A lot of us knew 'they' were gonna plunge us into war after the phony election.

http://youtu.be/ntLsElbW9Xo

The Brotherhood/Hamas wanted to be certain of having Obama's support.

Egypt PM to visit Gaza in support of Hamas...

This cannot be. President Jimmy Carter solved all the problems in the Middle East years ago. Wait, you mean he didn't?

At least Romney isn't "All In" on bombing Iran.

Maybe Obama will now earn his Nobel Peace Prize, by winning the peace between Israel and that peaceful org known as Hamas.

Of course, some will say he already earned it by closing Gitmo, uhh no, not that... by trying terrorist in civilian courts, uhh, no not that... by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, uhh no, not that... by not starting any new wars, uhh no, not that... by stopping the drone killings rather than multiplying them, uhhh no, not that either.

I know, Obama can earn his Nobel Peace prize by using his secret weapon Huma Abedin to broker a peace deal with the Israelies and the Islamic Brotherhood. As well as disarming Iran.

Obama is going to show the world how passive and weak the US is. He got the Peace Prize because the rest of the world perceived the US as having too much power and liked the fact that America under Obama would be more of an equal rather than exceptional. What the world and many in the us failed to understand is that a weakened US creates a vacuum that allows the baddies of the planet to be more aggressive. Hamas may be testing now, but Iran, China and others are watching. If no one helps Israel, what, where, who will be next?

Please. Under Obama, there has been a dual effort of applied strength and diplomacy. We may disagree about where and how military force was applied, but there's been plenty of it - Iraq continued apace, Afghanistan surged, Bin Laden is dead as are most of the AQ leaders, we pulled the heavy weight in the NATO aid in Lybia, we've got the Gulf area, the most likely hot spot on the planet today, well covered and the bad guys know it, and so on and so forth. Oh, and we are increasingly using drones and (shhh) cyber weapons to kill and disrupt. In this world, that's carrying a pretty big stick, and hardly passive or weak.

Lets not forget history. This is nothing new. This area in general (middle east) and these two countries/areas (Israel & Palestine) have been at it for decades and even centuries. So "The eastern world it is exploding" is like saying evolution and creationism are theories barely in conflict and the debate about there validity has just begun. I look forward to the article about the newly discovered hatred and fighting b/w the Crips and Bloods.

Ritz -- I have to admit I don't understand what the US is doing in the Middle East anymore. The fact that there are troops there demonstrates... what? I'm not trying to be smart alecky, but the purpose of taking the war of terror to the terrorists so they will fight us there and not here seems very muddled and it seems we have given up this mission. Where does America stand on being an ally with Israel these days? I used to know these things, but now I'm not so sure.

It must be a conspiracy!

Obama can't go too deep into backing Israel without taking the chance Israel will bring us into a war that won't solve the basic problem.
If the signals from the US are hard for us to read, imagine what a problem it is for Hamas, who must bet their lives on any illusion they might have that if push comes to shove, the US isn't still strong enough to give them a heck of a shove.
Leaving all parties in doubt about what we might do is neither cowardice nor indecision, but a way to give the leaders of all the parties cover for not doing anything too decisive themselves.
People who object to us announcing our withdrawal from Afghanistan, although that might have been necessary to get Afghan troops to show up for drill, should not complain that in this case we have adopted the opposite policy, especially if it has a shot at working with a minimum of violence.

Another reason to Drill Here, Drill Now.

So that we do not have to rely on oil from that region.

Jim, we're already at a historic low use of Middle East oil and could likely do without any today. This tired Drill Everywhere mantra has nothing to do with reliance on something we don't rely on anymore - its all about big money for the oil companies, nothing more. Oh, and those pesky environmental regulations? What have the oil companies done to the Wind River Reservation where most regs don't apply? Yech!