Shadow of Iran Looms Large Over Gaza

Dr. Walid Phares

The Israeli air raids on Hamas’ infrastructure, along with troop movements around Gaza’s enclave and the shelling of Israel by the Jihadist organization, are both troubling developments in the Middle East but they are certainly neither new nor surprising. Dramatic images of bloody Palestinian civilians fleeing from attacks and pictures of Israelis rushing to the shelters while under fire will always bring chills to observers and depress the entire international community. Sadly, it’s hardly the first time we’ve seen these images and tragically, seven years after 9/11, they seem to connect with similar bloodshed in Mosul, Kabul and Mumbai. Even if both sides in the current Gaza conflict insist that their confrontation is at the center of the world, in reality it isn’t anymore. Car bombs and missiles in Beirut, Baghdad and Islamabad are all horrifying. There is no “top horror” anymore, even in the never-ending cycle of Gaza’s turmoil. It has all become part of the so-called “War on Terror” even though the Palestinian-Israeli quarrel is a conflict all its own. Still, why is this escalation so dramatic, why did it happen, who triggered it at this particular moment – and what can we expect going forward? It’s too grandiose to claim that anyone has all the answers, but here is my take:

A DEADLOCK IN THE PEACE PROCESS

After decades of unstoppable enmity, Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization struck a deal in 1993 under the sponsorship of the United States: The Oslo Agreements. The two parties at the negotiations continued to complain about difficulties in the final stage but nevertheless moved forward in implementing piece after piece. A Palestinian Authority (PA) was established and funded by the West to become the partner in Peace of the state of Israel, as a first stage of Palestinian statehood. But by the mid-1990s, the Syrian-Iranian “axis” armed and funded Hamas and other Jihadi organizations to “sink” the process.

Wahhabi quarters joined in funding the rejectionist forces. The equation was simple: Hamas attacks Israel, causing a collapse in the negotiation process; Israelis and Palestinians blame each other; suicide bombings blast inside the Jewish state triggering air raids on the Palestinian territories. The history of the past 17 years is one of obstruction toward any attempt to reach a final agreement between the two parties and one of efforts by the United States, Europe and the rest of the international community to push the process forward. In short, it’s a struggle between the fledgling peace process and an Iranian strategy designed to destroy it. Everything else is just a facet of this image, but the Iranian-imposed deadlock is the root cause for all frustrations, failures and bloodshed on both sides.

THE GAZA BLOCKAGE

Despite the barrage by the “Iranian axis” via Hamas and Hezbollah against the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, which escalated even further after 9/11 and the Iraq U.S. campaign, small steps were still achieved between Israeli Governments and President Mahmoud Abbas’ Authority. By 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip and the Palestinian Authority was closer to statehood than ever. But Hamas, which won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 thanks to massive Iranian support and its armed omnipresence, refused to follow the course of the Camp David process. According to its ideologues and leaders, and unlike Arafat and Abbas, the radical group “cannot” recognize the existence of the state of Israel. Perfectly in line with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stance on the “Jewish state,” Hamas is not simply another part of the Palestinian national movement (as many assert), but is a Jihadist organization with a clear ideological goal: Establishing an “emirate” in Palestine – not a secular Palestinian state – similar to what al Qaeda wants to establish worldwide – but with a much better international reputation.

Soon enough, Hamas and Abbas’s Presidency clashed over the future of the Palestinian people. Hamas (per its Iranian and ideological commitments) wanted an endless “Jihad” against the pre-1967 Israel while the PA was moving forward towards the two-state solution. In June 2007, Hamas executed a bloody coup d’état in Gaza: Hundreds of Fatah members and other opponents were eliminated and tortured. A Hamas “regime” was established in the enclave. As I wrote then, “two Palestines” emerged: The Iranian-supported entity in the south and the embattled Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Since that coup, Gaza’s forces blocked the process while the rest of the Palestinian territories moved slowly to normalization. As of this fall, for example, the number of tourists spending time in Bethlehem and other Palestinian Authority locations has reached the highest azimuths. One Palestine in the West Bank was slowly rising while another Palestine in Gaza was sinking rapidly. Meanwhile, Israel imposed a blockage on Gaza. Hence, Hamas had to act to avoid a rotting process. Last week, the Islamist militant movement ended the cease fire, which obviously triggered this war.

GAZA ON THE ARAB MAP

Viewers and readers in the West have been overwhelmed since the Israeli air strikes began with footage and pictures from the so-called “Arab street.” This term was coined by regimes and ideologues in the Middle East to claim that the “region” as a whole has one voice, one set of feelings and one direction when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict and all issues related to the “Umma” (Arab or Islamic nation). In fact the “street” in mostly non-Democratic societies reflects the desired agenda of either radical regimes or ideologues. Hence, getting a real grasp on reality in the region is more subtle. When it comes to the public attitudes regarding any Israeli action in the region, there is a strong ideological force which will always drive all governments, regimes, political parties to be against the Jewish state, regardless of the context. That is a fact. But below the ideological level, there is a divided Arab map regarding Gaza. While Syria, Sudan, Hezbollah, the Wahhabis, Qatar and also the (non-Arab) Iranian regime support Hamas, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, most of the Gulf States are nervous about Iran’s influence in Gaza. More importantly, the Palestinian civil war initiated by Hamas against Fatah in June 2007 is still on. President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, wants to resume peace negotiations but cannot confront Hamas head on. In short, Arab governments are simply unable to solve the issue at this point.

ISRAEL’S OPTIONS

From Israel’s perspective, the room for maneuvering is very tight. Hamas is a direct ally of Iran and strategic decisions by the Jihadi group are made in Tehran. The Israelis seem to have decided to respond to the Hamas challenge now, before their own elections and before the Palestinians also go to the polls – and especially during the transition period in the United States. It looks like Israel has three options: Pursuing an air bombardment before reaching a cease fire; engaging limited ground troops at the edges of Gaza to alter the capacity of Hamas in shelling Israel; or going for a full-fledged incursion inside the enclave. The bottom line: Once Israel begins the operation, they can’t return to the status quo. With this in mind, the minimal goal for Israel seems to be a Lebanon
-like arrangement with a UN Security Council resolution separating the forces and freezing violence or a UN sponsored security deployment in Gaza to change the military landscape and bring about civil peace and stability. We will know more in the coming days and weeks.

IRAN’S GAZA BATTLEFIELD

The big picture is obvious. The current conflict is not really about the classic Arab-Israeli process, which can resume between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League anytime it is not obstructed. The Gaza fight is about Iran’s confrontation with Israel, and perhaps with the U.S. globally. A global strategic reading leads us to conclude that – just as we saw in Lebanon in 2006 – Tehran is pulling the strings and very smartly. Timing the Hamas end to the cease fire between two American presidencies in Washington and just before the Israeli and Palestinian elections, the Mullahs thought they would drag Israel into the Gaza battle on an Iranian timetable, triggering a “street” show of anger, boosted by the Jihadi propaganda machine in the region with all the usual ramifications in the West. The astute Iranian move is to drag Israel enough into Gaza’s mud to indict it internationally so that any future Israeli strikes at Iran’s nuclear program will be seen as catastrophic. Tehran is calculating the minutia hoping Hamas will win at the end of the day, and that the Obama administration will begin its “talks” with Iran from an inferior position (since Israel will be blamed for the violence not the Jihadists in Gaza). But the game has lots of risks, including the possibility that Hamas may lose its ability to be a military event maker after this campaign is over.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the author of "The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad.".

Exclusive: Disproportionate, Huh?

Ruth King

First of all, what is the definition of proportion before we call something disproportionate? Well, the dictionary says it is comparative relation between things and magnitude as to size, quantity, number and extent. So what is disproportionate? Again, the dictionary: “out of proportion as in size and number.” Second: Indulge me. The Jewish population of the world is now about 12,000,000 after losing one third of the world’s Jews in the Holocaust. Jews are truly disproportionate in their contribution to science, culture, the arts, theater, entertainment, technology, philanthropy, and social institutions. Don’t believe me? Just go to the operas, concerts, hospitals, museums and research institutions throughout the United States even in areas with a tiny Jewish population. Okay, I hear you. They are also disproportionate among financial crooks and disproportionate in the grief and opprobrium that these scoundrels elicit from their coreligionists. Trust me. They don’t hate Kenneth Lay or Vladimir Putin as much as they hate Bernard Madoff.

Third: The Jewish people, with the sole exception of India, have created the only post colonial democracy in the world in a sliver of land that is disproportionately small and resource poor in comparison to the Muslim Arab world surrounding them and panting for a Jihad against them. There are disproportionately more institutions in Israel and among Jews concerned with the rights of the Arabs then there are throughout the Arab/Muslim world. And, there are no – repeat, .no – institutions among Arab nations which support any Jewish or Christian grievances.

Fourth: The United Nations should change its name to the United Islamic and Dhimmi Nations, since it is disproportionately populated by Muslim Nations and their European acolytes whose anti-Israel resolutions are disproportionately numerous compared to any against Sudan or Rwanda or Somalia….the real perpetrators of atrocities.

Fifth: There are a disproportionate number of so called Palestinian refugees who still squat in Arab perpetrated squalor camps and receive a disproportionate amount of help from UNRWA and the disproportionate number of UN organizations dedicated to perpetuating their misery as a tool in the utterly disproportionate global bashing of Israel. Since the advent of those refugee camps, now five generations old, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of refugees have been relocated throughout the world where they have learned new languages, new mores, new customs and forged new lives. But these so-called refugees get a disproportionate amount of international concern.

Sixth: Israel has been truly disproportionate in territorial concessions in its quest for peace. As a result of the Camp David Accords, 92% of the territories acquired in the war of 1967 were returned when Israel surrendered the Sinai Peninsula, the locus of a disproportionate number of terrorist acts against Israel before 1967. Egypt has obliged by permitting a disproportionate number of sermons, school books, and government controlled media cartoons and editorials libeling and threatening Israel and world Jewry.

Seventh: Do you remember the assassination of Theo Van Gogh in Holland in 2002 because he made a “controversial film depicting Islam?” Or what about the murderous rampages throughout the Muslim “street” elicited by 12 cartoons deemed to be offensive to the Prophet, published in a Danish newspaper? Reactions started with public demonstrations and escalated to violence throughout the world; fires set to American flags in the Arab “street;” fires set in Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran: storming European buildings; marches in Pakistan and Indonesia and throughout the Moslem world which incidentally included many placards of crude threats to Israel and the United States; and from Gaza the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar a call for death to the infidels. The violence resulted in hundreds injured and at least an equal number dead. Hmmm. That all sounds a tad disproportionate.

Eighth : In February 2005 Ariel Sharon offered the release of 900 Arab prisoners in exchange for some promises from Abbas. In June of 2006 Israel released 429 Arab prisoners in exchange for some more promises. In July of 2007, Israel released 255 prisoners for a few more promises which were withheld until that September when 90 more were sprung for more promises. In August of 2008 another 198 prisoners were released for some more promises and just a month ago 224 Arab prisoners were released in exchange for more promises. Okay, here is the tally: Prisoners released since 2005: roughly 1,500. Arab promises kept: 0. Hmmm. That too sounds a tad disproportionate since a disproportionate number of the prisoners released returned to terrorism.

Ninth: The prisoners released by Israel all looked fit and well fed. Not a hand chopped in the bunch. That’s an example of disproportionately mild punishment for murderers in a section of the world that abets “honor killings” and stoning for adultery and beheadings for “infidel’ behavior.

Tenth: The mainstream media is disproportionately biased and ignorant. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows the history and facts of the ongoing Jihad against Israel. It will come as no surprise to those who are stunned by the disproportionate reluctance of the media to confront militant Islam and the disproportionate sensitivity of media apologists to anything that may smack of “Islamophobia.”

Eleventh: Check out the number of terrorist incidents, including those that have been thwarted in the world, in every continent, from Argentina, to the Philippines to India to London, to Paris to the United States. Are there not a disproportionate number of er…ah…Muslims among them? And, are there not a disproportionate number of silent imams and mosques and Islamic fraternal organizations that fail to condemn them?

Twelfth: Let’s get to Gaza now. In 2005, when the Israelis removed Jewish population from Gaza, Jewish philanthropists bought 3,000 homes and disproportionately productive farms and greenhouses for the Arabs. These greenhouses used highly advanced agricultural technology and insect control and harvesting systems and temperature and moisture regulation. They also supplied Israel with more than half of its daily produce. The Arab response was trashing, looting and destruction of every home, greenhouse and farm including hoses, irrigation systems, water pumps and plastic sheathing. Then, talk about disproportionate chutzpah, the Arabs demanded and got food from Israel.

Thirteenth: President-elect Barack Obama said that he could not sit by while his kids in their beds were victims of continued rocket attacks. I don’t expect him or a Hillaried State Department to stand by that strong statement. There is a disproportionate amount of Arab money and influence on our government. Just see the disproportionate amount of big bucks former Presidents and legislators get from the Arabs.

Finally, here is one thing that I know. Americans are smarter and better than those whose columns they read, or whose programs they watch, or their legislators who make and remake policies. We are a people who are disproportionately fair. Outside of the fringes in the left and right, the largest proportion of Americans understand Israel’s dilemma and are rooting for Israel in its existential struggle against Jihad.

That is why I love being a proud Jewish American.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ruth S. King is a freelance writer who writes a monthly column in OUTPOST, the publication of Americans for a Safe Israel. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.

Arabs turn against 'megalomaniac' Hamas

Correspondents
Thursday January 1, 2009
from the Australian

THE bitter Israel-Hamas conflict has touched off Arab-Arab conflicts almost as bitter

Responsibility for the war in Gaza, and for the Palestinian fatalities there, was placed squarely on Hamas by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. . "We called the leaders of Hamas and told them, 'Please, do not end the truce'," he said. Hamas ended a six-month truce with Israel two weeks before the Israeli attack.

An Abbas aide, Nimr Hammad, termed the rocket fire into Israel reckless. "The one responsible for the massacre is Hamas," he said. "Hamas should not have given the Israelis a pretext."

Bassam Abu-Sumayyah, a columnist for the daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, accused Hamas of megalomania and said it had acted without even a little bit of political and security sense. It had behaved like a superpower.

"They thought they have a number of missiles and can therefore prevail in a war of such size," he wrote.

A columnist for the PA daily Al-Ayyam, Abdallah Awwad, said that Hamas had made a major mistake in trying to be both a government operating in the open and a resistance organisation that operated underground. "We are paying the price of stupidity and the maniacal

love of being rulers," he said.

Beyond intra-Palestinian disputes, the eruption in Gaza has widened the rift between Egypt, supported by other moderate Arab states, and the Hamas-Iran-Syria-Hezbollah alignment.

Cairo has long feared the radical influence of Hamas on its own Islamist parties. It regards Hamas as a proxy for Iran, which it sees attempting to wrest Muslim leadership in the Middle East from Egypt, even though Iran is not an Arab country.

However, Egypt attempted to broker a reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority that would permit a leadership acceptable to all Palestinians to emerge in new elections. Hamas derailed the proposal, to Egypt's fury.

Egypt, in turn, refused to open the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to Gaza residents, even during the Israeli attack when many Gazans were clamouring to get out. This infuriated Hamas and caused anti-Egyptian protests in much of the Arab world.

For Egypt, the most annoying criticism came from Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the formidable leader of the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Addressing Egyptian citizens, particularly army officers, Nasrallah called on them to protest at Cairo's lack of response to the Israeli attack.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said of Nasrallah's speech: "(He) practically declared war on us." As for Nasrallah's appeal to Egyptian officers, Mr Gheit said of Egypt's army: "They will also protect Egypt against people like you."

5 Families, 15 children, 1 bomb shelter

Livnat Shaubi
Fri Jan 1 2009 02:58:09
SderotMedia.com

Investigative report: Five families, 15 children, and a number of volunteers have been living in a bomb shelter for the past four days since the war on the south began. The shelter is located in one of the most frequently rocket-shelled neighborhoods in Sderot called Atar Cherum. Livnat Shaubi of Sderot Media Center met with residents of the neighborhood are now living in the bomb shelter. They share their feelings of life under Palestinian rocket fire for the past 8 years. . It began on Saturday night when Israel Defense Forces began striking Gaza. Residents of Sderot's neighborhood, Atar Cherum, felt the walls of their homes vibrating from the strikes. The Atar Cherum neighborhood, located in western Sderot, is one of the Sderot neighborhoods located closest to the Gaza border.

Sderot families, among them women, children, and the elderly, already conditioned to this reality, quickly made their way into the bomb shelters located throughout the city in anticipation of a Hamas rocket strike.

In the Atar Cherum bomb shelter, neighborhood families have spent already four days sitting together waiting for the Hamas rocket strikes to be over. The shelter currently houses 15 children, their parents, and volunteers who have come to help and support Sderot residents during the intense Hamas rocket strikes.

Zahava Yuchlashat, mother of four children, and part of the Ethiopian community in Sderot, told Sderot Media Center that she has been living in the shelter for three days now. "My husband is a career army officer and he can only get home at the end of the week. I take care of the kids by myself for the rest of the week."

"I decided to remain in Sderot because this is our reality even with all the difficulties," said Zahava. She describes her family's new routine. "We eat and sleep in the bomb shelter but I go home in order to cook our meals. Towards evening, I bring my kids one by one to shower and then we all go to sleep in the shelter."

Zahava told Sderot Media Center that many husbands in Sderot work outside the city, which means that the mother must stay at home to be with the kids during periods of rocket escalation. "The schools and kindergartens are closed, so throughout the day the kids spend all their time in the bomb shelters. We are fortunate to have volunteers who come to make activities for the kids."

Ruth Lavie, who moderates crisis management groups for the Sderot Hosen Center, a center that offers support to area residents during times of emergency, conducted arts and crafts projects for a group of children in the shelter which included Zahava's three year old son.
"The atmosphere in Sderot is very tense right now," said Ruth. "Through my work, I try to establish a normal routine for Sderot children, one that allows them to be creative and active. The activities I plan for these kids include crafts and games designed for kids of all ages."
"Sometimes I will sit and play with a child who sits alone, encouraging him and attempting to give him some sense of security," said Ruth.


Ruth also shares her feeling as a Sderot mother of grown-up children. "I don't feel I need to leave Sderot because my children are older. If I had very young children now, I would probably think differently. But at this point, I'm staying in Sderot to help anyone who needs help."

Tair Ben Moshe, 15 from Jerusalem, also arrived to the bomb shelter to help out the children. "My parents were against me coming to Sderot. They are very frightened for me. Only after, many arguments and persuasions, did they allow me to finally come."

"I got here and am sleeping with the residents in the shelter. The children are great and I have fun hanging out with them," says Tair.

Zahava will most likely be spending several more nights with her children in the bomb shelter of the Atar Cherum neighborhood, but she is happy that Israel is finally responding to the Hamas rocket terror. "We bless the IDF and are pleased with the operation. We will stay here in the shelter until this nightmare ends," she says.

*Translated by Anav Silverman.

Normal mothers want their children to live

Alan H. Stein, Ph.D.

The key stumbling block preventing a resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict and the reason so many people have difficulty understanding it both hit home during a recent meeting with Haim Blumenfeld, Chief Superintendent of the Ashkelon City Station of the Israeli Police: normal mothers want their children to live. Blumenfeld came to Connecticut right after making a presentation at the Anti-Defamation League's Advanced Training School's course on Extremist and Terrorist Threats, held for senior law enforcement agents in Washington, DC.

I listened to Commander Blumenfeld as he described the challenges of bringing some sense of security to Israelis living in Ashkelon and Sderot while the residents are under daily fire of Kassam and Grad missiles fired from nearby Gaza. I viewed scenes of devastation, including ordinary homes ruined after direct missile hits and the shells of municipal buses whose riders had been incinerated after they were bombed.

War is an unpleasant business. We've all gotten jaded with scenes of devastation not only in Israel, but Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Georgia, Somalia, the Congo, Haiti and countless other troubled areas around the world, so those scenes, horrific though they were, did not shock me.

One short video Blumenfeld showed did shock me. A video of Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat, the woman popularly known as "Umm Nidal," made a deep impression, even though I'd heard about it and even read the text. Understanding that video leads to a depressing insight.

Umm Nidal was one of the Hamas candidates in the 2006 elections. She is a celebrity, with no fewer than three shahid sons having given their lives in the cause of murdering Jews.

Normal mothers would be devastated by death of even one of their children, but not Umm Nidal. In the video of a farewell ceremony for one of her sons, just seventeen years old, she ordered him not to return "except as a shahid." She is shown after his death, calmly explaining that she wanted to "choose the best for him. And the best is not life in this world."

Umm Nidal is no fringe figure. Sari Nusseibeh, considered a symbol of the moderate Palestinian Arab, praised her with the words "When I hear the words of Umm Nidal, I recall the hadith stating that 'Paradise lies under the feet of mothers'" in an interview on Al-Jazeera. She won that election to the Palestinian Authority legislature.

I'd known all this, but it didn't completely register until I watched that video of the mother sending her beloved son to his death and later explaining how it was for the best.

It's difficult for people living in normal, civilized societies to comprehend the total dysfunction of large portions of Palestinian Arab society. We tend to think other people must, at heart, be much like we are, with the same desires and wanting mostly to live normal lives. It's natural to look at the Arab-Israeli conflict from that perspective, leading to the expectation that if we can just get the Arabs and Israelis to listen to us then both will be eager to make reasonable compromises in order to achieve peace and allow their children to start living normal lives.

Such reasoning just doesn't apply to societies where mothers proudly send their children out to murder other, innocent children and those mothers and their shahid sons are considered role models. I had subconsciously realized that, but repressed that understanding before viewing the video shown by Haim Blumenfeld.

I am still optimistic that an Arab-Israeli peace will eventually come, but I sadly recognize it cannot come before the sickness endemic to so much of Palestinian Arab society is expunged. Former United States negotiator Dennis Ross, seeking to understand the failure of the Oslo Experiment, correctly concluded it was a serious mistake to underplay the incitement of the Palestinian Authority.

As recently as this summer, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas congratulated the notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar upon his release by Israel. Kuntar was the perpetrator of one of the most vicious acts in the Arab-Israeli conflict, proudly crushing the skull of a four year old girl after murdering her father in front of her eyes.

I don't know the antidote, but as long as mothers like Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat joyfully send their teenage sons to their deaths and the "moderate" leader of the Palestinian Authority feels the need to celebrate the release of murderers, as long as so much of Palestinian Arab society is infested with a sickness too alien to our senses for most normal people to comprehend, any Arab-Israeli peace will remain an unfulfillable dream.

Alan H. Stein, Ph.D. is the president of PRIMER-Connecticut, a media monitoring organization. PRIMER is an acronym for "Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting." He is also Associate Professor of Mathematics at The University of Connecticut.

Response to J Street op-ed:Dear Isaac Luria

I find this to be totally, completely obscene. It is thoughtless and lacks any logical validity.

This represents J Street’s anti-Israel attitude. No matter how you try to paper it over, cover it with flowers, it is anti-Israel.

You are not so stupid as to not understand that the idea of a proportionate response is nothing but an attempt to harm Israel. Exactly what would be a proportionate response. What letter would you have written if Israel’s response was to lob a rocket into Gaza City, Khan Younis or Rafah population centers every time Hamas dropped a rocket on Israel? I can safely predict that you would call it inhumane, collective punishment, and murder. Israelis think the same thing, so they didn’t try and kill the people of Gaza.. n the Arab world most people are trapped in poverty and misery. Even in the wealthy oil states, many people are trapped in poverty and misery. It is not unique to Gaza. But you close your eyes to this aspect of Arab culture. They also choose war over peace with Infidels – and YOU are an infidel. If we bring this to anyone’s attention, you and others call us racist Islamophobes. That the people of Gaza are poor and miserable is their own choice. I am constantly told that Hamas is the legitimate, elected government of Gaza. But that is only said when it is convenient, not when Hamas rockets innocent Jews in Israel.

No, you can’t see who is right and who is wrong. You can’t even see who is predominantly right and who is predominantly wrong. Like all non-thinking ideologues, you apportion blame according to your ideology, not the facts.

Israel practiced moderation. During the whole “calm” (Hamas’s term – it was not a ceasefire or Hudna) rockets were still lobbed at the Jews of Israel. Have you noticed that the rocketeers were racist? Of course you did. You could not help but notice that they didn’t try to kill Bedouin in the area – only Jews.

You, and others of your ilk, push this idea of proportionality when the real question is effectiveness. What good does killing a few rocketeers do when many of the rockets are set off by timer or remote control and the rockets came day in and day out? It does no good, and you know that, too.

You also know that not a word of protest comes from the people of Gaza. They celebrate killing Jews. And you know that, too. The population of Gaza is part of the extremists who support killing innocent Jews in Sderot.

Your reference to Lebanon, 2006 is another error. The “International community”, led by Olmert-Livni-Peretz pushed for UN Resolution 1701 which called on UN forces to disarm Hizbullah. So how did Hizbullah go from 10,000 rockets to 40,000 rockets? You either don’t know that and are ill informed or you chose to ignore it. In any case, you shouldn’t be spreading you erroneous ideas around.

Contrary to you statement “And there is nothing to be gained from debating which injustice is greater or came first”, there is a whole lot to be gained by understanding who broke the “calm”, who started all of this. Since we both know it was Gaza and the people of Gaza, you wish to make it unimportant so that the side that you really favor (Gaza) is not tarnished by their own actions.

This Muslim assault on Infidels began with the invention of Islam. For you to place blame on Bush is just a smoke screen. To use your term, it is irrelevant.

Like all anti-Israel people, Jew and non-Jew alike, the “solution” is to pressure Israel to give everything and get nothing. Did you forget that Israel left Gaza and the Gazans refrained from attacking until the last Jew left Gaza and locked “The Gates of Hell” behind them? Then, the wonderful, peace loving Gazans opened up with the rockets, mortars, guns and, most beloved of all, the Human Sacrifices known as suicide bombers and homicide bombers.

As friends of Israel, you should, by now, understand that diplomacy and restraint has not stopped Hamas and friends. Neither has restricted military action. Hamas is the duly elected terrorist government of Gaza and like the terrorist Nazi government of Germany it needs to be destroyed. It needs to be replaced by a truly democratic government that wants peace and does not think crucifixion is an acceptable form of the death penalty. I presume that in your ignorance you did not know that Hamas ruled that crucifixion is an acceptable form of the death penalty under Sharia.

Some people see WW-II in shades of grey. If more Jews had been able to fight back against the Nazis, these people would say, “The Jews were traitors! What else could Hitler do but lock them up and kill them?” You may recall that your financier, George Soros, went with his step father to steal the belongings of Jews destined to die in the death camps. He says he has no regrets for doing that.

While I realize that I have no chance of bringing you to reason from your ideological ivory tower, I can make this public and help people understand how evil J Street really is.

Sincerely,

U.S. Intelligence Official about Israel: “This is just the beginning”

U.S. Intelligence official "breaks silence" on Israel situation"

31 December 2008: Northeast Intelligence Network director Doug Hagmann interviewed a highly-placed U.S. intelligence official late yesterday who not only confirmed rumors about escalated and more intensive Israeli military operations against the Muslim terrorists in Gaza, warned of the increasing probability of abandonment of Israel by the U.S. and other Western countries based on what he termed “malicious intelligence.” “Remember that term,” advised this well-placed intelligence official, “you’ll be hearing it again.”

“This is just the beginning,” stated this intelligence official, who wished to remain anonymous. This official stated that the possibility for a much more protracted ground war is more likely today than at any other time in the past, adding that Israel is exercising her right to protect herself from her enemies in Gaza. But there is a catch, noted this official, and a big one at that: Israel could be about to lose the support of the United States.

“I have every reason to believe, based on what I’ve seen at my level of [security] clearance especially over the last several years, that Israel will soon be completely on their own… or worse.” When asked what could be worse than losing the support of the United States, he stated: “when our administration provides more support to Arab countries [with] financial and military aid, undercutting Israel’s defense efforts all while pushing Israel to succumb to the pressure of unreasonable demands designed to end with their political annihilation as a nation.”

According to this official, the U.S. has been slowly proceeding down this road. He cited the 2005 surrender of Gush Katif to the Palestinian Authority as one critical example of the slow dismantlement of Israel as a viable nation. “Despite critical intelligence outlining in every possible manner imaginable that this would be a disastrous move leading to the events we are seeing today, it was done anyway,” he stated.

“We are seeing the very scenario play out today that was outlined in intelligence briefs three and four years ago. Knowing that, there is something very wrong with this picture,” he stated.

He added that Western media is also playing a very big role in the current war in the Middle East, thanks, in part, to carefully worded statements prepared by political officials in Washington. Officials in the current administration, like some previous administrations, submit carefully crafted informational releases to a media that is controlled by those having special interests that are contrary to a legitimate peace in the Middle East.

“The game is rigged. At the highest levels of power in the U.S. and even by some in power in Israel, the game is rigged,” he emphasized.

The next obvious question in this interview was, of course, “how is it rigged?” followed by ”how are you in a position to know?”

This official responded by stating that he has spent the last two decades serving in “an unfortunate position where intelligence and politics meet and often collide.” Now, merely days away from retirement, he stated that he is looking forward to leaving his position after conducting over 20 years of intelligence work “that has been molded and massaged to advance the agendas of a select few.”

He continued: “When an intelligence work product that has been thoroughly and properly vetted is submitted to those in Washington, and I see a completely different and entirely inaccurate product intentionally submitted and aired in the media, only to be told ‘that is the way it must be,’ then I know it’s time for me to leave.”

“It is obvious to me that most Americans don’t understand or don’t care what is actually happening in the Middle East relative to Israel. People don’t understand history, or have been subjected to revisionist history based on lies and more lies. Add to that a media that fails to provide an accurate assessment of what is taking place in Israel, in Gaza, and you end up with a very bad situation for Israel,” stated this source. He added that the disinformation coming and going to and from Washington is getting worse, as is the media bias against Israel.

The events currently taking place in Israel are extremely perilous for Israel and especially perilous for the national security of the United States, according to this source. Contrary to the accepted assessments of “Middle East experts” in the news, our intelligence services have “ample evidence to prove active collusion and support between HAMAS and other terrorist organizations, both Sunni and Shiite. Further, there is a level of Iranian complicity in this war that is not being talked about, or being dismissed out of hand because of the schism between the Sunni and Shia sects,” stated this source.

Comment: This is troublesome beyond words. I hope that all American Jews and other Israeli supporters understand what has been occurring, is occurring and with the new administration starting Jan. 20, I wish you raise a red flag and suggest we begin informing others and insisting upon ongoing support for Israel.

Information to counter the media lies

Humanitarian aide continues to Gaza-Hamas and yes, the United nations are using this to paint a picture that is simply not true. Here is what is truly occurring-please hold all media and the UN accountable-you have the truth now.

Tuesday, Turkey, praising Israeli cooperation, sent in five ambulances and 130 tons of flour. Yesterday, 93 trucks carrying food, medicine and medical supplies donated by Jordan went into Gaza. The same amount went in again today.

Officials of the UN World Food Program contacted the IDF yesterday to say their stockpiles were full and would last for another two weeks; they were not going to be transferring any more food into Gaza for a while. (Remember this when you read about Gazans starving.)

~~~~~~~~~~

But then we have UNRWA: Also yesterday, this agency, which attends to ostensible Palestinian refugees, severely criticized Israel. United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Maxwell Gaylar declared that, "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. The wheat grain warehouses are empty. We need to get that wheat grain in now. This is a must."

"A must." The problem, however, is that Karni could not be opened because there were warnings that terrorists were planning to bomb there. (As I've noted before, UNRWA doesn't seem to care if IDF manning the crossing gets bombed.) Karni has conveyor belts that UNRWA prefers to use. The offer had been made to UNRWA by IDF officials to have them load the wheat grain on to trucks so it could go through Karni. Israel was not refusing to send it in.

I tell this story now because it's a familiar refrain. I've heard the same story in the past. I've been told my IDF spokespersons that UNRWA would rather lament the lack of food than go to the trouble of transferring it in a manner that is less convenient for them; then of course Israel is to blame.

As to this being an emergency: If the World Food Program has stockpiles for two weeks and Turkey sent in 130 tons of flour, what does it mean for the people that UNRWA's grain warehouse is empty?

UNRWA is the organization that loves to dramatize and then fault Israel. I know from my long-term research on this group how much they've been linked with Hamas, and I don't consider this a coincidence.

~~~~~~~~~~

As to whether some of the material is being confiscated by Hamas, undoubtedly this is the case. And there is nothing to be done for it.

What we needn't concern ourselves about is that Hamas's securing of humanitarian aid is going to make a significant difference in our winning the war. We're not trying to starve them out, but rather bomb them to kingdom come.

Courtesy of Arlene kushner

Nizar Rayyan considered successor of Ahmed Yassin

Yaakov Katz, JPost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, 52, a senior Hamas leader and cleric, was killed along with several others on Thursday when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on the eight-story Jabalya apartment building he lived in, the IDF said.

Palestinian medics said that nine people were killed, including two of Rayyan's four wives and four of his 12 children, and around 30 were wounded in the air strike.

A large cloud of smoke billowed above the northern Gaza refugee camp after the attack, and Palestinian sources were quoted by Channel 2 as saying that the air strike was carried out by F-16 fighter jets. t. Rayyan's house was serving as an arms and ammunition warehouse and as a Hamas communications center, a statement released by the government press office said.

In addition, a tunnel was located under the house and was used for the escape of terror operatives.

According to the statement, many secondary explosions were identified as a result of the attack, thus proving that the house was used for storing weaponry.

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.

According to Palestinian sources, his family was warned before the attack but did not leave the building, Army Radio reported.

Hamas spokesperson Mushir al-Masri responded to the attack on Thursday afternoon saying, "This is a new escalation in violence. We are taking every precaution to guard the Hamas leaders in order to ensure the enemy doesn't score further victories."

A Hamas statement also threatened revenge on IDF soldiers who were massed along the border with Gaza, waiting for a signal to invade.

"We are waiting for you to enter Gaza to kill you or make you into Schalits," the group said. IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was seized in a cross-border raid by Hamas-affiliated terrorists 2 1/2 years ago, and remains in captivity in Gaza.

Rayyan was the fourth senior terror figure to be killed in air strikes Thursday as the air force appeared to step up the pressure on the leaders of Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip.

Later on Thursday evening, IAF jets bombed the home of Nabil Amrin, another senior terrorist and the commander of a Hamas battalion.

A series of secondary explosions detected following the air strike confirmed that Amrin's house in the Sheikh Raduan neighborhood of Gaza City contained a large weapon and ammunition cash.

It is yet unclear if Amrin was killed in the attack.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733134624&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Comment: Before anyone starts using the excuse, "He was a man of religion" let us face some facts: he was the military leader of Hamas; his house stored ammunitions and weapons; his house served as major communication center for Hamas war on Israel; he funded, organized and helped carry out many terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. Last fact that many do not allow inside their minds: as a religious Muslim leader he believed and taught death ,terror and violence and did not separate his "religious duties" from his terrorist functions. It is past time that the world come to understand this and accept it!

Hard Truths About the Conflict

Robert J. Lieber
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Washingtonpost.com

After Israel's dramatic airstrikes, the world's media are filled with images of suffering Palestinian women and children, innocent victims in what is being referred to as a renewed cycle of violence. Predictably, both sides are being urged to call a halt, though in much of the Middle East and parts of Europe these demands, and the blame, fall especially heavily upon the Israelis. In America, there is relatively greater understanding and sympathy for Israel, but here, too, concern is growing about the violence.. While the details of the conflict often appear complex, the fundamentals -- hard truths about Gaza, its Hamas rulers and the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- are straightforward. First, despite the tragic deaths of civilians, Israeli's airstrikes have been precisely aimed at Hamas fighters, installations and rocket launchers. Inevitably, the use of force causes injury and death to innocents, but from initial figures announced by U.N. personnel, it appears that more than 80 percent of those killed were Hamas security personnel or other militants -- a ratio that might compare favorably with the use of force by U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. In view of Hamas's practice of deliberately placing missile launchers and other weapons in the midst of densely populated areas, the precision is remarkable. It also reflects the fact that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seek to minimize civilian deaths, while Hamas deliberately targets civilians.

Second, what we are witnessing is not a "cycle" of violence. The IDF airstrikes are a reaction to the unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks against the Jewish state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in the hope that the Palestinians would use the opportunity to prepare for an eventual agreement and a two-state solution in which they would live side by side in peace with Israel. Since then, there have been more than 3,500 such attacks aimed at areas of southern Israel, including over 200 launches since Dec. 19, after Hamas chose not to extend a six-month truce. The expanding range of these missiles now covers an area populated by as many as 700,000 Israelis.

Third, Israel and Hamas have profoundly different aims. Israel has accepted the principle of a two-state solution as the basis for ending the conflict. Hamas, by contrast, rejects this. Its language of "resistance" or "ending occupation" (even though no Israelis, civilian or military, other than the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, have "occupied" Gaza for the past three years) is but a veiled expression of Hamas's actual objective: destroying Israel and creating an Islamist Palestinian state in its place. Credulous observers may see more peaceful purposes, but Hamas leaders periodically reassert these objectives, whether in the Hamas covenant or, in the words of a prominent Hamas cleric, Muhsen Abu 'Ita, speaking on Al-Aqsa TV and calling for "the annihilation of the Jews here in Palestine."

Fourth, any realistic hope of progress toward a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a successful two-state solution requires that Hamas suffer a severe setback in the present fighting in ways that seriously damage its capabilities and weaken its political credibility among Palestinians. Leading officials of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority know this and, notwithstanding their formulaic criticisms of Israel, have explicitly blamed Hamas for the current violence. PLO and Fatah officials fault Hamas for the deaths in Gaza, and an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nimr Hammad, told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar: "The one responsible for the massacres is Hamas, and not the Zionist entity, which in its own view reacted to the firing of Palestinian missiles." Indeed, Hamas's position as a radical, terrorist, adventurist, Islamist organization is underscored by the absence of support for it by Muslim governments other than Iran and its surrogates.

Successful negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis remain highly desirable, but their achievement would require that a single credible Palestinian authority ("one authority, one gun, one law," as Abbas puts it) be able to speak on behalf of its people, represent them in difficult but meaningful negotiations, and possess the capacity as well as the will to enforce its side of a binding agreement. But Hamas represents an alternative source of authority and a direct challenge to the existing Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, while also -- through its non-recognition of Israel, its support for terrorism and its refusal to accept prior negotiated agreements -- rejecting even the most basic prerequisites for negotiations.

Egypt and Jordan have made peace with Israel, not because they embraced the ideas of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, but because they concluded that the effort to destroy the Jewish state had failed and that refusing to come to terms with it was harmful to their national interests. Ultimately, peace will be possible only if most Palestinians and their leaders become convinced that terrorism and violence are a dead end and that they cannot under any circumstances prevail over Israel through the use of force. If today's conflict leaves a seriously weakened and politically damaged Hamas, that result is more likely to enhance the prospects for peace than to weaken them.

Robert J. Lieber, a professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University, is most recently the author of "The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century."

The Sense of Proportion

Andy McCarthy

I want to add two cents to the much needed efforts of Ramesh and Victor (see, e.g., here and here) to correct the perversion of the concept of proportionality. I noted this trend back in the summer of 2006, when it was applied to Israel's military operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Also highly recommended is "Leashing the Dogs of War," a great article by our friends David Rivkin and Lee Casey, published by The National Interest in around autumn 2003. (I don't think it's readily available to non-subscribers through TNI's site, but I bet it's out there someplace.) [SEE UPDATE, below] Also well worth the time is David & Lee's 2004 NRO article, "What Israeli Illegality?"

I have an article coming soon which calls (among other things) for a complete reappraisal of what "international law" means in the context of the ongoing conflict. I argue that there is no international law of warfare because Israel, like the U.S., has wisely declined to join the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. It has therefore not consented to Protocol I's effort to convert warfare from a military campaign into a hyper-legal regulatory exercise that favors terrorist factions over national armed forces.

Most of the world has signed on to Protocol I — including, regrettably, our NATO allies (the Brits ratified it in 1998, the same year Blair's government incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law). It is on the basis of this consensus — among countries that have either abdicated their national-defense responsibilities or stand to gain by Protocol I's tilting of the field toward terrorists and so-called "national liberation" movements — that Israel and the U.S. are now routinely accused of war crimes. But a set of obligations only constitutes "international law" if a country has agreed to be bound by it. Israel and the U.S. have not agreed to be bound by Protocol I. Consequently, there is no law violation in failures by Israel or us to meet its impossible terms (impossible, that is, if the objective of a military campaign is to be victory).

No number of loopy "disproportionate" reports by CNN, MSNBC and their stable of human-rights experts can change this. We should understand, moreover, that these are not simply reports; they are very purposeful efforts to advance a leftist antiwar agenda. If adopted, they would prevent the U.S. and Israel from pursuing vital national interests — especially national defense. We ought to be attacking the premise of these war-crimes smears rather than trying to finesse the matter for the purportedly greater good of harmony within the "international community." A community is a place where everyone is bound by the same law. We don't have one.

UPDATE: Adam White kindly informs me that the Fall 2003 David Rivkin/Lee Casey article from The National Interest can be found here:

Leashing the dogs of war
David B. Rivkin, Jr., Lee A. Casey

WAR HAS always had rules, even if only to protect the dead. In The Iliad, for example, Homer tells us that Achilles' desecration of Hector's corpse angered the gods. Medieval churchmen sought to limit warfare to certain days of the week and evolved an entire just war theology to constrain the use of armed force. By the Age of Reason, international law "publicists" were busily expounding on the subject, and the 20th century opened with a substantial body of law governing both the right to initiate combat (jus ad bellum) and how armed force is applied (jus in bello). These "laws of war" were based both on custom and treaties and were accepted by all of the Great Powers--including the United States. In more recent years, however, fissures have opened between America and Europe over what the laws of war require with respect to when it is permissible to launch an armed attack, how warfare must be waged, and how the relevant legal norms should be enforced. Today, these disagreements are so fundamental that America and its partners in Europe can be said to operate under different legal codes.


The core of this divergence can be traced to efforts--largely initiated during the Vietnam War era--both to leash the dogs of war and make the laws of combat more humane by mimicking the rules governing domestic police activities, in which deadly force is always the last resort and must not be applied in an "excessive" manner. In the process, "humanitarian" concerns were to be elevated above considerations of military necessity and national interest.

These efforts have taken the form of multilateral conventions, such as the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions (Protocol I) or the 1997 Ottawa anti-landmine convention, and of new interpretations of existing treaties (such as the UN Charter), or of customary norms. Although the United States helped to negotiate a number of these treaties, it has steadfastly rejected the most sweeping innovations, favoring instead more traditional jus ad bellum and jus in bello norms. In particular, the United States has clearly asserted that it will use force, where necessary, to defend its interests with or without UN Security Council approval, and has rejected agreements that could be interpreted as contrary to key aspects of U.S. military doctrine.

This reticence is not part of a nefarious American effort to achieve immunity from international law, as critics have sometimes asserted. Unlike many countries, which embrace new international conventions with little intent to comply thereafter, the United States has always taken its obligations seriously--refusing, for example, to ratify treaties it does not plan to implement, whether because of policy or constitutional concerns. What the critics fail to realize is that binding international legal obligations must be based on the consent of the affected states. They cannot be imposed. In eschewing many of the new international legal norms accepted by Europe, the United States has simply acted within its legal rights as an independent sovereign.

Nor does the American refusal to follow Europe's lead in this area stem from any lack of humanitarian zeal. Rather, it can be traced to recognition by the United States that the world remains a dangerous place, and that adoption of a "policing" model for warfare would hamper, if not cripple, America's ability to defend itself--and its allies. Peacetime norms, which guide the conduct of police and security establishments in modern democracies, are far more restrictive than the laws of war because they operate in an environment in which the state has an effective monopoly on the lawful use of force, and in which the damage that any single individual or group can inflict is limited. The laws of war, by contrast, apply in a context in which the state does not have a monopoly on either the lawful right to use force or on the use of the most destructive weapons. War and peace remain different worlds, each with a unique logic and distinct imperatives that require dissimilar rules.

Accepting a "policing" model for warfare would undermine the key tenets of American strategic thinking. For starters, the fundamental American doctrine of "decisive force" would have to go. Any robust use of force is certain to cause some civilian casualties, and, under a model of armed conflict better suited to "managing" problems than winning wars, decisive force would be considered "excessive" and subject to sanction. Similarly, the high value the United States places on force protection would be suspect under these rules. Indeed, one of the principal allegations leveled against the United States is that it has improperly sought to shield its soldiers from the dangers of combat--for example, by operating its aircraft at heights well beyond the range of enemy air defenses, making it difficult in many cases to distinguish between military and civilian targets.

Israel tries to minimize civilian casualties, Hamas tries to maximize them

Jihad Watch

Israel targets an apartment building where weapons are being stored. The Israelis warn people to leave. Hamas tries to get people to stay and act as human shields -- and if they had succeeded in this, of course, they would have trumpeted to the world the deaths of more innocents at the hands of the bloodthirsty Zionists. As Muhammad said, "War is deceit."

Does the mainstream media not know it is being had, or does it just not care?

"Death toll rises as Israel continues Gaza assault," by Dion Nissenbaum and Ahmed Abu Hamda for the McClatchy Newspapers, December 29 (thanks to JCB):

[...] Over the weekend, Kannan's mother received a recorded call on her cell phone from the Israeli military. When she heard who was calling, she hung up. Minutes later, the same call came to the landline in her apartment warning her to leave if she was storing weapons.

In an apartment building across the street from Kannan and her family live four brothers who are Hamas militants. Israeli intelligence called the Hamas members to warn them that they were targets, Kannan said.

Leaders at the local mosque urged neighbors to converge on the apartment building and act as human shields, she added. No one heeded the call, however, so the Hamas militants fled.

While many families have fled the neighborhood, Kannan said that she and her family don't think there's anywhere to hide from the Israeli strikes.

"You are not safe anywhere in Gaza ," Kannan said in a telephone interview from Gaza . "If it's dangerous in our house, it's dangerous in other houses too."

The Israeli military said that it was trying to minimize civilian casualties and noted that Hamas itself has acknowledged that most of those killed were members of its security forces.

On Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that about a third of those killed as of Sunday afternoon — about 90 Palestinians — were civilians.

Israel also allowed 63 truckloads of aid and 1,000 units of blood into Gaza to replenish dangerously low supplies.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki -moon called Monday for an immediate cease-fire, but neither Hamas nor Israel showed any signs of working towards a political compromise.

Israeli government leaders made it clear that they want to contain the rocket fire from Gaza , but have yet to explain when or how this conflict will come to an end.

"The strategy today is to hit Hamas , and to hit Hamas hard," said Mark Regev , a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert . "We believe that will create a new reality, a new security environment in which a quarter million Israelis no longer have to live in fear of rocket attacks."

Regev said that Israel wasn't actively looking to topple Hamas , the Islamist militant group that seized control of the Gaza Strip in a June 2006 military showdown with fighters loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas .

"We have not articulated regime change as a strategic goal," Regev said of Hamas , which was founded in part to destroy Israel.

The internal Palestinian rift has deepened in the past 18 months, and Abbas pointedly blamed Hamas over the weekend for bringing the Israeli attacks on itself by not agreeing to renew a six-month cease-fire that brought temporary and relative calm to the area until it expired earlier this month.

In apparent preparation for sending in troops, Israel Monday declared large swaths of its border with Gaza "closed military zones" that prohibit journalists and others from entering.

Last month, Israel shut its main border crossing with Gaza to all-but-essential medical cases.

As it did during the first phase of Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon , the Israeli public has rallied behind the air strikes. Polls show growing Israeli support for the attacks on Hamas .

That backing could plummet, however, if Israel embarks on a ground offensive that ends with heavy casualties and no clear-cut victory as the one in Lebanon did.

"I don't think Israel is looking for a political solution," said Yossi Kuperwasser , the brigadier general who served as head of the Israeli military's intelligence branch during the 2006 war. "Israel is looking for a situation where Hamas , because of its own considerations, decides not to shoot."

(Hamda, a McClatchy special correspondent, reported from Gaza City .)

What kind of barbaric culture is this?

Hamas women vow to become "martyrdom-seekers" by detonating among the "apes and pigs"

As Ibn Taymiyya demonstrated some 700 years past, "Defensive warfare is the most critical form of warfare, [since we are] warding off an invader from [our] sanctities and religion. It is a unanimously accepted duty. After belief, there is no greater duty than to repulse the invading enemy who corrupts faith and the world. There are no rules or conditions for this; he must be expelled by all possible means. Our learned ulama and others have all agreed to this. It is imperative to distinguish between repulsing the invading, oppressive infidel [Defensive Jihad] and pursuing him in his own lands [Offensive Jihad]."

In other words, after faith itself, nothing is more obligatory to Muslims than "repelling" invading infidels -- which, of course, is precisely how Israel's actions are being rationalized. Moreover, there are "no rules or conditions" involved: i.e., suicide-bombings are unquestionably valid. The jihad against Israel is therefore obligatory to all Muslims -- including women and children; the latter need not even receive permission from their fathers, which may be required before going on an offensive jihad.

"Hamas Women Vow to Become 'Martyrdom-Seekers' and Blow Themselves Up Among 'the Apes and Pigs,'" from MEMRI, December 31 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Following are excerpts from footage of Hamas female martyrdom-seekers in Gaza, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 30, 2008.

Masked woman clad in explosives belt: "I, the martyrdom-seeker Umm Suheib, have dedicated myself for the sake of Allah, and for the sake of redeeming my family, from which I have lost eight martyrs so far. I swear by Allah that I will turn my body parts into a fire that will burn the occupation soldiers, if they move towards my house.

"My beloved people, if Allah supports you, no one will be able to overcome you. We are confident of the support of Allah. There are thousands of martyrdom-seeking women like me, waiting for the occupier, in order to avenge these massacres. I pledge to my people that I will continue on the path of my family, and avenge the widows and the orphans. My people on the front-line, do not wait for any Arab president or king, but direct your appeal to Allah, the King of Kings. We are loyal to our oath, and will meet, Allah willing, in the paradise of eternity."

Masked woman holding rifle: "Allah said: 'Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can, to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your own enemies.' We convey this message to the Israeli army high command, which bombards our sons day and night: We, the martyrdom-seeking women of Palestine, mothers as well as girls, are waiting impatiently for them to come. Allah willing, we will make them taste bitterness, if they move even an inch into our beloved Gaza Strip.

"I am the mother of two martyrs, and I will sacrifice myself as a martyr, Allah willing. I will turn my blood into bombs that will burn them. In every Palestinian home, a time bomb will await them. There will be days of battle between us, and this will be our opportunity to avenge our sons whom they have bombed, and the blood of the 400 martyrs who were killed in the headquarters. I am waiting for them.

My honorable people, have more forbearance and steadfastness. Your daughters march by your side on the path of Jihad and martyrdom."

Second masked woman holding a rifle: "If one of our men dies, a thousand men will set out in his place. We, the women, will set out. We are the granddaughters of Yassin, Al-Bana, and Al-Qassam. We are all the daughters of Palestine, the daughters of steadfast Gaza. We will set out, booby-trapped. From every home, a bomb will set out, and it will explode among the sons of Zion. We are no less than Fatima Al-Najjar and Rim Al-Riyashi [two Palestinian women who blew themselves up among Israelis]. We will blow ourselves up among those traitors, those apes and pigs."

Comment: Words, dialogue have no meaning for this kind of thinking-wish it were not so-this must be defeated.

Operation Cast Lead -- Update No. 3

IICC
Overview

1. On December 29, the third day of Operation Cast Lead, Israeli Air Force raids continued on targets of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. The targets of the attacks included military installations, Hamas's administration symbols, terrorist operatives, and arms and ammunition. The number of people killed in the attacks, in our assessment, exceeds 350, the great majority of them terrorist operatives . 2. On December 29, the extent of Hamas's rocket fire and mortar shelling became greater, the organization having clearly recovered from the initial shock of the Israeli air raid. A total of 57 rocket landings and 15 mortar shell hits were identified on the third day of the fighting. Of particular note were 122-mm long range rocket landings in the city of Ashdod (for the first time) and in other distant population centers that have not been targeted before ( Ofakim and the Yavne region, as well as such cities as Sderot, Ashkelon , and Netivot). On December 30, a rocket even landed in the heart of Beersheba , the capital of the Negev . Evidently, despite the damage it took, Hamas still has the ability and willingness to launch a constant stream of rockets and mortar shells on Israel , including improved 122-mm Grad rockets.

3. With that in mind, it appears that Operation Cast Lead may continue and even expand in order to achieve the target set forth by the Israeli leadership, namely, a significant, long-lasting improvement in the security situation of western Negev cities and towns.

Attacks on terrorist targets on December 29

Overview

4. On December 29, the third day of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Air Force attacked dozens of facilities belonging to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. The targets attacked included headquarters and military installations, training camps, rocket launch sites, and buildings used by the Hamas administration throughout the Gaza Strip. During the night, the Israeli Navy joined the activity by attacking several terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, including outposts, training camps, and positions of the Hamas naval force. Since the beginning of the operation, the Air Force made about 400 sorties, hitting over 390 targets of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations.

5. As at the morning of December 29, more than 350 Palestinians were killed and over 1500 were injured during Operation Cast Lead. The vast majority of the casualties are terrorist operatives who were staying in headquarters, bases, and installations used by Hamas and the other terrorist organizations. Some of the casualties are civilians accidentally killed inside or in the vicinity of terrorist targets. 1

6 . According to the IDF Spokesman, the targets attacked included: some 30 rocket and mortar shell launch sites, a truck loaded with long-range Grad rockets, launch squads, a rocket launcher, five weapon production sites and weapon silos, about ten Hamas buildings and outposts, about five groups of terrorist operatives, and a terrorist center operating in a mosque in the northern Gaza Strip. Also hit were senior terrorist operatives, including a senior PIJ commander, Ziad Abu Tir, and one of the leaders of the Hamas rocket unit, Ayman Siam .

Attack on a truck loaded with Grad rockets

7. The Air Force attacked a Hamas truck loaded with dozens of Grad rockets in the Jabalia region (northern Gaza Strip). The truck was hit and the rockets exploded. It appears that Hamas wanted to transport the rockets from a building in which they were stored to a safe location, fearing that their present location would come under attack by the IDF, or in order to bring them closer to launch sites where they could be fired on Israeli population centers (IDF Spokesman website, December 29).

Military and security infrastructure, Hamas's dministration facilities and institutions

8. What follows is a summary of the information that appeared on Palestinian media about military, security, and administration targets of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations attacked during the third day of Operation Cast Lead:

a. A Hamas administration office compound in the neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa, western Gaza City . Three seven-story buildings were bombed in the attack, killing 10 and injuring about 40.

b. The Hamas Prisoners Office headquarters. An Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative named Nasser Hamouda was killed in the attack.

c. The seat of the Hamas Interior Ministry, which formerly served as the preventive security headquarters.

d. The Naval Police headquarters in Nusseirat.

e. Tunnels in the Rafah region.

f. The Information Office of the Salah al-Din Brigades, the terrorist-operative wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, near the legislative council building in Gaza City .

g. A lathe used for weapons production in the central Gaza Strip.

h. The air defense service headquarters in the southern Gaza City .

i. The air defense headquarters in western Khan Younes.

j. The house of a senior leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Ra'ed Saad.

k. The house of a senior leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Umar Mushtaha, in the Gaza City neighborhood of Al-Shajaiyya.

A poster produced by the Jerusalem Battalions
A poster produced by the Jerusalem Battalions, the terrorist wing of the Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, commemorating the death of the organization's operatives, the most senior
of which (on the right) is Ziad Abu Tir (Jerusalem Battalions website, December 30).

m. The house of a senior operative of the Hamas military wing, Maher Zaqout. Seven people were killed and 30 were injured in the attack.

n. The house of an operative of the Hamas military wing, Nour Barake, in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younes.

o. The house of a senior operative of the Hamas military wing, Ayman Siam . Two people were killed and about 35 were injured in the attack.

p. The Al-Qarara police building in Gaza City .

q. The Foreign Ministry building of the Hamas administration in the Gaza government compound.

r. A Hamas security installation in Jabalia.

s. The security compound headquarters in the central Gaza Strip.

t. The Ummah University for Military Studies in western Gaza City , which belongs to the Hamas administration's Interior Ministry.

u. An Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades training camp in the central Gaza Strip.

v. An Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades outpost in Al-Nusseirat.

w. Buildings belonging to the Islamic University.

x. The naval police headquarters in Gaza City .

y. The police station in the central Gaza Strip .

Hamas's response: intensive rocket fire on Israel

9. After two days of initial shock, Hamas finally recovered. On December 29, the third day of the operation, massive rocket and mortar shell attacks were launched, including long-range rockets which hit Ashkelon and, for the first time, downtown Ashdod , the Yavne region, and the city of Ofakim .

10 . A total of 57 rockets and 15 mortar shells landed during December 29. What follows is a summary of the major hits:

a . A rocket hit a construction site in Ashkelon in the morning, killing Hani al-Mahdi, a construction worker from the Israeli Bedouin village of Aroer . The rocket also injured 11 civilians, one of them severely, two moderately, and the rest lightly. Other rockets which landed in the city of Ashkelon caused stress-related injuries .

The construction site in Ashkelon in which Hani al-Mahdi was killed
The construction site in Ashkelon in which Hani al-Mahdi was killed
(Foreign Ministry, December 29, photo by Edi Israel )

b. Around 21:00 , a long-range rocket landed (for the first time) in downtown Ashdod , killing Irit Shitrit, who sought shelter at a bus station which was then hit by the rocket. Eight other civilians were injured, one of them severely (Irit Shitrit's sister), two lightly, and the rest suffered stress-related injuries.

c . At 21:45 , two mortar shells landed in the brigade headquarters near Nachal Oz, killing First Staff Sgt. Lutfi Nasraldin, 38, from the Israeli Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmel. Five soldiers were injured, one severely and four lightly.


11. On the backdrop of the massive fire, Ashraf Zaid, the head of the Hamas public relations committee, said in an interview to Hamas's Sawt al-Quds radio (December 29) that Hamas “digested the blow and contained it”. He added that Hamas still had a lot of rockets to give to the Palestinian people. “… The rockets pierce the Arab silence… and strike at the heart of the entity [ Israel ] in Ashkelon, Ashdod , and the Negev . The enemy must expect a constant stream of Qassam surprises…”

12. Since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, a total of 132 rockets landed in Israeli territory and 64 mortar shells were fired on Israel . As a result, four civilians were killed and 31 were injured. 2 Also, the fire caused dozens of stress-related injuries.


13. On December 29, Israel allowed the crossing of more than 60 trucks with humanitarian assistance for Gaza Strip residents. Additional trucks are scheduled to cross on December 30. Also, Palestinians with urgent humanitarian problems continue to cross through the Erez Crossing.


14. After the Palestinians breached the Egyptian border, Egypt sent reinforcements to the border area to prevent similar incidents from happening again (Al-Arabiyya TV, December 29). Also, Egypt apprehended more than 150 Palestinians who came to Egypt illegally when the border fence was breached on December 28 (Al-Youm al-Sabe' news portal, December 29). The detainees were deported back to the Gaza Strip on December 29. On December 29, confrontations continued between Palestinians and Egyptian security forces along the Gaza Strip border. The Palestinians fired in all directions, threw Molotov cocktails, and set fires along the border fence. Five Egyptian police officers were injured in the confrontations (AFP, December 29).

15 . On December 29 in the afternoon, the Rafah Crossing was opened and Egypt allowed the passage of several dozen trucks with aid for the Gaza Strip. The aid came from Egypt , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , and Libya . Also, dozens of injured people started to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment in Egypt (Arab media, December 29).

Food shipment at the Rafah Crossing
Food shipment at the Rafah Crossing on December 29
(Al-Hayat al-Jadida, December 30)

16. On December 29, an aid plane of the Iranian Red Crescent landed in Egypt . It was reported that another plane was on its way (ISNA, December 29). The Iranian aid ship Iran-Shahed left the Bandar Abbas port on December 29 en route to Jordan 's port of Aqaba (Mehr News Agency, December 29). Iran announced that two more ships would embark soon (ISNA, December 29).

17. On December 29, Syria said that an aid convoy with food and medical supplies was on its way to the Gaza Strip (Syrian News Agency, December 29). Jordan also said that a convoy with food and medical supplies was on its way. A senior Jordanian official stated that Jordan intended to send aid convoys on a weekly basis (Jordanian News Agency, December 29).

The ship Dignity prevented from arriving



18. On the night of December 29-30, the ship called Dignity left Cyprus once again on its way to the Gaza Strip. Approaching the Gaza Strip, it was asked to identify itself by Israeli Navy vessels. It did not respond and made a sharp turn, colliding into the Israeli ship and slightly damaging both. After the collision, the ship responded and started turning back towards Cyprus . Israeli Navy vessels escorted the ship on its way back to Cyprus , offering their assistance in case of malfunctions (IDF Spokesman, December 30).

The ship Dignity
The ship Dignity before leaving Cyprus on December 29 (Al-Jazeera, December 29)

Protests and violations of public order in Judea and Samaria

19. Anti-Israeli protests continue in Judea and Samaria . Several demonstrations were held in Hebron ; the demonstrators confronted the Palestinian Authority security services as well as the Israeli security forces. Several demonstrators were lightly injured. In the village of Husan , near Bethlehem , demonstrators confronted IDF forces. Other demonstrations took place in Jericho and near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Salam Fayad's government announced that it would not prevent protest rallies, but that it would not let them near “clash sites” with IDF to prevent any more Palestinian casualties (Wafa News Agency, December 29).

Stabbing attacks against Israelis

Israel

20. Kiryat Sefer: a Palestinian doing construction work at a house in the village of Kiryat Sefer , near Modi'in, went on a stabbing spree on the morning of December 29. First he stabbed the contractor, who was severely injured; then he stabbed the couple who owned the house, following which he stabbed two passers-by on the street. The terrorist was shot dead by a medical volunteer who happened on the scene.

Judea and Samaria

21. Kedumim: a Palestinian who arrived in the Samaria village of Kedumim stabbed one of the residents in his neck, lightly injured him, and fled from the scene. The IDF began searching for the terrorist. Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the stabbing (Ma'an News Agency, December 29).

A selection of reactions

Hamas

22. Top Hamas's Gaza leaders, such as Mahmoud al-Zahar, Sa'id Siam, and Khalil al-Hayya, have been keeping “media silence” since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, fearing that they might be hit by the IDF. Connection with the media is maintained mostly by Hamas spokesmen: Fawzi Barhoum, Mushir al-Masri, and Sami Abu Zuhri. Reactions to the operation from the Hamas leadership in Damascus , members of the Political Bureau, are also constantly heard.

23. Following are several messages by Hamas spokesmen in the past two days:

a. Hamas can protect itself against an Israeli ground assault. Entering the Gaza Strip is going to be a “dangerous adventure” for the IDF, and it will result in the deaths of many (Palestinian) civilians (Mushir al-Masri, Monte Carlo Radio, December 29).

b. Hamas's conditions for a renewed lull in the fighting: Khaled Mash'al, the head of the Political Bureau, responded to an appeal by the President of Senegal, saying that Hamas never objected to the lull in the fighting but that it had clear demands and conditions. It demanded the cessation of Israel's “aggression” in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, the opening of the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and the opening of the Rafah Crossing (Muhammad Nazzal, member of the Hamas Political Bureau, in an interview to the Russian Arabic-language TV station RT, December 29). Hamas expressed its willingness to renew the lull in the fighting, but it will not do it for free but rather according to conditions which everybody is aware of (Muhammad Nazzal, Al-Arabiyya TV, December 29).

c. Severe lashing out against Abu Mazen: Abu Mazen, “the godfather of the Palestinian issue”, “is dancing on the wounds of Gaza Strip residents”. His invitation to a dialogue with Hamas is unacceptable, because “Abu Mazen is no longer Palestinian, he is not a patriot, and has nothing to do with the resistance anymore…” (Fawzi Barhoum, Al-Aqsa TV, December 29).

Syria : anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric

24. The Syrian propaganda continued the attacks on Israel , intertwined with anti-Semitic expressions. Israel 's attacks in the Gaza Strip were described as a holocaust, pogrom, massacre, and a war of mass destruction (Tishreen, December 29). Also, the Syrian propaganda attacked Egypt and Saudi Arabia, without mentioning them explicitly, accusing them of abetting the “Israeli crime” and promising that history and the peoples would not forgive their governments.

25. As in the past, the Syrian propaganda integrated anti-Semitic expressions in the anti-Israeli campaign. Thus, for example, an article in the newspaper Al-Thawra noted that “the despicable racism is drawn from the guidelines of the Talmud and the principles of the Zionist movement…” (Al-Thawra, article by Hassan Hassan, December 29). Israel is depicted as “a Zionist-Nazi gang”, “the new Nazism”, “a racist entity”. The Jews are depicted as “the same Jews throughout history… warmongers and terrorism producers, they are the world's most bloodthirsty and racist people” (ibid).

1 Al-Arabiyya TV reported that according to UNRWA information (as at December 29), 51 civilians were killed since the beginning of the operation (meaning that the rest of the victims are not civilians but rather terrorist operatives). Hamas, which controls the media in the Gaza Strip, conceals or plays down the extensive damage caused to the military terrorist infrastructure and to terrorist operatives.

2 On December 30, more rockets were fired, including one which landed in a Beersheba kindergarten in the evening.

If I hear one more time we are intentionally murdering civilians I'll...

Hamas Hiding in Maternity Wards‏

According to YNET, (http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3647934,00.html
the head of Israeli's intelligence reported today that Hamas terrorists are hiding in hospitals and maternity wards, wearing the
clothes of doctors and nurses. They are moving rocket launchers into crowded residential neighborhoods, and thus their success in shooting over 45 rockets into Israeli towns this morning alone. The difficulty of rooting out terrorists who hide behind newborn babies and cancer patients is hard for a civilized country like Israel to deal with. Israel allowed 100 truckloads of medical supplies and basic food items to enter Gaza yesterday, along with five new ambulances donated by Turkey. This morning, the Gazans requested that Israeli hospitals take in two small children injured in the
hostilities. Israel allowed them in, even as Hamas continued to bomb.

Mr. Olmert and Ms. Livni have reportedly overruled our Defense Minister's desire to cave in and give a 48 hour respite for
"humanitarian" purposes.

In what war did you ever hear of such a proposal? Where were the humanitarian requests for "respites" from Hamas rockets on our population centers from France in the last six years?

Ehud Barak, our former wishy-washy noodle of a Prime Minister, who was practically begging to sign the country away to Arafat, has a nickname in Israel. He's known as Ehud "Barach" meaning "to run away." He ran away in Lebanon, leading to the last Lebanese War, and now he is getting to run away from Gaza.

We can only hope Israeli voters run away from him in the upcoming elections.

Comment: I ask that you not accept from anyone, media, ME "expert", government spokesperson, academic "authority" the notion that Israel intentionally kills civilians. Hamas, by the way Hizzbollah and Fatah also, use human shields-they do not care about their civilians-wrap your minds around this truth. I do not accept anything less than a willingness to stand up to the lies being told. Furthermore, the Western media must have their feet held to this same fire. I just heard a CBS report-pure nonsense and no one speaks up. This is over-write letters, send me a few lines, I'll post them, start standing up for us-thank you-doc

Israel at War: A Primer

Honest Reporting

Israel has launched a major military operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Over the coming days and beyond, Israel will come under intense pressure both in the mainstream media and in online forums and the blogosphere. HonestReporting presents a guide, including images, video footage and source materials to help explain the current situation and Israel's actions. Defending Israeli citizens from terrorist fire

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A quarter of a million Israeli citizens have been living under incessant terror attacks from the Gaza Strip with thousands of missiles fired over the past eight years.
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These missiles have been described as "home made" by the media. They are, in fact, deadly. Hamas has in its possession longer range Katyushas and Grad-type missiles which can cause devastation such as that on Monday 29 December as one Israeli was killed and 14 injured in a Grad attack on Ashkelon.

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Israel left Gaza in 2005, giving Palestinians the chance to run their own lives. Despite this, more than 6300 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel since then.
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During the past year alone, more than 3000 rockets and mortars have been launched into Israel.
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Since the end of a formal ceasefire (during which terror attacks continued) with Hamas came to an end on Dec. 19, more than 170 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israeli civilians including a barrage of some 80 missiles on Dec. 24 alone.
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As US President-elect Obama stated during a visit to Sderot five months ago, "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."
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No other country in the world would have exercised the amount of restraint that Israel has shown for the past several years without responding.

Hamas bears responsibility

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The deterioration in the situation is the direct result of Hamas policy. It violated the calm, is firing against and attacking Israeli citizens, and is investing all its resources in arming itself and gathering power.
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If Hamas would renounce the path of terror, there would be no need for the Israeli action. Quiet will be answered with quiet, but terror will elicit a response.
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"We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there." - US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice
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"We talked to them [Hamas] and we told them 'please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop' so that we could have avoided what happened." - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
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"For quite some time, Egypt has been warning. Whoever tried to confuse the understand of [ignore] this warning, must bear the responsibility. The Prime Minister of Israel warned the Hamas and said: "You must stop, otherwise we will take measures in response." In response to what? To not renewing the calm, to the rocket fire. Just before the arrival of [Israeli Foreign Minister] Livni to Egypt, 60 rockets were fired from Gaza!" - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit

Israel targets Hamas and the terrorist infrastructure

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The goal of the Israeli military action is to strike the growing infrastructure of terror and ability of Hamas and its allied organizations to launch missiles and mortars at Israeli citizens and carry out terror attacks.
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Hamas has used the ceasefire to massively arm itself with increasingly sophisticated weapons to expand the range of the threat against Israeli civilians.
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Hamas has demonstrated its increased threat as the Ashdod area was hit by rockets, marking the northernmost point where Hamas rockets have reached, more than 40km north of Gaza.

Israel does not target Palestinian civilians

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The terrorist organizations work out of the Palestinian population centers and cynically exploit them, so the responsibility for Palestinian civilians getting hurt rests on their shoulders. Israel, for its part directs its activity at terrorist elements and does its utmost to refrain from harming the innocent.
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Those homes and buildings which are used for storing weapons caches and manufacturing weaponry are legitimate military targets.
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The high casualty figures being fed to the media from (unreliable) Palestinian medical sources do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians. The vast majority of those killed in IDF actions have been terrorists. Hamas terrorists do not always wear uniforms to distinguish themselves from the general population.
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As The Times of London reports: "Radio stations ordered all members of the security forces, who have borne the brunt of the attack, to slip into civilian clothes, stay away from their bases and avoid congregating in groups to escape death from above."
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At the time of writing, even the United Nations is citing some 50 civilian deaths out of more than 300 Palestinian casualties.
*

Hamas TV has acknowledged this morning that the vast majority of those killed are from the Hamas military. A news ticker running repeatedly from 10:00 AM announced:

"More than 180 Palestinian policemen were killed including the [Police] Commander, General Tawfik Jaber."

In the background Hamas TV is repeatedly broadcasting the same scenes of dozens of bodies of the uniformed Hamas soldiers who were killed in Israel's first attack Saturday when Israel hit a Hamas officer's course graduation ceremony. (Source: Palestinian Media Watch)

*

In stark contrast to Israel, Hamas actively celebrates targeting Israeli civilians. A video on Hamas TV Sunday morning blended pictures of Hamas fighters shooting at Israel with pictures of injured Israelis and medical evacuation scenes. In addition, the visuals include pictures of skulls dripping with blood, captioned: "Let them taste violent death". Other narrations and texts include:
"Send them to Hell! Tear them to pieces!"
"Send them to Hell, Qassam missile!" (Source: Palestinian Media Watch)

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Israel has collected intelligence on specific targets for the past year and has not indiscriminately attacked the Gaza Strip. For example, during the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas took control over many facilities in Gaza, including this building and the "Palestinian Prisoner Tower" located in southern Gaza City. The facility was being used as a central operational facility for Hamas security operations and as a weapons arsenal. Hamas offices were also located inside this building and and additionally, large amounts of weapons are also stored inside. The building was used only by Hamas and was not a residential building by any means.

Preventing a humanitarian crisis

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Israel has continued to allow humanitarian aid to pass through Gaza's border crossings despite Hamas's rocket and mortar attacks, including upon the crossings themselves.
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23 trucks bearing medical supplies, basic food commodities and other humanitarian goods passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza beginning at 10.30am on Sunday morning (28 Dec).
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"As the prime minister said yesterday, we are not at war with the Palestinian people, but with the Hamas terrorists, and therefore we are bringing in the goods for the Palestinian people," said IDF Major Peter Lerner, Defense Ministry Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories.
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Three humanitarian aid agencies are sending goods into the Gaza Strip: UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), WFA (World Food Agency) and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross). All three agencies were notified Saturday evening that they would be allowed to send as many truckloads of supplies into the region as they could muster. "We didn't place any limit on the number of trucks," Lerner said. "There are only 30 truckloads because that was what they were able to get ready for today."

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Israel also plans to allow some Palestinians wounded in Saturday's offensive on Hamas to enter Israel to receive medical treatment. Meanwhile, Hamas is preventing wounded Palestinians from crossing into Egypt to receive treatment.

Further sources

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International Law & the Fighting in Gaza, Justus Reid Wiener & Avi Bell, JCPA, Justus Reid Wiener & Avi Bell, JCPA (PDF format)
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Did Israel Use "Disproportionate Force" in Gaza?, Dore Gold, JCPA

What can you do?

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Please use the above to counter some of the misreporting and disinformation that is already appearing in both the mainstream media and online.
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Download our free Internet Activism Guide to help you respond to media bias online. As the Internet grows as a battleground for Israel’s legitimacy, we bring you the tools you need to join the fight. Our 24-page booklet covers the fundamental principles of online activism.

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Join the Facebook group "I Support the Israel Defense Forces in Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza".

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Keep updated on the latest events through Israeli news sites such as The Jerusalem Post, YNet News and Ha'aretz as well as Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Forward this communique and encourage your friends and family to subscribe to HonestReporting to receive regular updates on media bias and where and how to respond, particularly during this crisis period.



HonestReporting. com

HAMAS H.Q. BOMBED; POWER LINE, TOO

December 31, 2008 Posted by Joe at 8:30 AM
http://www.powerlineblog.com

Talk about disproportionate response. Just an hour or so after Power Line posted a series of videos from the Israeli Defense Forces--videos that, as Scott discovered, YouTube had pulled--we experienced a Denial-of-Service attack from a cabal of a half-dozen servers in the U.S. The attack sought to make Power Line and the videos we are hosting inaccessible by overloading our server. Our data center promptly registered the attack, and then defeated it by placing Power Line behind an advanced computer called a Cisco Guard. This device recognize malicious Internet traffic and defeats it. Here, in rough strokes, is what a DOS attack looks like:



Yet it does not strike one as quite right that Islamists can will good content out of existence, does it? So we've placed the IDF videos on a Content Delivery Network, which is a network of hundreds of computers throughout the world. When you click on a video, the version nearest you will be delivered to your computer. This will make these videos, and all future PL videos, very easy to watch. The decentralized nature of the network will make them difficult to attack.

And, thanking our assailants for the motivation, here is another action film that the IDF provided to us. It displays the Hamas Government Headquarters in Gaza, which became the receiving end of the IAF's "Operation Cast Lead." In the same bombing run on which the smuggling tunnels were destroyed, so was this.