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Palestinians rush to stock up on food as Israeli airstrikes light up Gaza

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Israeli air strikes in Gaza city on Ismail Haniyeh's office. (Photo: Ashraf Amra)

Huge orange flashes were all that were lighting Gaza City Monday night as Israeli airstrikes pounded the coastal enclave, wounding eight Palestinians, including two children.

It seemed Gaza’s residents were either trying to capture the bombardments with their cellphones, or trying to calm their scared children as apartments shook from nearby bombings on several empty buildings associated with Hamas, and dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel.

Israeli jets fired two missiles on a commercial building in the upscale Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, which housed the offices of Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas movement. This attack wounded two Palestinians, and caused excessive damage to the property and surrounding homes.

Despite reports that militant factions in Gaza have announced that Gaza and Israel had reached an Egypt-brokered ceasefire, both sides appeared to have breached the truce.

Haneen Basel, 30, mother of three sisters said that she was afraid to send two of her daughters to the school next morning “as the truce could be breached in any minute.”

“The elementary school is so close to a large Hamas training camp in western Gaza, that could be bombed without a prior warning,” Basel said, “I barely convinced them to go back to sleep due to the  bombings after they were screaming hysterically all night long.”

Spontaneous queues of people waiting out of Gaza bakeries following Israeli attacks.

Spontaneous queues of people waiting out of Gaza bakeries following Israeli attacks. (Photo: Ahmad Kabariti)

Moving to the southern part of the city, long spontaneous queues of people were waiting out of Gaza’s biggest bakery to buy bread at midnight, a scene usually occurring during escalations.

Muzaffar Batniji, 27, shoemaker, said that his family urged him to buy 200 loaves of pita bread, “just in case of this escalation might continue for a week or more.”

“Lining up in such queues worryingly recalls the last wars on Gaza, where my family lost three cousins… every frightful thing that may come up in one’s imagination… bakeries might run out of bread for days as happened before,” Batniji told Mondoweiss.

Earlier Monday, the Israeli military said it was deploying an additional infantry brigades and an armored brigade to bolster forces around the Palestinian coastal territory, and was calling up a limited number of reservists from specialized units.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that he was cutting short his visit to Washington, with the rocket attack posing a new challenge to his bid for re-election just two weeks before Israelis go to the polls.

The rocket attack came less than two weeks after Israel and Hamas worked to de-escalate tensions after two rockets from Gaza were fired at Tel Aviv. One struck open ground near the suburb of Holon. The other may have exploded in midair or fallen into the sea.

The Israeli daily Haaretz  reported that rockets fired from Gaza overnight into the Israeli town of Sderot after the reported ceasefire went into effect and added that one home was hit causing damage but no injuries.

Gaza’s factions said that they would “adhere to the ceasefire if Israel does.”

The military escalation came after a rocket fired from Gaza struck a home in central Israel on early Monday, wounding seven.

It was the first time a rocket struck deep inside of Israel since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has also waged three offensives on Gaza since December 2008, a year after Hamas took power in the besieged enclave.

The last war of 2014 severely damaged Gaza’s already weak infrastructure, prompting the UN to warn that the strip would be “uninhabitable” by 2020.

Tensions have been escalating for the past year along the Israel-Gaza fence since Palestinians began their weekly protests, during which more than 260 Palestinians have been killed. Gaza’s living conditions have grown worse because of chronic fuel and electricity shortages, compounded by an ongoing 12-year Israeli blockade, as residents have had as little as four hours a day of power for much of the last few years.

Protesters have demanded the right to return to their homes and villages in historic Palestine, and demanded an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Ahmad Kabariti

Ahmad Kabariti is a freelance journalist based in Gaza.

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63 Responses

  1. Jackdaw on March 26, 2019, 1:57 pm

    Hamas cynically rockets Israel to distract attention from anti-Hamas street protests. Bombing civilians, even Israeli civilians, is a war crime.

    “The elementary school is so close to a large Hamas training camp”

    Those kids are human shields cynically used by Hamas war criminals.

    No problem, Hamas. Mondoweiss has your back.

    • eljay on March 26, 2019, 3:00 pm

      || Jackdaw @ March 26, 2019, 1:57 pm ||

      You are so wrong so often but occasionally you get it right. I completely agree with you that the international community needs to get involved in I-P and:
      – move both sides back to within their respective / Partition borders;
      – arrest and try all (war) criminals;
      – ensure that both sides respect and uphold justice, equality and human rights; and
      – ensure that both sides honour their obligations under international law (incl. RoR).

      • DaBakr on March 26, 2019, 4:26 pm

        hamas is doing all in its power to influence the coming election. what isn’t completely clear is if they are trying to push Netanyahu to respond more severely to hurt him or to help him. I think that despite your opinon about ‘religious based supremacy’ if you are honest you would understand that the Hamas(unlike the majority of arabs in Gaza) is as cynical and power hungry organization as any in the ME. they fight with any means possible since they are generally not held accountable the way Israel is. these current absurdities about missiles being launched by “mistake” or in “maintenance accidents” are strictly 3 stooges behavior -or-if they are not, another attempt to produce a result that only the Hamas leadership is certain of in terms of strategy to ‘help their people’ which is doubtful. meanwhile, of the arabs in Gaza that are loyal to Hamas, how many because its the only game in town? [after the so-called democratic election].

      • eljay on March 26, 2019, 5:58 pm

        || DaBakr: … I think that despite your opinon about ‘religious based supremacy’ if you are honest you would understand that the Hamas(unlike the majority of arabs in Gaza) is as cynical and power hungry organization as any in the ME. they fight with any means possible since they are generally not held accountable the way Israel is. … ||

        So let’s take away their excuses so that we can hold them accountable. Let’s get Israel:
        – to withdraw to within its / Partition borders;
        – to reform into the secular and democratic state of and for all of its citizens, immigrants, expats and refugees (CIERs), equally;
        – to respect human rights and to honour its obligations under international law; and
        – to accept responsibility and accountability for its (war) crimes.

        And let’s help build Partition-borders not-Israel (Palestine, or whatever it is to be called) by:
        – holding free elections;
        – implementing a constitution that defines it as a secular and democratic state of and for all of its CIERs, equally;
        – providing economic investment and support for development;
        – ensuring that it respect human rights and honour its obligations under international law; and
        – ensuring that it accept responsibility and accountability for its (war) crimes.

        (Ditto the Free City of Jerusalem.)

        Justice, accountability and equality, everywhere and always. I hope you’re with me (even though I know you’re not).

      • Mayhem on March 27, 2019, 8:56 am

        @eljay, you have a distinct habit of barking up the same tree.
        Listen to this example of Hamas Jew hatred:
        “Expel the thieving occupier from the enraged land of Jerusalem,
        Rid your house of that one, that Zionist in his humiliation,
        Write ‘death, death, death to Israel ’ with flowing blood,
        And with the bleeding body cause death, death, death to Israel.
        Be red death. Have no mercy on the army of aggression that wears the clothes of the soldier and the settler.”
        Now tell how is it possible to negotiate with people whose minds are so-addled with hate?

      • Misterioso on March 27, 2019, 11:26 am

        @Mayhem

        Re: “Listen to this example of Hamas Jew hatred”

        Your example pales into insignificance when compared to the following statements by Zionist Jews of foreign origin regarding Palestine’s long suffering indigenous Christian and Muslim Arab inhabitants.

        Rabbi Perin, in an eulogy for mass murderer, Baruch Goldstein, in 1994: ‘One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.’ (New York Times, Feb. 28, 1994)

        In April, 2001, during his Passover sermon, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party and former Israeli Chief Rabbi, described the Arabs as ‘serpents’ and in his Passover sermon, he stated that ‘the Lord shall waste their seed, devastate them and vanish them from this world. It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable.’

        Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir declared during an interview with the foreign editor of the London Sunday Times that ‘it was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine…and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.’ (Sunday Times, London, June 15, 1969)

        In the view of another prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir, the Palestinians are of no more significance than insects when compared to Jews: ‘From this mountain top and from the vantage point of history I say that these people [the Palestinians] are like grasshoppers compared to us.’ (The Independent, April 1988, from Reuter, Tel Aviv; quoted by Michael Rice, False Inheritance, Kegan Paul International, London and New York, 1994, p. 127).

        While delivering a televised address to his Likud party in 1989, Shamir further maligned Palestinians by describing them as ‘alien invaders of the Holy Land…. They are brutal, wild alien invaders in the land of Israel that belongs to the people of Israel, and only to them.’ (New York Post, February 6, 1989)

        During a speech to the Knesset, Menachem Begin, Israel’s sixth prime minister, referred to Palestinians as ‘beasts walking on two legs.’ (New Statesman, 25 June 1982)

        Regarding Palestinians residing in the occupied West Bank, Raphael Eitan, then Israel’s Chief of Staff, declared: ‘When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle…. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.’ (New York Times, 14 April 1983)

        Prime Minister Ehud Barak: ‘The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more…’ (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 30, 2002)

        Indeed, your words are entirely appropriate regarding Jewish Zionist oppression, dispossession, expulsion, occupation and oppression of the native Palestinians, i.e., “Now tell how is it possible to negotiate with people whose minds are so-addled with hate?”

      • eljay on March 27, 2019, 2:41 pm

        || Mayhem: @eljay, you have a distinct habit of barking up the same tree. … ||

        You have a distinct habit of being a hateful and immoral supremacist hypocrite.

        || … Listen to this example of Hamas Jew hatred … Now tell how is it possible to negotiate with people whose minds are so-addled with hate? ||

        Nasty stuff. I wouldn’t go about negotiating with those hate-mongers any more than I would go about negotiating with the Zionist hate-mongers who have been deliberately and unapologetically committing (war) crimes in Palestine for over 70 years. Now tell how is it possible to negotiate with hateful and immoral supremacist hypocrites?

      • RoHa on March 27, 2019, 10:08 pm

        So you invade their land, drive them out of their homes and loot their property, , destroy their livelihoods, imprison, rape, and kill them, bomb their children, and lie about the whole thing.

        And then you complain that they hate you?

        Isn’t there a Yiddish word that applies here? I’m sure Mooser will know it.

      • RoHa on March 27, 2019, 10:33 pm

        And there’s a spare comma for anyone who needs one. But not you, Kay.

      • Peter in SF on March 28, 2019, 6:24 am

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXfnDuIlzTA&t=29m16s

        “It’s been horrible. No matter what I do or as nice as I can be, she just tears into me. She hates me.”
        “Sandy, you’re her kidnapper. She’s supposed to hate you.”

      • eljay on March 28, 2019, 8:57 am

        || RoHa: And there’s a spare comma for anyone who needs one. … ||

        Don’t mind if I, do.  :-)

    • Talkback on March 26, 2019, 9:43 pm

      Jackdaw: “Those kids are human shields cynically used by Hamas war criminals.”

      It’s not a problem, because of Israel’s sophisticated weaponry and being humane enough, not to use indiscrimante fire or disproportionate force, right?

      Here is a racist, dirty secret for you:
      “Israel has cited these deaths as further proof that Hizbullah’s rocket fire was indiscriminate. The Human Rights Association, however, reaches a rather different conclusion, one based on the available evidence. Its research shows a clear correlation between an Arab community having an Israeli army base located next to it and the likelihood of it being hit by Hizbullah rockets. In short, Arab communities targeted by Hizbullah were almost exclusively those in which the Israeli army was based.

      “The study found that the Arab towns and villages that suffered the most intensive attacks during the war were ones that were surrounded by military installations, either on a permanent basis or temporarily during the course of the war,” the report states.”
      https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2008-01-04/evidence-of-israeli-cowardly-blending-comes-to-light/

      And who doesn’t know Israel’s state terrorist doctrine and its “widespread destruction as a means of deterrence” which involves “the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations.”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine

      What Hamas is doing is almost nothing compared to Israel’s destruction and killings.

      • DaBakr on March 27, 2019, 1:18 pm

        @mx
        @tb

        “roof tiles”

        this alone shows you either ignore or havent a clue as to what occurs. 1000s of dunams burned, teens raped and stabbed to death, missiles , rammings, and more. you can whine about how the casualities are not of equal proportion but its an absurd argument and is only meaningful to those living in the bubble. whatever you belive is legitimate on thr side of Hamas is equally as legitimate from israel. its just your pov and nothing more. without any sense of balance your simply hyperbole and propaganda. i doubt you will ever understand the conflict and its complex parameters as you always chose the simplistic mediocre mindset: zionist=nazi/ arabs=ultimate victims. for those that question why i wuld even waste time on a hate site like mw , i can understand your sentiments.

      • Talkback on March 27, 2019, 5:45 pm

        DaBakr: “… you can whine about how the casualities are not of equal proportion …”

        That’s actually a good point. Why don’t you condem both sides but according to these propotions? Is there some kind of racism going on on your part?

        DaBakr: “… why i wuld even waste time on a hate site like mw …”

        Are you going to finally tell us who “officialy” declared MW a “hate site” since you utterly failed to rationally justify this term? Or is this just a part of a complex delusion?

      • gamal on March 27, 2019, 6:29 pm

        “tell us who “officialy” declared MW a “hate site” ”

        probably the Officials, I know they did one about Babylonians could be something about MW in the lyrics I don’t recall. The obsession with definitions and declarations so typical of the authoritarian mind…bunch of babylonians coming after me..

        https://youtu.be/YX0Wauaz2Y8

    • Misterioso on March 27, 2019, 10:49 am

      @Jackdaw, et al

      Reality:
      On 16 June 2009, after meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Ismail Haniya, prime minister of Hamas’s Gaza Strip government, announced that “If there is a real plan to resolve the Palestinian question on the basis of the creation of a Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967 [i.e., 22% of historic Palestine] and with full sovereignty, we are in favour of it.” No response from “Israel..”

      “‘We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees,’ Haniyeh said, referring to the year of Middle East war in which Israel captured East Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories. ” (Haaretz, December 1, 2010) No response from “Israel.” (By calling for a “resolution of the issue of refugees,” Haniyeh was in accordance with UNGA Res. 194, which calls for financial compensation as a possible option for the Palestinian refugees rather than their “inalienable Right of Return.”)

      In its revised Charter, April, 2017, Hamas again agreed to a Palestinian state based on the 4 June 1967 borders. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, “Israel” promptly rejected the Hamas overture instead of using it to open a dialogue.

      https://www.haaretz.com/isr…
      “Senior Hamas Official: ‘I Think We Can All Live Here in This Land – Muslims, Christians and Jews.’” By Nir Gontarz. March 28, 2018, Haaretz. No response from “Israel.”

      Human Rights Watch, 2005: “…Israel will continue to be an Occupying Power [of the Gaza Strip] under international law and bound by the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention because it will retain effective control over the territory and over crucial aspects of civilian life. Israel will not be withdrawing and handing power over to a sovereign authority – indeed, the word ‘withdrawal’ does not appear in the [2005 disengagement] document at all… The IDF will retain control over Gaza’s borders, coastline, and airspace, and will reserve the right to enter Gaza at will. According to the Hague Regulations, ‘A territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised’. International jurisprudence has clarified that the mere repositioning of troops is not sufficient to relieve an occupier of its responsibilities if it retains its overall authority and the ability to reassert direct control at will.”

      The International Committee of the Red Cross: “The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, ratified by Israel, bans collective punishment of a civilian population.”

      “In practice, Gaza has become a huge, let me be blunt, concentration camp for right now 1,800,000 people” – Amira Hass, 2015 correspondent for Haaretz, speaking at the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University.

      To quote Dov Weisglass, PM Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser:
      “‘The significance of the [then proposed] disengagement plan [implemented in 2005] is the freezing of the peace process,’ Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser Dov Weisglass has told Ha’aretz. ‘And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda….’ Weisglass, who was one of the initiators of the disengagement plan, was speaking in an interview with Ha’aretz for the Friday Magazine. ‘The disengagement is actually formaldehyde,’ he said. ‘It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’” (Top PM Aide: Gaza Plan Aims to Freeze the Peace Process, Ha’aretz, October 6, 2004)

      As for Netanyahu and the Likud party, here’s a brief summation of their positions that are contrary to international law and explain why the conflict continues:
      The Likud Party Platform:
      a. “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State [sic] of Israel.”
      b. “Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State [sic] of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem”
      c. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
      d. “…. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State [sic] of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.”

      • DaBakr on March 27, 2019, 1:19 pm

        “a real plan”…….what utter bullshit.

      • MHughes976 on March 27, 2019, 5:11 pm

        I would respond to Mayhem’s question by saying
        a) that the Hanas statement mentioned is normal enough in the tradition of revolutionary nationalism – the blood of the patriots will wash away the oppressors and the armed representatives of the oppressors, here soldiers and settlers, are legitimate targets. I don’t say that this is a correct viewpoint but it is not so far removed from other examples to suggest insanity or an addled brain
        b) it is hard to deny that the authors of this statement speak for a group that has been significantly wronged: even some Zionists would accept that. As Charles Trevelysn noted in ‘The Irish Crisis’ (p.200) a dominant power may well ‘reap what it sows’ in the form of ‘exasperation’, which he thought had happened to England in Ireland. Therefore there is reason in these situations of heightened rhetoric to seek ways of lessening the grievance which caused exasperation and to do so by negotiation
        c) if you think the other side unreasonable, while others think they have a point, the proof comes from making a reasonable statement of what seems to you to be a fair and final settlement and see what is the response. If the world judges you to be full of reason and the other, by refusing to respond in any significant way, to be full of insanity, well and good. If things go the other way and most people think that you are the unreasonable ones and that the other side still has a point you have a problem, but a problem you deserve to have.
        The angrier the words the more necessary and urgent the negotiation, at least the first step, which is the statement of what a fair settlement would be.

      • RoHa on March 27, 2019, 10:17 pm

        “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State [sic] of Israel.”

        Well, permanentish. Once we have fully secured that, and got it recognized by the US, then we’ll start the process of shifting the eastern border to a line running from Jebal Esh Sheikh, through Jebal Esh Shefa, and down through Esh Sherah to the Saudi border.

        After that …

    • Misterioso on March 27, 2019, 11:07 am

      @Jackdaw, et al

      Meanwhile:

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/14/israel-gaza-violence-and-the-struggle-for-middle-east-peace

      The Guardian, March 14/19
      “Israel-Gaza violence and the struggle for Middle East Peace”

      Letter to the editor:
      “We, Israelis committed to peace, strongly welcome the report of the UN inquiry into the horrifying killing of Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza (UN says Israel may be guilty of war crimes over Gaza, 1 March). The UN report confirms that almost none of the 189 Palestinians killed and over 9,000 injured by our forces in the weekly demonstrations since last March posed any direct threat to Israel or to its citizens. Many were shot while peacefully protesting hundreds of metres away from the Gaza fence.

      “The 2 million inhabitants of Gaza are caged in an open-air prison, forcibly isolated from the rest of Palestinian society. These people have every right and reason to protest, yet are shot at with live ammunition when they do so.

      “The UN Human Rights Council, which mandated the inquiry, is an imperfect body, but the UN commission of inquiry was independent. Its report is a truthful and objective indictment of Israel’s brutal crackdown, while also addressing Palestinian violations.

      “As the first anniversary of the start of the protests on 30 March draws closer, the world must put a stop to this ongoing killing. Next week, countries of the world will have to take a position on the UN report at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. We urge all countries, including the UK, to support it unambiguously.”

      Prof Michael Ben-Yair Former attorney general of Israel and former acting supreme court judge
      Avraham Burg Former Speaker of Knesset and head of the Jewish Agency
      Dr Ilana Hammerman Israeli writer and translator
      Prof David Harel Vice-president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Israel Prize recipient (2004), EMET Prize recipient (2010)
      Alex Levac Israel Prize recipient (2005)
      Prof Yehuda Judd Ne’eman Israel Prize recipient (2009)
      Prof David Shulman Israel Prize recipient (2016) and EMET Prize recipient (2010)
      Prof Zeev Sternhell Israel Prize recipient (2008)

  2. John Douglas on March 26, 2019, 2:45 pm

    Once again Israel bombs “in response to” Hamas’ actions. So much is packed into that three- word phrase, “in response to”, which only ever precedes Hamas’ actions. Time Itself begins with Hamas’ actions and is recreated with every other one. That means of course that since Hamas’ actions begin Time Itself, nothing exists before them. Hamas’ actions can never be, “in response to” anything. How many unarmed protestors were killed by snipers in the week before the Hamas bomb was launched? None, because Time Itself had not begun. Odd theory, this MSM theory of Time, that Hamas can bring it to existence with its actions and extinguish it with its inaction.

    • DaBakr on March 26, 2019, 4:46 pm

      @jd

      you want to hew to the concept that as long as Israel is blockading Hamas in Gaza to prevent weapons import that any missile attack at any time should be considered a ‘response’ to Israeli military acts. fine. I suppose one could make this argument.

      the other way far more people look at these situations is that there is an understanding of a cease-fire. there is relative quiet. then after a few weeks a missile comes in from Gaza and we respond. your so caught up in the ‘narrative game’ you can’t even use simple terms to explain what is happening in real time. and btw: just because Israel “responds” to a missile attack does translate to ‘Israel is in the right about all arab/palestinian land policy.’ your narrative implies an active war but you don’t recognize that if this were so, Israel is able to legally engage in an active military response that ends the aggression and not merely trie to push it back from its southern borders. unfortunately the ‘status quo’ with Hamas involves the continued ‘games’ of attack and repel. I would bet that most of what Hamas is backing in the ‘return march’ is simply irritation, distraction and probing the IDF for weaknesses. with all of the disaffected youths and the constant barrage of pro-islamist propaganda it isn’t hard to wonder why so many civilians mix with Hamas members at the border wall. if they had a society to work on and build, investments to loose, the numbers would be much smaller. perhaps at its crux-the less corrupt Hamas leaders believe that if the strip starts to develop a robust economy before its ultimate goals are achieved, its population of those under 40 will become much less likely to engage in provocative violence. Despite the absurd reports about Hamas ‘social welfare’ programs (as if they are not responsible for social welfare with no elections and an iron grip on power) Hamas is just a gang that started with terror and fanatical islam and has grown into a more savvy, still corrupt entity that rules Gaza, has a few powerful backers and has no intention of letting go f the power it holds. its one thing for a groups corrupt leadership to be billionaires after they liberate a nation, but Hamas leaders have deprived their people of billions and delivered them nothing. of course in the eyes of MW folks this is all a 100% Israeli/zionist plot wether it traces back to questionable Israeli leadership quotes from the 50’s, infamous anti-jewish conspiracy theories of old or current anti-zionist political analysis .

      • annie on March 26, 2019, 5:06 pm

        jd: How many unarmed protestors were killed by snipers in the week before the Hamas bomb was launched?

        dabkr: you want to hew to the concept that as long as Israel is blockading Hamas in Gaza to prevent weapons import that any missile attack at any time should be considered a ‘response’ to Israeli military acts. fine.

        ah, no that is not what jd said. this is an example of a strawman. let’s try this again:

        jd: How many unarmed protestors were killed by snipers in the week before the Hamas bomb was launched?

        dabakr: there is an understanding of a cease-fire. there is relative quiet. then after a few weeks a missile comes in from Gaza and we respond. your so caught up in the ‘narrative game’ you can’t even use simple terms to explain what is happening in real time.

        ? you mean israel’s killing of 6 young men last week is “relative quiet”? i don’t get it. you are still not recognizing hamas’s actions as a response to israel lethal response to protestors. i am reminded of this tweet i saw from haaretz

        maybe you don’t see palestinians unless they are hurting you. maybe you can’t recognize them?

      • Talkback on March 26, 2019, 9:13 pm

        DaBakr: “there is an understanding of a cease-fire. there is relative quiet. then after a few weeks a missile comes in from Gaza and we respond.”

        You kill them, you cripple them, you collectively punish them, you suffocate their economy, you keep them occupied for more than half a century, you steal their land and resources, you destroy their houses, you put them in prison withouth charge and trial, you torture their children and the list of your crimes against humanity, international and human rights law goes on and one including Apartheid and genocidal policies, but as soon as THEY RESPONSE with “missiles” it is not longer a “relative quiet”.

        And when they hate you for that you are convinced that you are the victim and oh, the rise of antisemitism, oh, it’s a disease we have to fight …

        Leibowitz hit the nail on the head when he spoke about “Judeonazis”.

      • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 27, 2019, 7:11 am

        “there is relative quiet.”

        “Relative quiet” meaning no Israeli roof tiles were hurt, but the killing of Palestinians goes on as per routine?

        Zionism is racism. Always.

      • Talkback on March 27, 2019, 11:30 am

        MDM: ““Relative quiet” meaning no Israeli roof tiles were hurt, but the killing of Palestinians goes on as per routine?”

        Next time DaBakr is going to try to convince us that after the Germans occupied Poland and put the Jews into a ghetto there was “relative quiet”, but then some Jewish German haters started to invade the territory outside of their ghetto and attacked Germans which killed the Jews or collectively punished them, because they had the right to defend themselves against Jewish “terrorists”.

      • DaBakr on March 28, 2019, 12:32 am

        @tb

        always with the polish/german reference. half of israeli jews are arab so while the social divide i. Israel still lingers it has much less baring on this totally middle eaastern/jewish muslim/arab conflict. zionism is, thanks to sites like MW and others anti-israel blogs has become a buzzword to a very few far left so-called progressives meaning evil while to many many more Americans, South Americans, Canadians and assorted asians and others its becoming synonymous with typical everyday israel/jew hatred. and this doesn’t discount the majority of humans that want to see an end to the conflict permanently. I wouldn’t be surprised if the usage of zionist loses more credibility in time as a means to cover jew hatred when its claimed to be specifically targeting israeli policy. abraham lincolns quip about who can be fooled and when applies….though i imagine you would interpret his words in the opposite way.

      • YoniFalic on March 28, 2019, 10:05 am

        Descendants of N.African Ibero-Berber, S.Arabian, and Iraqi Syro-Mesopotamian converts to Judaism have no more claim to Palestine than E.European Slavo-Turks like DaBakr, me, or my family.

        Jewish non-Europeans were only forced to Stolen Palestine by Zionist false-flag operations when the white racist E.European invaders concluded they could not hold Stolen Palestine without ersatz native collaborators, who functioned in the roles of cannon fodder, mine finders, and bullet catchers.

      • Talkback on March 28, 2019, 11:57 am

        DaBakr: “always with the polish/german reference.”

        It’s spot on, isn’t it?

        Recite your baseline.

        DaBakr: “… anti-israel blog … ”

        Have you ever been in an institution? Cells.

        DaBakr: “… far left so-called progressives … ”

        Do they keep you in a cell? Cells.

        DaBakr: “… Israel/jew hatred …”

        When you’re not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? Interlinked.

        DaBakr “… cover jew hatred …”

        Why don’t you say that three times: Within cells interlinked.

  3. Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 27, 2019, 7:09 am

    Am I the only one getting ‘false flag’ vibes from all this?

    I mean, we’re told all the other rockets got shot down by the ‘Iron Dome’ but this one – just one mind – just happened to go a greater distance than almost any other resistance rocket, ever? And from very near the West Bank, where there are so many Israeli collaborators? And just so happened to coincide with the Combover’s trip to Washington and of course, the upcoming elections? Just coincidentally giving him a chance to do what is always certain to be a huge hit with the Israeli electorate, bomb an Arab city with no risk to the brave Israeli forces?

    Awfully convenient, it has to be said.

    • Kay24 on March 27, 2019, 9:15 am

      I get that “false flag” feeling too. It is after all election time, and Netanyahu must flex his muscles to impress his people. They seem to be impressed with leaders who bomb civilians at the slightest excuse. He is struggling in the polls because of his bad habit of drinking pink champagne, and together with Sara, seems to have resorted to corrupt practices. Trump is also campaigning for him, making a big splash signing off Golan Heights to the land thieves.
      It should make us all wonder if Trump properties owned the Golan Heights, to give it away just like that!
      I guess in return Trump may have been promised that he can build another Trump Tower in Tel Aviv, and Bibi will be given the penthouse., or maybe Crooked Bibi will appeal to the American Jews to vote for Trump next year. He always campaigns for the Republican candidate.

      • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 27, 2019, 11:26 am

        Is anyone in Israel asking the same questions we are asking, I wonder? Are they curious as to why its much-vaunted missile defence schemes, funded by American taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of $, failed to notice a missile on a 100km trajectory over Israeli territory? Or are they too indoctrinated to question what they’re told? I suspect so.

      • DaBakr on March 27, 2019, 1:22 pm

        @mx

        no. nobody in israel has a clue about who or what or attacking us. we rely on you and your infinite wisdom to enlighten us how to survive as one of the smallest nations in the world and the only nation in a huge sea of arab/muslims nations that is jewish and sovereign. we have never wanted peace, as you well know and never offered anything up as a compromise to the decades of war. thanks for all the tips. we rely on your benevolent wisdom

      • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 27, 2019, 4:21 pm

        “one of the smallest nations in the world”

        Geography obviously not emphasised in the Israeli ‘education’ system, I take it?

        “the only nation in a huge sea of arab/muslims nations that is jewish and sovereign”

        The 1970s talking points are sounding a bit tired at this point. Any chance you might update them? Or is that the best you’ve got?

        In any case, I take it I was right, and the vast majority of Israelis are indeed too heavily indoctrinated to question the bleedin’ obvious? Your post would certainly suggest that.

      • Kay24 on March 27, 2019, 8:59 pm

        “one of the smallest nations in the world” there is that victim card again.

        Just look at the brutal occupation, refusal to allow the Palestinians live in freedom, theft of lands, thousands of illegal settlements, and the deadly weapons that are used on unarmed civilians, and you will be amazed just how vicious that small nation can be. It also helps to have the world’s greatest superpower send aid, and weapons, to perpetrate these crimes.

      • RoHa on March 27, 2019, 10:28 pm

        “one of the smallest nations in the world”

        Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands are all pretty small nations, but all three have made a big impact on the world.

    • Kay24 on March 27, 2019, 11:55 pm

      “Is anyone in Israel asking the same questions we are asking, I wonder?”

      You will get that answer when Bibi, despite on the verge of being indicted for corruption, notorious for political grandstanding, lying, and yes having strange opportunities to show how tough he is, just before elections, gets elected again. They seem to have the same mentality as the Trump supporters. Even if Bibi shoots a person on the streets of Tel Aviv……

  4. Mayhem on March 27, 2019, 9:06 am

    The tide keeps turning; Israel must be doing something right.
    In first, EU states vote against permanent anti-Israel item at UN rights council

    • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 27, 2019, 10:08 am

      Tell me how is that going to bring Israel even the tiniest bit closer to overcoming its existential dilemma.

      • DaBakr on March 27, 2019, 1:26 pm

        @mx

        how kind of you to worry about israels supposed “existential dilemma”.

      • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 27, 2019, 2:10 pm

        Oh, I’m not worried in the least! Just getting a bit of a giggle at how indoctrinated its fans are.

  5. Jejasalo on March 27, 2019, 11:50 am

    I’ve heard and experienced first hand the misery that accompanies each of Israel’s attempts to destroy Gaza. Reading this article not only gives me flashbacks, it also reminds me of the comments of a Gazan friend working for a human rights organization.

    The younger generations of Gazans (half the population of the Strip) are unique in having had no decent contact during their lives with Israelis whatsoever; hopelessness for a better future; and the belief that there is nothing left to lose by protesting Israeli occupation. That combination doesn’t portend well for the coming years.

    • DaBakr on March 27, 2019, 1:29 pm

      because if they ‘protested’ egyptian blockade the egyptian army would likely wipe them all out and the world wouldnt bat an eyelash anymore then they did when half a million syrians were being murdered. your perspective is suspect when it comes to the younger citizens of gaza. either they want a better life or they want to destroy the zionist entity, or both. its unclear, with hamas in power, which is it?.

      • YoniFalic on March 27, 2019, 2:41 pm

        Unlike the white racist genocidal Euro Zionist invaders, Egyptians did not steal the country to which Palestinians are natives unlike Euro Slavo-Turks like DaBakr & my family and unlike the non-Euro ersatz native collaborators from N.Africa, Syro-Mesopotamia, & S. Yemen.

        Why should the natives of Palestine care about the Egyptian border?

        DaBakr spews the usual whataboutery of the white racist genocide-supporting hasbarah-monger.

      • Jejasalo on March 27, 2019, 4:09 pm

        That’s a bizarre way of looking at it. I think of the next generation of Gazan youth as having the potential for a mass social protest movement against apartheid and occupation such as the one in this country during the Vietnam War/Civil Rights generation. I believe much of it will be non-violent.

        There are also people who will turn to radical Islamist and other fundamentalist movements. I don’t think it will be monolithic. The point is, people of Gaza are literally being forced to choose between life and death – death in this sense meaning to continue living in Gaza as it is.

      • DaBakr on March 28, 2019, 12:18 am

        @yf

        egypt most certain;y did ‘steal’ gaza after the ’48 war. but then everybody knows your theories about turkic-slavo invaders even though half the population of jews in israel are arab. mw is one of the only places where you hold any credibility whatsoever. i can understand why it feels like a safe space. I hope the younger generation of gazans casts off the shackles of hamas and finds out what can be achieved without Israel or Egypt breathing down its neck with a blockade. without hamas or the lesser militant groups the justification for the semi-blockade will fall apart. and regardless of where you believe jews in europew and america come from there is nobody comprimising except for the 3 stooges like games hamas plays with the idf which is simply an extention of the tit-for-tat that makes life miserable for citizens on both sides but mpre so in gaza because obviously, israel is in a much more powerful position. pretending this away doesn’t work out well for anybody, unless thats the point.

      • DaBakr on March 28, 2019, 12:23 am

        @jj

        well, thats a nice idea but first these youths will have to extricate themselves from the iron grip of hamas and its iranian and other wealthy arab backers. p.s. the protesters at the border that arent officially members of the Hamas are already engaging in open revolt with very limited if not reversed gains. try anpther idea. like changing the leadership. when the youth of gaza start to question why their parents voted for hamas and then sat by as it refused any further democratic voting, maybe they will start their ‘new’ revolt.

      • YoniFalic on March 29, 2019, 2:19 am

        @DaBakr,

        After the failed 1948 humanitarian intervention, which ended with victory for the white racist colonial-settler invader-genocidaires led by criminals like my grandfather, who deserved to be hanged by a Nuremberg-like IMT just as Nazi leaders were hanged by the Nuremberg IMT, Egypt ended up in occupation of Gaza.

        The Egyptian administration was not perfect, but it generally tried to act according to the international law of occupation. Egypt, which was itself a poor country, tried to help the refugees in Gaza and gave them benefits that even Egyptian citizens did not have, e.g., completely covering the costs of university education for Gazans at an Egyptian University.

        Only a white racist supporter of the Zionist genocide that started in 1947 could consider Egypt to have stolen Gaza because such a genocide supporter is probably thinking like the Zio leaders (including my grandfather) that

        (1) wanted to seize Gaza and either

        (2a) intended to drive both the residents and also the refugees into Sinai or

        (2b) planned simply to kill them

      • DaBakr on March 30, 2019, 4:10 pm

        @yf

        I will defer. it is obvious you are completely and 100% invested in the kahzzer , non-biblical, fake jewish theory to explain your enlightenment about the evil nature of israel and zionism. i just wanted to point out a recent news item about a right wing american conspiracy guy, alex jones, when faced with an actual legal depostion on pain of perjury admitted that his vast conspiracies were a product of, “kind of, sort of like a psychosis that took over…”. and his 1000s of fans have assumed they got to him too.

      • YoniFalic on April 1, 2019, 6:15 am

        @DaBakr, I am not invested in the Khazar hypothesis at all. The Khazar hypothesis is almost entirely derived from Rabbinic literature even though sources from Byzantine and Arabic literature confirm the main claim of conversion. Some documents from Cairo Geniza also support elements of the claim. The Khazar conversion is famous but not significant.

        The Biblical Book of Esther suggests large-scale conversion of local Persian populations to Judaism. The mother of Yahweh-cult monotheistic Temples seems have been created in the region of the Caspian sea. The Book of Ezra indirectly mentions this Temple in order to slight it. The Temple is discussed in both Persian and also Armenian literature over a long period. It was probably destroyed on official conversion of Armenian Kingdom to Christianity.

        I discussed part of the developing hypothesis on the role of Judaism from Hasmonean period through the collapse of Western Roman Empire in a comment on Why do Palestinians burn Jewish holy sites?: The fraught history of Joseph’s Tomb.

        Historians have found that the vast majority of the Judaic population of the Augustan period and almost certainly much earlier was of non-Judean origin.

        This hypothesis explains a lot of ill-understood historical situations from the Augustan period through the conversion of Constantine. It also helps explain the context of the early Medieval Jewish trade networks.

        Because DB tries to taint the efforts of genuine historian historians to explain critically important history of the Roman Imperial period by means of Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories, I will give my legal opinion on the effort that white racist genocide-boosting Zionists put both into clinging to the fairy tale of modern Jewish descent from ancient Judeans and also into propagandizing this fairy tale.

        Such propagandists have both actus reus and also mens rea that are necessary for criminal violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1091 (c) & (d).

      • Mooser on April 1, 2019, 1:19 pm

        ” The Khazar hypothesis is almost entirely derived from Rabbinic literature”

        “…Judah Halevi (1080-1149) is both a poet and a theologian. In his Defense of the Despised Religion, he presents dialogues between a Muslim doctor, a Christian, a Jewish scholar, and the King of the Khazars: at the end of the discussion, the latter is converted to Judaism” Mircea Eliade, “A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 3”

  6. RoHa on March 28, 2019, 2:45 am

    Here’s some relative quiet on the West Bank.

    https://imemc.org/article/settlers-raid-two-elementary-schools/

  7. Ossinev on March 28, 2019, 7:30 am

    @debacle
    “how to survive as one of the smallest nations in the world and the only nation in a huge sea of arab/muslims nations that is jewish and sovereign”

    That one always brings tears to my eyes – of laughter mind you.

    • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 28, 2019, 8:28 am

      And what these indoctrinated bores don’t seem to realise is that the
      ” huge sea of arab/muslims nations” (sic) isn’t going anywhere. They’re always going to be there, and they’re always going to detest Israel. And the more Israel uses the only tools at its disposal – death and destruction – the more they will detest Israel. Oh sure, the Arab world is in a mess now and Israel is mates with the powers that be Now.. But things change. We can’t be sure how they will change, but we can be sure that they will change, because things always change.

      This is what I mean by Israel’s existential dilemma. Ultimately, they cannot escape the reality that they are surrounded by people who hate them – not because they are Jews, as their whiny story goes, but because they have never treated the people of the region with anything other than brutal contempt – and one day that’s going to bite them in the backside. Maybe not tomorrow. But it will happen.

      • DaBakr on March 31, 2019, 3:53 am

        if I threatened an all out war like you just did it would be moderated. by sure, indulge your revenge fantasy and see how that goes.

      • Maximus Decimus Meridius on March 31, 2019, 12:23 pm

        i’m pretty certain that I’m not in any position to threaten an ‘all out war’ or any other sort of war.

      • Mooser on March 31, 2019, 1:06 pm

        “if I threatened an all out war like you just did it would be moderated.”

        Why, that would be a priori censorship, “Dabakr” and you shouldn’t stand for it, it’s illegal.
        Just think of all the things you could have said but didn’t because they would be moderated.

  8. Talkback on March 28, 2019, 1:45 pm

    “Gaza’s factions said that they would “adhere to the ceasefire if Israel does.”

    That’s a ploy!!! They know that Israel won’t stop before the election.

  9. DaBakr on March 30, 2019, 4:13 pm

    @tb

    for the first time in a long while the hamas and its factions are acting publicly wonky and wavering. i don’t know if they fear their wealthy doners will cut them off or they fear the masses of civilians who pay them lip service as they are brutally under Hamas control but secretly hate the leadership.

    ‘accidental launches’ , seeking quiet? come on. not their fathers hamas

    • Talkback on March 30, 2019, 7:34 pm

      We know what people like you see as “relative quiet”. It’s silent genocide.

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