Heavy Military Machinery Is Hovering Overhead

Benjamin Netanjahu is, among other things, a great believer in the tradition of a leap year. 

Nearly four years ago he and his Likud government put it upon themselves to attack the Palestinian territories in Gaza in what was considered by the scarce media pack present a series of megalomaniacal bloody onslaughts. However this was on a people on the ground who literally swapped over the role of the Jews' David not for their own wont.

Events at their very real essence get filtered and distorted by the various satellite stations wanting to keep onside the lobby groups lurking in the director's gantry. It's very much how Chinese whispers start and never seem to end. So with every incident, intentional or otherwise, it's a race to win over the "perception agenda". 

Politically Netanjahu knows that this year is going to be crucial for his hell-mended desire to keep Israel afloat. Last year Palestinian political leaders and its peoples' good will went to the UN to apply for recognition within the international community. Strangely - and conspiratorially one would imagine - nothing has yet come to fruition for the Palestinians' democratic right for statehood. With this in mind Likud, perhaps having a hand in the fate of this move by the Palestinians, would have become masters again on the path of their role in the Middle East. 

However stranger things are happening and insurances are constantly being sought. 

Netanjahu, along with AIPAC, have been lobbying hard again for tougher sanctions and, reading in between the lines, an all-out war against Iran. Whether Mossad have been working overtime lately or not, Likud seem spooked at something. Perhaps Likud are concerned that, what with growing distance in the relationship between Netanjahu and Obama, this next year is crucial for them to get their deck sorted out whilst the cat's away. 

Netanjahu was in Washington last week meeting Obama. They exchanged terse language in what was an uneasy confrontation with the media. Netanjahu was on record saying how Israel is a strong country and should remain that way. Now this is tough talk that belies a deeper, hidden concern that he and his Zionist friends are really following, namely: would Washington abandon us and we would be left arms-less and set adrift?

This is the precise reason why Israel is increasingly striking their enemies when there is a US election year. Likud know that if Obama gets re-election then there is another four years of strained relations and international vilification - especially if Palestinian human rights continue to suffer. However if a GOP candidate gets elected then they can be rest assured that AIPAC will get to them before Netanjahu even boards a chartered jet at Jerusalem International Airport.

Will they want to chance their arms at such a gamble? Hardly. The Gaza onslaught three and a half years ago was when the furniture was being moved about in Washington. There will be military maneuvering this year - you can guarantee it because Israel flexes its muscle when the stronger are weak and when the weak remain the weakest.   

As I write this F-16 pilot fighters - sat in planes they bought from the West - are hovering over Gaza like the chill of yet another unnecessary dawn.