israeli backers?
Or perhaps it is because the US can not say much to Israeli forces when it itself is bombarding Pakistani people. Just yesterday, the US drones killed 12 'militants' in Pakistan. In Yemen, 25 Yemenis are killed by the US drones on Saturday. Somalia is another one of the places where the US drone attacks are killing people.
This is a crucial time when Egyptians are selecting the Presidential candidates for the coming up election in May. The dominant parties 'based on Islamic principles' now occupy more than 70% of the Parliament seats. The air bombings of the Israeli forces and the US drones would give them a very good reason to select hard liners.
The Qur'an burning incident is bad enough in all Islam nations to rise up against the US. The President apologized for the not-intentional blasphemy. If the US is to have the support of the Islam nations, it now should at least accuse Israel of the Gaza attacks. Why could the US stop the aggressive actions of the Israel forces just because this indeed is the election year?
The dilemma of the election year is that the Administration seek to boost the economy. The gas prices must go lower or it lags the economy, the vital factor in the coming-up election this year. The opposition parties are all busy creating crises in the region, as if the problem arose just for these occasions.
The need to boost the economy affects the other important job agenda of the Administration as well. The US's trade deficit with China now is ever increasing. The President touts his policies of getting the jobs back from overseas. But the non-manufacturing economy based upon trades and sales demands otherwise. The retailers and big corporations are shipping jobs overseas for cheap labor.
President Obama in the phone conversation with the newly elected Russian counterpart 'celebrated' the win. Could this be for the election as well? More than 10,000 Russian people gathered to demand cleaner election. The protesters claim that the same groups of people voted at multiple polling locations, and the Putin's votes were counted more than 10% higher than the actual votes. The US and EU support for the Russian citizens will matter to hold the Russian government accountable.
The US election year affects on a whole lot of issues abroad as well. Let us hope "the winning cause" does not negatively affect the strained relations with the Islam nations and does not end in compromising to nations under dictatorship. Let us hope the 'internal struggle' that comes along with the election gives chances to those who seek to jump at the occasions and start out aggression or oppression.