The Advantages of Being An International Pariah . . .

. . . and NOT giving a hoot.

Israel in its battle with Hamas, isn't willing to put up with cross-border shenanigans from belligerent neighbors like Syria who think that somehow letting terrorists a place to hide and rest in their territory should protect them from Israeli counterattacks.

One of the biggest mistakes made during the initial portions of Operation Iraqi Freedom was respecting the borders of Syria and Iran. Many credible sources suggest that Saddam's WMD made their way into Syria, and certainly many very bad Baathist thugs worked on both sides of the border. A flyover of the Eye Doctor's summer home was something only Israel would have dared to do. We were too busy trying to prop up our 'coalition'. Pursuing the weapons and personnel into Syria seems in retrospect like what would have been wise, though it would have blown up the coalition, and might have even cost us British support, but fewer Iraqis and Americans would be dead today as the result.

Sometimes knowing that everyone hates you frees a nation for actions that must be done to secure their continued security and freedom.

The UN is corrupt beyond belief, and our old continental Western European "allies" haven't behaved much better with regards to their rhetoric on the War on Terror (their actions have for the most part been much more supportive than their words, the SWIFT program being one of many, formerly secret examples). Any criticism from those quarters should be taken as affirmation of doing things correctly, not the subject of handwringing and worry.

So maybe adapting a more Israeli like outlook on whether or not the USA improves or ruins our popularity based on our actions and rhetoric is the way to go. Security, and peace should guide every decision, and time and time again, appeasing the crazies and worrying about 'world opinion' has proven to be antithetical towards either peace or security.

Let everyone else go 'tsk, tsk, tsk' and 'tut, tut, tut', Israel should continue to do whatever it takes to protect their people and make clear the message that any attempts at state-sponsored asymmetric warfare will be met with an even more asymmetric response. The Palestinians elected Hamas, they are now reaping what they've sown, Israel has every right to do what they've done in response to the recent provocations. Hamas will make bring even greater misery upon their people if they don't get control of their own crazies and get that Israeli soldier released back to Israel unharmed. Whatever happens next is on them, not Israel, weakness now from Israel would only cause more deaths and more misery on both sides.