Planning the Gaza Op with Democratic Help?

The Guardian showed the level of planning for Israel's current Gaza operation. The piece stated:

Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN until a few months ago, was brought in by the Foreign Ministry to help lead the diplomatic and PR campaign. He said that the diplomatic and political groundwork has been under way for months.

"This was something that was planned long ahead," he said. "I was recruited by the foreign minister to coordinate Israel's efforts and I have never seen all parts of a very complex machinery - whether it is the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, the prime minister's office, the police or the army - work in such co-ordination, being effective in sending out the message."

U.S. Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) spilled the beans on December 18 with his comments to the Jerusalem Post:

In an interview after addressing a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Berman also said the new US administration should not interfere if Israel felt it necessary to take military action in the Gaza Strip.

“The [rocket] strikes, the ongoing [arms] smuggling, the Hamas efforts to modernize their arsenal - all these things together pose a real threat to Israel, and an intolerable situation. There is obviously a big price to pay for deciding to take military action, but I think the US should support the Israeli decision on this,” he said.

He said he believed the Obama administration would be “very reluctant” to interfere with an Israeli “self-defense action.”

Nine days later, Israel's war machine steamrolled Gaza. What role did Bush's Special Envoy for Middle East Security have in the planning? That's General James L. Jones, Barack Obama's new National Security Adviser.

How about the Quartet's special envoy, Tony Blair? What role did he play? On December 20, Haaretz did a piece on Tony. It stated:

Two weeks ago Blair met with Hillary Clinton, the incoming American Secretary of state, and with Gen. James Jones, who will be national security adviser. He says the two understand that a change of strategy on Gaza is necessary. "I'd rather that they would declare their policy rather than me, but when I say that I don't think that the current situation is sustainable, I think most people who would analyze it think the same."

I ask him several times what he proposes. Here Blair stops and goes silent. "I have ideas about this," he says, "but it is not sensible to talk about it at the moment, ...the reason I am being coy about solutions and strategies is that I think that the time to discuss this publicly is not now. ."

Speak up boys and girls. Your democratic public's have a right to know. That is if America and Britain are still democracies. One has to wonder.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) told the Jerusalem Post last summer, "he became a Zionist, before he became a Democrat." And this is the man drafting a Congressional resolution on the Gaza Crisis?