Comings and Goings In Israel

Israel's President Shimon Peres has given the task of forming the new Israeli government to Binyamin Netanyahu of Likud. He garnered more support in the Knesset than Livni's Kadmima, despite losing the election by one seat. Since governments are formed on a coalition basis, Netanyahu has a better chance of forming a coalition of 60+ seats.

Netanyahu, who met with Peres shortly before Livni, said that Kadima would be the first party he turns to after receiving the nod from Peres. "I am willing to go to great lengths in the negotiations needed to establish such a government," the Likud leader said after his meeting with Peres, echoing assessments that he would be willing to give Kadima several senior portfolios in his cabinet.

Netanyahu said repeatedly during the campaign that not forming a national-unity government when he was prime minister from 1996-99 was his worst-ever political mistake. But Livni left him no choice but to repeat it when she vowed to remain in the opposition.

"Today, the foundations of a right-wing extremist government under Netanyahu were set," Livni wrote in a cellular phone text message sent to some 80,000 Kadima members Thursday. "The path of such a government is not our own and we have nothing to look for there. You didn't vote for us in order to provide a kosher certificate for a right-wing government, and we need to provide an alternative of hope from the opposition."

Livni and Kadima mishandled Israel's national security in the Hizbullah War and by calling off Operation Cast Lead far too soon before Israel's security objectives were reached. The Israeli public doesn't trust them to handle Israel's security affairs, which is why the right wing parties benefited greatly from the situation.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry is on his way out of the Middle East, but not without accepting a letter from the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, courtesy of the UNRWA, which received the letter at one of its offices.

"A letter addressed to Obama was left at the gate of our offices in Gaza; it is believed to be from Hamas," said Christopher Gunness of UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees.

Asked about the contents of the letter, Gunness said: "We are very polite at UNRWA, we don't open other people's mail."

Kerry did not meet any Hamas representative and stressed that his trip to the impoverished territory, which no US official had visited for years, did not indicate a shift of policy towards Hamas.

He's going to play messenger boy for Hamas to give a letter to President Obama. The group is on the State Department's terror list and has regularly attacked Israel for years on end in an unending war against Israel's existence.

I can't begin to imagine what is in that letter. Oh wait. I can.

It will probably demand that the US lean on Israel to make still more concessions, including but not limited to: releasing hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails, an end to airstrikes that kill Hamas terrorists attempting to attack Israel or who have just carried out mortar or rocket attacks on Israel; targeted airstrikes against Hamas leadership; and opening up the border crossings between Israel and Gaza and ensuring that Hamas terrorists free passage, and that's just for starters.

It's nothing that we haven't heard before, but the claim that Kerry had no contacts with Hamas is misleading. Kerry had to have had contacts with Hamas thugs to gain entry to Gaza for his day-trip, including visits to various locations in the Strip. An intermediary could have arranged the trip on Kerry's behalf, but they had to coordinate with Hamas, who controls Gaza. Nothing gets done in Gaza without Hamas having their hands on it.

Within hours of the Kerry visit to Gaza, Hamas rockets and mortars fell on Israel. That includes grad rockets that hit near Netivot. Oh, and a rocket fell short and slammed into Gaza too.

Hamas is a menace to everyone, not just Israelis.

Israel has continued to attack the smuggling tunnels across the Philadelpi corridor, and this has put a crimp on that underground industry. I'm not going to shed a tear for it one bit. Hamas has created the conditions under which the Gazans live, and they are to blame for the situation. But for the rocket attacks and incessant calls to jihad against Israel, the border crossings would have been opened long ago. Instead, Hamas uses the situation to gin up a crisis and to destroy the economy to force still more reliance on Hamas.