Eric Margolis: While Gaza Burns, the World Watches

The Muslim world is in a rage. But so what? As Stalin liked to say, `the dogs bark, and the caravan moves on.' As long as the US gives Israel carte blanche, it can do just about anything it wants. Let the dogs bark.

Obama inherits this mess in a few weeks. During the elections, Obama bowed low to the Israel lobby, offering a new US carte blanche to Israel and even accepting Israel's permanent monopoly on all of Jerusalem. His Mideast team looks like it may be top heavy with friends of Israel's Labor Party. Chances Obama will make any progress towards a real Mideast peace seem dim at this point.

The tragedy of Palestine will thus continue to poison America's relations with the Muslim world. Those Americans who still do not understand why their nation was attacked on 9/11 need only look to Gaza, for which America is now being blamed as much as Israel.

Unless Israel can make five to seven million Palestinians disappear, it must find some way to co-exist with them. Israeli leaders on the center and right continue to avoid facing this fact. The brutal collective punishment inflicted on Gaza will likely strengthen Hamas and set back hopes of any Mideast peace by years.