From the Independent, Johann Hariri:
Before it falls down the memory hole, we should remember that last
week, Hamas offered a ceasefire in return for basic and achievable
compromises. Don't take my word for it. According to the Israeli press,
Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin
Bet, "told the Israeli cabinet [on 23 December] that Hamas is
interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms."
Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: an end to the
blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank. The cabinet â high
with election fever and eager to appear tough â rejected these terms.
week, Hamas offered a ceasefire in return for basic and achievable
compromises. Don't take my word for it. According to the Israeli press,
Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin
Bet, "told the Israeli cabinet [on 23 December] that Hamas is
interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms."
Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: an end to the
blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank. The cabinet â high
with election fever and eager to appear tough â rejected these terms.
I am sorry to say, but one thing that Israel has achieved is to make anti-Semitism respectable again.
You're sorry to say that? Yeah, right!
perhaps they should have renewed the initial ceasefire instead of showing their true intentions. now they recognize the mistake of aggressively and indiscriminately trying to take israeli lives through rocket fire. the relative ineffectiveness is irrelevant to the situation. the intention is deadly. why should they get a pass? politics is a secondary consideration although it is certainly a convenient way to portray israeli callousness.
So how long now before resident zionist ostrich Richard Witty buries his head in the sand and declares yet again, so self-assured in his ignorance, that "Hamas rejected a cease-fire"?
To "Journalist" aka SOG aka Bill Pearlman, the nasty old racist person young goy GIs are unwittingly dying to protect: We hope you die with
Witty, your fellow traveler against truth and equity in the name of
your backward tribe.
Hamas rejected the terms of the original cease-fire. Their new terms weren't acceptable because of their previously state goals.
Original cease fire included permission for Israel to starve Gaza and kill Palestinians in West Bank at will.
Naughty, naughty Hamas….
New terms? Food? No murders of Palestinians?
Those terms are not acceptable for the glorious and victorious country of Israel.
What a disgusting little bullying "nation" israel is. In my opinion, any possibility — if it ever existed at all , except amongst Arab tyrants ruling over 300 million Arabs — of co-existence with Israel, even if it withdraws completely from the WB and Gaza and all of Jerusalem and allows a viable Palestinian state there tomorrow, has gone down the drain. From here on, it's only a downward slide for Israel.
Nope, not sorry any more, journalist. The Nazis of the 21st Century HAVE made anti-Semitism respectable.
a bully indeed, and look at this outrageous tactic as highlighted in both the new york times and haaretz: "The IDF has made frequent use of what is known as "knocking on the roof": Militants are warned by phone when a residential building used to store arms will be bombed, and told to vacate the premised together with their neighbors. The weapons caches are hit only after the residents leave.
Hamas has tried placing civilians on the roofs of such buildings when the phone call warning comes in. In these cases, the IDF fired antitank missiles near the building, and in a few cases the residents left."
and: "hundreds of thousands of gazans have received warnings in the form of telephone messages or flyers that their buildings are israeli targets,"
damn those jewish demons!
Amnesty International:
Civilian residential homes and other buildings, including a university, have been targeted by Israeli air strikes. Compounding the atmosphere of fear resulting from the Israeli bombardments, Israeli forces have been sending seemingly random telephone messages to many inhabitants of Gaza telling them to leave their homes because of imminent air strikes against their houses. Such messages have been received by residents of multi-storey apartment building, causing panic not only for those who received the calls but for all their neighbours. Such practice was widely used by Israeli forces both in Gaza and in Lebanon in 2006, but has not been reported since. The threatening calls seem to aim to spread fear among the civilian population, as in most cases no air strikes were carried out against the buildings. If this is the purpose, rather than to give effective warning, this practice violates international law and must end immediately.
How well did you put this, redward:
"damn those jewish demons", although I would modify this to "damn those israeli demons"..
What the Israeli general was saying was that there might have been a possibility of renewed cease-fire.
If true, then it could have been repeated and more clearly conveyed through international paths.
At other times, Hamas issued public statements unequivocally denouncing a cease-fire on terms that Israel wanted, which were similarly just slightly different than the original.
Its difficult to defend an aggression by Israel. I'm not trying to.
I just contend that the cause of the failure of the cease-fire was Hamas, and that Hamas had the choice to normalize the relations between Israel and Palestine, but refused to.
I sincerely don't know what is right in this. A ground operation is considered by some to be LESS TERRORIST than an aerial one, in that on the ground there actually is risk to soldiers.
There is likely to be more dissent within Israel should soldiers be harmed, reputation be harmed, and little achieved.
Its hard for us to know if anything is achieved, until it is.
As others have stated, Phil for example, that the conflict is a replay of 1948, Israel thinks of it in those terms as well, as a fight for its existence.
Even with the violence in 2006 in Lebanon, and the violence here, Israel's motive for conducting this operation is still reluctantly respected in European and even Arab capitals.
On democracy. I strongly prefer democracy to other governance (monarchy, totalitarian left or right). At the same time, there is a phenomena of reactionism that is popular, and has votes of anger, rather than votes of thought.
I ask myself what do I know and what don't I know.
I know that relative to Hamas shelling "enough is enough" as Livni stated on day 1, and that Hamas has NOT endorsed any long-term cease-fire that they are actually bound to.
I DON'T know if this operation will cause Hamas to relent on its terror, probably the opposite if its public statements are accurate. But, their ability to undertake terror may be tangibly hindered.
The jury is out.
The jury is in: The Palestinians have disliked the "diet" they've been
put on by Uncle Sam and Uncle Irv. Nobody trusts democracy without
a puppet government; basically plutocracy rules across the world.