Recent Israeli Conflict: Israel vs Gaza's Hamas again

A major event in the news these last few weeks is the reignited feud between the Gaza Strip’s Hamas and Israel. After launching multiple rockets into Israel, some of which had hit near major cities, Israel retaliated after multiple warnings to the Gaza Strip. Israel sent over a military unit to bomb parts of Gaza. The effects were devastating compared to the damage done to Israel. The Egyptian Prime Minister, Hesham Kandil, visited Gaza and cried for the wounded Gaza civilians, calling it an act of “Israeli aggression [that] must stop”. I have been listening to many opinions on this feud for the past week or so. Some suggested that there might be a conspiracy about the Arab countries surrounding Israel, as well as Egypt. The conspiracy is that Israel, after making multiple threats to go to war with Iran,  was supposed to be intentionally distracted by Egypt and  Gaza, so Iran can continue with their nuclear developments without dealing with Israeli threats. In this conspiracy, Iran hired Egypt and Gaza to do so. As it is only a conspiracy, I do not know if this is true. However, I believe there is certainly something going on between Iran, Egypt and Gaza.  Considering the leaders of Iran and Egypt and many of the people of Gaza  share an immense hatred for the existence of the Israeli state, it would not be surprising if they all worked in conjunction with each other.

Thoughts on the Petraeus scandal

Former CIA Director David Petraeus recently resigned from his position because of an extramarital affair with his biographer. He felt the need to resign because he did not think it was right to have a secret affair in the high position he is in.  Also, there was certainly a fear of putting his country at risk if the affair gained public status while he was in his position. If others knew about the affair, he could have been blackmailed or worse. While he still had some dignity, Petraeus decided to resign because it was the honorable thing to do. However, despite resigning ‘honorably’, Petraeus had lost the respect of his family and his country. He was officially approved for resignation by President Obama on November 9, 2012.  After his resignation, the FBI launched an official investigation into the affair, however the affair was already made aware to the FBI and several others before then. Jill Kelley, a woman who met Petraeus years ago, reported harassment from anonymous emails to a friend who worked for the FBI Tampa Field Office. This report ended up being secretly investigated by the FBI shortly after. Without this report, I don’t think the FBI would have been aware of the affair. 

The Results of Tuesday's Elections

This week’s election was quite surprising to many citizens. I was watching the polls with my family and we were waiting to see who would win a race that was predicted to be extremely close. As the results began to be shown on television, I began to think that the race would be tight to the very end. I was also watching the Congressional race polls, particularly for Illinois. The Democratic Party seemed to be winning over strong Republican areas and it made me wonder how the results of this election would affect Congress. Looking back on Barack Obama’s presidency, many of his proposals were rejected by the majority Republican Congress which made it difficult to pass his agenda. At the conclusion of the election, the final House numbers had 234 Republican seats and 201 Democratic seats. I was quite surprised to see Brad Schneider win at the last second, because it seemed that Bob Dold was winning most of the popular vote. He eventually lost only after the final 3% of votes were counted. The evening ended with an electoral win for President Obama. Thus, Obama will be re-elected as President and will now have to ‘impress’ America on his second term. The United States is heavily split on the issues and Obama will have to figure out how to unite this divide during his second term. This will be especially challenging due to a Congress which has a 33 seat difference between parties.

Aftermath of Sandy: Helping Obama's campaign?

After the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, Obama has been eliciting praise for visiting the sites where the damage was most severe. While he hasn’t actually done much for Sandy’s aftermath yet, Obama’s recent visits to New Jersey and other states have shown him in action as President and not simply as a candidate for the Presidential race. Even Governor Chris Christie, the Republican Governor of New Jersey and famed critic of Obama’s work, has been assuring his residents that the President will help the storm-ravaged neighborhoods that have not been supported by FEMA. While the President carries out his duty by helping the nation and reducing panic, Governor Romney has been quietly campaigning. However, he has been careful not to release any attack ads towards the President. This week, the Republican candidate has been “playing it safe”. Both candidates have a few more days before Election Day. We can only wait and see if Obama’s visitations to storm-ravaged states have helped his campaign.