Scores die in Israeli air strikes

[Keltoi]

Israel doesn't appear to be ready to call it off at all. In fact they seem to be preparing for a wider military campaign.

 

[wth1257]

Israel was under attack and it fought back. They targeted Hamas. It's not Israels fault Hamas put their bases inside civilian areas.
Palis are the victims, no doubt about that. But the means they're using to fight Israel make them loose credibility.
Take a look at Tibet. 50 years of low tone non-violent resistance and almost the entire international community supports them.

The UN has passed numerous resolutions regarding Israel's behavior. The World Court condemned the settlements. World opinion is largely against Israel’s more horrendous actions. I believe Islamic Jihad is the main party behind the rocket firing, but regardless of the origin the indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian populations is indefensible. At the same time Israel is not "under attack" in any traditional sense. This is not some foreign sovereign power arbitrarily attacking another foreign sovereign power. You are talking about a large, civilian population which has been reduced to, essentially, a large prison, and upon which Israel practices collective punishment.

 

[wth1257]

Egypt should open the border, and keep it open, and allow goods and aid to go through, and allow the injured out.

Then their corrupt little thug of a President wouldn’t have an issue to feign moral outrage over. It seems that all these surrounding authoritarian regimes do a lot of talk regarding the suffering and legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people, but really just want to have some issue to incite their own populations and divert attention from their own atrocities. My heart goes out to the Palestinians. It seems like the general Muslim populace has genuine empathy for their plight, yet those populaces are under the eyes of authoritarian regimes that only use this plight to their own advantage. Israel isn’t likely to change their tune any time soon; I mean for God sakes they elected Sharon, a war criminal if there ever was one. And the US is under the thumb of a complacent corporate media and politicians answering the rabid, racist whims of Christian Zionists. Ironically enough, American Jews are more liberal and often less Zionistic than the Evangelical Christians. Hopefully the European Union, as it rises to power, will assert itself somehow and try to help those poor people.

 

[Woodrow]

Israel doesn't appear to be ready to call it off at all. In fact they seem to be preparing for a wider military campaign.

From a military standpoint, that is the only option they have.

The problem is the military option is not always the correct one, especially when it will result in widespread loss of innocent lives.

 

[wth1257]

And whose fighting for Palistine in Palistine? It's Hamas and no one else!

Attacking Israeli civilians isn’t going to help (not to mentioned abuses towards their own population). It jus gives more ammunition to right wing Israeli groups and excuses for keeping the Palestinian people under thumb. The Palestinians are not going to militarily defeat Israel.

 

[wth1257]

The problem is the military option is not always the correct one, especially when it will result in widespread loss of innocent lives.

Unfortunately I think the message Israel has been clearly sent is that Palestinian lives are cheep and no where near as valuable as Western or Israeli lives. Even if they get caught how likely is it to appear on CNN?

 

['Abd-al Latif]

Gaza braces for all-out war

Children were among the hundreds of casualties from the bombardment of Gaza [AFP]

Israeli forces have been massing on the border of the Gaza Strip as warplanes and helicopter gunships continue to pound the territory.

In the latest attacks, Israeli aircraft bombed the Islamic university and government buildings in Gaza City.

An Israeli army spokesman said that the university's laboratory was used for the development of weapons.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began the offensive on Saturday, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The ministry of health in Gaza has said that about five per cent of the dead were children, while the UN relief and works agency said figures gathered from local medics showed that 51 civilians have been killed.

A 14-month-old child, two women and a man were killed in an attack on the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City late on Sunday, Palestinian medics said.

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, told the US media that Israel was only targeting Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups.

"Unfortunately in a war ... sometimes also civilians pay the price," she said.

She also told NBC's Meet The Press: "Our goal is not to reoccupy Gaza Strip."

Military build-up

However, with hundreds of troops and tanks being deployed along the edge of the territory there were growing fears that the offensive could escalate.

"The indications here on the ground are certainly that the build-up is there, that the preparations are there for a ground offensive," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Izmit in Israel, said.

The Israeli cabinet approved the call-up of 6,500 military reservists and Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, has warned that the air raids could be followed by a ground offensive.

"If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so," Barak's spokesman quoted him as saying.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli aircraft bombed the length of the Gaza-Egypt border, taking out tunnels used to smuggle in vital goods to the besieged strip.

Dozens of tunnels are said to criss-cross between southern Gaza and Egypt's Sinai desert, providing a lifeline to residents who are starved of basic supplies due to an 18-month-long Israeli blockade.

Avital Leibovitch, an Israeli army spokeswoman, said: "The air force just attacked over 40 tunnels found on the Gaza side of the border.

"We believe [they] were used for smuggling weapons, explosives and sometimes people," she said. "The pilots notified direct hits on these targets."

'Devastating blow'

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rafah, a town split in half by the border, said at least one person died and 42 others were injured in the attacks on the tunnels.

"It's certainly a devastating blow to the civilian population in Gaza," he said, adding that speculation the tunnels might be hit had already caused the price of fuel and other goods to soar.

Palestinians attempting to flee the Israeli bombardment managed to breach the border fence with Israel, prompting clashes with security forces during which at least one person was killed.

Tensions at the crossing with Egypt, bypassing Israel, had risen during the day, with Egypt blaming Hamas for not letting wounded Palestinians through and Hamas asking for medical aid to be handed over.

Israel said it began its aerial assault on Gaza in response to rocket attacks launched by Hamas fighters into the south of the country.

A six-month truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended on December 19.


http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/200812292391597829.html

 

[Thinker]

Take your ANTI Palestine and PRO Israel views elsewhere!!

America supply weapons to these mass murdering Jews who are killing palestinians.

"WAR ON TERROR"? HA!

THIS IS A WAR ON ISLAM Not just Palestine.

And like i said before The sooner Iran have a nuclear bomb the better! And this time I don't care if i sound controversial!

GO Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

GO IRAN!

OK let's just walk through this scenario step by step . . .
1. Iran fires a rocket or two with a nuclear warhead into Israel.
2. ???????????????????

 

[Thinker]

Hamas isn't the problem it's the illegally occupied Israel which legally belongs to Palistine.

I'd really like to know why you think the land currently known as Israel legally belongs to the Palestinians (not saying your wrong or right, I just want to know what is the basis for this belief)?

 

[Mr. Sandman]

And whose fighting for Palistine in Palistine? It's Hamas and no one else!

Hamas is neither a terrorist group nor is it promoting the violence. And nor am I promoting terrorism or violence, but I do support fighting those who fight you, and what's happening to Palistine is oppression with a fake label of justice. Any individual with common sence will agree to the following:

Sending suicide bombers into Israel is not terrorism?

 

[Mr. Sandman]

I'd really like to know why you think the land currently known as Israel legally belongs to the Palestinians (not saying your wrong or right, I just want to know what is the basis for this belief)?

I think you quoting wrong....?

 

[Whatsthepoint]

51 civilians died according to UNRWA.

 

[Whatsthepoint]

And bombing innocent Palestinians who who cant defend themselves is not terrorism?

Why are they firing rockets if they cannot defend themselves?

 

[crayon]

Egypt should open the border, and keep it open, and allow goods and aid to go through, and allow the injured out.

I completely agree.

Question I was thinking about yesterday- Who controls Gaza's shoreline? Israel? Egypt?

 

[crayon]

For those who advocate Iran using nukes on Israel- What the hell? Wouldn't the radiation from nukes also affect nearby cities/countries in the region?

 

[MKE Brother]

Quite the divide;

 

[crayon]

Since the only way either side is responding is through violence, I propose a solution to even the odds.

Give both Israel and Palestine thousands of horses and swords and bows and spears, let them meet somewhere in the empty land, and may the best army win.
This solution leaves the civilians out of it, accounts for financial differences between the 2 people, and has whoever wins it win the land fair and square.

Todays war is an utter joke.
And not the funny kind.

 

[Izyan]

Just one tiny problem: religion. Do you really expect ultra orthodox jews and religious muslims to live happily together? In a secular state? :exhausted

Sure they do here in the US. Just look at Chicago

 

[Mr. Sandman]

Sure they do here in the US. Just look at Chicago

Sure it can happen in America...but in the Middle East...especially with all those holy sights...

 

[Banu_Hashim]

I just can't believe the lack of compassion and mercy that Israel has. And it's not just the government/army; it's the whole country and it's people (as evidenced by that woman's account by MKE Brother)