2008

2nd to last day for 2008. Oil is around $40pb, gold is approaching $900 and the US dollar is fading a tad. The Euro is holding up well for now, but for how much longer is anyone’s guess. As for the pound, hmm. The winner by some margin is the almighty yen for some good reason.

Sharemarkets are down around 40-60% across the board. Commodity stocks are amongst those impacted, as well as some financial institutions, banks and automobile manufacturers.

News of the hour is the dreaded Israeli incursion into Gaza. Palestinian sympathisers are in an uproar and Hamas vows steep revenge for recent air attacks the have caused serious damage to the Hamas government infrastructure, injured thousands and killed over 350 Palestian’s. Hamas is retaliating with its own primitive rocket devices, and has so far has managed to inflict some damage and a few fatalities.

From Israel’s perspective, this latest incursion is timed perfectly politically. One, America is in a handover power stalemate scenario until President elect Obama gets inaugurated on January 20th. Two; it just so happens to be election time in Israel. What better approach than the hard line when faced with a deteriorating economy and people that are simply fed up with deadly rocket attacks than inflict maximum inconvenience and deadly fear and random collateral damage.

Israel has been planning this incursion for some time. The window of opportunity is short, another twenty days or there abouts to rout Hamas for good. God forbid if an escalation ensues and Iran gets involved. The perfect excuse for Israel to enact it own form of ‘pre-emptive’ attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Gaza is simple target practice in this case.

This would be a dark scenario, yet one cannot help but think that it has all been planned in advance. The last time this happened, the escalation rapidly reached Lebanon. Hezbollah joyously joined in and soon Lebanon too was the subject of air assault campaigns. Israel was defiant until the last moment. Then it backed down or finally agreed to some peace deal negotiated weeks before. It goes without saying that substantial and real damage was done to many of Lebanon’s buildings and infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

It is all rather a catch 22 situation. Who do you feel most sorry for. Both actually. But at the end of the day, they are just as bad as each other. One is a tad arrogant, the other a tad terrorist.

So far nothing has happened out of the ordinary in the conflict that has so far lasted three days. It is officially an ‘all out war’ between Hamas and Israel, with a distinct ‘take no prisoners’ attitude. The UN is powerless to do anything apart from issuing statements to stop fighting from both sides. (America has power of veto and is known in advance to support Israel actions against terrorist organizations such as Hamas)

The problem is that Israel is being seen more and more as a bully. Protests in far away places such as London are starting to get serious. Israeli embassies are being targeted and the message is clear. Stop the killing of innocent Palestinian’s. One life is worth no more or less than another. Hamas may or may not have anything to do with the terrorists sending rockets across the border, however these rockets inflict minor damage compared to Israeli retaliation. No court of law in the land could justify such a gross imbalance, not only in people killed and injured but also cost and collateral damage.

Two wrongs do not make a right. However Israeli arrogance this time could be deliberate. Time will tell. Either way, Israel is quickly running out of supporters.

Dharma

'रेंकार्नाशन'
अस थे एम्बोदिएद सोल पस्सेस थ्रौघ थिस लाइफ फ्रॉम चिल्धूद तो ओल्ड आगे, थे सोल सिमिलार्ली पस्सेस इन्तो अनोठेर बॉडी अत डेथ। थे सेल्फ-रेअलिजेद अरे नोट बेविल्देरेड बी सुच अ चंगे।
भगवद Gita