Dr. Eyad Al Sarraj writing in the Guardian:
We live on the ground floor so we headed to the basement.
Not very far from our home is the headquarters of the police and there was a massive bomb. The chief of police was killed. Two streets away there was another bomb and more people were killed. The office of the president is about one kilometre from our house and it was also bombed.
We went downstairs to the basement and tried to hide ourselves from the shelling. The child of one of our relatives, who lives in our building, finally came home from school. We hadn't been able to find her. All the phone connections were jammed. She came home and she was in a very serious state of shock. She was pale and trembling and she was describing dead bodies in the streets. On her way home she passed Hamas people in uniform and they were dead.
I had been very apprehensive when I woke up this morning. I had some bread, some cheese and a glass of tea. Like all the people in Gaza I felt that something was going on and something very serious. When Israel allowed the delivery of food and fuel [when it ended the blockade of Gaza yesterday] I said to myself and my friends that Israel is really planning a massive strike. They don't want to be blamed for starving the people.
I was sitting in the living room with my family trying to figure out what to do today for lunch, it's our main meal. What to cook and how to cook, whether we have enough to eat. There was no rice so I wanted to have lentil soup and my wife said "No, there's no lentils in the market." I said "What else can we do?" She said "I bought some cans of food." We were discussing this when suddenly the whole thing erupted. Suddenly there was a big explosion.
Right now I feel very anxious about what's going to happen. I'm worried about how many more people are going to die.
Well Gosh, maybe those bombs weren't TOTALLY random . . .
"Not very far from our home is the headquarters of the police and there was a massive bomb. The chief of police was killed. Two streets away there was another bomb and more people were killed. The office of the president is about one kilometre from our house and it was also bombed."
Ya know, I know your type– you move next to the airport because the housing is cheap, and then you complain about the noise!
Ya David, I know the type. Ya move to the West Bank and ya complain about all the Palestinians living nearby!
Unfortunately for Israel, they are misjudging their support in the US and the rest of the world. This sort of brutal behavior will ultimately end up costing them. The image of "brave little Israel" against the terrorist hordes is wearing thin.
At some point we will stop giving them a blank check and then they will realize that they should have taken this period of utter military superiority to make peace. They haven't and someday they will pay.
OK-make peace with whom, Tom?
The deal offered by Saudi Arabia in 2002. A Palestinian state in the whole of West Bank and Gaza, Jerusalem as capital of both Israel and Palestine and in return peace and diplomatic relations with the entire Arab world. If Israel makes an equitable peace with the Palestinians, it can have peace with the entire Arab world.
The canard is that Israel wants peace but cannot find anyone trustworthy on the Palestians side. This is not true. Look at the ceasefire that just ended. Israel, not Hamas, broke it.
For the past 6 months, Hamas did not fire into Israel. Then on November 4, Israel sent in troops, killed 6 Palestinians. Hamas said this was a provocation, began firing. If Israel had appologised, the cease fire would have held. Instead Israel escalated, and yesterday, for the first time in 6 months, an Israeli was killed by Qassem rockets fired in response to the killing of 225 Palestinians.
Hamas bombed my favorite bar in Gaza, I do not like or support them however they have always abided by their agreements. That is more than can be said for Israel.
Lots of Palestinians (including Hamas and Fatah) are willing to make peace with Israel. The real question is whether they can find anyone on the Israeli side to make peace with.
"For the past 6 months, Hamas did not fire into Israel."
There were over 130 rockets fired between Oct.30 and Nov. 7. That's what prompted Israel's action. Even France has acknowledged that Hamas broke the truce.
But nice try.
Yo Jimmy Hay. Where is your evidence? Googled tried to find it, was unable to. From what I understand, the ceasefire pretty much held until Nov. 4.
And it is certainly true that the first Israeli to get killed by Qassem was today, as lots of rockets were fired in response to the killing of 225 Palestinians.
So if the goal of the Gaza bombing was to protect Israelis, so far it isn't working.
Isn't Eyad Sarraj the same who has multiple myeloma but can't get across the border for treatment?
I guess our tough guy commenters here don't give a shit about the Geneva Conventions. If it's Arabs then any amount of death and destruction is perfectly acceptable, as long as it's Arabs dying of course.
Tom, that's not Jim. It's Bill. Very confusing, which is the intent, but everyone here needs to be careful about monikers and what they are saying. If it doesn't gel with most of the moniker's oeuvre, it's just Bill doing his hasbara.
Although, using Jim Haygood, has to be considered his most clever move so far, Glenn.
He use to use Charles Keating, who once posted here often, as his real name sock puppet. Yeah, its Bill Pearlman aka SOG for sure. He's really nasty.
This is Jim Haygood. I went to Israel/Palestine, came back with SOME questions about my previous beliefs, but I have not completely abandoned my principles of supporting peace for the region through a two-state solution. There are, as far as I can tell, two people using my name, one an extremist Zionist, the other a mini Nazi.
I'm going to have change my name–from now on, I am JIM HAYGOOD (all caps). I beg Bill Pearlman and MRW (or American, or Anonymous, or whomever) not to do this anymore.
Hey Bill (or whatever your name is). Check out who Ha'aretz said broke the truce. "Israel's violation of the lull in November expedited the deterioration that gave birth to the war of yesterday."
By the way, still no response from you as to either where you got your facts or to why Israel has ignored the 2002 Saudi peace proposal.