This was supposed to be a year of hope, remember? New President, new administration, new relationship with the world?

It hasn’t started that way. Even as the world takes to the street in protest, the first days of 2009 have already been soaked in the blood of civilians blown apart by the world’s most advanced army backed by US might and aircraft. The justifications are all too familiar: ending terror, building security, destroying an enemy, spreading democracy.

As Richard Falk, UN Special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories put it, "the people of Gaza are victims of geopolitics at its  inhumane worst: producing what Israel itself calls a 'total war' against an essentially defenseless society."

It’s time for a new geopolitics. The US has only one president at a time says the hideously silent president-elect. But the US has only one public at a time, and right now, for all you've heard about Washington's special relationship with Israel, a good hunk of that public has a special relationship with universal human rights, justice, and a new relationship with the world. They voted for it.

Americans voted for change in '08. If the way the year's beginning is any indication, in '09 they're going to have to do a whole lot more to make sure that change is implemented. We could begin by changing the way we watch collective punishment, the disproportionate use of force, and censorship and accept it as a legitimate way to advance someone's national interest.

The carnage we're seeing is in no one's national interest. Not even the Israelis'. 

Did all that talk of people having power stop right  after the election?