Israel vs. Hamas: Here we go again -- with a twist

Things have heated up again in the Middle East.

Yesterday, more than 225 people were killed as Israel bombed alleged Hamas-related targets in Gaza, in retaliation for recent Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

And, as usual, each side is blaming the other.

While we've seen ongoing violence in those parts for as far back as I can remember, it's a little different this time, since it's Israel vs. Hamas, not Israel vs. Palestine per se.

In fact, we've got the subplot of Arab governments in the area that are opposed to Hammas, which now find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. The New York Times explains:

Governments that dislike Hamas, like Egypt’s, Jordan’s and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, are in a delicate position. They blame Hamas for having taken over Gaza by force 18 months ago in the aftermath of its election victory in the Palestinian Parliament, and they oppose its rocket fire on Israeli towns and communities.

But the sight of scores of Palestinians killed by Israeli warplanes outraged their citizens, and anti-Israel demonstrations broke out across the region.

And again, civilians are paying the price for radicals run amok, as the Times goes on to describe:

Israel, backed by the United States, Europe, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, has sought to isolate Hamas by squeezing Gaza economically, a policy that human rights groups condemn as collective punishment. Israel and Egypt, which control routes into and out of Gaza, have blocked nearly all but humanitarian aid from going in.

The result has been the near death of the Gazan economy. While enough food has gone in to avoid starvation, the level of suffering is very high and getting worse each week, especially in recent weeks as Israel closed the routes entirely for about 10 days in reaction to daily rocket fire.

I can't help but think that the Bush administration bears some of the responsibility. Bush's cowboy-style foreign policy, his "bring 'em on" attitude, and (of course) his unprovoked invasion of Iraq have inflamed anti-Western sentiment throughout the Arab world, and have made the extremists on all sides even more extreme -- be they Hamas, or al-Qaeda, or the religious right in our own country.

This is the same George W. Bush who long ago had campaigned on the claim that he was "a uniter, not a divider."

Hopefully Barack Obama will keep his promise of a foreign policy based on diplomacy rather than militarism. That is what is needed to repair America's image in the world. And that same approach is what's needed to find a true and lasting solution to the problems in the Middle East -- if such a solution can ever be found.