It would seem that Sam Power used the adjective 'horrifying' to describe an action in Gaza by Israel - and in doing so she has won the war for Hamas. Whether it will be expressed or not, who knows - diplomatic restraint will probably prevail - but I'm guessing across the board in Israel right now there's nothing but outrage and contempt felt for the Obama administration. What the consequences of this will be, hard to say - but one imagines they'll be bad since Power just gave Hamas exactly what it wanted.
Let me try and explain this simply - for Hamas, there's no greater honor for a Muslim than to die for Allah, especially if that death adds to the destruction of Israel - so when Hamas puts its people in the way of bombs what they're doing is using these 'martyrs' to terrorize Western media and governments because the West cares more about these people in secular terms than Hamas does - Hamas is 'terrorizing' its own people, but the real target of that terror is Western media and governments and now Obama - and the purpose of this terror is to provoke these dupes and fools into contributing to the delegitimization of Israel - which is exactly what Power has done - hell, which is exactly what Obama's entire Mideast policy has done since the day he took the oath.
I think I'd have to describe this as shameful behavior - in a capitulation to what amounts to terrorism the Obama administration has betrayed Israel - I don't think I'm being unreasonable putting it in those terms, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority in Israel would agree with me.
We'll see what the consequences of this will be - hard to predict - but I'd say, as bad as Obama's practice of foreign policy has been to this point, it appears to have just taken a turn down a road that is very dark and very dangerous and it's very hard to see any way that this can end well.
[well, may be a tad unreasonable to say won the war for Hamas since losing those tunnels is a pretty big loss and it's hard to imagine how they'll go about reversing that loss - which brings up interesting question: why did Hamas risk exposing these tunnels by continuing the missile barrage till the point Israel had no choice but to invade? That seems like a pretty big tactical blunder - I did speculate before things got hot that Hamas seemed to be gambling that Israel would not go for the big kill - maybe with Egypt shutting down the smuggling tunnels Hamas' finances were so bad they had no choice but to tempt fate - and again, I'd like to know if Abbas knew about these tunnels because if he did that would be revealing]
[and as emphasis to my claim that Obama's response to Gaza amounts to a capitulation to terror, there's these brief thoughts from WR Mead which are not about Gaza per se but relate to the wider problem of which Gaza is a part - Obama is stuck thinking of Muslim extremism as a manifestation of western arrogance and the idiocy of Bush, that's his worldview and he's not gonna re-examine that misguided perception no matter what because to do so would upend every sentiment that undergirds the ideology of the left - Obama had a perfect opportunity with Gaza to move his foreign policy in a more coherent and reality based direction and not only did he not do that, seems to me he's doubled down on his foolishess - and we've got two more years left of this - every bad actor out there who wishes ill on America and what it represents is paying attention to this mess and drawing pretty scary conclusions]
Let me try and explain this simply - for Hamas, there's no greater honor for a Muslim than to die for Allah, especially if that death adds to the destruction of Israel - so when Hamas puts its people in the way of bombs what they're doing is using these 'martyrs' to terrorize Western media and governments because the West cares more about these people in secular terms than Hamas does - Hamas is 'terrorizing' its own people, but the real target of that terror is Western media and governments and now Obama - and the purpose of this terror is to provoke these dupes and fools into contributing to the delegitimization of Israel - which is exactly what Power has done - hell, which is exactly what Obama's entire Mideast policy has done since the day he took the oath.
I think I'd have to describe this as shameful behavior - in a capitulation to what amounts to terrorism the Obama administration has betrayed Israel - I don't think I'm being unreasonable putting it in those terms, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority in Israel would agree with me.
We'll see what the consequences of this will be - hard to predict - but I'd say, as bad as Obama's practice of foreign policy has been to this point, it appears to have just taken a turn down a road that is very dark and very dangerous and it's very hard to see any way that this can end well.
[well, may be a tad unreasonable to say won the war for Hamas since losing those tunnels is a pretty big loss and it's hard to imagine how they'll go about reversing that loss - which brings up interesting question: why did Hamas risk exposing these tunnels by continuing the missile barrage till the point Israel had no choice but to invade? That seems like a pretty big tactical blunder - I did speculate before things got hot that Hamas seemed to be gambling that Israel would not go for the big kill - maybe with Egypt shutting down the smuggling tunnels Hamas' finances were so bad they had no choice but to tempt fate - and again, I'd like to know if Abbas knew about these tunnels because if he did that would be revealing]
[and as emphasis to my claim that Obama's response to Gaza amounts to a capitulation to terror, there's these brief thoughts from WR Mead which are not about Gaza per se but relate to the wider problem of which Gaza is a part - Obama is stuck thinking of Muslim extremism as a manifestation of western arrogance and the idiocy of Bush, that's his worldview and he's not gonna re-examine that misguided perception no matter what because to do so would upend every sentiment that undergirds the ideology of the left - Obama had a perfect opportunity with Gaza to move his foreign policy in a more coherent and reality based direction and not only did he not do that, seems to me he's doubled down on his foolishess - and we've got two more years left of this - every bad actor out there who wishes ill on America and what it represents is paying attention to this mess and drawing pretty scary conclusions]