Iran is asking the International Criminal Court to bring to dock the Israeli leaders for their war crimes in Gaza over the past two years and the crimes against humanity they perpetrated in massive air strikes. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the United Nations court specialized in war crimes to sue the Israeli leaders for their crimes against humanity in Gaza Strip.
Emphasizing the need for an immediate judicial action against the Israeli leaders, President Ahmadinejad that the ICC must send arrest warrants to the Israeli leaders by the Interpol. Those involved by any means in such brutality "should be designated as war criminal and murderer," stressed the president.
The cabinet members have also made major decisions about the crisis in Gaza. The Foreign Ministry will send Iranian request to the United Nations Special Court on War Crimes.
The leading Iranian lawyers will also prepare a law suit against the Israeli leaders in the international court by assistance of the Judiciary.
A special message from President Ahmadinejad will also be sent to heads of other countries in this connection.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters at the end of the cabinet session that special envoys would be introduced within the next 48 hours to submit President Ahmadinejad's messages to the heads of other countries.
Members of the cabinet also decided to allocate part of their salary to the Gazans who are suffering from hard conditions under the Israeli siege.
A Hamas advisor earlier told IRNA that Israel backed by the West and the United States, aims to eradicate Hamas in Gaza.
Azam Tamimi also condemned Arab states for their silence.
The horrific brutality of Israel against civilians have triggered international outrage and shocked world public opinion. Muslims and non-Muslims people in both Western and Islamic world staged protest rallies on Sunday condemning Israel's atrocities in Gaza. They also called on heads of world countries to help stop Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Posted by: lftbhndagn ||
12/29/2008 18:41 ||
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#3
Right after they get done processing the arrest warrants for the Iran leadership that was engage in non-UN authorized terrorism war in Iraq. Stand in line.
#3
Take a Hawiian Vacation? Hope the situation Changes before he takes the Oath?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/29/2008 15:14 Comments ||
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#4
well, Obama cant do anything till Jan 20. At that time he will meet with his advisers and sell out the only free democracy in the region to a group of despotic thugs thereby firmly grasping defeat from the jaws of victory.
we can only pray that it is too late.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
12/29/2008 15:16 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2008 16:16 Comments ||
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#8
It's aggrevating that those who complain about America's overabundance of influence refuse to take constructive action on their won. Let Hugo Chavez take a crack at making a Middle East peace initiative.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/29/2008 16:23 Comments ||
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#9
Take credit when the Israelis time their ceasefire to his inauguration.
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2008 16:24 Comments ||
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#10
I think it comes down to a choice of surfing or snorkeling. It really depends on wave conditions.
#17
Didn't he say he is "observing" the situation? You see, he's fully engaged, he's present!
He may even contemplate about departing a speech to both parties, where then they would be so taken aback by his oratory that they would ovate "O-bam-a, O-bam-a!" for hours and engage in cycles of violence no more.
Gaza / PNN - The Free Gaza movement is sending another solidarity ship to the Strip, due this time to the major Israeli attacks. The four previous voyages have set sail in solidarity to the million and a half residents under siege. The boat has set sail as of early Monday evening.
Among the Free Gaza organizers is Eliza Ernshire who said, "We have calls for surgeons willing to go into Gaza and work there throughout this crisis. The doctors inside are exhausted and unable to cope with the number of wounded."
On board the ship expected to set sail on Monday are four physicians. Among them is Dr. Elena Theoharous, a surgeon and member of Cypriot parliament. Former United States Congresswoman and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney will also be making the voyage. And local hero, Al Jazeera correspondent formerly imprisoned in Guantanamo, Sami Al Hajj, is also expected.
With the major military attack ongoing in the Gaza Strip in addition to the siege it remains to be seen if Israeli gunboats will stop the European ship. The Iranian Red Crescent ship that was expected to set sail on Friday, the day before the major Israeli assault began, was delayed ostensibly for 24 hours. The boat carrying a medical team and equipment was being rerouted from its landing point of the Gaza port to Egypt due to a lack of cooperation, as it was stated. The aid was going to be delivered overland through the Egyptian crossing with Rafah.
The Free Gaza movement, which intends to depart Cyprus at 5:00 pm today, writes, "We are not asking Israel for 'permission' to go, and we will not stop until the Dignity lands in Gaza. We are answering urgent calls from hospitals and health care workers in Gaza by taking in three physicians who will stay and work in Gaza for several weeks. We will hold Israel responsible for the safety of our passengers and our cargo of emergency medicine."
Even before the present Israeli blitzkrieg, Karen Koning Abu Zayd, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, asserted that, "Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and - some would say - encouragement of the international community."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2008 14:16 ||
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#1
How's about us providing Cynthia as a permanent human shield to Hamas to protect rocket launching sites in Gaza?
#3
Israel has submarines. Submarines have torpedoes.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/29/2008 14:45 Comments ||
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#4
Sink it after they get there. Let's see how long it takes for them to get out.
Myself, I think they'll be praying for the Israeli's to deny them entry...
#6
There is enough meat on that crazy bitch to feed a family of 4 through the duration of this crisis. I say we round up and send over an additional 250,000 delusional Marxists to take care of another million Gazans.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
12/29/2008 15:36 Comments ||
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Tehran: Iranian hardline clerics are signing up volunteers to fight Israel amid continued deadly air strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Fars news agency reported on Monday.
Fars said the Combatant Clergy Society on Monday activated its website www.rohaniatmobarez.com to register volunteers "to fight against the Zionist regime in either the military, financial or propaganda fields."
The news agency reported that more than 1,100 people so far had registered for military service against Israel.
All sorts of opportunities, but I favor the garbage scow in the Arabian Sea ...
The clerics' move came a day after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world, ordering them to defend Palestinians in Gaza. Khomenei said on Sunday that whoever was killed in the fight to defend Palestinians was "considered a martyr". Excuse me? Wouldn't that be considered a declaration of war on Israel by Iran?
#6
CNN this AM > Israel proclaims to be in a state of "ALL-OUT WAR" AGZ HAMAS vee GAZA, whereas HIZBULLAG LDR NASRALLAH has reportedly ordered the Hizzies Hezzies Huzzies, etal. to "PREPARE FOR WAR" AGZ ISRAEL, INCLUD TO DEFEND LEBANON WID ARMS FROM ISRAELI MIL MOVES???
WOUNDED Palestinians finally passed through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Monday as medical aid went in the other direction to the devastated Gaza Strip. Nine patients, some in critical condition, crossed at the only Gaza exit point which does not lead to Israel and around 30 wounded Palestinians in all were expected to enter Egypt on yesterday, security officials said.
Egyptian lorries loaded with medication moved in early afternoon into the neutral zone of the Rafah terminal to allow the transfer of their cargoes onto Palestinian vehicles.
Earlier, an Egyptian security official said the Rafah crossing point would remain closed on Monday, a day after a policeman died from being hit by Palestinian gunfire. "The Rafah crossing is closed and will only be opened to allow the wounded through,'' a security official said.
Egypt accused Hamas on Sunday of preventing hundreds of Palestinians injured from leaving the Gaza Strip although ambulances were waiting for them on the Egyptian side of the frontier. Egyptian authorities had opened the Rafah border point on Saturday on the first day of the massive Israeli air operation against the Hamas movement, which controls the impoverished Palestinian territory.
#1
Earlier, an Egyptian security official said the Rafah crossing point would remain closed on Monday, a day after a policeman died from being hit by Palestinian gunfire.
#3
Egyptian lorries loaded with medication moved in early afternoon into the neutral zone of the Rafah terminal to allow the transfer of their cargoes onto Palestinian vehicles.
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is ready to sign a truce over Gaza if Israel agrees to a ceasefire and lifts its blockade, the foreign ministry said here on Monday.
Which is what they were demanding before: Israel opens the border and doesn't shoot, whereas the various Paleo splinter factions, none 'controlled' by Hamas, continue to fire rockets at Sderot.
"The Hamas leader said he was ready to sign such a deal in a place chosen by the parties by mutual consent" in a phone call to Senegalese President Abdoullaye Wade late Sunday, the ministry said.
According to the ministry Wade offered a proposal for an "immediate way out of the crisis."
"It is about getting a definite truce between Hamas and Israel by signing an accord that would oblige Hamas to observe an immediate ceasefire in exchange for an Israeli immediate ceasefire accompanied by a total lifting of the blockade of the Gaza strip," it said.
On Saturday Israel unleashed a massive bombardment on Hamas targets in Gaza, that has reportedly killed more than 310 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,400 others. In retaliation Meshaal on Saturday called for a new intifada against Israel, including a return to suicide missions.
Wade spoke with Meshaal at 2100 GMT on Sunday in his capacity as the president of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the ministry here said late Sunday
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2008 11:04 ||
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#1
Make him move back to Gaza as part of the deal. See what he says then.
#4
Senegal? Senegal??? Since when are they the official mouthpiece of the Hamas leadership? And why should anyone believe anything they have to say anyhow?
A quarter century has passed since Israel last claimed to go to war in the name of peace. "Operation Peace for Galilee" -- Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon -- failed to convince the international public and even many Israelis that its goal was to promote reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world. In fact, the war had precisely the opposite results, preparing the way for Yasser Arafat's disastrous return to the West Bank and Gaza, and for Hezbollah's ultimate domination of Lebanon. And yet, Israel's current operation in Gaza is essential for creating the conditions that could eventually lead to a two-state solution.
Over the past two decades, a majority of Israelis have shifted from adamant opposition to Palestinian statehood to acknowledging the need for such a state. This transformation represented a historic victory for the Israeli left, which has long advocated Palestinian self-determination. The left's victory, though, remained largely theoretical: The right won the practical argument that no amount of concessions would grant international legitimacy to Israel's right to defend itself. That was the unavoidable lesson of the failure of the Oslo peace process, which ended in the fall of 2000 with Israel's acceptance of President Bill Clinton's proposal for near-total withdrawal from East Jerusalem and the territories. The Palestinians responded with five years of terror.
Yet much of the international community blamed Israel for the violence and repeatedly condemned its efforts at self-defense. The experience left a deep wound in the Israeli psyche. It intimidated Israeli leaders from taking security measures liable to be denounced by the United Nations and the European Union, or worse, result in sanctions against the Jewish state.
One consequence was an Israeli reluctance to respond to periodic Hezbollah provocations following Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000. This hesitancy allowed the Shiite terror organization to amass a rocket arsenal with the proclaimed intent of devastating Israel's population centers. Finally, when Hezbollah unleashed its weapons in July 2006, Israel was widely accused of responding disproportionately. It was pressured into prematurely ending its defensive operations in Lebanon, and compelled to accept an international "peacekeeping" force that has permitted Hezbollah to rearm far beyond its prewar levels.
Israelis are now asking themselves whether their Lebanon nightmare is about to repeat itself in Gaza. The parallels are indeed striking. As in Lebanon, Israel in 2005 unilaterally withdrew to its international border with Gaza and received, instead of security, a regime dedicated to its destruction. The thousands of rockets and mortar shells subsequently fired on Israeli neighborhoods represented more than a crude attempt to kill and terrorize civilians -- they were expressions of a genocidal intent. Israelis across the political spectrum agreed that the state had the right, indeed the duty, to protect its people. But one question remained: Would the international community consent?
That question grew urgent in the days before Dec. 19, when the tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas expired. Nearly 300 missiles landed in Israel, paralyzing much of the southern part of the country. Yet Israeli leaders held their fire. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni flew to Cairo to implore Egyptian leaders to urge restraint on Hamas, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told viewers of Al-Arabiyah Television that Israel had no interest in a military confrontation. If Israel was guilty of acting disproportionately, it was in its willingness to seek any means, even at the risk of its citizens' lives, to resolve the crisis diplomatically.
Yet the U.N. Security Council abstained from condemning Hamas and convened only after Israel resolved to act. The U.N.'s hypocrisy, together with growing media criticism of Israel, is reinforcing Israeli concerns that territorial concessions, whether unilateral or negotiated, will only compromise the country's security and curtail its ability to respond to attack. This fear is compounded when Israelis consider withdrawals from the West Bank, which is within easy rocket range of its major population and industrial centers.
Gaza is the test case. Much more is at stake than merely the military outcome of Israel's operation. The issue, rather, is Israel's ability to restore its deterrence power and uphold the principle that its citizens cannot be targeted with impunity. Without the assurance that they will be allowed to protect their homes and families following withdrawal, Israelis will rightly perceive a two-state solution as an existential threat. They will continue to share the left-wing vision of coexistence with a peaceful Palestinian neighbor in theory, but in reality will heed the right's warnings of Jewish powerlessness.
The Gaza crisis also has implications for Israeli-Syrian negotiations. Here, too, Israelis will be unwilling to cede strategically vital territories -- in this case on the Golan Heights -- in an international environment in which any attempt to defend themselves will be denounced as unjustified aggression. Syria's role in triggering the Gaza conflict only deepens Israeli mistrust. The Damascus office of Hamas, which operates under the aegis of the regime of Bashar al Assad, vetoed the efforts of Hamas leaders in Gaza to extend the cease-fire and insisted on escalating rocket attacks.
In the coming days, the Gaza conflict is likely to intensify with a possible incursion of Israeli ground forces. Israel must be allowed to conclude this operation with a decisive victory over Hamas; the untenable situation of intermittent rocket fire and widespread arms smuggling must not be allowed to resume. This is an opportunity to redress Israel's failure to humble Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, and to deal a substantial setback to another jihadist proxy of Iran.
It may also be the last chance to reassure Israelis of the viability of a two-state solution. Given the unfortunate historical resonance, Israel should refrain from calling its current operation, "Peace for Southern Israel." But without Hamas's defeat, there can be no serious progress toward a treaty that both satisfies Palestinian aspirations and allays Israel's fears. At stake in Gaza is nothing less than the future of the peace process.
The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States in strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday. The missile, called GBU-39, was developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low collateral damage strikes.
Israel received approval from Congress to purchase 1,000 units in September and defense officials said on Sunday that the first shipment had arrived earlier this month and was used successfully in penetrating underground Kassam launchers in the Gaza Strip during the heavy aerial bombardment of Hamas infrastructure on Saturday. It was also used in Sunday's bombing of tunnels in Rafah.
The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world. The 113-kg. bomb has the same penetration capabilities as a normal 900-kg. bomb, although it has only 22.7 kg. of explosives. At just 1.75 meters long, its small size increases the number of bombs an aircraft can carry and the number of targets it can attack in a sortie.
Tests conducted in the US have proven that the bomb is capable of penetrating at least 90 cm. of steel-reinforced concrete. The GBU-39 can be used in adverse weather conditions and has a standoff range of more than 110 km. due to pop-out wings.
Also Sunday, Military Intelligence's Psychological Warfare Department broke into radio broadcasts in Gaza and warned Palestinian civilians not to cooperate with Hamas terrorist activity.
Palestinians reported that they received phone calls to their cellular phones and landlines from the IDF. The phone call, the Palestinians said, conveyed a recorded message ordering the immediate evacuation of homes that were next to Hamas infrastructure or being used by the terrorist organization.
On Sunday, head of the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration Col. Moshe Levy was interviewed by several Arab news outlets during which he stressed that Israel was not against the Palestinian public in Gaza but was operating against Hamas.
Defense officials said Sunday that Israel would, however, not hesitate to target the homes of civilians who protected Hamas terrorists throughout the operation. "We will go after every Hamas operative, no matter where he is," one official said. "We urge the Palestinians not to cooperate with terrorists."
Wut?
No, you mean who, perhaps.
Who then?
Perhaps you mean who now?
Who now?
I am Angelas Ashes, I am a Smart Bomb.
Scram.
Perhaps you mean leave, or begone?
Leave! Begone!
As you will, however, do watch out for Cleopatra.
Cleopatra?
Yes.
Who is this Cleopatra?
The Not-So-Smart But Bigger Bomb.
#4
I'm sure they have his cell phone number, bradeous. They seem to have everyone else's, after all... and they probably can easily run a trace on the location of his cell phone, too. Even through the bedding and the skirts.
#6
Wasting too much money to destroy the no good shits. You got to blow the barbarians with what they understand. Condemn the population who hides the terrorists. Before strike, Israel calls the stupid to get the hell out of there. I do not know why Israel does so. No wonder Israel is still fighting the barbarians without an end to it. I do not know who the stupid tells Israel to restrain. Man, blow the hell out of those who harm you if you want to survive and Israel has what it takes to do so. Sir, I have the highest education, I am an atheist or agnostic but I learned the very basic that the free spirit of Judaism is the salvation of human kind. You have to protect it no matter what it takes.
#8
and they probably can easily run a trace on the location of his cell phone, too. Even through the bedding and the skirts.
In that case TW I think they would be better to call him every single night - once at 10PM and at 2AM and again at 4AM. If they can get a fix on him each time and tell him where he is each time it'll drive him and his security detail completely bonkers. And Israel wouldn't have to violate Lebanese airspace to do it. (Except once or twice to buzz his residence and make him mess himself - just to drive the point home....). Keep him alive and in charge but drive him nuts - he'll start making mistakes.
IAF planes targeted a guest palace used by the Hamas government and the house next to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's home in a refugee camp next to Gaza City early Monday morning.
Haniyeh was not home, as Hamas leaders have gone into hiding.
Haniyeh was not home, as Hamas leaders have gone into hiding.
The question is now, whose bed is he under or skirt is he behind. And if the latter, what is the probability that the skirt belongs to some guy from Hamass.
#7
I'm pretty sure that what Israel was after was the command bunker under the "guest palace", where Haniyeh and all his "guests" gathered as soon as the bombs started falling. Ishmail "Chicken Little" Haniyeh is "too important" to be killed, like the Hamass cannon fodder.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2008 16:46 Comments ||
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From January 1 until December 21, Hamas and its allies had launched exactly 1,250 rockets across the border between Gaza and Israel. Then the escalation really started: on Wednesday 70 projectile missiles landed in the Negev and its populated areas. On Thursday, more of the same. On Friday, two Palestinian girls, cousins of 5 and 12 years, were killed by a rocket that was launched in the Strip and landed in the Strip. But these unfortunates were not the targets of fire. It was just another day of blast offs into the Jewish state.
The government in Jerusalem had made it unmistakably clear that it would no longer tolerate this fire power aimed at innocent civilian life. It had been saying this for months to an increasingly skeptical and apprehensive, not to say, restive public. And to Hamas which didn't seem to care. Instead, it threatened Israel by word and follow-up deeds that confirmed the recklessness - as if confirmation was needed- of also this Palestinian "liberation" movement, the last in the long line of terrorist revolutionaries acting in the name of pathetic and blood-thirsty Palestine.
So at 11:30 on Saturday morning, according to both the Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz, as well as the New York Times, 50 fighter jets and attack helicopters demolished some 40 to 50 sites in just about three minutes, maybe five. Message: do not fuck with the Jews. At roughly noon, another 60 air-attack vehicles went after other Hamas strategic positions. Israeli intelligence reported 225 people dead, mostly Hamas military leaders with some functionaries, besides, and perhaps 400 wounded. The Palestinians announced 300 dead, probably as a reflex in order to begin their whining about disproportionate Israeli acts of war. And 600 wounded.
Frankly, I am up to my gullet with this reflex criticism of Israel as going beyond proportionality in its responses to war waged against its population with the undisguised intention of putting an end to the political expression of the Jewish nation. Within hours, Nicolas Sarkozy was already taking up the cudgel of French righteousness and pronouncing the actually quite sober Israeli response to the continuous war on its borders "disproportionate." Enough. What would be proportionate, oh, so so proportionate apparently, are those tried-and-true half measures to contain Hamas that have never worked. Remember that in 2005 Israel ceded Gaza to the Palestinians waiting and hoping that they would make something of a civil society of their territory, civil for their own and civil to their neighbors. It was not to be.
There is only small likelihood that Hamas has learned its lesson. These Sunni fanatics are still supported by the Shi'a fanatics in Iran. And they are also backed by the House of Saud which cannot be seen to be turning its back on Sunni piety. Gaza is the only place in the Middle East where Tehran and Riyadh are allied. In both Lebanon and Iraq, they are the bankrollers (and more than bankrollers) of hostile sectarian forces engaged in killing each other. Thus, Hamas has still some rope with which to play. Cash, after all, is a great deluder.
The current warfare will go on a bit longer. If there is a pause and if I were giving advice to the Israelis, this is what I would say to Hamas and to the people of Gaza: "If a rocket or missile is launched against us, if you take captive one of our soldiers (as you have held one for two and a half years), if you raise a new Intifada against us, there will be an immediate response. And it will be very disproportionate. Proportion does not work."
No sooner had I written these last words that Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader exiled in Damascus (which also apparently pines to make peace with Israel), announced the beginning of the Third Intifada.
#2
Remember when the tiger at the San Francisco zoo had enough of the pestering and taunting by the intoxicated young men? Well one of those young men was attacked by the tiger and is now pushing up daisies and no one blames the tiger. Disproportionate Force.
#4
Disproportionate force would be 1000 Caterpillar D-11s lined up blade-to-blade along the NE border, & rolling SW, pushing all before them into Egypt. At full speed, ~2 hours, but some structures might need to be hit at less than full speed. Since I don't believe there ARE 1000 D-11s, I guess they'd have to substitute some D-9s and put some blades on their Merkavas.
#5
The US responded with "disproportionate force" to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -- thank God. The way to stop aggression is to defeat it, not to give it time to inflict more harm.
IAF aircraft bombed the Islamic University and government compound in Gaza City early Monday morning, both centers of Hamas power. Witnesses saw fire and smoke at the university, counting six separate air strikes there just after midnight.
Israel Radio reported that two laboratories in the university were targeted. The IDF said the buildings were used to store rockets and explosives.
#2
Two laboratories in the university, which served as research and development centers for Hamas's military wing, were targeted. The development of explosives, IDF sources said, was done under the auspices of university lecturers. Officials said that the explosives developed and manufactured in the labs were used to make sophisticated explosive devices and mortars used against Israel. Many Hamas officials graduated from the university.
University buildings, they said, were also used for meetings of senior Hamas officials and that rockets and explosives were stored in the buildings. IDF sources said that the strike was approved together with the long list of targets that the cabinet had approved last week.
"This is a strategic blow to Hamas," one official explained. "It is a blow to their development capability and will make it more difficult for them to manufacture explosives and new Kassam rockets."
Looks like another serious setback for Gaza's Space Program...
The war in the Gaza Strip spilled over into Egypt Sunday when dozens of Gaza residents crossed the border only to encounter Egyptian gunfire aimed at driving them back. The ongoing closure of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has become a symbol of Cairo's policy, which critics charge is one of collaborating with Israel to impose economic sanctions on the Strip. Judging by Arab leaders' statements to the media, or the slogans shouted by demonstrators in several Arab capitals, one might have thought that Egypt, not Israel, was the one waging war on Gaza.
Hamas' demand that Egypt open Rafah to all Gazans, and not just to the wounded seeking treatment abroad, has been rejected in part because Egypt remains committed to an Israeli-Palestinian agreement from 2005 that governs the Gaza border crossings, even though it was never a signatory to the pact. But beyond this formal reason, Egypt wants to prevent thousands of Palestinians from once again crossing the border into its territory. This past January, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians broke through the border fence, the Egyptian government suffered harsh criticism at home for allowing Egypt's sovereignty to be violated.
Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that Cairo will long be able to withstand the enormous pressure being generated by the Arab media and public.
Thus far, Hamas has not succeeded in generating an Arab diplomatic initiative that would lead to a renewed cease-fire on its terms. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which view Hamas as an Iranian ally whose goal is to increase Tehran's regional influence at their expense, prefer to wait a bit in the hopes that Israel's military operation will strip Hamas of its ability to dictate terms. And without those two states, the Arab League will have trouble even convening an emergency summit.
Granted, such a summit has limited practical value. But its absence indicates that Arab solidarity with the Palestinians is crumbling under Hamas' leadership.
Cairo is still furious with Hamas for having torpedoed Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah in November, while Saudi Arabia is wary of launching any new initiative after the much-touted reconciliation agreement it brokered between Hamas and Fatah in 2006 collapsed into bloodshed nine months later. As a result, Qatar is likely to step into the role of "honest broker" between Israel and Hamas. Qatar, one of only two Arab nations (along with Jordan) that contacted Israel directly to demand that it stop its operation in Gaza, currently carries diplomatic heft. This is partly because of its success in brokering an agreement between the warring factions in Lebanon this spring, but also because it manages to maintain good relations with everyone: both Israel and Iran, as well as Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless, it will probably be premature to talk about mediation toward a cease-fire as long as Jerusalem believes it can force Hamas to sue for a truce on Israel's terms.
In the first 36 hours after the Israeli offensive against Gaza started, Hamas militants fired only 150 rockets, some with a range of about 22 miles, toward Israeli towns. That is below their capacity of up to 200 a day, an estimate by Israeli military sources. "They are keeping their heads down," says a senior military intelligence officer. "Their accuracy is very low right now because of the dense aerial presence by Israeli planes. They know that the chances that they are being spotted by Israel surveillance and intelligence forces is very high." The officer adds, "The clear skies above the Gaza strip did not helped them also."
The clear skies have also afforded ordinary Israeli citizens a chance to watch the onslaught and applaud. At noon Sunday two Israeli Apache combat helicopters hovered in the air two miles east of Sderot, an Israeli town less than four miles from the border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip. Below the choppers, a dozen Israeli spectators perched on a hilltop watched with anticipation. A minute went by and the first Apache fired a Hellfire missile, which went rumbling into the Palestinian side of the border. A few seconds later the crowd broke into cheers at the resulting sight: somewhere between the Jibalya refugee camp and the outskirts of Gaza city a ball of heavy black smoke was rising.
Then the second Apache moved forward and two minutes later it shot another hellfire missile. Another ball of smoke, smaller but just as black, rose half a mile north of the first target. Later on, the spectators listened to radio reports that Israeli helicopters had attacked Qassam launchers, the weapons that Hamas militants have been using to terrorizing Israeli towns along the Gaza strip. The choppers attacked immediately militants had fired a Qassam towards the town of Netivot, six miles east of the Gaza strip. Hamas claims that the attacks have killed nearly 300 people over the course of two days.
The attacks on Gaza have won widespread approval among Israelis and have rubbed off on politicians hoping to win big in elections scheduled for early February 2009. In a concrete, bunker-like hall in Sderot, one of those hopeful politicians, the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, came by on Sunday afternoon to show solidarity with the residents of the area as well as to address a few dozen foreign diplomats brave enough to come to a community under threat of Qassam rockets. "Now we need your support to increase international pressure on Hamas. Enough is enough."
The locals need no convincing. Itay Avni, 32, who lives in the nearby Kibbutz of Nir-Am (population 400) is overjoyed at the Israeli assault on Gaza. He was among the crowd watching the Apaches launch their missiles. "Yesterday more then a hundred people from all around were here on this hilltop enjoying to the scene of dozens of aerial raids on Hamas military targets inside the Gaza strip," he says. "If I had open an ice-cream stand here I would have made a lot money." He adds, "Exaltation is the word to describe my feelings. At last, after eight years of defense alerts and hundreds of mortar shells, of Qassam rockets fired at our Kibbutz and the area, there is finally some retaliation. People are here to see it happening for real." Nevertheless, the people of the kibbutz are taking precautions. Students and all families with small children have left, moving to live with relatives further north in Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli ground forces seemed to be mobilizing for a fight. Two hours before the Apaches opened fire, some seven Merkava tanks gathered 10 miles north of the hilltop, right next to Erez crossing to the Gaza strip. They were part of a full battalion of 35 tanks, ready to penetrate the northern part of the Gaza strip as part of a ground operation. The soldiers were waiting orders.
#4
"Yesterday more then a hundred people from all around were here on this hilltop enjoying to the scene of dozens of aerial raids on Hamas military targets inside the Gaza strip," he says. "If I had open an ice-cream stand here I would have made a lot money."
#7
Its the playoffs. Israel has been sort of hanging around. Now they have a spot in the playoffs. First they are up against Hamas in an away game. It will be a blow-out. Then they go up against Hezbollah, who have a bye week, in another away game (much like the Colts will have two successive away games). Then if Iran or Syria or even the PLA decide to enter they have another away game to earn the Sand Cup. The Israel passing game and especially the deep kicking game will be overpowering to anyone who tries to stop them. And in some instances they will use their smash-mouth ground game and just punch holes in any defense up the middle. There is no stopping them - heavy air assaults, deep post patterns with little hitches here and there. Keeps the other guys off the field and the only sign of life is in London, Paris and Berlin where their fans and the supporting media will try to blame the Israel's for being too patient, too aggressive and too good at what they do. They will also complain that since Israel always wins it is someone else's time to win.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
12/29/2008 12:41 Comments ||
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#1
The Pals may see a decline in their media and academic support as collapsing oil prices reduce the flow of gifts, grants, fellowships, inflated speaking fees, and other bribes to western professors, media personalities, peace activists, and other prostitutes.
#2
AC, excellent! I just wish there were plenty of bridges to sell to Soddys to reduce their truckloads of cash even further. Do we have some glitzy but not particularly functional (without a very thick RTFM) weapon systems?
#6
I want calm in Gaza. But I understand it's going to take a little longer for the Israelis to achieve it. As soon as all the Hamassholes are room temp, we'll have calm. So chill and wait for the calm.
#8
Could the rockets flying out of Gaza a result of the lowering/dropping of oil prices ?? Would this be a way to get them to increase again ?? I see that oil is up to over $40 bbl this am??
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
12/29/2008 9:43 Comments ||
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#9
Wake me when they get that agitated about dead and dying Jews as a result of Hamas/Fatah/Hizbullah/insert-your-local-crazy-Muslim -group-here activity, and I might actually give a damn.
#10
So where are the calls for the end to the violence in Sderot - where Hamas and its surrogates have been firing rockets at civilians continually for _years_.
I guess they don't matter since they're Jooos right?
#11
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, supported Israel's contention that it was up to Hamas to stop the violence. "Israel has the right to self defense and nothing in this press statement should be read as anything but that," Khalilzad said.
That, my dears, does not sound like the US is calling upon Israel to stop attacking the Gaza Strip. I didn't bother reading further into the article to see who else is not calling for an end to Israeli attacks. I'm afraid CNN is reporting from their imaginary world again.
#12
Halo?
Is dis Calm?
Hai hai Calm how are u 2 day?
Good, good.
Look Calm,
We got bsns here
You got fat or uncle ina can?
Sory Calm Ima mistaked...
Whooopsie.. sorrry thar Calm...
#13
Angry protests also took place in several cities around the world on Sunday against Israel after its air strikes in Gaza killed at least 270 people and wounded hundreds more. In London, hundreds of demonstrators battled riot police in an attempt to enter the Israeli Embassy, according to media reports.
Yeah, I think I know the kinda "calm" they want...
Terrified prisoners fled a Gaza City jail bombed by Israeli warplanes on Sunday, their faces white with dust and red with blood as they stumbled over huge piles of rubble.
Across the territory, grieving families pitched traditional mourning tents of green tarp outside the homes. Yet the rows of chairs inside these tents remained largely empty, as residents cowered indoors for fear of new Israeli strikes. Plumes of gray smoke rising into the sky marked the site of the latest Israeli attacks.
Even for war-weary Gazans, who've lived through countless Israeli incursions, air attacks and months of bitter Palestinian infighting, the latest surprise Israeli air offensive was unusually traumatic. In all, more than 290 people most of them Hamas policemen, but also 20 children were killed in some 300 Israeli air attacks over two days.
On Saturday, shortly after Israel unleashed the deadliest-ever offensive against Hamas and its rocket squads, hospital morgues quickly overflowed. In the initial chaos, the dead were wrapped in blankets and lined up on the ground, as frantic relatives searched for their loved ones.
On Sunday, 25 unclaimed bodies still lay in the morgue of Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, their faces disfigured beyond identification. In the southern town of Rafah, residents held a mass funeral for 14 people, including two brothers, and a father and son, all of them members of the Hamas security forces.
#1
On Sunday, 25 unclaimed bodies still lay in the morgue of Gaza's largest hospital
Hmm. Nobody wants them. Aren't good Muslims supposed to bury their dead? I don't know if it's true, but it seems that someone who had no respect in the Muslim community would either be left for the dogs to dispose of or shoved in a mass grave.
#5
Stop the precision crap and bomb Gaza back to a hunter/gatherer society. Leave nothing standing but rubble, and bounce the rubble two or three times. Egypt will open its borders for the "poor" palestinians, and Gaza will be empty. Annex it to Israel, and begin redevelopment. Then start on the West Bank. When Hezbullocks attacks Israel, begin by nuking everything just north of the Litani, Israel's new border to the north. Before Jordan and Egypt can mount an offensive, put a little bug in their ear that there's an even larger nuke surprise aimed at their capital cities, and that the Aswan Dam is a "legitimate target". Syria has too many internal problems right now to do much, and Iran can only fire rockets, for which there should be a nuke reply.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2008 17:02 Comments ||
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#6
Aswan IS a legitimate target - it supplies power to military bases.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Iran is asking the International Criminal Court to bring to dock the Israeli leaders for their war crimes in Gaza over the past two years and the crimes against humanity they perpetrated in massive air strikes. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the United Nations court specialized in war crimes to sue the Israeli leaders for their crimes against humanity in Gaza Strip. 
Gaza / PNN - The Free Gaza movement is sending another solidarity ship to the Strip, due this time to the major Israeli attacks. The four previous voyages have set sail in solidarity to the million and a half residents under siege. The boat has set sail as of early Monday evening.
The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States in strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday. The missile, called GBU-39, was developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low collateral damage strikes. 
