Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right

A second day of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza has brought the death toll to over 275. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that the assault on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, will "continue for some time".

Israel will call up 7,000 reserve soldiers, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during the weekly Cabinet meeting. He told ministers he planned to present the measure to two Knesset committees, which must approve the action.

Meanwhile, Israeli ground troops and tanks were deployed around Gaza. However, there is no indication of a ground operation inside Gaza.

The U.N. called for a halt to hostilities, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the Cabinet meeting that the operation "is liable to continue for some time, perhaps more than can be foreseen at the present time."

Hamas, too, showed no signs of backing down.

For a second day, black plumes of smoke rose above Gaza City as makeshift ambulances screamed down rubble-strewn streets, taking wounded Palestinians to hospitals already crowded with hundreds of patients wounded this weekend.

It's clear at this point Israel has decided that with the cease fire expired as of December 19 and the US in no position to do anything during the transition, that the time for restraint has ended. Lebanon was too difficult a target to deal with in 2006, but the lessons the Iraelis have learned from that seem to be to pick on a much weaker target and to start the PR war early.

It's sad, really. Neither side is right, and the death toll willcontinue to rise...and the worst part is that the one country that could influence Israel to stop -- the United States -- has zero credibility after killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians, putting anything Israel has done to shame.

Just how many wars will Barack Obama have to deal with on January 20?