Last week, the Israelis, acting on information that the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee was planning a major incident (re: terrorist attack) on the Egyptian / Israeli border, struck the leadership of the PRC in a targeted Air Strike and killed their Secretary General Zuhair al-Qissi. The IAF followed that up with a focused strike that killed a Rocket Team preparing to bombard Southern Israel.
This brought on an massive rain of Rocket fire directed at civilian areas of Southern Israel and had not the Iron Dome short range missle defense system been working and had not the Israeli government closed schools casualties from these rockets directed into civilian areas would have been huge.
In addition to the strikes that have threatened the lives and caused injuries to civilians in Southern Israel a number of Palestinians (23) have been killed and many more wounded (80) during the course of 23 IAF air missions. Of course, it should be noted that the militant groups firing on Israel are firing from crowded areas and using civilians as human shields. NOT too mention that all of their fire is directed solely at random CIVILIAN targets in Southern Israel.
With all the damage that is occuring though, so far Hamas has been staying out of the fighting, and at least part of it is talking with the Egyptians in an attempt to rein in Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PRC that continue to fire. while the PRC and Islamic Jihad are saying "No" to cease fire talks.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Islamic Jihad held a press conference on Monday warning that it would not agree to a truce with Israel while airstrikes continue to kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"We will not agree on a ceasefire stipulated by Israel, neither do we accept a ceasefire while the lives of our people are taken without restraint," Jihad officials told reporters in Gaza City.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar told Reuters in Cairo he expected a ceasefire to be reached, but the timing depended on Israel.
"I expect matters will calm down," Zahhar said. "The statements coming from them (Israel) either in public or via mediators, especially Egypt, say that they do not want escalation."But even Hamas admits that the Israelis DO NOT want an escalation.
And Haaretz is reporting today:
Egypt negotiating between Israel and Gaza factions for ceasefire, diplomats say
"We hope that we will succeed to reach quiet tonight," said one Egyptian diplomat. Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said that Hamas approached Egyptian intelligence and asked to pass a message to Israel regarding the renewal of calm.
"We do not carry out negotiations with Hamas," Yaalon said.
"Our response through the Egyptians was very simple, this is basically our policy since the beginning of the current administration: if you are quiet, we will be quiet, if you shoot, or plot attacks, we will hit you, and so the ball is certainly in their court."
The Egyptian diplomat who is involved in the efforts to bring about the ceasefire said that Egyptian intelligence has been talking with Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's diplomatic-security bureau since Sunday, as well as with different Palestinian factions, with an emphasis on Hamas.It is coming down to a matter of "who will blink first" in the fight between Israel and the Palestinian factions. The Israelis have vowed to strike continue to strike as long as the militants continue to fire into Israel or plan Terror strikes into Israel. Even the Israeli politicians outside of Likud are supporting this current round of strikes.
Labor faction chairman Isaac Herzog on Monday also expressed support for the decision to assassinate Zuhir al-Qaisi, the Popular Resistance Committee leader, on Friday, which ignited the current flare-up. "We hope that the current round of violence will end soon," he added.
Netanyahu expressed similar sentiments on Sunday at a meeting with the heads of local authorities in Ashdod. "I came to identify with the residents and with you, and to express my deep appreciation for the IDF and the Shin Bet," Netanyahu said.Both the U.S. and the U.N. have expressed concern regarding the state of fighting in Gaza:
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also condemned rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip into southern Israel and called on all sides to try to restore calm (vb1 emphasis).
"Let me also condemn in the strongest terms the rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel, which continued over the weekend," Clinton said during an appearance on Monday before the UN Security Council. "We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these attacks. We call on both sides - all sides - to make every effort to restore calm," Clinton said.
Let us all hope that cooler heads will prevail and the Rocket Fire and Air Strikes can come to a screeching halt.
I too hope that this latest round of violence will quickly come to an end. The people of southern Israel should not be forced to live in bomb shelters and the people of Gaza deserve better than the terrorists that use them as human shields. This being said, I think it is impossible to argue with the fact that the world is a better place without the terrorists the Israelis have knocked off during this campaign.
ReplyDeleteNo argument from me there Reuven.
DeleteAnd Secretary Clinton calls it just right in making sure that we see the attacks from Gaza for what they are. The Paulites and their allies are going nuts because the Administration called them out.
Notice how team a'dalah ("just us") gets bent out of shape because Secretary Clinton criticized Syria and the palestinian terrorists, but not Israel?
DeleteOf course it is another example of their profound hypocrisy, since team just us hasn't said two words in condemnation of syria.
Well, Paul, we know that they favor piece in the Middle East — they want to chop Israel to pieces.
DeleteI'm sure they're working on their Syria manifesto, Paul. They just need more time. Then after that they'll get to Hamza Kashgari and the beheaded accused 'witch' in Saudi Arabia and the teens murdered by stoning in Iraq due to the style of their haircuts and the ruling in Egypt (hey, an angry little squirrelly fella pretends to care about that place - I'm sure he's right on that!) yesterday and etc etc etc...
DeleteAny second now. Checking watch...
It is, once again, quite sad to see purported progressives come out as terrorist apologists denying Israel, alone among the nations of the world, the right to defend herself. That is nothing more than antisemitism and those that advocate as such are nothing more than antisemites. I will say, however, that this is the benefit of having our own little corner of the web. This piece has been posted at two places. Here, where we have our own little corner of the web we do not have to tolerate any apologias for terrorists. Unfortunately, at the other place this piece was posted, we see rampant apologias for terrorists and denying Israel the right to defend herself.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the calamities that have befallen our people, no matter where we have been forced by the winds of exile, it only reaffirms my belief that a Jewish state is absolutely necessary. Never again will our fate be left in the hands of gentiles. It is in our hands and that is where it shall remain. The shtetl went through the smokestacks of history. Today we are a free, strong, proud and independent people. And when those who try to rob us of this are defeated they too will become part of the butt of the joke about our holidays: They tried to kill us. They failed. Let's eat!
Fuck yeah! :-D
DeleteHypocrisy and propaganda. That's about it. Oh. And maintaining a focus on Israel and Jews to the exclusion of all else. There's a word for that.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, at this site, we are allowed to call it what it is — antisemitism — and we are allowed to call those that traffic in it what they are — antisemites.
ReplyDeleteOf course they are. And I even said it there, too, if you recall. Heh.
ReplyDeleteBut I was thinking more along the lines of, since we have folks like The Count stopping by today (though I highly doubt it's their first time - hi, everybody!) that old joke. 'How do you keep a moron in suspense,' and all that. Let them try to figure out what it is... ;)
You can't bomb somebody and then be pissed when they bomb you back.
ReplyDeleteVolleyboy wrote that Israel "struck the leadership of the PRC in a targeted Air Strike and killed their Secretary General Zuhair al-Qissi. The IAF followed that up with a focused strike that killed a Rocket Team preparing to bombard Southern Israel."
To do that and not expect retaliation or be upset when retaliation occurs is just stupid. You can say whatever you want about "targeted" or "oh, but they kill *civilians*!" but the bottom line is that Israel decided to preemptively bomb people to address what they say was a threat. that type of decision carries consequences. I feel sorry for the people of Israel; they have elected complete scum for leaders and those leaders continue to make woeful decisions.
Josef... I have to disagree with you here.
ReplyDeleteI did indeed indicate that Israel struck first (I also mentioned pre-emptively), and that indeed does carry consequences. However, people have every right to "be pissed" at the nature of the "consequences". The Israelis hit a legitimate military target. The P.I.J. Rocketeers went after Israeli Cities and civilian targets.
It's not a matter of not expecting retaliation. It's the issue that while a military target was hit - the expectation should be that there would be retaliation against a military target NOT against civilian targets.
I hope that clears things up for you.