Hillary Clinton has been away. So she has also been in the news. Middle Eastern news.
Her first comment over the weekend was that Israel had not sufficiently opened the gates of relief to Gaza. One fact behind this is that Hamas is still targeting rockets into the cities and town of southern Israel. Ashkelon was one of the targets during that time but also on Monday, when only 60 percent of kindergarten pupils and 40 percent of the higher classes were in attendance. The boycott will grow on Tuesday and beyond. I myself believe that Israel should allow no aid to Gaza until trajectiles of death have stopped endangering life in Israel.
The second fact is that Gilad Schalit is still in captivity after 32 months since his kidnapping. Hamas has been playing mickey mouse with this man's life for all that time. You want to put real pressure on the mad Sunni warriors of the Muslim god? Then put real pressure on them. Let the Israelis demonstrate that no spaghetti (a demand from Gaza, instead of rice) and no boards and nails enter Gaza until this hostage is freed.
Now, as I suggested a few weeks ago, Schalit may be dead. Just like the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah were dead all the while mad Lebanese Shi'a warriors of the Muslim god were bartering for their release. This would justify another round of retribution.
Mrs. Clinton has had nothing public to say on these matters.
But at the Gaza assistance conference which she was attending in Cairo something over $5.7 billion of help was announced. If you believe that you can believe in Santa Claus. In fact, a day or two before the announcement, the Arab League denounced its own constituent Arab governments for having withheld the $1.6 billion that they had pledged. She also had nothing to say about this.
What she did say, however, was that the United States had no illusions about Iran. She was speaking to the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, conveying her opinion (reassuring him) that President Obama would not get very far about nuclear issues with the Persian leadership in Tehran. This news came only a day after Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed that he thought Iran had gotten just to the point at which it could manufacture atomic weapons. Secretary Gates disagreed, maybe just for tactical reasons in whatever our diplomacy will be with the Iranian leadership. But Mullen's views comport with the intelligence view of Mohamed El Baradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a man who is very hesitant with these matters. If he believes that an Arab country has nukes or is about to have nukes--better pay attention.