For the past fortnight we have been horrified by the images of bloodied bodies of innocent Palestinian men, women and children, brutally killed by the military might of the state of Israel. These images show the fraction of the destruction being caused due to the ban by the Israeli government on the foreign journalists and reporters in Gaza, despite of the ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court to allow access to the foreign journalists into Gaza. Moreover, the delayed intervention by the international community has compounded the misery of the Palestinians. After winning the elections Hamas has sought international credibility but its political position of refusing to recognise Israel and renounce violence was not acceptable to the west and left it isolated. Two years ago Israel declared Gaza as a Hostile Territory. Since then, Israel had planned to collectively punish the people of Gaza by putting the Strip under siege by isolating it economically, commercially, politically and diplomatically. The political position of the Fatah movement controlling the West Bank didn't help much in curbing the isolation of Gaza due to the differences between Hamas and Fatah movement. There is a need to understand this crisis in the context of Israeli power politics and the prestige of the Israeli armed forces. After the humiliating defeat of Israel by a guerrilla force Hezbollah there was an immense Public pressure on the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who belongs to Kidima party, to resign. The Israeli armed forces also got their share of humiliation. Elections are due in February, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (former Mossad operative) and Defence Minister Ehud Barak both belonging to Kidima party are the front runners in the race to become prime minister. As the incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a lame duck due to corruption charges, both Barak and Livni are trying their best to prove tough enough to ensure Israeli security by bombarding innocent Palestinian civilians. We should not be surprised if they open another front in the north with Hezbollah. In this particular way they want to win over the support of the Israeli public from their main contender "the notorious Benjamin Netanyahu" and to give an opportunity to the Israeli armed forces to restore their pride and prestige by heavily bombarding and using indiscriminate force against the innocent people of Gaza. Israeli hue and cry about rockets being fired at them from Gaza is merely an excuse to carry out their heinous design. All this will have far reaching repercussions for Israel's closest ally the United States, whose new administration's focus is on winning hearts and minds of the people in the Muslim world. President elect Obama is considering number of options to portray a positive image of his administration in the Muslim world. Two of them are: i) to close down Guantanamo Bay prison and ii) give his first foreign policy statement in a Muslim country after swearing in an as president (Pakistan was one of the country being considered but it was dropped due to security concerns). Such kind of symbolic gestures won't make a big impact, as many in the Muslim world believe that the united state is supporting Israel and they have a reason to believe it. The United States has blocked all the UN resolutions condemning Israeli aggression. Recently the US has abstained in a voting for the resolution based on the French-Egyptian ceasefire plan which will definitely be violated by Israel till its objectives are achieved .The US administration has to understand that its all out support for all kind of Israeli action will further radicalise the streets of Arab and Muslim world, extremely marginalising the moderates and making it difficult for the US to sell its foreign policy in the region. Trying to insure peace and security through indiscriminate force will create a vicious cycle of violence and give way to the emergence of non-state actors. When the international community which is lead by the US fails to stop these atrocities then it gives an excuse to these non-state actors to fill that void and their only mean is violence. The Europeans have realised that violence feed violence and the only way to curb terrorism and extremism is through political dialogue. Voice of descend has started coming from Israel its leading newspaper Haaretz has advised the government to stop the military incursion and negotiate. At the end of the day Israel has to ensure its security through political dialogue with its Arab neighbours including Hamas. The writer is a research coordinator at the Institute of Public Policy, BNU