While I never like news of civilian casualties, and particularly wounded or killed children, the news from Gaza seems to show a remarkably low level of such "collateral damage" (less than 20% of deaths, reportedly) given the scale of attack being engaged in by the Israelis and given the fact that many Hamas positions would be in largely civilian locations. Clearly the Israelis have been gathering intelligence on important Hamas command and weapons locations for a long time.

One thing hasn't changed: The uselessness of the UN...and that's being charitable. It's basically the world's leading anti-Semitic organization. Ban Ki-moon talks about levels of violence that are "unacceptable" and that Israel's actions are "excessive". How would he react if someone lobbed rockets at the UN every week?

Barack Obama's silence on the issue is interesting, but as much as I love to criticize him I think he's right to stay out of it. First of all, there's nothing he could do. Second, he's right that there's just one president at a time. Actually, this could be good for Obama if the mini-war ends (even if it ends with a substantial Israeli position in Gaza) before he is sworn in. Hamas needs to be destroyed...and I think Obama actually agrees with that. Still, the entire Palestinian issue is a morass that has bedeviled presidents more or less since the founding of Israel.

I have no idea what will happen, but what I hope is that Israel will effectively destroy Hamas, or at least any military capability they have, successfully proving that Hezbollah's relative success a couple of years ago is the exception, not the rule.