Israel Mounts Third Day of Gaza Raids

[tekisui]

Source: Reuters

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day on Monday and prepared for a possible invasion after killing 307 Palestinians in the air raids.

Israel, which stepped up the air strikes after dark on Sunday, said it launched the campaign on Saturday in response to almost daily rocket and mortar fire that intensified after the Islamist Hamas group ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the military action would go on until the population in southern Israel "no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages."

"(The operation could) take many days," said military spokesman Avi Benayahu.

Israeli tanks were deployed on the edge of the Gaza Strip, poised to enter the densely populated coastal enclave of 1.5 million Palestinians. Olmert's cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reservists, a government official said.

Hamas remained defiant and the group's spokesman Fawzi Barhoum urged Palestinian groups to use "all available means, including martyrdom operations" -- a reference to suicide bombings in Israel.

more: http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCALS69391620081229

[IndianaGreen]

1. Tuesday, December 30: National Day of Action

Tuesday, December 30: National Day of Action

Emergency Demonstrations on Tuesday, December 30 and other days

The ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda, International Palestine Right to Return Coalition are calling for Tuesday, December 30 to be a National Day of Action to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the Israeli military against the people of Gaza.

In Washington, D.C., there will be a demonstration at the State Department at 4:30 pm. Demonstrations will also be held in cities around the country.

To see a listing of demonstrations and to learn more, click here

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Perhaps the leaders of each country should sit down and talk about this?

Bush et al of course wants this to escalate

[Kurska]

3. Right now it seems to be a full blown war between the gaza enclave and israel

And I don't think either is going to agree to direct talks, not now or after the bombings/incursion runs it's course.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. then other countries have to lean on them

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. That would depend if Hamas is still in power

PA has stated it is standing by to retake control of Gaza. israel has said they will work with them and not with Hamas. Not clear how much of Hamas is still functional at this point.

[azurnoir]

45. Yes Abu Mazen is always glad to take

Israels scraps he is no more and possibly even less popular than Haniyeh, his leadership will not be accepted by the Palestinian people and Israel knows and possibly even depends on this. What better a way out of giving up anything than to in the wake of this create another Palestinian civil war, why its a reward for the Israeli government in and of itself.

There is a poll that while lengthy gives a picture of Palestinians politics, willingness to recognize Israel, who they would support as leader ect. on that last itenm the one man the Palestinians as a whole would support that is both West Bank and Gaza is Marwan Barghouti who is of course in an Israeli jail

link to poll http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2008/p30e.html#head4

[azurnoir]

44. Ehaud Barak has refused to consider a cease fire

No ceasefire with Hamas: Barak

WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Israel "cannot really accept" a ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a U.S. television interview on Saturday, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israeli air strikes killed 227 people in Gaza.

"For us to be asked to have a ceasefire with Hamas is like asking you to have a ceasefire with al Qaeda. It's something we cannot really accept," Barak told Fox News from Tel Aviv.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak speaks during a press conference in his office in Tel Aviv on December 27, 2008.
Asked whether Israel would follow up the air strikes with a ground offensive, Barak said, "If boots on the ground will be needed, they will be there."

"Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," he said.


http://www.chtv.com/ch/chchnews/story.html?id=1118902

The side with the superior weaponry and propaganda team rarely does

[ProgressiveProfessor]

48. Actually he said " no ceasefire with Hamas"

Its clear that an implied goal of Israel is to topple Hamas with this.

[azurnoir]

50. And that means what? It means no cease fire in Gaza

as Hamas is the current leadership the Hamas parsing is a smokescreen

[ProgressiveProfessor]

52. I stated in the prior post, it tells me that Israel expects Hamas to fall

or that the price for peace will be the PA taking back control of Gaza.

[azurnoir]

54. If you bother to check out the poll I posted

The Palestinian will never accept the PA or Abu Mazen as their leader, especially now that he is admittedly complicit in the deaths of many you chose to ignore that and resultant consequences or do you?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

58. I read what you posted and other polls that are out there, including one showing Hamas below

30% prior to this fracas. Once there was ordnance in the air, all polls became meaningless. Once the military action ceases (a week or so) and things return to a whatever steady state ensues, then polls will become meaningful again. I expect that to be in 30 days or so.

I do not ignore the deaths and the consequences of them remain to be seen. They may be the doorway to real peace. The opportunity Hamas pissed away may yet be reclaimed if the PA (or whomever ends up running Gaza) take a better approach.

[subsuelo]

6. kill, kill, kill

you know Olmert is loving every minute

[leftchick]

7. Juan Cole: "What I can't understand is the end game here"

I think the end game is obvious but Juan is truly puzzled. from an Academic's view point....

http://www.juancole.com/#Sistani

What I can't understand is the end game here. The Israelis have pledged to continue their siege of the civilians of Gaza, and have threatened to resume assassinating Hamas political leaders, along with the bombardment. The campaign of brutal assassinations launched by Ariel Sharon earlier in this decade were, Sharon, promised us, guaranteed to wipe out Hamas altogether. Do the Israelis expect the population at some point to turn against Hamas, blaming it for the blockade and the bombardment? But by destroying what was left of the Gaza middle class, surely they a throwing people into the arms of Hamas. The US experience of bombing North Vietnam and mining Haiphong Harbor, etc., was that it only stiffened Hanoi's resolve. The massive Israeli bombardment of Lebanon in 2006 did not achieve any significant objectives. In fact, Hezbollah was politically strengthened; it now sits in the Lebanese cabinet and has been recognized as a formal national guard for the south of the country. Its stock of rockets has been replenished. There is a UN buffer now, but in the past such buffers have been removed when hostilities threaten.

If the Gaza population doesn't turn on Hamas, and Israeli measures don't destroy the organization (which they helped create and fund back in the late 1980s when they wanted a foil to the secular PLO), then what? They'll just go on half-starving Gaza's children for decades? Malnourished children have diminished IQ and poor impulse control. That would make them ideal suicide bombers. Plus, sooner or later there will start to be effective boycotts of Israel in Europe and elsewhere over these war crimes. The Israeli economy would be vulnerable to such moves.

Of course, there are only 1.5 million Gazans, and they increasingly are being forced to live in Haiti-like conditions, so in the short term the Israelis can do whatever they want to them. But I can't see this ending well for the Israelis in the long term. Very few insurgencies end because one side achieves a complete military victory (I think it is about 20%). But by refusing to negotiate with Hamas, Israel and the United States leave only a military option on the table. The military option isn't going to resolve the problem by itself. Gaza is a labyrinth. Those Qassam rockets are easy to make. There is so much money sloshing around the Middle East and so many sympathetic Muslims that Gaza will be kept just barely afloat economically, making Hamas hard to dislodge. And the Israeli blockade of Gaza is so distasteful to the world that eventually there is likely to be a painful price to pay for it by the Israelis.

[Crunchy Frog]

47. I think Cole's difficulty in this

is in trying to assume some measure of rationality in the actors in question. That seems to be where a lot of academics go wrong.

[methinks2]

57. Distastful or not, they won't stop until

they've killed a lot of civilians. I've just looked at photos of dead children etc . . . from this operation. They've done this type of thing before. They just keep the journalists out of the area until they've bulldozed all the bodies into mass graves. If there is any criticism of their operation, . . . their PR people are spinning to make it sound like there aren't that many dead civilians. Remember collateral damage is children and regular people just like us. Only they've had the misfortune to be born non-israeli. In that country it makes them disposable. How sad. This is a heavily populated area. These crimes leaves permanent stains on the soul.

[Windy]

8. The Israelis decided (probably with Bush/Cheney) to launch strikes now, before 1/20

This was just too coincidental with the change in administrations.
They know that Obama can't really get involved until he is inaugurated.
This is the direct result of Bush's hands off when it comes to the I/P tensions.

[lonestarnot]

9. I would bet money on this!

[Windy]

11. I would too. There is no question. Netanyahu and company

are in bed with Cheney. This was a joint plan between Bushco and the Israelis. And...the last thing that this world needs right now is MORE tension in the middle east!

[lonestarnot]

35. If you're waiting on the devil, you're wasting time.

[GoesTo11]

10. How, according to your theory, did they get Hamas to send the rockets?

If you're expecting Obama to ride in on a white horse and save Hamas, you'll be disappointed.

[Windy]

12. Oh for god sake. That is ridiculous. We have a major incursion into Gaza

by the israelis. Israel is using overwhelming force. The UN has condemned this action. There was no one precipitating factor that could be directly linked to the use of massive force by the Israelis.

Its called trying to bring about peace by means other than the use of brute force. Obama is for that approach, Bush/Cheney are not.

Just curious... are you for peace through strength or carrots and sticks? I prefer the latter which results in less bloodshed.

And in your eyes, as you post on this website, you are not for overwhelming force in Iraq and Afghanistan but are perfectly find when it comes to Isreal? Just curious.

[GoesTo11]

30. realistic, not ridiculous

I read a long editorial from a week before Israel attacked Gaza. It was in the Saudi news. It said that Hamas is crazy to be sending these rockets and if they don't stop, Israel is going to hit them with overwhelming force, and that this was a horrible mistake by Hamas. Sorry, I don't have the link. But my point was that Hamas was playing its role in getting Israel to respond. That's not saying anything about whether the size of the response is justified, but it is saying that Hamas was a big part of the dynamic here, and for your theory to make sense, Hamas had to want this to happen before Jan 20 too.

As for proportionality, if this was meant to be a tit-for-tat response to teach a lesson - you kill one of ours we kill one of yours - this would be disproportionate. But I don't think that kind of proportionate response does any good anyway. As I read it, this action is about completely disarming Hamas not to teach a lesson but to actually reduce their capability. That goal is what leads to the size of the attack, and the size of the attack inevitably leads to casualties. Not that it's necessarily going to work, but that's what they're trying to do. From what I have read, Israel was planning this for a long time and was going to attack if Hamas did what it did, so they viewed it as a strategic move, precipitated by a tactical event.

Hamas doesn't respond to carrots - except Iranian carrots and probably al-Queda carrots. PA does respond to carrots. Carrots are far preferable when they can work.

I was opposed to the Iraq war, because I thought Saddam could be controlled through other means. I was for the invasion of Afghanistan and believe the US shouldn't have taken its eye off the ball there.

[Common Sense Party]

34. And as long as the Palistinian people allow Hamas to set up rocket

launching pads INSIDE civilian neighborhoods, we're going to keep seeing scenes like this whenever israel returns fire.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

49. Have the Israelis gone in on the ground then?

Air strikes are not an incursion. Not being pedantic, just wondering if I missed some news.

[bunnies]

13. Of course.

Israel has been planning this since the summer. There is absolutely NO QUESTION that Israel would not do this if it didnt have the OK from dimson.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1659242,00.html?referer=sphere_related_content

What the hell. Might as well start WWIII before he leaves office. Not much else left for him to destroy.

[yellowwood]

14. We Must Stop the Bloodshed in Gaza

This Israeli attack on Gaza poses the greatest threat that we have at the present time. Yes, the economic situation is dire, but contined conflict in the Middle East will make it worse.
We WILL be dragged into this. We are already in it.
"The U.S. government finances an illegal military occupation in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Since October 1973, total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars. What does this aid buy? Illegal Jewish-only settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinian towns and villages encircled by walls more monstrous in most places than the Berlin wall. Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks between Palestinian towns that bring the normal movement of people and goods to a standstill and constitute daily humiliations. Gaza sealed and under siege, with food and fuel withheld. Since the second intifada started in September 2000, at least 4,719 Palestinians have been killed and 32,213 wounded."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/15/8963

Do people think that the World does not know that we finance this military action?

Israel did no favor to the United States or the upcoming Administration by the attack. Obama's promise to work out peaceful solutions in the world will be compromised.

Please research the situation there and write to your Congresspersons.

[anndash]

15. I already have contacted mine and will

leave a message on Obama's website, too. This HAS to stop. The world sits by and does nothing while Israel exterminates Palestinians with a Holocaust aided by U.S. weapons and support. It is appalling. This is a great article from a website that is very informative

http://www.alternativenews.org/blogs/michael-warschawski/israeli-massacre-in-gaza----last-moment-before-obama-and-israeli-election-spin-20081228.html

quote....
"The death of one Israeli victim justifies the killing of a hundred Palestinians. One Israeli life is worth a hundred Palestinian lives. This is what the Israeli State and the world media more or less—with marginal questioning—mindlessly repeat. And this claim, which has accompanied and justified the longest Occupation of foreign territories in 20th C. European history, is viscerally racist. That the Jewish people should accept this, that the world should concur, that the Palestinians should submit to it - is one of history's ironic jokes. There's no laughter anywhere…"
John Berger

While the whole world is in shock from the horrible pictures broadcast from Gaza, Israeli public opinion is massively supporting the bloody offensive of Barak-Olmert. This includes the left parliamentarian opposition Meretz. Though Meretz leader MK Haim Oron did express his concern about civilian casualties, in an interview on Israeli television he joined the official propaganda argument blaming Hamas for the bloodshed. Such a mystified discourse has been duplicated by most of the leaders of the Western world, with France’s Foreign Ministry outflanking even US Secretary of State Rice. Let's put the facts straight:



* Gaza has been targeted by the Israeli army since the victory of Hamas, and the siege imposed on more than one and a half million civilians—by Israel, but also by the so-call international community—is in itself an act of violence and a war-crime;

* The Israeli attack is a planned aggression: according to the Israeli news, Ehud Barak planned the attack on Gaza already in August;

* The rockets fired on Israeli towns were a retaliation to previous Israeli military aggressions, and were NOT fired by Hamas but by the small Islamic Jihad organization;

* The attack on Gaza is an integral part of the neo-conservative holy war against the Islamic world, and the outgoing US neo-conservative administration, as well as Egypt and other Arab reactionary regimes, have urged the Israeli authorities to launch the offensive before Obama enters the White House;

* Barak Obama’s declared intention to open talks with the Iranian Islamic Republic is one of the main concerns of the outgoing administrations in Tel Aviv and Washington, and the offensive against Gaza is an attempt to provoke an Iranian reaction that will allow an Israeli/US retaliation. During the last days, Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense, Ephraim Sneh, who is well known for his anti-Iranian obsession, has systematically connected Hamas (sic) rockets to Iran, without any evidence, of course.



Such an overall strategy, based on the mystification of a "clash of civilizations" and a global war against Islam, is shared by all the Zionist Israeli political parties and explains the support of Meretz to the ongoing aggression.

Though one should not expect a quick change in the US policy in West Asia, Israeli leaders and their neo-con sponsors in Washington are nevertheless worried by the change in the US administration, and fear a new strategy that may break with the global, never-ending, pre-emptive war. The attack on Gaza is a "last minute" attempt to change the relation of forces in the Middle East, before the end of the neo-conservative era.

And, before concluding, let us not forget the obscene dimension: the hundreds of victims of the Israeli bombardment and shelling of Gaza are collateral victims of the Israeli elections campaign; in order to increase their popular support before the coming elections, all Israeli leaders are competing over who is the toughest and who is ready to kill more. Ehud Barak, however, has a very short memory, and Shimon Peres can remind him that this cynical calculation is not necessarily the good one: the massacre of Qana, that was supposed to bring victory to Shimon Peres, provoked hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens to turn their back on the Labor Party. Despite his brutality, however, Ehud Barak remains one of the most unpopular leaders in the Israeli arena, and the thousands of demonstrators who came yesterday, almost without warning, to demonstrate against the massacre, may indicate that all those who are behind it, including Meretz, will not receive their votes. It is predictable that the international outrage and relatively broad anti-war sentiment among its voters will push, once again, Meretz to revise its position. They should, however, remember the very old truth that voters always prefer the original thing: when Meretz endorses Netanyahu’s war strategy and lies, the voters will vote for Netanyahu rather than for its pale and tasteless copy.

unquote....

[Behind the Aegis]

16. Why don't you do some research and not swallow anti-Israeli propaganda?

You might want to limit your intake of anti-Israeli porpaganda from such sites like "commondreams."

[Fumesucker]

18. And of course the M$M is totally neutral in the way they report I/P news?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Behind the Aegis]

20. Strawman.

Did I say M$M? Nope! So, :rofl: all you want, doesn't change ignorance.

[Fumesucker]

21. Where do the vast majority of Americans get their "news"?

From the M$M of course..

And you have already admitted they are biased

Care to argue that the US M$M is biased toward the Palestinian POV?

[Behind the Aegis]

22. Try again.

Stop with the strawmen. I said "do research," I didn't say "read the MSM."

"Care to argue that the US M$M is biased toward the Palestinian POV?"

Why? I never made such a claim. Care to argue gays are pedophiles?

[Fumesucker]

23. My point being though, that most Americans have been almost entirely exposed

Only to a very biased POV WRT to I/P, and you know which way the POV is biased.

Oh, and I'm not gay, I do however strongly support the gay struggle for full and equal rights.

[Behind the Aegis]

24. So, basically, you had no reason to "attack" my post?

Don't care if you are gay, wanna discuss how gays are pedophiles, I know Warren would.

[Caretha]

26. Talk about strawmen

Kettle meet pot

[Fumesucker]

27. I didn't "attack" your post...

All I did was point out that unbiased info is hard to come by on this topic and furthermore point out that the great majority of the bias in the US at least leans in favor of Israel.

[izzie]

17. I am so sick of our endless wars and our business of wars.

And we do it saying we are for peace and God is on our side. What ever side that is. I am an old lady and my whole life has been looking at the endless wars we seem to get into saying we are for peace. I can count a good many men in my own family that make their living in this war business and I even live off it, somewhat, in my re-tirement. Interesting what Obama would do if we did not have the war business to fall back on some place in this world. Make wind mills will hardly take over making guns for some 'dear' country we are for.

[aquart]

19. Why only Gaza?

Or are you ONLY aware of Arab deaths? (In which case I would appreciate links to your Darfur threads.)

1500 are outright dead in the avoidable Zimbabwe cholera epidemic. Your cries to stop those deaths are...muted.

Muslim Pakistan spent the weekend exploding. Any complaints about those deaths?

How about Indonesia? The Philippines? Tibet? On any given day, someone is killing someone and you go about your business.

When the Arabs blow up Israelis, do you also post threads? Could you link me to those archives?

I'm sorry, but your outrage seems less humane than specific.

[SoCalDem]

25. Are we giving those places the weapons to wage their wars?

Do we send one side vast quantities of financial aid/weapons?

It's like handing the 14 yr old bully a baseball bat while he's got his knee in the chest of the 7 yr old he's wailing on..

[acmavm]

28. Fool, you're trying to use intelligence and logic. There's two strikes

againts you right away.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

51. Not really

The vast majority of the ordnance used was built domestically in Israel, who also export a lot of ordnance to other nations.

Apparently they did use some (qty unknown) of a new small smart bomb they just bought from the US (GBU-39). Its a 250lb warhead.


BTW, love the picture...

[tkmorris]

29. Are you equating Israel with those responsible for the events you mention?

I don't think that helps your case.

[grassfed]

31. Street-Level View of Israeli Bomb Drop on Civilians

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8cc_1230487097

[chimpymustgo]

32. K & R. No way you can watch this and not feel sorrow for what is happening.

[grassfed]

33. "I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing."

"I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." Those chilling words were spoken on al-Jazeera on Saturday by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defence official in the Sderot area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. For days Israeli planes have bombed Gaza. Almost 300 Palestinians have been killed and a thousand injured, the majority civilians, including women and children. Israel claims most of the dead were Hamas "terrorists". In fact, the targets were police stations in dense residential areas, and the dead included many police officers and other civilians. Under international law, police officers are civilians, and targeting them is no less a war crime than aiming at other civilians.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/29/israel-gaza-attack-palestinian-reaction

[ProgressiveProfessor]

56. Its an opinion piece from an author with a clear agenda

Its well written and passionate, just chock full of errors and misstatements

[ChipperbackDemocrat]

Can somebody answer some questions for me because I'm confused here.

Why is Hamas firing rockets at Israel at the start of an Israeli election campaign? Who in the Hamas PR department signed off on this move?

What is Hamas thinking? Are they thinking?
Throw rockets at Israel and scare a lot of Israelis. What does that yield? Votes for Likud...and you know what you get as a Palestinian if you get Bombs Away Benjamin in charge.

What this seems to be to me is Kadima and Labor showing how hard they can be so that a lot of scared Israelis don't vote Likud. The problem is, no matter who gets in its seems, you will get Likud...and Hamas has to look in the mirror at their actions.

I don't like the Israeli response to Hamas rocket attacks, but I understand it. Most Israelis want to live in peace, I believe that. Most Palestinians want to live in peace, I believe that.

The problem is it seems that the people in charge have a vested interest in more bloodshed. You have group in Hamas who really don't give a tinker's damn about life, as long as they fool some gullible people into pomgranates, 72 virgins and a Semtex sweater-vest to perpetuate their own power. Its sick and its wrong and I will never understand it.
But in Tel Aviv there are a similar group of people who believe the only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian. Meir Kahane's spirit lives in them and they don't deny it.

If you want peace and life in the Middle East, you have to get the death worshippers and death merchants out of the way first...including those in Washington and London.

[LeftishBrit]

36. I agree with you

I always say that Hamas are the biggest contributors to Netanyahu's election campaign; and that the Israeli Right are the biggest contributors to Hamas' retention of power.

[rundownman]

37. What makes you so certian it is hamas? If it doesn't make sense, t here's a reason.

You do realize of course that Israel has a secret service called "mossad".

The mossad motto is "by deception, thou shalt wage war". Surely you don't think these guys are never doing anything.... they have jobs for a reason.

This could also explain why no israeli's have actually been harmed by any of the "rocket attacks"

[pelsar]

38. i was waiting for this one...

the mossad sneaks in to gaza, grabs some kassams and mortars shoots them over the border, hamas claims credit...er, the mossad agents disguised as the Hamas PR claims credit....and the head of the Hamas agrees with them (i guess that makes him a mossad agent too..of course his 3 sisters are israelis- hmmmm)..

[Statistical]

39. EXACTLY. That is the most logical scenario. They should have you working for the CIA. lol (n/t)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

40. Given the number of lauches it would have been immpossible to do without Hamas

There have been thousands of them. Israelis have been harmed over the years of them. You have said so yourself yesterday

[methinks2]

43. I think you're onto something there

Good call. I've been to Israel/Palestine. Most civilians want Peace. But there is a faction of Israeli's who are like conservative Bushies. Their answer to everything is to escalate violence. They actually love war. Killing other people doesn't seem to bother them.

"We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." Jimmy Carter
"When good does evil in its struggle against evil, it becomes indistinguishable from its enemy." T.S. Elliot

[Shaktimaan]

46. where are you learning this stuff?

The mossad motto is "by deception, thou shalt wage war".

The Mossad motto is "Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety"
Proverbs XI/14.

http://www.mossad.gov.il/Eng/AboutUs.aspx

This could also explain why no israeli's have actually been harmed by any of the "rocket attacks"

Right... because those Qassams actually have extremely sensitive guidance systems that guarantee they avoid Israelis as they land in the center of town. Except that doesn't make any sense. But since you apparently never read a newspaper, look at a history book or leave your basement you wouldn't know any of these things.

Look, it's fine to disagree, but you're making this very easy. It's almost as if you are doing it on purpose. Wait a minute... Oh My God! I've figured it out. You're a Mossad plant whose mission is to make anti-Zionists look retarded, aren't you!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

53. He tends to make a lot of it up as he goes along

In other threads he made up numbers, ignores physics, and creates new "facts" as it suits his mood.

[Vegasaurus]

55. Oh, another idiotic conspiracy theorist

and I bet you think that no Arabs carried on 9/11, that it was really those Jews in the white vans.

Right?

No Arabs are terrorists blowing up buses, subways, hotels.

It is all Jews, pretending to be Arabs, just to get the world to look down upon them.

Right.

[Statistical]

41. Palestinians may want peace but Hamas doesn't

It is important to differentiate between your average Palestinian who is concerned about feeding their family, safety, their children's future etc and the leadership of Hamas.

Hamas has no intention of working towards peace. They never have and likely never will.

Their publicly stated goal is the complete destruction of Israel and extermination of all Jews. Does that sound like peace?
The analogy would be like asking why is Hitler attacking Europe? Doesn't he know that will start a war? Sure he did. He didn't care and certainly wasn't interested in peace.

Hamas actions are confirmed almost daily with their non stop 24/7 "death to Israel" propaganda that gets put out by Gaza single TV station (controlled by Hamas).

Some people just enjoy & thrive on violence, hate, and destruction. Hopefully someday the people of Gaza will look at how little violence is occurring in West Bank and make the conclusion that Hamas is not in their best interest. They are a democracy. It is their choice to make.

[HeraldSquare212]

42. They may prefer to goad hard-line Israelis into more extreme action.

But it's also the cease-fire expiring that was the relevant time element. I'm not sure the elections had much to do with it from the Hamas side.