Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM - For years, Israelis have embraced a theory of "deterrence" with respect to the Gaza Strip. The idea is that if Gazans feel enough pain, they will refrain from attacking Israel. But this kind of strategic deterrence simply doesn't work. Instead, Gazans react to the huge suffering and pain inflicted by Israel with a greater determination to inflict pain on their attackers. Furthermore, deterrence without any possibility of a political settlement ensures that this madness will go on indefinitely.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Mideast on Tuesday, stepping up his administration's so-far futile attempts to broker an end to the bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip. Clinton flew to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving abruptly from Cambodia, where she had accompanied Obama to a regional summit. From Israel, she is slated to travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet with Palestinian officials before heading to Cairo to talk with Egyptian leaders.

CAIRO - The Gaza conflict has pressured Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on many fronts: Each rocket Hamas fired into Israel has been a test of Morsi's loyalty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also been gauging how much damage he can inflict on Hamas before Morsi responds with more than public statements and diplomacy. And the United States and the West, the source of billions of dollars in aid and possible investment that Egypt desperately needs, are watching to see whether the Egyptian president emerges as a formidable and trusted regional voice.

GAZA CITY -- As Hamas continued its attacks against Israel on Tuesday with two rockets targeted at Jerusalem, Israeli and Egyptian officials signaled that a cease-fire agreement may be close. Hamas officials claimed responsibility for the strikes, saying they used one of their new homemade M-75 rockets. As occurred last week, the rockets landed in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. No damage or injuries were reported. Attacks by Palestinian militants against Jerusalem previously were rare because the city is home to many Arab residents and some of the world's most sacred religious and historical sites, including those of Islam.

As the missiles and rockets fly in the Middle East, so does the war of words in Los Angeles.  As Times reporter Edmund Sanders wrote Sunday: “The conflicting views of ordinary Palestinians summed up the calculation now facing Hamas, the Islamist group that has been struggling for five years to find a balance between its roots as a resistance army and its responsibility for governing the Gaza Strip. The fourth day of violence Saturday left civilians on both sides digging out of the rubble.

WASHINGTON - The increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is threatening the Obama administration's plans to reinvigorate its Middle East diplomacy, creating new obstacles across the region as the president prepares for his second term. With negotiators struggling to craft a cease-fire agreement, diplomats and experts say the strife is hampering administration efforts to help resolve the civil war in Syria, improve relations with Egypt's new government, support moderate Palestinian leaders and check Iran's growing ambitions.

JABALIYA, Gaza Strip - Stepping over his daughter's mangled teddy bear and pink bedroom curtains, math teacher Hossam Dadah salvaged what he could from the wreckage of his home and said he's had enough. Two of his children were hospitalized after Israeli airstrikes destroyed the three-story house next door, which was owned by a Hamas official. "This has to end," said Dadah, his black hair covered with concrete dust from the explosion. Hamas should quit while it's ahead, he said.

After months of relative quiet - broken, in this country, only by the pandering of the presidential candidates - the century-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict has burst back into the news. It began last week when the Palestinian Authority revived its plan to seek an upgrade in the United Nations to "non-member observer status. " On the face of it, that's hardly a game-changing power grab, and it seems unlikely to dramatically alter the regional balance of power. Nevertheless, Israel instantly deemed it an unacceptable unilateral action that would undermine negotiations and could lead to war crimes prosecutions of Israelis in the International Criminal Court.

GAZA CITY -- Israel made good on its threat to give Hamas leaders in Gaza Strip a rough night, pounding the territory with near-constant airstrikes. Israel said Friday morning that it launched more than 150 strikes overnight against Hamas' mid-range rocket launching posts and weapons depots, including a facility in Khan Yunis that exploded after being struck. Other targets included a power generator near the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, according one Israeli report.

CAIRO -- Egypt asked the United States on Thursday to immediately intervene to stop the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, warning that the violence could spiral "out of control," the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Egypt also announced that its prime minister would travel to Gaza on Friday, an additional sign that the country's Islamist-led government is under pressure from across the region to help find an end to the conflict. Egypt "will stand with all of its resources to end this aggression and to stop the recurring killing and bloodshed of Palestinians," President Mohamed Morsi said on national television.