Netanyahu threw away the opportunity to make the lives of both Israelis and Gazans better. As often happens during a war, the country in nationalistic fervor rallies behind its government, revelling in vague notions of patriotism; “Bibi” stands to gain in the upcoming January 22 election.

Palestinians know and expect Israel to act better; it is high time that Israelis can expect Palestinians to act better too. Civil resistance is justified for people harmed by their own government and still left with no state since 1948, but targeting civilians on either side, as Hamas does, is inhumane and indicative of why Israelis are not willing to trust in a lasting peace.

Columbians from Students for Justice in Palestine and LionPAC organized competing demonstrations Tuesday afternoon in support of the warring sides in the continuing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

Join the Students for Education Reform on Thursday November 29 at 6:00pm, as we march downtown from the NYC UFT building to the steps of the NYC DOE building, demanding that a deal be reached. We are not taking sides, and we are not assigning blame. We are marching to ensure that students do not lose out on essential components of their education because of a disagreement between the adults. Help us make some noise in the name of compromise.

To be frank, with recent tectonic shifts of the political and social terrain in the Middle East, Israel can’t afford another ground war and occupation of Gaza. The Israeli position now is not as secure as it once was four years ago. The Middle East of 2008 is not the Middle East of 2012, and the Hamas of 2008 is not the Hamas of 2012.

Because if anything was made clear in this past week, it’s that regular people can and will make the choices that politicians won’t. We will take care of each other, and that is a principle we should all strive for our society to embody.

I’m tired of eating club themed cupcakes, attending cosponsored lectures, flyering for discussions, and rambling about interesting ideas in class. If we never put our high minded philosophy into issues as clear cut as this, it’s all useless.

The fact is, regardless of how many statistics Obama and Romney drop about their economic or health care policies, neither the average voter nor the incredibly exceptional American voter is going to understand them. What we can understand is how our Commander-in-Chief plans to navigate the world's increasingly treacherous diplomatic waters and what his priorities are.

Only progress on the basis of strength can weather the severe geopolitical and socioeconomic pressures that Iran faces. The only reasonable policy reformulations are those that ensure an internally strong state able to coordinate and direct the instruments of foreign and domestic policy at the level of state bureaucracies, especially in the realm of security.

Christian identity ­– religiosity in its thin form – forms a crucial aspect of the European right wing that will not disappear with the resolution of immigration difficulties and instead continue to motivate the movement and inform its political orientations. But this thin Christianity also does not translate directly into policy.