Saturday
Dec272008
Breaking News: Israeli Attacks Kill More than 100 in Gaza
Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 11:45
Last week we projected, as the Hamas-Israel truce ended, that the cycle of rocket attacks and Israeli raids would spiral.
The wait is over. After an escalation in the rockets across the border, with the deadly irony that it was two Palestinian schoolgirls who were killed when a missile misfired, the Israeli Defense Forces launched their own deadly strikes against "a series of Hamas targets and infrastructure facilities".
The Israelis are leading with the claim that the Hamas police chief is dead. Information from medical sources and officials in Palestine indicate 120 have been killed and more than 250 wounded.
UPDATE: Scott has posted a more in-depth analysis here.
The wait is over. After an escalation in the rockets across the border, with the deadly irony that it was two Palestinian schoolgirls who were killed when a missile misfired, the Israeli Defense Forces launched their own deadly strikes against "a series of Hamas targets and infrastructure facilities".
The Israelis are leading with the claim that the Hamas police chief is dead. Information from medical sources and officials in Palestine indicate 120 have been killed and more than 250 wounded.
UPDATE: Scott has posted a more in-depth analysis here.
tagged Al Jazeera, CNN, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Israeli Defense Forces, Palestine in Middle East & Iran
Al Jazeera, CNN, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Israeli Defense Forces, Palestine in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (95)
Israel is the biggest problem of the US.
Wy sopport Israel anymore. The just give us more and more problem, and put us in the road of the word war 3.
Israel are the new Fachism, don't support them anymore.
Once again a reminder to please keep comments constructive- informed, intelligent discussion is always welcome here; wild accusations and/ or deliberate provocation are not.
Mike,
The more recent posts are closer to kosher (pardon the pun) than the earlier ones.
While i believe that the saying, "you might not get the government you want but you always get the government you deserve" is true and the Palestinians have the government they deserve i can't be unsympathetic to the deaths. I no more want to see innocent Palestinians die than i want to see Israeli's die. However, the vast majority of the deaths today were militants and the sites hit were all military sites-although Hamas like to place their military installations next to school. It is a sad day but i cannot blame Israel for defending themselves. The Foreign Minister pleaded the other day for the rocket fire to stop, she said if they don't stop Israel will have to respond militarily, Israel even opened up the crossing and allowed 100 trucks to enter Gaza but Hamas still launched missiles so Israel launched some back. No blame for Israel in my opinion.
what were they doing in that video that was posted? Why do they keep touching the man with the blue shirts chest?
Looks like a lot of posturing and posing.
I will speak from a lay perspective. I do not know all the complexities of the Jewish people over their history that extends thousands of years- nor do I have anything against them. But after WWII, when they stripped people out of their homes, and now we supply them with with BILLIONS of dollars of military equipment, we have placed the Palestinians in an awkward position. Are they really terrorists? If someone attacks your house with a machine gun, and you retaliate using much simpler, but blunt means- say blowing up the other persons house- be they military or civilian- is that terrorism?
Remember- the United States supports the state of Israel so we may have a strong presence in an oil-rich part of the world.
Also- where do you draw the line between patriotism and terrorism? Could not the founding fathers of the US been called the greatest terrorists of all time?
This is all expected. Since the war with Lebanon, Israel knew it had to keep the Gaza Strip and West Bank for its border to be at all 'defensible'. There could never be a two-state solution - ask Bush, I'm sure he already knew it. Since a one-state solution is not in Israel's ideological plan, the 'two big prisons' strategy continues to be the only solution. So destroy as much resistance as possible before a new US government takes hold next year. This will give the Zionists more time to politically 'shape' the desired path of the new US government. Day by day, Israel is fast setting on a path of no return. The longer-term problem for Israeli lovers is, of course, that, even with the Gaza Strip and West Bank, can Israel ever be really 'defensible', with the increasingly longer and longer ranged 'homemade' missiles the 'terrorists' have been able to lay their hands on?
Neckbirke,
The simplest answer is you are a terrorist until you win. One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. Had the US not defeated the British George Washington and crew would be know as terrorist rather than patriots. Remember, History is written by the victors. Palestine is not a nation, it was a British territory, the British gave control of the land to the UN. Jews had been immigrating into the British Mandate area for some time. Arabs were becoming upset at the Jews population surge. The Arabs launched the first attack against the Jews population areas. Hundred's of Jews were killed, the British soldiers watched the massacre but didn't have the men to do anything to stop it. The Mutfi of Jerusalem, an Arab, had ties to Hitler and even is believed to have visited a few concentration camps. The UN decided that the best way to handle the situation would be to partition the land...half to Arabs and half to Jews. Kinda like how India and Pakistan were handled. The Palestinians refused to go along and on the first day of Israeli's existence all six neighboring Arab nations attacked. The Jews were at first losing the battle but won in the end. That is the short history. We really haven't moved on from there.
Further in regards to the US battle for independence, our war has a uniqueness about it that no other nonindependent war shares..although there were individual acts of terrorism the war itself was orderly. The tar and feathering was short lived, the longer the war went on the more civilized it got. Usually when a war begins it becomes more uncivilized as it progresses.
All I know is that arabs dance in the streets at the killing of innocent lives. Let US dance now.
Candy,
What you fail to understand is that Israel has a far greater arsenal than they use. The more advanced and accurate the Palestinian missiles become that greater and more destructive the Israeli counter strike will be. The Palestinians are only making there civilians suffer more with each missile they fire. Stop building tunnels, Israel won't agree to a truce that's only purpose is for Hamas to rearm. Lebanon now has more missiles than they did before the war according to the UN. The next time Israel goes to war they won't stop until they defeat the enemy b/c ceasefires never end in peace with Hamas....if a war does occur, Hams will fight till they run out of missiles and then ask for a ceasefire but they they just use that time to rearm and they they'll start firing missiles again. The next war is gonna be real bad for the Palestinian civilians b/c Israel is gonna fight till they've destroyed Hamas.
I just can't understand how people have things so wrong here...
200+ dead, yes thats true, approximately 75% were militants so they weren't innocent, they were legally killed. They are the same as soldiers on a battle field what happens when you go to war...? You kill the enemy.
I see people here saying that Israeli's are dancing in the streets...? What are you talking about? Arabs are the ones that like to dance in the street when civilians die...
I see some comments about how Israel needs to go away...'wiped of the face of the earth' didn't the Pres. of Iran say something along those lines...aren't you in good company.
Yes civilians dies to day and for that we should all be sympathetic but also the 140+ militants that were killed is in a sad way a good thing...maybe some innocent Israeli's will be safe now that there dead.
Also remember that 2 Palestinian children were killed by those Hamas militants the other day. Israel might actually be saving Palestinian lives by killing these militants today....
What about the Muslim butchering of Hindus over 300 years during the Moghul Arab Invasion, what about the Muslim terrorist attack in Mumbai? Do you expect the victims of Islamic terrorism to sit quietly and take it? Someone mentioned Gujrath, what he did not mention is that the conflict started when Muslims bombed a train full of Indian pilgrims. The retaliation went overboard, I agree with that, but there is a reason for that, that is because this is not the first attack by Islamic terrorists, there have been many before where there was no retaliation, this was the final straw.
Dave- thanks. I'm considering closing comments on this post to give us a chance to take a proper look at them all.
Peace will come to the mid east one day...that day might not come during our lifetimes but then stop and think how many centuries the area has been at war with itself. Peace will come when both sides can put down their weapons and talk. The Palestinians could hasten this by refraining to attack Israel. Israel could not keep the block aid of Gaza going if the violence were to stop. If Israel is no longer threatened then the US, UN, and the rest of the world would force Israel to remove the wall and settlement. But as long as the Palestinians toss missiles no body can bring pressure to Israel. No nation is gonna tell another nation that they can't defend themselves. The Palestinian attacks are joke, they don't kill Israeli's but they are wrong so the Palestinians can annoy Israel but doing so gives Israel a legal pretext to bomb Palestinians...hundreds of Palestinians die as a result. Hamas is brilliant...all they do is irritate Israel and get Palestinians killed. Nothing will change, no American President will tell Israel to do a thing until the missiles stop. It's your choice Palestine...sadly it appears the Palestinians or at least the Palestinian leadership is perfectly content with the way things play out.
It's sad how everyone holds so close their own beliefs and convictions, but fail to analyze us as a whole and come to the conclusion that, as throughout history, our children will pay for our fathers actions. unless we take a step beside ourselves as a whole and change the same direction we always go. its about to be 2009. we cannot advance as a people in the dawn of a new century living in the way of the old. it's that simple. human life is priceless. Muslims as well as Jews both know that very well like the rest of the world. so we all need to start living based on what we know and what is most important.
Mike Dunn,
I don't think the comments were too severe. I don't like some of them, people shouldn't cheer when other people are dying but no threats were made nor was any overt racism expressed. Leave the remarks so people can see how some people truly think....
Angel,
Racism, hate, bigotry, and violence are and will sadly remain human characteristics. I'll applaud you for your intent but i don't think we'll ever have a world of peace...everybody is ethnocentric to an extent. What is it, something like only a dozen years in all of recorded history were without wars...Thats just open warfare that doesn't exclude oppression and mistreatment. As famously said, 'Peace isn't merely the absence of violence but rather the presence of justice." I can't see justice spanning the globe.
Here is an example of what I mean that Islamic Jihad is not a reaction to Muslim persecution but a movement to convert people to Islam by force:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7796963.stm
Comments on this post are now closed to give it a chance to cool off.
Scott's latest update is here:
http://enduringamerica.com/2008/12/27/gaza-update-more-than-220-dead/