h/t Gates of Vienna
In an act that was as fatuous as it was banal, President Barack Obama's Department of State issued guidelines for Israel to follow in the conduct of an existential war that has been raging on its soil since 2005. The constraining guidelines impair Israel's ability to defend itself. Moreover, no nation, including the U.S., has ever conducted a war in this fashion.
If Israel would follow the example of America's actual conduct in modern warfare instead of the administration's attempts to placate the Islamic world by tying Israel's hands behind its back, the war in Gaza would have been far more brutal and far more decisive.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/10/2014 9:13 Comments ||
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#3
These aren't rules, these are kvetching...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2014 9:20 Comments ||
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#4
WTF? Next, EPA and OSHSA will get involved? Israel should tell these leftards to stuff it. What does the State Dept. know about war? Is Benghazi that long ago?
#5
The key to terrorism and the key to guerrilla warfare is support from the indigenous population. When the population gets tired of the damage caused by Hamas and Hamas loses support because of their human shield activities, it is over. So the IDF should just keep on doing what they are doing...eventually, Hamas will lose support. Unfortunately, every time the liberal media shows a picture of a dead child, the donations come pouring in from the useful idiots.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/10/2014 11:59 Comments ||
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#6
US Allies in EAST ASIA should also be very worried.
The Bammer may have 2-1/2 years left in office but history says thats a'plenty of time left for various OWG Globie MilPol shennanigans-n-brouhahas to still take place.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Don't you dare solemnly declare your intention to kill all the Jews. Don't you dare vote for a party that promises genocide and tools up for action. Don't you dare hand out sweets when Jews are murdered, don't you dare wave the flag of Islamic mass murder, don't you dare sit humbly like a frog on a log while the mujahidin dig tunnels under your butt. When the day of reckoning explodes on your poor head and reduces your camouflaged military base to ruins, and your evil taskmasters make you climb over the rubble pretending to gather a few miserable belongings, don't come crying to me. It's your rubble, you wanted it, you got it.
#2
That was a righteous rant. Both the MSM, the universities, and the Palestinian and leftard rent-a-crowd students in the U.S. who pile out to protest Israel whenever the Paleos attack Israel are all part of the deception. I don't know whether they are too friggin dumb, lazy, or ideologically-driven to find out what's going on.
I don't know whether they are too friggin dumb, lazy, or ideologically-driven to find out what's going on.
none of those are mutually exclusive.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
08/10/2014 15:09 Comments ||
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#5
Someone's comment from the Sarah A. Hoyt blog:
I’ve tried to be a good example to my son – helping people when I could and being unfailingly polite – even when hurting badly. Yes, I’m old fashioned. Yes, I’m not writing Nebula-award quality angst-ridden material. But maybe someone will read a story of mine, and instead of taking a snarky swipe they’ll think that the other person might have feelings and just for the moment refrain from trying to score points.
I don’t know if it’ll help or not, but it’s something I can do.
[Ynet] With Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' demands left unanswered in Cairo, the group was forced to launch a fresh round of rocket attacks in an attempt to save face, salvage a semblance of achievement.
Hamas is in a desperate situation. After 1,800 fatalities in the Gazoo Strip and unimaginable destruction which left a quarter of its population homeless, the Egyptian mediators and Israel now demand it to return to the understandings reached at the end of that last round of fighting (Operation Pillar of Defense): A state of calm and a stable ceasefire. In such a situation, Hamas has not achieved anything beyond the easing of several restrictions that Israel was willing to grant anyway, like the expansion of Gazoo's fishing zone and increasing the amount of food and medical supplies permitted to enter the Strip.
Hamas did not get a thing from Egypt or Israel that would justify the 28 days of fighting that left Gazoo battle-ravaged and smoldering. Twenty eight days of fighting initiated by Hamas, and five instances in which it refused humanitarian ceasefires put forward for the benefit of the people it purports to govern and fight for. Considering the fact that the root of the group's power lies in its social agenda — what will its leaders tell Gazoo residents now?
Hamas is fighting for its life and will not be able to survive as a movement if it does not secure the accomplishments it promised. This is why the group and other organizations in Gazoo are acting like maimed animals, gathering what's left of their rockets in hopes to better their standing at the negotiations table and extort concessions — like a maimed animal that trashes around in its final moments, using the last of its strengths. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... they are taking care not to cut loose and break all the rules.
Hamas is leaving the job to the Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... and the Popular Resistance Committees, who have grabbed credit for the rocket fire earlier Friday morning. The goal: Preventing Egypt and Israel from leaving the negotiating table. That may be the reason why Egypt is asking Israel not to respond forcefully — they hope to reach a new ceasefire agreement. While the Israeli delegation already returned from Cairo, a dialogue is being conducted between Hamas and Israel behind the scenes, through Egyptian mediation.
Not only are Egypt and Israel putting up an iron wall of refusal around the group's demands — the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and his men are doing the same. Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the PA envoy to ceasefire talks in Cairo, is pressing for compromise. On the other side, there are Khaled Mashaal and Hamas' politicians in Qatar, telling the Gazooks that have been conducting the negotiations so far "we told you, you shouldn't have agreed to a ceasefire."
Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif now have no choice. Because they didn't receive the concessions they view as necessary, including the opening of the Rafah crossing, a promises of a sea and airport, and even an Israeli pledge to refrain from assassinating them — they are renewing fire.
Skating on thin ice
The current situation is reminiscent of past wars. After the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War, the fire was renewed after an initial ceasefire was obtained. In 1973-74, there were months of what was known as the "Small Attrition" in the Golan Heights and Sinai. The IDF suffered many casualties and there was massive shelling from both sides, until former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger arrived and an agreement was reached. The Israeli right, by the way, then viewed Kissinger as a Jewish traitor because he brokered a ceasefire in the Golan Heights. This is the same ceasefire that gave us 40 years of calm.
It's safe to assume that a similar scenario will play out now. The terrorist organizations will continue to fire, but not intensively and not at a great distance. Both because they need to maintain the few rockets they have left, and also because they don't want to break all the rules and drag Israel into another ground operation. This is a "warning shot" and Hamas will try to skate on thin ice, hoping that that now the UN or the Americans, backed by the Qataris and Turks, will come to rescue it and help in its struggle against the iron wall in Cairo.
Hamas is also conducting a psychological war. The group is taking advantage of fears of residents of the communities surrounding Gazoo regarding tunnels and is presenting what it still has left on Al Jazeera. But the photographs do not necessarily show offensive tunnels, but rather fighting tunnels used by Hamas to move inside Gazoo, or tunnels that reach underground launchers and mortar attack positions. It is also safe to assume that even if Hamas has an attack tunnel left, it won't take advantage of it, knowing that such an act would immediately lead to the launching of a new Israeli ground incursion. Hamas does not want that, and neither does the Islamic Jihad. They want a ceasefire, but they also want a win. Nothing more, but also nothing less.
International game
Israel will now need to consider the nature of its response. Dealing a harsh blow on Hamas is the immediate and almost only option, but the international situation prevents Israel from using even 10 percent of its fire power that it is able to activate from the air.
The legitimacy granted by the world has almost ended and we may find ourselves in a situation in which the UN, European countries and South America will impose economic sanctions on us. Arab countries have already been working on that mission vigorously at the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
Therefore, if the Egyptians are prepared to continue the negotiations, Israel shouldn't withdraw from them. Officials need to manage this complex situation of negotiations while under fire carefully, in a manner that will clarify to Hamas that its decision to renew fire exacts a high price — and at the same time, Israel has to make sure not to intensify the rage of the international community.
IDF in the territory Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy was furiously chewing her cud and thinking... Hamas' situation appears to be getting worse ever since it opened fire. Thousands of Gazooks are fleeing their homes. The Israeli response did not come instantly in order to avoid harming civilians that are fleeing locations near rocket launching positions.
The IDF is preparing for another possibility as well. The reservists that have been released can be drafted again. The main maneuvering forces, the conscript divisions, are staying in assembly areas close to the Strip. Their role is double — protecting communities against possible attacks via tunnels and launching a ground offensive into the Gazoo Strip if Hamas goes too far and causes Israeli deaths, for example.
That is how the IDF has acted after past wars and that is how it is currently acting. Ceasefires are an extension of war by political means for both sides, and sometimes, the negotiations and the state of fire are interwoven. Hamas is battered, Israel has international constraints imposed on it, and that is what will finally lead the two sides to reach a compromise. But Jerusalem and Cairo are now on trial again, and it is crucial that Hamas will not emerge from the current round that it initiated holding an achievement in its hands.
#2
Iran had contacts with ISIS in the early days of ISIS when they were a splinter group who they thought they could influence. So did Turkey. So did Israel. So did Saudi Arabia.
That really doesn't mean much because what ISIS is now is different from what they were then in that ISIS is not influenceable by anything other than force.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/10/2014 21:39 Comments ||
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...And our government oh, h*ll a group of whores would do better. At least whores understand business and that some control must be exerted over who gets the ah teat for free. They understand that the teat is not endless and neither is the other thing, which will get really unusable if you let the whole world use it. I say next time we elect a whore, not a skinny, duplicitous, indoctrinated red diaper baby with promises as thin as his addled intellect.
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
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
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
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
