The IAF on Thursday bombed a building in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, reportedly killing seven people, including senior Hamas leader and cleric Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, and injuring thirty others. Army Radio reported that according to Palestinian sources, his family was warned before the attack but did not leave the building.
Earlier, the IAF launched a quick-fire response shortly after a Grad-type missile slammed into the top floor of an Ashdod building. The army said that the air force struck both the Gaza terror cell that launched the projectile and the launching device. Several Hamas homes which were used to store weapons were also bombed in the afternoon air raid.
Since Thursday morning, the IAF struck over 20 targets, including rocket launching sites in northern Gaza, as well as tunnels and a car in the southern Gaza Strip, killing several Hamas operatives. In addition, the IAF bombed the homes of three senior Gaza terrorists.
One of the homes belonged to Mohammad Baroud, a top Popular Resistance Committees operative. The army said that Baroud was the head of all rocket cells in northern Gaza and that he was funded and supported by Hamas. The army said that there were anti-tank missiles, rockets and bombs in the home.
Another of the homes destroyed belonged to Hasim Drili, a northern Gaza Hamas operative. The army said that he had a manufacturing plant in his home for rockets, mortar shells and missiles.
The third home belonged to Tafik Abu Raf, a Hamas terror operative in the central Gaza Strip. The IDF said that he had a weapons laboratory in his house.
Not including Thursday's strikes, IAF warplanes have carried out some 500 sorties against Hamas targets, and helicopters have flown hundreds more combat missions in five days of raids, a senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
More than 400 Gazans have been killed and more than 1,600 have been wounded since the start of the Gaza operation, Gaza health officials said. The UN said the Gaza death toll includes more than 60 civilians.
Meanwhile, IDF Infantry, Engineering Corps and Artillery Corps troops, as well as thousands of reserve soldiers, were awaiting an order to cross into the Strip in the event of a ground operation. The IDF said the imminent military action would be limited, but that it would involve a large number of ground forces, Israel Radio reported.
Military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said preparations for a ground operation were complete. "The infantry, the artillery and other forces are ready. They're around the Gaza Strip, waiting for any calls to go inside," Leibovich said.
Also Thursday, government officials said that Israel was demanding international monitors as a key term of any future truce with Gaza factions. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who rebuffed a French proposal for a two-day timeout, won't agree to a truce unless international monitors take responsibility for enforcing it, the officials said. Something like UNIFIL, Ehud?
He had made this point in talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leaders who are pressing for an end to the violence, they added. The idea was floated before the offensive but did not gain traction because of the complications created by the existence of rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza, defense officials said.
This article starring:
Popular Resistance Committees
Hasim Drili
Hamas
Military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich
Mohammad Baroud
Hamas
Sheikh Nizar Rayyan
Hamas
Tafik Abu Raf
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 10:27 ||
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Link ||
[10 views]
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#1
In other words:
To the World: Put your bodies where your mouths are, or shut up.
Most sincerely yours,
Ehud Olmert,
democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel
on the other hand, the fact that any liberal has figured it out is a positive sign
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:28 Comments ||
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#6
Olmert talked big last time, too. Ended up doing the same thing they always do. Drop some bombs and arty and called it a day. I'll be impressed when I see something intended to have long term effects.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/01/2009 15:43 Comments ||
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#7
IAF just knocked off another mosque that was being used for weapons storage and the like. This is the third or fourth mosque so destroyed.
The IDF had expected Hamas to be able to launch 200 or so rockets/day but the actual is averaging about 60-70 or so even with the cloudy weather which helps Hamas. Maybe they are saving their best shot to coincide with a ground invasion.
Stepping up the rhetoric in what has escalated into an all-out verbal war between Hamas and Egypt over the Gaza government's perceived responsibility for the devastating results of Operation Cast Lead, a senior Egyptian parliamentarian on Thursday accused Hamas leaders of abandoning the Palestinians of Gaza to their fate.
"Where are the Hamas leaders now, when the residents of Gaza are getting killed? All of Hamas's leadership is in bunkers"
"Where are the Hamas leaders now, when the residents of Gaza are getting killed? All of Hamas's leadership is in bunkers," Muhammad Bassiouny, the head of the parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, charged in an interview with an Egyptian television channel.
Egyptian security forces were in pursuit of a Hamas terror cell that had recently infiltrated Egypt
Hamas leaders have largely gone underground since the IAF began its extensive bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and on Wednesday, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin said that many members of the organization's leadership echelon were hiding out in mosques and hospitals, some of them disguised as doctors and male nurses.
In a televised address to the Palestinian public on Wednesday evening - the first such appearance since violence flared six days ago - Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh derived confidence from his conviction that "the Arab people have proven the Palestinian issue is in their hearts."
Bassiouny, a former ambassador to Israel, scoffed at Haniyeh's faith in the Arab world's support, saying, "No one cares if all of the Palestinians are destroyed; what kind of talk is this?"
Bassiouny was also highly critical of Hamas for killing an Egyptian border guard on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported Thursday that Egyptian security forces were in pursuit of a Hamas terror cell that had recently infiltrated Egypt - for fear of a terror attack on Egyptian soil. According to the report, Egyptian authorities were also concerned over the possibility that the cell would try to target security forces along the Gaza border.
The paper reported that Egyptian forces had arrested 59 Palestinians in the city of Al Qantarah El Sharqiyya in the northeast of the country. The fugitives from Gaza were unarmed, the report said, but authorities were nevertheless taking steps to return them to the Strip.
#1
Bassiouny, a former ambassador to Israel, scoffed at Haniyeh's faith in the Arab world's support, saying, "No one cares if all of the Palestinians are destroyed; what kind of talk is this?"
Heh. The Paleos don't realize they are the turd in the punchbowl now.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 10:12 Comments ||
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#2
Hamas abandoning Gazans
Since when were Gazans anything but a tool and a means to an end for Hamas?
#3
Bassiouny, a former ambassador to Israel, scoffed at Haniyeh's faith in the Arab world's support, saying, "No one cares if all of the Palestinians are destroyed; what kind of talk is this?"
Finally, an Arab that will admit the truth - the Palestinians are only pawns in a game of "gotcha". This should be broadcast around the world.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 13:37 Comments ||
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#4
This article backs up the point that I was trying to make yesterday. The exiled Hamas leadership needs Jihadi's and the Gazans need food, clothing, jobs, etc...marriage of necessity. The commonality being, they all want to kill Jews.
Now, they are off to divorce court. Too late, "Divorce not Approved", by the IDF.
Sheikh Nizar Ryyan, a senior Hamas leader and cleric was killed along with several others when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on his Jabalya home, Palestinian sources reported Thursday. We're running out of white raisins.
#1
gee. That's too bad for Hamas. But I keep logging on to see if the ground invasion has begun yet. I thought they would do it on New Years day when a good percentage of the world would not be paying attention. I thought they were really serious this time. Maybe I was wrong.
#2
You are probably right. They are like a tough woman in a down and dirty biker bar. Maybe it is best for them to not to pick a fight. But they can't leave and they can't stay. There are just no good options available. At least none that I can see.
#3
Not that I give a crap. But there seem to be some confusion concerning the correct spelling of his last name. Jpost and AP is spelling it as, Ryyan and CNN is spelling it as, Rayan.
Again, I don't give a crap. I would like a clarification for research purposes. Nizar Rayan is not listed as a "cleric" also, Rayan has the surname, Dr. (MD or PhD.)
#4
Israel assassinated a Hamas strongman Thursday in its first assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion.
The airstrike targeted the eight-story apartment building that was home to Nizar Rayan, 52, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers in Gaza. The attack killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children, Palestinian health officials said. The Muslim faith allows men to have up to four wives.
In launching the campaign on Saturday, Israel made it clear that no one in Hamas was immune and Thursday's strike drove that point home. The airstrike blew a huge hole in the side of the building where Rayan lived and sent a thick plume of smoke into the air.
Hamas leaders went into hiding before Israel launched its operation, but Rayan was known for openly defying Israel.
Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 10:19 Comments ||
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#5
"but Rayan was known for openly defying Israel"
Now he can be known for openly being dead.
Enjoy eternity in HELL, asshole.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 10:58 Comments ||
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#6
Remeber that Arabic is written in a different alphabet, Poison Reverse, and the names are being transliterated, based on what the writer is capable of hearing. I'm afraid there will never be perfect consensus on the proper spelling of such names. For that matter, think of the variation in spelling of Slavic names as ambitious but illiterate peasants emigrated to the U.S. Looking randomly in the Cincinnati telephone book, a city full of German rather than Slavic names, I find quite a few variations on a single name (Novak, Nowak, Novick, Nowacki, etc.), and the Poles use the Latin alphabet, not Cyrillic.
Security officials said that Rayyan was not only the religious leader of Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, but also one of their military commanders. He was often seen in uniform, and participated in military exercises. He was considered one of the most fanatical Hamas commanders, and was said to be close to Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh, who was killed by the IAF in 2002.
He was both the director and the financier of the 2004 terrorist attack at Ashdod's port which killed ten Israelis.
In October 2001, he sent his son to perpetrate a suicide attack in the Gush Katif settlement Elei Sinai, in which two young Israelis were killed.
Channel 10 reported that Rayyan had replaced Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as the organization's top clerical authority after Yassin's assassination in 2004.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 11:23 Comments ||
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#8
"In October 2001, he sent his son to perpetrate a suicide attack in the Gush Katif settlement Elei Sinai, in which two young Israelis were killed."
Way to go, Daddy. That'll show those Jooooooos.
Luckily, now you'll have eternity to sit in by the fire and explain to your son what a failure he was for killing only two Jooooooo.
Aren't family reunions heartwarming? *sniff*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 11:31 Comments ||
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#9
From Timesonline Mr Rayyan, a 52-year-old lecturer at Gazas Islamist University who was rated by some amongst Hamas's top decision makers, had mentored suicide bombers and would sometimes go on patrol with Hamas fighters.
#11
On eve of his death, Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted victory
THE day before a powerful blast sent his headless body flying out of his Gaza home, senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted that the Islamist movement would defeat Israel.
"God willing, Hamas will win," Rayan said in a vitriol-laden speech that the movement's television broadcast just after he, his four wives and two of his daughters were killed in the Israeli blitz of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Rayan, who was 51, is the most senior Hamas leader killed since Israel unleashed its massive bombardment on Saturday in response to persistent rocket fire from the enclave.
Israeli F-16 jets fired two missiles at Rayan's five-storey house in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The powerful explosion hurled his decapitated body out into the street, according to witnesses.
"It was like an earthquake," a neighbour said of the massive blast.
A dozen neighbouring houses were destroyed or damaged in the explosion which killed 12 people in all and brought to 414 the death toll since "Operation Cast Lead" started.
The Israeli air force said the secondary blasts demonstrated the house was used for weapons storage, and claimed it was also a communication centre. "In addition, a tunnel was located under the house and was used for the escape of terror operatives," it said.
In the minutes following the strike, dozens of people rushed to the scene, pulling bodies from the rubble including those of the two girls, aged seven and 10.
A neighbour, Mohammed Al-Madhun, 75, watched flames emerging from his building but refused the leave.
"I want to die like Sheikh Nizar," he said, referring to the bearded Hamas commander's honorary title.
Rayan was a hardliner within the Islamist movement.
A few months after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Rayan vowed at a Gaza City rally that the Islamists would also seize control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank which is administered by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
#13
Rayan's five-storey house in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza
The guy had a five-storey house in a refugee camp? Was it one storey for each of his four wives and then a ground floor for communal gatherings? Or one storey for himself where he could get away from all the nagging?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/01/2009 13:01 Comments ||
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#14
Gateway has an update that sez all four naggers bought the farm with the headless Hamas Hamster
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 13:03 Comments ||
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#17
THE day before a powerful blast sent his headless body flying out of his Gaza home, senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted that the Islamist movement would defeat Israel.
#18
Was it one storey for each of his four wives and then a ground floor for communal gatherings? Or one storey for himself where he could get away from all the nagging?
I doubt the wives of a hardcore Islamicist were free to nag. This was a guy who sent his son to suicide - you can be pretty sure he didn't hesitate to beat the women he married.
1st floor for the wives
2nd floor for young boys
3rd floor for goats
4th floor for sheep
5th floor for watching paleo rockets outbound as aphrodesiac prelude for the other floors and occasional gun seks
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:11 Comments ||
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#20
Here is a compilation of interview blurbs from Bloomberg.
My favorite is, :
"...Abusada [a prof at Alazur U in Gaza which is loosely affiliated with Fatah] said Hamas had to bear some responsibility for the situation in Gaza because it had refused to renew the cease-fire with Israel and had boycotted national unity talks with Abbas. Even though there is some criticism of Hamas, you wont hear it now, he said. People feel this is not the time to criticize Hamas. Not when they are facing aggression from an enemy."
#21
GEO TV pakiwikiland says:
GAZA CITY: Senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan was killed on Thursday with his four wives and 10 of his children in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, medics and witnesses said.
and 2 other people
#22
"God willing, Hamas will win," Rayan said in a vitriol-laden speech that the movement's television broadcast just after he, his four wives and two of his daughters were killed in the Israeli blitz of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
#23
Translation error? - he actually said "Allah", and God didn't understand?
/discuss amongst yourselves, quiz in 1 hour
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 20:19 Comments ||
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#24
Frank,
There is absolutely no error. The Hindu's are also known making similar statements. For example, if a family member of a Hindu family is sick, the quote "if it is the will of God, he or she will live but, if he or she dies, God is not God or God doesn't understand," is stated.
My understanding is that all religions quote "if is the the will of God then..." but, Christians refrain from quoting "God is not God or God doesn't understand" when the Christian doesn't get his or her way with God/Jesus.
Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.
On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.
Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad. Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.
While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism. The source of Teheran's sense of ascendancy this week was Britain's Channel 4 network's decision to request that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad give a special Christmas Day address to the British people. Ahmadinejad's speech was supposed to be a response to Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas Day address to her subjects. That is, Channel 4 presented his message as a reasonable counterpoint to the Christmas greetings of the head of the Church of England.
Channel 4 justified its move by proclaiming that it was providing a public service. As a spokesman told The Jerusalem Post, "We're offering [Ahmadinejad] the chance to speak for himself, which people in the West don't often get the chance to see."
While that sounds reasonable, the fact is that Westerners see Ahmadinejad speaking for himself all the time. They saw him at the UN two years in a row as he called for the countries of the world to submit to Islam; claimed that Iran's nuclear weapons program is divinely inspired; and castigated Jews as subhuman menaces to humanity. Balance at the link.
#1
You know what amazes me most about the world today is the lack of outrage by those who claim to be civilized, such as the European "elites" and "liberals" or the common NPR educated masses. They seem to have come to the point where they think it is okay for terrorist organizations to convince women to strap on bombs and blow themselves to a fine pink mist while taking as many other women and children with them as they can.
How does one get to the point where they can justify this in their mind? Any elites or liberals out there that would like to explain it to me?
#4
Shallet, the predominant emotion of the NPR audience is guilt: guilt for being white, guilt for being 'first-world', guilt for being relatively well-off. But why suffer for the guilt themselves when they can have the Israelis stand in for the West. This also involves insideous racism against the side identified as more third-world or darker in color because it doesn't hold them to any moral standards; any action is excusable. In the case of the Europeans an additional factor is involved: economics. Better to sell your Nokia cell phones to a market of over a billion Moslem than to a few million Israeli Jews.
#5
I came to know that Muslims hate pigs and lizards. They like spiders. Christens hate Jews because of a two thousand years old lies. Could any one tell me why Muslims hate apes?
#11
I don't think most Christians hate Jews in this day and age. Some, like Aryan Nations, might (but then I wouldn't exactly call them Christians either...).
#12
Bible reading Christians certainly don't hate Jews, their sister faith, as they share a common destiny. Jesus was a Jew, as were all of his original disciples. Rome had Arab collaborators that fostered hostility against the Jews thousands of years ago, even slaughtering a pig on the altar BC, and the conspiratorial lies still remain, mostly in the Roman Church. I would say this deep-seated resentment of apes goes way back. Hiram, King of Tyre, using Phoenician/Philistine laborers, brought apes, timber, the rare gold of Ophir, and other building materials for King Solomon to build the First Temple. Mt. Ophir is on the Malay Peninsula, along with apes, baboons, and Asian Muslims today.
#13
Seems like I hear far more bigotry coming from Jews (and liberals) regarding Evangelical Christians than I have ever heard coming from Christians towards Jews. But then annon just seems to be trolling.
#21
I'm not prejudiced---
I hate everybody, regardless of race, creed, or color.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/01/2009 21:40 Comments ||
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#22
OK, so suppose for arguments sake that Joooos are descended from apes and pigs. It is also known that Mooselimbs descended from basically the same line as the Joooos.
Where does this lead?
Best case (from Muslim perspective): Abraham was a human, and that he somehow ended up marrying something that was a cross between a monkey and a pig, leaving Abraham's preferences in question.
The involvement of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in pushing a cease-fire indicates primarily the deep-seated differences between the Syria-Hamas-Iran axis and the Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Palestinian Authority axis. These two axes that now need an external mediator still cannot agree on Hamas' status.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who earlier this week outlined his plan, is willing to open the Rafah crossing on the condition there is a cease-fire and the crossing is operated by the PA with European observers, according to a 2005 agreement. Mubarak thus seeks to shrink Hamas down to a Palestinian faction that must first make peace with Fatah and the PA.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt seek to prevent Hamas not only setting the cease-fire terms, but gaining the status of a sovereign authority, an almost-government, undermining Mahmoud Abbas' authority and becoming an equal to Israel or any other partner in the cease-fire. Egypt is concerned that a separate cease-fire with Hamas, under Arab and international pressure, could be considered recognition of Gaza's separation from the West Bank, turning the Strip into a Syrian-Iranian satellite on Egypt's border.
In contrast, Syria with Iranian support sees Turkish brokering as a chance to achieve full partnership in the crisis management, and later, as a veto-holder over the rest of the Israel-Palestinian negotiations. So Erdogan's toughest job is to find a common denominator that will satisfy the rival axes and allow an Arab consensus regarding Hamas and Israel. Turkish sources say Erdogan has no plan or organized initiative, and he intends at this stage to hear both sides and locate points of agreement.
Hamas is opposed for the moment to the Egyptian plan that delegitimizes it as a governmental authority, and demands total control of the crossings, a cease-fire contingent on Israel stopping all "acts of aggression" and opening the crossings between Israel and Gaza.
Hamas can already chalk up a few achievements in this conflict. It didn't seek the cease-fire - Egypt, the Arab League, the Palestinian Authority and France are trying to convince it and Israel to accept one. Thus Hamas moves itself and Gaza from a local conflict between Israel and the organization into the international and inter-Arab arenas. Hamas, which has conquered Arab public opinion, has also won the status of a legitimate and critical partner in the dialogue in which the legitimacy of the Israel's attack is crumbling after its rejection of the humanitarian cease-fire.
#1
Hamas, which has conquered Arab public opinion, has also won the status of a legitimate and critical partner in the dialogue in which the legitimacy of the Israel's attack is crumbling after its rejection of the humanitarian cease-fire.
Well Goollly!! It just sounds like it is all so rosey for Hamas. Lucky for them they just got the snot knocked out of them.
I'm sure Erdogan will achieve his "most difficult job" of becoming the leader of the Arab world by finding "a common denominator that will satisfy the rival axes and allow an Arab consensus regarding Hamas and Israel"
Don't worry individual Gazan citizens. Erdogan is coming to your rescue! Though he has "no plan or organized initiative, and he intends at this stage to hear both sides and locate points of agreement" so you can sleep well knowing that Erdogan has (according to this piece of propaganda) assumed command and has his strongly worded statements and lunch menus planned.
#2
Israel should propose that these brave Sunnis send military detachments to occupy Gaza, to insure order and demilitarization, then Israel would not only cease fire, but it would open wide power, water, the flow of non-military goods, etc.
Of course, the Sunnis would be there entirely on a "humanitarian" mission, to insure that the Paleos don't hurt themselves...
#3
That's an old timey negotiating trick from way, way back. Be totally agreeable, but set the terms very carefully.
In this case, the terms sound fine to rational persons, but totally outrageous to Ham-Ass.
(AKI) - Israel is using 'brute force' in its attacks in the Gaza Strip in a bid to change the balance of power in the Middle East, a Lebanese political analyst said on Tuesday. Talal Nizameddin, a political analyst at The American University of Beirut told Adnkronos International (AKI) while Israel is targeting Hamas in Gaza, it also has a broader strategy linked to the 2006 Lebanon War.
"This military operation is intended show that Israel can rely on the military option to achieve its aim, and it wants to show its enemies - and not only the Palestinians - that it can use brute force to change the balance of power in the region," Nizameddin said in a telephone interview from Beirut.
More than 360 people have been killed since Israel began intense air attacks in the Gaza Strip last weekend.
The Israeli Defense Forces said the operations in Gaza were in response to the continued firing of rockets and mortar shells on Israeli territory, and that it intended to destroy the infrastructure of the militant Hamas organisation.
Targets included Hamas training camps, headquarters, large weapons storage facilities, and missile launching pads in the Gaza Strip, it said.
Nizameddin told AKI that the operation could be part of a broader policy targeting Iran, Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah Islamist movement, as well as Hamas. He said the Israeli action in Gaza could be a precursor to a broader military operation, which could include Lebanon.
"There could be a follow up attack on Hezbollah, or Palestinian groups in Lebanon could fire rockets at Israel, who would in turn retaliate," he said.
Nizameddin also said the latest Gaza offensive could further strengthen the Lebanese Shia cleric Hassan Nasrallah and his ally, Iran. On Monday, tens of thousands of people gathered in the south of Beirut to protest against the raids. The rally had been called by Nasrallah a day earlier.
"If Israel succeeds - and it does not look like it will succeed - but if it does succeed, it would greatly weaken Hezbollah and Iran. However, if there is a ceasefire or the war drags on or becomes more protracted, it could greatly strengthen Nasrallah and Iran in the long run," Nizameddin told AKI.
Nizameddin, lecturer and associate dean of student affairs at The American University of Beirut, pointed out that there could be more protests in the Lebanese capital, particularly as people gather for the Shia celebrations of Ashura this week.
"I do not think we have seen the largest protests yet, until after New Year's Day when we may see the closure of universities and daily protests, but it depends on how events unfold in Gaza," Nizameddin said.
Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East expert from the London think-tank Chatham House, warned there would be widespread political repercussions and Israel's action would put more pressure on Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.
"This is discrediting all the moderate forces in the region, and all the allies of the United States because of their inability to stop it and they are seen to be in alliance with this ," Shehadi told Adnkronos International (AKI) from Beirut.
"Killing people for the sake of killing people will not achieve any result. On the contrary it will create more anger and more support for the people they are trying to fight."
"When the battles die down, how will they look? What is the political cost?"
He said the United Nations, the Arab League and the European Union were looking "completely useless" and Israel's military action would boost Iran's clout in the region.
"This is weakening all of Iran's adversaries in the region, the Saudis, the Egyptians," he said.
Both Shehadi and Nizameddin were pessimistic about the prospects for peace particularly since Syria suspended Turkish-mediated peace talks with Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[17 views]
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#1
"Israel using 'brute force' to shift balance of power"
Works for me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 0:55 Comments ||
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#2
When persuasion doesn't work then it's time to try "brute force".
#4
"Killing people for the sake of killing people will not achieve any result. On the contrary it will create more anger and more support for the people they are trying to fight."
Ohkay. So Iz'rl is killing people for the sake of killing people. Not, say, killing specific people who, say, have been involved in activities trying to kill THEM, and preparing for much more of the same.
Guess I misunderstood. Figures - after all, I'm no Middle East expert from Chatham House.
#5
Do Islamofascists understand anything else? They want to dominate the Earth, one way or another, no? Starting with "Juice", i.e. Ain't it better that their gall should be eliminated, rather?
#7
"it will create more anger and more support for the people they are trying to fight."
And doing nothing, sitting there takign a beatring from faily rocket and mortar attack... that builds support for Israel?
No. It does not even make the damned slanted newspapers and TV news here in the USA.
The Press does not cover it, so there is no pressure brought to Hamas and its puppeteers in Iran.
Once again, the failure of the press to publsih ALL the news, and their imposing an ideological slant on things has caused harm to the west by presenting the flase as true, and only one side of things.
Israel is damend if they don;t strike, and damned if they do, in terms of "opinion" liek this idiot spouts.
So they make a decision on what will stop the enemy from killing innocent civilians inside israel.
And that means strikes to destroy the enemy and their capability to continue those strikes.
The Palestenians should be thankful that the Israelis are using precision weapons and specific targeting with their attacks. Were they as random and indiscriminate as the Hamas attacks, far more in Gaza would be dead. And were Hamas not putting missiles in apartment buildings and places like that, far fewer Gaza civilians would be dead.
Put the blame squarely where it deserves to be: Hamas and Iran.
#14
"Brute Force" is flying over Gaza in a dozen B-52s, each dropping 76 500Lb iron bombs, three times a day for a week. Targeted killing involving precision weapons is only "brute force" against those on the receiving end. Of course, an Arab can't understand the difference.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 20:00 Comments ||
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#15
let the Israelis shwo some real brtue force:
Hub to hub 155' HE, followed by side-by-side D9's scraping the debris for a 2Km "dead zone" along the border wiht Israel. Push the Debris up to build a big berm at the border.
Then tell them for every rocket that hits Israel, Gaza loses a grid square to artillery to widen and deepen the zone.
#16
"Of course, an Arab can't understand the difference." - Old patriot.
No, it's an obvious fact(to the whole discerning world) that that's a clear and serious flaw in his psychological make-up. That propensity for one track mind thinking and blame projection on to others. Himself being always righteous without par!
Was it a wonder why Ishmael was likened to a donkey in Genesis?
How about they keep it there and take it off Israel's hands?
Oh, they mean the issue not the gods-forsaken strip of coastal land. Oh well.
Arab governments will take their case for an end to Israel's attacks on Gaza back to the U.N. Security Council, Arab foreign ministers said on Wednesday
After a meeting of Arab ministers in Cairo, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the ministers strongly condemned what they called barbaric Israeli aggression.
"(The ministers) direct an immediate demand that the U.N. Security Council convene and ask it to issue a resolution that binds Israel to immediately stop the aggression," he said, reading from the ministerial statement.
Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo to seek a common position in response to Israel's military attacks, which have killed at least 25 percent of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The U.N. Security Council called on Sunday for an immediate end to all violence in Gaza, where Israeli air raids have killed close to 400 people in the last five days.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Arabs should take the Israeli attacks to the U.N. Security Council, even at a risk that a resolution would face a veto from one of the five permanent members of the council.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo to seek a common position in response to Israel's military attacks, which have killed at least 25 percent of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
If all 400 killed were civilians then at max 1600 people out of a population of 1,500,000 are civilians in Gaza.
At least 25 percent of Palestinians killed during Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip have been civilians, a United Nations agency says. More than 390 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli campaign on Gaza, and some 1,900 others are reported wounded.
According to many Western media outlets, the ongoing strikes, which have now entered their fifth day, are the ugliest massacre Palestine has witnessed in decades.
"A minimum of 25 percent of all those killed are civilians and it may well be far higher," Christopher Gunness, a spoksman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, told AFP on Wednesday.
Israeli officials say the operation is aimed at taking out Hamas compounds throughout the coastal sliver.
In retaliation to the attacks on Gaza, Hamas has launched rocket strikes on Israel. Six Israelis have died since Saturday, while sixteen others have been reported wounded.
The UN figures come as Israel rejected an international proposal for a 48-hour humanitarian aid truce in Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
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#1
"At least 25 percent of Palestinians killed during Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip have been civilians"
So you're saying 75% of paleo "civilians" aren't stupid to live next to a rocket launcher or a mosque munitions dump?
Who knew?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 0:48 Comments ||
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#2
"Hamas has continues launched launching rocket strikes on Israel"
#4
It took less than a week for history to be rivised. Already the Hamas rockets are retaliation for Israeli attacks.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/01/2009 2:15 Comments ||
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#5
Pfft. Nobody needs to hear from the UN's refugee-farmers. Those fuckers are the primary agents in creation of the cultural monster which is Palestinian nihilism. The whole UN refugee apparatus ought to be defunded & every single employee ought to be out on the street this morning with tin-cups and "will poison minds and condescend to indigenous peoples for food" placards.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/01/2009 9:23 Comments ||
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#6
Those fuckers are the primary agents in creation of the cultural monster which is Palestinian nihilism.
I thought Islam was the primary agent, but I might be quibbling.
#8
Don't forget that according to the U.N. there are no 'terrorists' in the world (they haven't defined what terrorism is yet) so what we would call a terrorist - they call a 'civilian'.
#10
So what would a good figure be? Does the UN want 99% or something? I say 75% is amazing and it shows the determination of Israel to try to target terrorists as best they can even though the terrorists do their best to hide behind women and children. And men.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa called on Wednesday for an immediate meeting of rival Palestinian factions, at the opening of an emergency session on how to deal with Israel's Gaza onslaught. "We call on our Palestinian brothers to hold an immediate reconciliation meeting," Moussa told foreign ministers from the 22-member.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Hamas rockets have struck the large southern cities of Be'er Sheva and Ashdod, home of Israel's largest port, for the first time since the militant group broke its cease-fire with Israel on Dec. 19.
A former U.S. intelligence official said Hamas is now using Iranian versions of the Katyusha and Grad rockets with a range of 18.6 to 21.7 miles (30 to 35 kilometers). The new rockets dramatically extend Hamas' reach. Hamas had relied heavily on the shorter-range homemade Qassams that fly only up to 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), the former official said.
The rockets do not have guidance systems so they are indiscriminate in targeting. But that makes them well suited for a barrage on a town or a dispersed battlefield of soldiers, particularly if fired in great numbers.
"Hamas has definitely learned from Hezbollah," the former official said.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe on Wednesday told reporters in Crawford, Texas, that there is no doubt both Iran and Syria are supplying Hamas with weapons. Iran has long been suspected of providing financial support to the militant Palestinian group. The U.S. counterterrorism official, however, said that many Hamas' rockets are cobbled together in a rudimentary way by militants in Gaza from parts smuggled into the region. The official declined to discuss numbers.
In the month-long 2006 conflict with Israeli, Lebanese Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 missiles into Israel, about a third of its missiles stores at the time. Most were Katyusha-type rockets, which are quick to set up and have ranges of about 12 miles.
The Israeli government said in 2006 that Hezbollah also wielded Iranian-made missiles with ranges of up to 50 miles (80 kilometers). Hamas does not appear to have used those longer-range tactical missiles, the former intelligence official said.
Four Israelis have been killed by Hamas' rocket fire in recent days, including three civilians, since the cease-fire broke on Dec. 19.
Gaza officials say Israel's retaliatory airstrikes have killed about 390 and wounded about 1,600. Hamas says some 200 uniformed members of Hamas security forces have been killed. The UN says at least 60 Palestinian civilians have died.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
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#3
Where will Iran get the money to fund Hamas and it's other pet projects in the coming year? It seems like there will have to budget cuts in the terrorist groups.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
01/01/2009 12:04 Comments ||
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#4
Where will Iran get the money to fund Hamas and it's other pet projects in the coming year?
China, in exchange for very advantageous terms in future oil contracts.
Russia, because the US and Europe have an interest in the region.
#5
If you've always wondered why all the Chinese stuff out there is cheaper than everything else, part of the reason is they're not paying as much for feedstocks as the rest of you.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on a tour of rocket-battered Be'er Sheva Wednesday, said Israel will not allow Hamas "thugs" to rule in the Middle East. "We have made a change in the equation, gone are the days in which Hamas fired at us and we kept quiet," Livni said. "They erred in thinking that when Israel restrained itself, it would not respond."
Livni said Israel cares about its citizens while at the same time Hamas does not care about its own. "They use women and children in order to defend terrorists. We will not allow these thugs to rule in the Middle East," she said.
Earlier, President Shimon Peres visited Ashkelon as Qassam rockets pounded the southern city, and vowed that "the IDF is ready for any scenario."
During his tour, Peres met with Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin and officers from the Home Front Command, and was given an assessment of the security situation in the city. Peres also visited the city's Barzilai Hospital, where he met with Bedouin laborers wounded by a Qassam strike on Monday that killed 27-year-old Israeli construction worker Hani al Mahdi, from the Bedouin village of Aroer.
Peres refused to elaborate on how long he thinks the IDF operation will last, but did say that "our army shows sensitivity and doesn't hurt civilians as much as possible, even though the terrorists hiding in family homes."
Peres added "this is not a war that we started; it is a provocation that had carried on for months. We left Gaza and we have no interest there."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
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#2
Let's loan them a dozen B-52s, weapons and crews. Take off from Ben Gurion Airfield, fly over Gaza, come back - 30-minute actual mission time, an hour to form up. Make six trips a day. By the end of the second day, allow the Israeli 2nd Squeegie Brigade in to mop up.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 14:53 Comments ||
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#3
Canada's National Post gets it. Too bad the New York Slimes or Washington Post-intelligence can't.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 14:57 Comments ||
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#4
good link, OP - they DO get it
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 15:08 Comments ||
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#5
the comments (from OP's link) make we want to puke but the actual article itself is spot on
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:35 Comments ||
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#6
"Peres added "this is not a war that we started; it is a provocation that had carried on for months. We left Gaza and we have no interest there."
Peres,
How's that capitulation Land for Peace lab experiment working out? After giving into the terrorists demands, by leaving Gaza, why is it that the media have all but forgotten about the past extreme generosity of the Labor Party, during this IDF operation? Also, at what point did you realize that by leaving Gaza, you automatically extended the rocket range of Hamas?
Multiple paragraphs please. Pencils down in 90 min.
Also on WMF > OBAMA's DANGEROUS GAME: SMASH RUSSIA AND CHINA! Webster G. Tarpley's book "THE MEN BEHIND OBAMA" claims that Zbigniew Brzezinski is PEBO's true overall political advisor, and that once in power Obama's new POTUS Admin will likely come out in suppor of "Ziggy's" great pro-Neocon geostrategic agenda to PDeniably but globally expand WAR-OPS [vee GWOT = "ANTI-TERRORISM"] agz a host of international countries, wid INTENT TO ULTIMATELY DESTABILIZE IFF NOT UTTERLY DESTROY RUSSIA AND CHINA, ETC. AS CHALLENGERS TO US-CENTRIC WORLD DOMINATION [USOWG-NWO!?
* OTOH, PRAVDA > US PREPARES TO IMMORTALIZE ITS HUGE DEBT [new 100-Year Bonds].; + WORLD MIL FORUM POSTERS > IT WILL TAKE THE US MANY GENERATIONS, NEARLY 200 YEARS TO PAY OFF ITS CURRENT GROSS WORLD DEBTS EVEN IFF THE US PAYS US$700BILYUHN IN BAILOUT EVERY YEAR FOR 200 YEARS!
D *** NG IT, SILLY MORIARITY THOUGHT 30-YEAR US TREASURY BORROW BONDS WERE "IT" - we missed "THE IMPOSSIBLES" animated movie on Disney Channel again, didn't we!?
#10
Brzezinski is not high on most people's list of suspected neocons. Quite the opposite - he's the very model of a modern geo-realist. Where did that author come up with such an idea?
"The Israelis claim they have learned the lessons of the Second Lebanon War, but they haven't," Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday night. In a televised speech, Nasrallah said that Israel had not set a clear target for the current Gaza operation, asserting that the IDF wasn't sure it would achieve anything and that the military action in the Strip would end in failure.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
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#1
He's right. They haven't learned lessons of second Lebanon war. They went back and learned lessons from wars that they won.
#2
Actually, I don't see this current endeavor as accomplishing much. The Israelis are obsessed with keeping a nonsensical status quo, and absolutely refuse to do anything that would eventually lead to a forced resolution.
It is like a great big prisoner sharing a prison cell with a small, insane psychopath prisoner, who constantly attacks the big guy in annoying ways until the big guy loses his temper and punches the small guy once.
Then the small guy gets up, dusts himself off, and starts attacking again. Eventually, the little guy is going to come up with some way of injuring the big guy, but the big guy just can't bring himself to throw the little guy out of the cell entirely.
#3
You are probably right. I was hopeful they might be serious this time. But as no ground invasion begun yet, it looks like just another round of the same ol' abusive and dysfuntional relationship. The have a knock-down fight. The neighbors call the police who will drive by and tell them to keep it down. Another year will go by.
#7
WAFF.com/TOPIX > VARIOUS ISLAMIST WEBSITES [Forums] CALL FOR ATTACKS AGZ AMERICAN, ISRAELI WORLDWIDE INTERESTS.
E.g. Sub-Article > SOMALI JIHAD FIGHTER - WE WILL ESTABLISH/SET UP ISLAMIC RULE FROM ALASKA + CHINA, TO SOUTH AMERICA, JAPAN, RUSSIA, + INDIA.... WE ARE COMING!; + WAS IRAN PROPHECIED TO RULE THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MUHAMMED AND QURAN!?
The UN Coordinator on Humanitarian Access to Gaza on Wednesday called for the immediate opening of the Karni crossing, in order to transfer humanitarian supplies to Palestinians.
"Without the violence stopping, it is extremely difficult to get food to people who need it, we cannot assess where the most urgent needs are, and it is too dangerous for civilians to leave their homes to seek urgent medical treatment, buy supplies and assist people in distress," Maxwell Gaylard said in a statement.
"We desperately need Karni to open, today, to get wheat grain in. UNRWA has no wheat grain for the 750,000 people who need it," he added.
The statement went on to stress that Gazan hospitals were without power, and that fuel was needed to reopen the main power plant.
"[Israeli authorities] are offering their cooperation and we are offering ours. They have been responsive to specific requests, which we appreciate. But the gravity of the situation now demands more," said Gaylard.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[16 views]
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#1
Hamas must be running low on humanitarian rockets.
#4
Israel needs to "miss" once or twice, and hit the UN "by accident". It would make the entire job a lot easier.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 14:55 Comments ||
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#5
Japan: 1945. "Hey, where's our food and oil, Yankee dogs? We're hungry and cold."
It used to be that this was the point of the exercise. How long do you think Hamas would last if wars were fought like they used to be?
#7
tu3031, actually, at the end of WWII, Japan was on the verge of starvation. (If we hadn't bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the next targets would have been the railroads between the rice paddies and the cities, which would have caused real starvation.)
General MacArthur requested and got food for the Japanese. When he was asked why we didn't just let the Japanese starve, he replied "We're better than that".
On the other hand, Japan had surrendered, and ceased hostilities.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/01/2009 21:33 Comments ||
Top||
Ma'an - Vice President of the European Parliament Luisa Morgantini went to Hebron on Wednesday with a delegation of Europeans to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack.
The delegation was received by Hebron mayor Khalid Al-Useili and other members of the city's municipal council.
The delegation was given an update on the situation in Hebron in light of the recent settler attacks against Palestinian homes following the eviction of right wing settlers from the Rajabi home. He called the actions in Hebron a "prelude to the bloodshed by an Israeli war machine which targets residential buildings, mosques, hospitals and schools paying no attention to international conventions and laws."
Al-Useili asked members of the delegation to exert pressure on their home governments and on the European Union to stop Israeli aggression both in Hebron and in the Gaza Strip.
He also called on France, the current president of the European Union to place more pressure on Israel, as well as the UN Security Council which he suggested pass a binding resolution on the situation in Gaza.
Al-Useli also asked the visiting delegation to support an application by the Hebron municipal council to UNESCO for status as a World Heritage Site. The ancient mosque and old city would thus be preserved and Israel would be prevented from destroying precious landmarks Palestinians consider part of human cultural heritage.
For her part, Morgantini said, "We came to Hebron to show solidarity with the Palestinians as we can feel the tyranny upon them, and we believe they have the right to live in freedom by ending occupation of their lands. We believe they have the right to achieve their national dream and gain their rights in accordance with international conventions. We herby call on the whole world to exert endeavors towards achieving Palestinian freedom and letting the Palestinians live in peace securing normal life for their children as their counterparts in the world."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[10 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
heh. If it weren't so serious it would be funny. The UN will huff and puff and issue a strongly worded statement. The world will consider action taken and move on to more important issues - like how Jen feels about Jlo. The civlized world has asked the UN to take action against terror for years. The terrorists have always ignored the UN. Now that they call on the UN, they should not be surprised that the civlized countries put as much stock in the UN as they do.
Ma'an -- Gaza's Hospitals are the source of the latest dead as yesterday's wounded head to overcrowded morgues and medical supplies dwindle. Medical sources put the number of dead at 398.
Among those who succumbed to their wounds on Wednesday were:
*Mahmoud Abu Nahl, who died in an Egyptian hospital
*Ismail Hamdan, a 10-year-old boy who was hit with a missile Tuesday along with his two sisters
*Paramedics Eyhab Al-Madhoun and Mahmoud Abu Hasira who were hit while rescuing civilians
Fresh airstrikes bring more dead
After a several-hour noontime lull Israel resumed airstrikes in the Gaza Strip Wednesday afternoon. The lull coaxed many families out of their homes to inspect damage, find family or replenish food reserves. By four o'clock however, Israeli strikes resumed and targeted a donkey-cart in Bani Suhayla Square in Khan Younis, killing two and injuring several others.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[19 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
No mention that most targets were Hamas ordinance or launchers.
"targeted a donkey-cart in Bani Suhayla Square" No mention of the contents of the cart.
Fred's not shy about scouting sources (Iran, Gaza, ect.) so we get an idea of the propaganda these folks live with. It's no wonder their heads are warped.
#2
I noted the scrupulous use of the word "projectile" to describe missile and rocket launches by Gazans against Israel. Their use of language is positively Orwellian. Projectile = rock?
#3
By four o'clock however, Israeli strikes resumed and targeted a donkey-cart in Bani Suhayla Square in Khan Younis, killing two and injuring several others.
Two Palis or two donkeys? Dare we hope that some ISM jackasses were included?
#5
Have the Paleostain rockets EVER hit a Soldier or Military Installation? I can't remember a single one.
Therefore they all hit civilians.
But nobody seems to care about that.
An IAF helicopter on Wednesday afternoon carried out a targeted strike in Rafah, Channel 2 reported. There was no initial word as to who was targeted in the strike.
Earlier, a senior Islamic Jihad rocket-maker and dispatcher of rocket-firing squads was killed in a targeted killing in Khan Yunis.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[12 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad
Only if Israel stops its aggression unconditionally, lifts the blockade and opens the Gaza crossings will Hamas agree to "talk about all issues - and seriously," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday night, at the end of the fifth day of the IDF's Operation Cast Lead. In a televised address, the Hamas prime minister added that only after these conditions have been met, will an internal Palestinian dialogue be launched.
Haniyeh turned to Palestinians in Gaza. "The situation in Gaza before the war will be different from after the war," he assured them. "This is a war that divides two eras and, with God's help, victory will be ours, because these people stand firm, the resistance stands firm and because the occupation will fail to achieve anything. "Our blessings are with all those who have fallen in battle, all the casualties and all the operatives on the ground," he said.
On a satisfactory note, Hanieyeh said that the Palestinians were closely following international opinion, particularly in the Arab world. "We get the feeling that Israel is standing against the Arab and Muslim free world that will never accept this crazy war against a people without [proper] arms in such a small area, but [are] a great and strong people nonetheless."
"Gaza is not the only place standing against this aggression," he continued. "That's what they wanted. They sought to isolate it from the Arab world, but this storm among Arab nations has proved that the Strip is not alone and the occupation cannot do this. The Arab people have proved that the Palestinian issue is in their hearts."
Choosing to steer clear of criticizing Egypt for not opening the Rafah border crossing, Haniyeh said that "the occupation alone is responsible for what is going on - for the aggression and the blockade."
Earlier Wednesday night, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in an address broadcast on Palestinian TV that the stalled negotiating process had become useless and was not reaching any of its goals - namely the creation of a Palestinian state. "Negotiation is not a goal by itself; it's a tool," Abbas said. "Unless it is a tool to achieve peace ... there is no need for it to continue."
Turing to Gazans, Abbas said that the Palestinian people were standing firmly with them. He described the IDF operation as a "massacre" directed at the entire Palestinian people and called it "cheap election propaganda." The PA president also appealed to the UNSC to hold an emergency session on the Gaza situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[12 views]
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#1
This is a poor translation.
Allow me to offer a more accurate one:
If the IDF doesn't stop attacking Gaza, we'll keep shooting rockets at Israeli kindergartens.
However, if the IDF does stop attacking Gaza, we'll keep shooting rockets at Israeli kindergartens.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 0:52 Comments ||
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#2
If the IDF doesn't stop attacking Gaza, we'll keep shooting rockets at Israeli kindergartens.
Retranslated: If the IDF doesn't stop attacking Gaza, we won't be able to keep shooting rockets at Israeli kindergartens.
#4
"Gaza is not the only place standing against this aggression," he continued. "That's what they wanted. They sought to isolate it from the Arab world, but this storm among Arab nations has proved that the Strip is not alone and the occupation cannot do this."
What? The Arab League just rejected Hamas' terrorist actions.
"The Arab people have proved that the Palestinian issue is in their hearts."
What? The Egyptian (Arabs) military were shooting at Gazans (Arabs) as they were trying to cross the Egyptian border.
(Xinhua) -- In spite of the whether conditions, Israeli warplanes continued on Wednesday targeting by missiles different targets belongs to Islamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, witnesses said.
Whither the weather ...
They said that Israeli Apache helicopters struck a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, which belongs to an Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement's activists.
Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry told reporters that Ihab el-Madhoun, a Palestinian doctor died of his wounds he sustained on Tuesday. El-Madhoun was critically wounded as he was working with a medical team trying to rescue a number of Palestinian casualties northeast of Gaza City on Tuesday night. The paramedic Mohamed Abu Hasira was killed in the strike.
Meanwhile, Omer Alnasser, head of public relations in the Hamas-ruled ministry of health in Gaza said in a statement that since Saturday, 390 Palestinians were killed and 1900 wounded. "We are about to prepare a list of names of all were killed so far, and an up to date figures will be delivered to the mass media within the coming a few hours," said Alnasser.
The Israeli air fighters supported by the pilotless drones kept hovering over the Gaza Strip, in spite of the raining and cloudy whether, where a house in southern Gaza strip was bombarded, whereone woman was critically wounded. Witnesses said that four more airstrikes were carried out on different targets in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, not far from the border with Egypt, where Israeli artillery and naval gunships shells other targets in the enclave.
Overnight, Israeli airstrikes continued, where more than 40 Israeli airstikes were carried out on different targets in the Gaza Strip, where two Hamas-government's installations were bombarded for the second time.
The building of Hamas cabinet and the building of the former preventive security of president Mahmoud Abbas security forces were leveled to the ground after they were bombarded by Israeli rockets. Israeli warplanes had also launched airstrikes on the borderline between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, saying that the airstrike targeted dozens of underground tunnels under the bordersused for smuggling.
Meanwhile, in spite of the intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for launching more than 40 long-range rockets at Israeli cities. The group said in short statements sent to reporters' cellular phones that the rockets targeted the cities of Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderout and other Jewish communities in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip.
"Our operation called the Oil Spot will continue and rockets' firing on the Zionist enemy cities and towns would be widened to revenge the massive massacres committed against our people," the Hamas armed wing said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[13 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Line up the artillery, and pound away. Walk it right up to the sea and down to the Egyptian border. Nobody's going to complain but the idiots on the far left in the West.
I HOPE there's an ammo ship on its way to Tel Aviv with all the weaponry the Israelis might ever need, including some of the heaviest bunker-busters the IAF can handle. Every member of Hamass needs to die, and quite a few of the other fringe groups. Since the "palestinians" "elected" these a$$holes, may every person over the age of 12 die as accessories before the fact and collaborators. It's time for Gaza to cease being a problem for the Israelis.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 14:15 Comments ||
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#2
[I'm a repetitious random spammer with below-average links]
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday that Israeli attacks on Gaza had to stop before any truce proposals could be considered.
"First, the Zionist aggression must end without any conditions... Second the siege must be lifted and all the crossings must be opened because the siege is the source of all of Gaza's problems," he said in a televised speech to Palestinians. "After that it will be possible to talk on all issues without any exception," Haniyeh said, referring to recent truce proposals raised by all parties, including Israel.
Haniyeh was speaking from an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, which has suffered the deadliest Israeli attacks in the past four decades in which at least 394 Palestinians have been killed.
Haniyeh sounded a defiant tone, saying the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip will win the fight against Israel. "We tell the Palestinian people in Gaza and everywhere that you will win, inevitably," Haniyeh said. "Victory is near, God willing, and it is closer than people think."
In his speech, Haniyeh said: "What is happening in Gaza is not normal aggression. It is a real war, a war without morals, with neither principles nor laws. It is a war of elimination against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."
The head of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, earlier on Wednesday said that Israel is hesitating to launch a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip for fear of failure. According to Nasrallah, a ground operation in Gaza will prove extremely difficult for Israel, because of the one and a half million residents who are "embracing the resistance."
In a televised speech made before an audience of Hezbollah supporters in Beirut, Nasrallah added that Israel hasn't declared specific goals for Operation Cast Lead because it won't be capable of achieving them. "What is happening in Gaza is a victory, despite all the pure blood being spilled," said Nasrallah.
Nasrallah on Sunday said that he had asked his fighters to be on alert for a possible Israeli attack on Lebanon following the raids on Gaza that have killed nearly 400 Palestinians. "What is happening today is a Palestinian copy of the July war," Nasrallah declared, drawing a comparison between the Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip and the 2006 Second Lebanon War, which Hezbollah waged against Israel in southern Lebanon.
This article starring:
Hassan Nasrallah
Ismail Haniyeh
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
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#1
Palestinian Victory?
I do not think those words mean what you think they mean
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 9:32 Comments ||
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#2
The war must not stop until Israel has you, Ismail Haniyeh. Then it will stop, for you. It must go on at least until the February elections, then we will see.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
01/01/2009 11:41 Comments ||
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Hamas vowed on Wednesday to fight "until the last breath" if Israel makes good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza after rejecting calls for a truce and pressing on with its air assault.
They keep promising and promising but they're still breathing.
"We in Hamas are ready for all scenarios and we will fight until the last breath," senior official Mushir al-Masri told AFP as warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth day and the enclave's Islamist rulers hit back with rockets. "Israel will embark on a veritable adventure if it decides to invade Gaza. We have prepared surprises for them," he vowed.
The Israeli security cabinet earlier rejected international proposals for a truce in its offensive on Hamas in Gaza, a senior government official said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after a meeting of his security cabinet that the current conditions were not right for a Gaza ceasefire but he did not rule one out in the future. "If conditions will ripen, and we think there can be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it's not there," Olmert was quoted by an aide as saying.
"The government decided to adopt a success strategy.
Well THAT's a new approach.
The government wants to reach the goals of halting terror from Gaza. Once we reach this goal we will be ready to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire."
Quoting Olmert, he added: "We did not launch the Gaza operation only to end it with the same rocket firing that we had at its start."
Unfortunately, if you end it now it won't be the same rocket firing - it will be the new, more powerful ones from China coming at farthest corners of your country.
Following the Israeli rejection of the truce, Hamas said it was prepared to study proposals for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that would require Israel to halt attacks and lift "entirely" its blockade of the Gaza Strip. "Once we receive a proposal, we will study it," said Hamas official Ayman Taha. "We are for any initiative that will bring an immediate cessation to the aggression and lift the siege entirely."
Protests earlier mushroomed around the globe and world's top diplomats scrambled to find a way to stop one of Israel's deadliest-ever offensives on Gaza that has so far killed at least 390 Palestinians, including 42 children, and wounded more than 2,000 others, according to Gaza medics.
On the ground, Israeli jets continued to hammer Hamas targets throughout Gaza, carrying out more than 35 strikes overnight targeting government offices, weapon storage facilities and contraband tunnels, the army said. The massive Israeli assault has left many Hamas structures and bases in rubble and has killed several senior officials of the Islamist group.
But it has failed to stop the rocket fire. Since late Tuesday, Hamas's armed wing sent five rockets slamming around the desert town of Beersheva some 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the Gaza border the deepest its projectiles have reached into Israel yet. Since the start of the Israeli offensive, Gaza militants have fired more than 250 rockets into Israel, killing three civilians and one soldier and wounding several dozen people.
Hamas has remained defiant in the face of the Israeli onslaught, vowing to reach ever-deeper into Israel with its rockets. The group has also threatened to carry out suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Hamas vowed on Wednesday to fight "until the last breath" if Israel makes good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza after rejecting calls for a truce and pressing on with its air assault.
#2
The government decided to adopt a success strategy.
I'm sure 100 years ago they would have found it odd that such a statement could be written. But here we are in 2009, where it seems odd only that they admit they intend to win.
#3
"Hamas vowed on Wednesday to fight 'until the last breath'"
Your proposal is accepted.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 11:20 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Napalm sucks the air right out of the lungs of such twits. That's what Israel should be using against the Gaza tunnels and any underground "command posts" they can find. Of course, hitting them when they're buried under mosques, girl schools, or hospitals does make it difficult. Israel needs to go into Gaza, shoot everybody that even picks up a small stone to throw, blow up all "underground command posts", level all buildings over two stories in heighth, and lay a minefield a mile deep along the entire INSIDE border of Gaza, and pull out. Use napalm against anyone that tries to clear the mines. Line a double-wire border fence with claymores every five feet. Plant acoustical and motion sensors along the Israeli side of the fence, and use artillery to collapse any tunnel the Gazans may try to dig. FORCE THE REST OF THE WORLD TO SUPPLY GAZA WITH FOOD, WATER, POWER AND WHATEVER ELSE THEY NEED, while cutting off everything that might have come from Israel, or through it, before. The rest of the world will probably get tired of supporting these parisites in a few years, and they'll slowly be drained away. That's Israel's best bet, and they should take it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 15:14 Comments ||
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#5
what... no arclight missions?
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:17 Comments ||
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#8
Wasn't it Sharon who suggested building a canal about 100 feet deep all along the Gaza/Egypt border? It would certainly make tunneling a lot more difficult.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/01/2009 16:55 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Has somebody copywrighted "to the last drop of blood"?
Israeli leaders Wednesday rejected a proposal to pause attacks on the Gaza Strip for 48 hours, declaring that there were no guarantees Hamas fighters would in return stop firing rockets into Israel.
Discussions were continuing in hopes of developing a more durable cease-fire. But after looking at the existing proposal, "we saw that it did not contain the necessary elements to make the truce permanent," said Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "It lacks a plan to enforce the cease-fire, to make sure Hamas won't shoot rockets into Israel anymore, and stop the smuggling of weapons."
"It does not contain any guarantees," he added. "There is nothing in the proposal that if we declare a unilateral cease-fire it will mean anything to Hamas and that it will ensure a durable cease-fire afterwards."
He said meetings among Israeli leaders would continue today. "There is a lot of work that still needs to be done," he said.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said President Bush had spoken this morning to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, who reassured Bush that Israel was targeting Hamas operatives and trying to avoid civilian casualties. When asked whether the two had discussed a specific timetable for seeking a cease-fire, Johndroe said they hadn't discussed anything specific.
"What's more important is the goal. As I said, we all want to see an end to the violence as soon as possible," Johndroe said at a news conference in Crawford, Tex., where Bush is visiting his family ranch. "President Bush wants to see an end to the violence. Prime Minister Olmert wants to see an end to the violence. But I think from the prime minister's perspective, an end to the violence means that Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, and Israel won't have to go after the rocket launchers."
Johndroe reiterated the White House's calls for a "sustainable and durable cease-fire that Hamas respects," and said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "has been working the phones almost nonstop since Saturday," when the Israeli bombing campaign began.
Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip for the fifth day from the air and from the sea, targeting Hamas outposts and the network of tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border used by the militant group to smuggle weapons, the Israeli military said. The strikes rattled buildings in Gaza City, where the targets included an office of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's leader in Gaza. Israel said the office was used for planning attacks against the country.
Hamas continued firing as well. By Wednesday afternoon local time a barrage of more than 20 rockets and mortar shells had struck southern Israel. About 40 rockets hit Israeli territory Tuesday. Five rockets crashed in and around the city of Beersheba, about 25 miles from Gaza, late Tuesday and Wednesday--the farthest strikes by Hamas yet. There were no serious casualties reported Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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The IAF on Thursday bombed a building in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, reportedly killing seven people, including senior Hamas leader and cleric 
Sheikh Nizar Ryyan, a senior Hamas leader and cleric was killed along with several others when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on his Jabalya home, Palestinian sources reported Thursday.
(AKI) - Israel is using 'brute force' in its attacks in the Gaza Strip in a bid to change the balance of power in the Middle East, a Lebanese political analyst said on Tuesday. Talal Nizameddin, a political analyst at The American University of Beirut told Adnkronos International (AKI) while Israel is targeting Hamas in Gaza, it also has a broader strategy linked to the 2006 Lebanon War. 
Arab governments will take their case for an end to Israel's attacks on Gaza back to the U.N. Security Council, Arab foreign ministers said on Wednesday
An IAF helicopter on Wednesday afternoon carried out a targeted strike in Rafah, Channel 2 reported. There was no initial word as to who was targeted in the strike. 
Only if Israel stops its aggression unconditionally, lifts the blockade and opens the Gaza crossings will Hamas agree to "talk about all issues - and seriously," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday night, at the end of the fifth day of the IDF's Operation Cast Lead. In a televised address, the Hamas prime minister added that only after these conditions have been met, will an internal Palestinian dialogue be launched. 
(Xinhua) -- In spite of the whether conditions, Israeli warplanes continued on Wednesday targeting by missiles different targets belongs to Islamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, witnesses said. 
