Riddle: 6 ships sail to Gaza. On entering territorial waters they’re stopped by Israeli Navy ships. 5 ships are mounted by soldiers quietly and with passive resistance. All the activists on those ships are well and everything is fine. 1 ship mounted by soldiers and has 7 soldiers wounded, some hard, 9 passengers dead and 20 passengers wounded.
What is the difference between the 5 ships and that 1 single ship? Maybe cause what happened on the other ships was passive resistance, on on the one ship, well, this happened:
Still look like peaceful activists? Sweet, caring people only worried about the situation in Gaza?
The soldiers were attacked by sticks, iron bars and chairs. Very clear in the film. At the beginning they’ve tried to defend themselves with the PAINTBALL GUNS they were given as a non-lethal weapon. Only after soldiers were badly wounded, thrown off the ship to a lower deck and apparently were SHOT at (2 of the soldiers suffer guns wounds) that the commander gave an order to use live ammo from the handguns they had as emergency.
I was visiting a friend yesterday when PM Olmert and DM Barak went on TV to announce what seems like a really weird cease fire. I understand no one really wants to talk with Hamas and give it legitimacy. Egypt, Jordan and Saudia didn’t even come to Doha for the Arab “summit” because Hamas-Damascus was there. But after the very successful operation Israel had done in Gaza, we could have gotten better terms.
At the current situation, Hamas is left as the government, but is not obliged to stop the hostilities. And then even announce they will keep at it. Right after the announcment of the cease fire 8 rockets were fired at Beer-Sheva.
Livni and Rice signing agreement against smuggling. Photo: AP
Just some (very) late night thoughts. From what I read, the cease fire formulating is going to be a bit complicated. Basically, Israel is signing agreements with other parties, that will in turn, have agreements with Hamas. Israel also do not trust Hamas (and rightly so, as they declare they oppose a cease fire) and put measures in place to deny it from smuggling in new arms.
It still needs to be seen how this whole thing will work out as Israel decided not to completely destroy Hamas, and let it continue to rule Gaza de-facto, only much weaker. From the very few things I’ve heard, the Palestinians in Gaza are desperate and afraid. they don’t care about Hamas, they don’t care about Israel, they just want quiet. Continue reading ‘The day after?’
I guess when you’re not really in Gaza it’s much easier to claim ‘the resistance is winning’. The hopefully-soon-assassinated Haled Mashaal and his gang arrived to the Arab meeting in Doha and declared ‘the resistance is only a little hurt but will not stop the fight’.
"No cease fire! We're winning! Israel is on it's knees!"
The reason they really reject the cease fire is that they’re not willing to have the cease fire last longer than a year. As in the truce, they only want a short break to rearm and continue the fight. Hamas claimed previously that they cannot sign more than a tactical temporary cease fire with enemies as Islam doesn’t allow it. Continue reading ‘Hamas Damascus refuses Cease Fire’
Well, cease fire talks or not, the coming weeked is shaping to be no different than the previous ones. In the past 30 minutes we had 34 sirens.
15:40 – While I was writing this post there was another siren. we ran to the secured room and heard 2 big booms not that far from us.
In Ashdod, where many of my close family live, 5 rockets had landed with direct hits in buildings. One was seriously wounded and a few people wounded lightly. In Kiryat Gat they also have 3 people wounded. Direct hits over there as well.
When they showed on the TV the place of one of the falls in Ashdod we suddenly realized it’s near my grandmother house (which passed away less than 2 years ago).
For all I care these are the dieing quivers of Hamas.
Holy Moses. So this is what’s going on in Anti-Israel demonstrations in London.
Radical Islamic mouthpiece Azzam Tamimi joins with British MP George Galloway in a profoundly hateful speech to a large crowd that screams its support for Hamas: (hat tip: LGF)
Two videos. One shows how Hamas deliberately targets civilians and use human shields – even kids,and one shows how IDF makes an effort (which doesn’t always work, that’s true) to avoid hitting non-combatants even if there are Hamas terrorist among them.
I’ve said it here and there to friends and in comments, but I think it got to a point I really want to state it. Israel is currently experiencing a wave of OVER patriotism.
As you can see from a fast look on my blog, I’m not against the operation in Gaza. Far from it. However, in a democratic country it is absolutely essential there will be voices for and against most of the things, especially fighting. Some of my friends are against the war, each of his/her own reason and while I disagree with them, I think it’s very important they will be able to state their opinion freely. Even loudly.
Yes, and then the world cry “evil Israel” hit schools:
After neutralizing the bomb the soldiers discovered weapons inside the school, including RPG launchers, grenades and AK-47 assault rifles. Since everybody claim Schools are not used by Hamas and should not be targeted, I’m left to assume these weapons are teaching accessories. Now, which is worse?
I hate the numbers game but if Hamas-supporters keep at it, maybe this will chill them down a bit. Until now we only got dead/wounded numbers from Hamas’ controlled Gaza. According to Hamas around 900 are dead and 3000+ are wounded. Hamas, however, fail to mention how many are really civilians and how many are its own armed men.
All the numbers running around have one source – Hamas controlled ministry of Health. And we all know how reliable they are. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying there are no innocent men, women and children that have died or injured. I’m saying you can’t really know how many. Palestinians had a history of inflating numbers of civilians and reducing number of their own militants when reporting dead/wounded.
Based on intelligence and information obtained by the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, the IDF has determined that at least 400 of those killed are known Hamas operatives. The IDF further believes that among the remaining 500, at least half are Hamas operatives.
The army said that a during Monday’s operations, a group of terror operatives opened fire at ground forces from a mosque. The IAF then attacked the squad, and troops then searched the mosque, discovering Kassam rockets and mortar shells.
The grinding urban battle unfolding in the densely populated Gaza Strip is a war of new tactics, quick adaptation and lethal tricks.
Hamas, with training from Iran and Hezbollah, has used the last two years to turn Gaza into a deadly maze of tunnels, booby traps and sophisticated roadside bombs. Weapons are hidden in mosques, schoolyards and civilian houses, and the leadership’s war room is a bunker beneath Gaza’s largest hospital, Israeli intelligence officials say.
Unwilling to take Israel’s bait and come into the open, Hamas militants are fighting in civilian clothes; even the police have been ordered to take off their uniforms. The militants emerge from tunnels to shoot automatic weapons or antitank missiles, then disappear back inside, hoping to lure the Israeli soldiers with their fire.
A very interesting piece (hebrew link) by Prof. Ben Ami about why does the world is almost completely ignoring bigger conflicts than the Israel-Arab one (Sri Lanka crisis – 70,000 dead, for example), but keep being so interested in the conflict here.
“I always asked the Palestinians if they truly believe that the world takes an interest in them. After all, when Arabs kill Arabs, it doesn’t provoke worldwide protests. If the Egyptians or Jordanians were attacking them, would anyone in the world be up in arms?”
“Only when Jews are involved does public interest rise, and this is because there is a deeply entrenched global syndrome regarding Jews,” Ben-Ami stated.
The past two weeks I’ve been bugging Lisa Goldman to post on her blog about the Gaza War. Lisa is one of my favorites both as a person and as a blogger, even though our opinions don’t always match.
Lisa had finally posted in her blog a post entitled Haniyeh and his Israeli sisters: wartime tales from Gaza and Israel. It’s a relatively long post touching a lot of issues – The anti-war demonstration Lisa took part in, a reflect on journalists and bloggers who opposes the war on the Israeli side and a conversation she had with a journalist friend that lives with his family in Gaza.
Through the post Lisa conveys her despise to Hamas and his action, while stating that the Israeli offensive in Gaza is result in no achievements but strengthening Hamas.
Lisa wrote another post in the Z-Word Blog called Gaza: An Alternative View where she mainly write in detail why she believes the current operation is futile.
I’m writing my detailed response all trough my work day so I’ll probably be able to post it tomorrow. But go ahead and read Lisa’s posts. While I might not agree with everything she write, Lisa’s post are always intelligent and interesting.
This was shown on TV apparently (I didn’t bother to get a TV set in my apartment) and made many people understand how dangerous are these “rockets that cause no damage”.
This man walked on the street in Ashkelon, where I’m from, and almost hit a man directly. This is what we’re dealing with for the PAST YEAR.
I hate the numbers game but if Hamas-supporters keep at it, maybe this will chill them down a bit. Until now we only got dead/wounded numbers from Hamas’ controlled Gaza. According to Hamas around 900 are dead and 3000+ are wounded. Hamas, however, fail to mention how many are really civilians and how many are its own armed men.
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