BEIRUT -- When diplomacy fails to deliver in the Middle East, other options come to the fore, usually in some form of violence practiced in different ways by both sides. The current violence is by Israel's armed forces, which are waging a fierce and disproportionate attack against mostly unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip - killing hundreds at a time, injuring thousands, and destroying huge elements of the Palestinian civilian infrastructure – for the fifth or sixth time in the past 50 years. This follows Israel's strangulation of the territory that causes hardships for every civilian by reducing the flow of food, medicine and essential needs.

AMMAN -- Israeli warplanes continued to pound the Gaza Strip for a fourth straight day Tuesday and the number of Palestinian casualties, most of them civilians, continued to rise, in what Israeli leaders promised was just the beginning of a weeks-long assault aimed at eliminating the Hamas movement.

CAIRO -- It is the only story in the Arab world: Gaza's battering at the hands of Israeli planes. Across the region, frustration continues to grow as hundreds of Gazans die and hundreds more are injured in the three days of bombing by the Israeli air force despite international calls to end the violence. In Egypt, thousands of protesters continue to pour onto the streets to voice their anger at Israel's actions as well as their own government, highlighting how deep the chasm as run.

AMMAN -- The intensive Israeli military air attacks on the Gaza Strip, which entered their third day Monday and raised the Palestinian death toll to well over 300, has sparked continuous street protests across the Arab and Muslim worlds against Israel, seeking to pressure their governments and the international community to stop the Jewish state's assault on the besieged and impoverished strip.

Hamas -- the Islamic Resistance Movement -- is playing a dangerous game that could provoke a massive Israeli reaction and plunge the Middle East into a new round of crisis.

Unlike the just-concluded American election, where everyone is eagerly awaiting the change that has been promised, the ongoing election campaign in Israel which ends one month after President-elect Barack Obama settles in the White House, is noted for the absence of any similar commitments. If anything, the positions of the competing Israeli frontrunners have been anything but encouraging, even very alarming.

JERUSALEM -- Syria has stated that it is ready for direct talks and for a full peace with Israel if Israel returns Syrian land it captured during the Six-day War in 1967.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama made his first venture into the minefield that is Middle East politics last week when he reportedly offered Israel a nuclear umbrella, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz, which quotes unnamed sources close to the Obama transition team. If the story proves to be true, it would demonstrate a smart move by Obama to preempt any temptation by Israel to launch a preemptive strike against the Islamic Republic's effort to go nuclear. And if Obama manages to convince the Israelis that they can count on the United States for their protection then he would have achieved a major coup even before his official entry into the White House.

JERUSALEM -- Israel's upcoming general elections early next year could see some of the country's most extreme right-wing elements, accused of being racist by some, winning the elections.

JERUSALEM -- The head of Israel's ruling Kadima Party and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign immediately as the indictment of the premier edges closer following allegations of fraud.