A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

December 13, 2007 The Qassam Problem, Jordanian Elections

A Qassam rocket hit a house is Sederot today and one woman was seriously wounded. Thankfully, she will recover. Unfortunately, Israeli policy is to a large extent hostage to the lack of success that Hamas has had in firing their missiles. If one missile were to strike and kill a number of Israelis, it would be hard to hold back a large-scale incursion. The army has made it clear that it does not want to enter Gaza in large numbers without an exit strategy. Eighteen Israelis have died in seven years from rocket and mortar fire. While one death is one too many, it is hard to justify an attack that will cost 100 lives of soldiers with no end game to try to end the fire. Today Minister of Defense Barak requested a review of the two anti-rocket systems that were not selected by former Minister of Defense Peretz. The system picked, designed by Rafael, is said to be controversial.

Parliamentary elections were held in Jordan this week. Magically the number of Muslim Brotherhood members elected to parliament dropped from 15 to 6. King Abdullah has left no stone unturned to undermine their electability. He has gerrymandered the districts, and take every step possible to ensure as few of them as possible be elected. The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan calls themselves the ìHamas of Jordanî. The King made no secret of his disagreement with the decision to allow Hamas to run in the Palestinian elections. While he might not win the worldís democracy award, he does understand that democracy does not mean allowing groups who do not believe in the democratic process to be elected.

The teachers strike officially end this morning. An agreement was signed hours before the teachers were to return to work under court orders.