After Gaza invasion: Obama White House needs to get its head in the game

Thursday was a head-swiveling day for all of Washington. When not transfixed by the horror of a commercial airliner spread all over the Ukrainian countryside, their eyes are glued to the sight of watching Israeli tanks roll into Gaza.

Unfortunately, that's typical inside-the-Beltway behavior: flitting from one crisis to another, intent on what’s just happened. It would do better to start thinking about what’s going to happen next, and what the U.S. can do to assure the best outcome.

It would do Washington better to start thinking about what’s going to happen next, and what the U.S. can do to assure the best outcome.

What’s next? In Gaza, Hamas will be worse off for picking a fight with the Israeli military. The Arab world isn't rushing to defend the militant Islamist organization.  Indeed, Cairo has sent plenty of signals that it doesn't have much use for Hamas. 

The situation now? Hamas is running short of money. It's been clobbered by the Israeli military. And the latest Israeli land incursion will likely demolish its tunnels and military caches in the south and east along the border with Egypt. This will further degrade the group’s military power.

So the real issue for Washington is how to capitalize on the reduction in Hamas capability and stature.

For starters, the administration should realize that Cairo has just sent a big, fat message that it wants to be a force for good—a partner in on-going efforts to restore stability to the region. President Obama should act to take them up on the offer.

Hamas is a stooge of Iran. A bad day for the militants is a bad day for Tehran. It's time for the White House to forget about making nice with Iran and put their stooges and the regime on the endangered species list.

The White House has supported Israel's right to defend itself. The president should maximize our strategic relationship with the Middle East’s only functioning democracy, rather than marginalize the alliance.

To that end, the US should stop wasting time on the fruitless Palestinian-Israeli peace process. As long as Hamas—an organization sworn to destroy Israeli—holds sway among the Palestinian Authority, any peace “process” is doomed. The administration would do far better to focus its attention and considerable diplomatic resources on equally vital, and far more amenable, problems—such as keeping Iraq from spiraling into utter chaos.

The humbling of Hamas, now underway, opens new options for the U.S. The White House needs to get its head in the game and take advantage of the opportunity.

James Jay Carafano is vice president of foreign and defense policy studies  The Heritage Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @JJCarafano.

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Zimmerman's wife needs to 'think about' staying married

SANFORD, Fla. –  George Zimmerman's wife says she's going to have to "think about" whether she stays married to him.

Shelli Zimmerman made the comments to ABC on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge for lying during a bail hearing following her husband's arrest for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Her husband, who was acquitted on second-degree murder charges in July, wasn't in the Sanford courtroom Wednesday as she was sentenced to a year's probation and 100 hours of community service -- even though she supported him and even lied about their finances.

"She was scared," her attorney, Kelly Sims, said after Wednesday's hearing. "Her husband was locked up. She didn't know what was going on. So, she stood by her man, like Tammy Wynette says."

Shelli Zimmerman told ABC "I always want my husband's support."

Asked if she and George Zimmerman are still together, Shelli Zimmerman said, "I'm not going to answer that."

She added that she "wants to have children and stay married."

"With George?" the interviewer asked.

"That's something I'm going to have to think about," Shelli Zimmerman replied.

In the interview, she also revealed that she wasn't at their home the night of the teen's controversial shooting because she'd had a fight with her husband.

"I was staying at my father's house," she said. "We had gotten into an argument the night before and I left."

Shelli Zimmerman says that while she believes her husband's version of the events leading to the shooting, "I can't tell you how many nights I've gone or laid awake at night just thinking that I wish to God the circumstances had been different."

She says the couple lived in hiding while awaiting his trial.

"We have pretty much lived like gypsies for the past year and a half. We've lived in a 20-foot trailer in the woods, scared every night that someone would go and find us and that it would be horrific," she said.

Shelli Zimmerman admitted she did not tell the truth during the bail hearing.

"I can rationalize a lot of reasons for why I was misleading, but the truth is that I knew I was lying," she said.

She said she plans to do her community service with a Christian ministry.

"I've made mistakes and I want to own them right now," Shelli Zimmerman said.

She also told ABC she is deeply sorry for the Martin family's loss. "I can't even begin to understand the grief a parent experiences when they lose a child," she said.

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