The Next War In Gaza Is Coming

A huge fireball erupts following Israeli air strikes in the east of Gaza City. (Reuters)

Daniel Shapiro, Bloomberg: All Signals Point Once Again to War in Gaza

The next war in Gaza is coming.

In over five years as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, I found no issue more impervious to solutions than Gaza. We were constantly preventing, managing or responding to crises -- trying to head off terror attacks by Hamas and others, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, negotiating ceasefires and working to alleviate human suffering.

I also learned that Gaza wars follow a kind of routine. Hamas upgrades its attack capabilities, and tensions build. Both sides prefer to avoid an escalation, but some incident, perhaps unintended, leads Hamas to increase the rate of rockets fired into Israel. Eventually, Israel deems the provocations intolerable, and launches a heavier response, such as when it conducted a targeted strike on Hamas military wing chief Ahmed Jabari at the start of Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. A full-on conflict ensues, with ceasefire negotiations competing with Hamas rocket and tunnel attacks, Israeli airstrikes, and calls from the Israeli public for a ground invasion to “finish the job.”

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WNU Editor: I see the signs of another war also .... probably the end of this year or early 2018. But unlike past conflicts where the U.S. rushed in to defuse and stop the fighting .... I do not see the Trump administration stepping in to stop the next war .... if anything, I think they will tell the Israelis  to do what they feel is necessary, and leave it at that.

Why Are we Giving $900 million To Hamas? -- A Commentary

Can You Explain $900M To Rebuild Hamas' Home Turf While Pakistan Ops Are Short Funding? -- Threatswatch

What on Earth is the administration doing announcing plans to give $900 Million in aid to rebuild Hamas' Gaza Strip while our own Defense Department's Security Development Plan for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan "faces a shortfall of approximately $167.5 million, about 73 percent of its funding goal for fiscal year 2009," according to a GAO report?

Did we not just witness the American president heading up a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit"? With fiscal responsibility in such high demand, one must forget entirely the nearly $1 trillion in irresponsibly distributed 'stimulus' already signed into commitment and the half-trillion dollar supplemental spending bill being presented this week. In a less than three week span, the two spending packages together would instantly represent a more than 10% increase in the national debt accrued over this nation's entire history. Yet when it comes to Defense and National Security, seemingly the only budgets eyed for any significant spending cuts, critical operations and initiatives expect to be short changed and starved of funds.

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