The thing about warfare is that it never goes according to plan. Having done what could be done with aviation fires over the course of several days, the IDF pushed mechanized infantry and armor into the warren that is Gaza. In the wake of a misguided tank round that killed four of its own soldiers and wounded twenty others, Israeli troops report that they took incoming mortar rounds, counter-fires were applied and a UN schoolhouse with more than 30 Gazans were killed when – according to the IDF – a chain reaction occurred among the booby-traps, IEDs and cached munitions stored at the school.
This is entirely plausible: Iraqi insurgents often hid weapons and explosives in so-called “no fire areas” such as schoolhouses and mosques, and the propensity of Hamas fighters to hide themselves in the midst of non-combatants is well-known. Even though such sites lose their protected status under the laws of armed conflict when turned to military use, it’s a win-win for the forces of barbarism: If the IDF does not return fire, Hamas militants can shoot from behind the skirts of schoolchildren with impunity. If they do fire, the resulting havoc scores for them a critical information operations victory. The Arab street will run wild with anger while their governments cry crocodile tears, the funding taps are loosened in Qom, Qatar, Riyadh and Dubai and the killing can continue for another generation. And having woven the victim’s mantle by deliberately placing their own children at risk, Hamas can wear it while it promises to deliberately target Israeli schoolchildren. The forces of moral relativism at UN (and elsewhere) have the perfect bloody shirt to wave at the evil Zionists. As if they needed one.
Comparatively safe across the sea from such barbarity, the thinking mind recoils in shock – we want to look away, make it stop, exert the only leverage we have on the only people that can moved by reason.
Surrounded by “neighbors” whose most fervent aspiration is to push them into the sea, the citizens of Israel can afford no such hopeful luxuries.
Makes you appreciate North America a little more, not to mention the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Also makes me want to take out after Hamas (and all those shedding the crocodile tears ) myself. I know the IDF doesn’t need my help, but I get so danged MAD!
Miss Birdlegs – I’m with you. Furiously angry. And feeling ridiculously impotent about it.
This is a 2000 year old argument that will never end; it’s hardwired into these 2 peoples to hate each other.
The real problem is that one of them wants to completely and utterly exterminate the other, while that one just wants to defend herself.
I don’t agree this is a 2000 year old problem. The Palestinians serve a useful function for the other Arab states, this allows their local groups to vent about a problem and thus diverts them from more local, and to the rulers more critical problems such as their failed economic policies. The international community is complicit in this for their own reasons. The fact that there has been no attempt in the last 60 years to move Palestinians out of the camps is significant. Why should people change when their bad behavior is always rewarded?
That poster does seem to sum the situation up, the man with the M-16 interposes himself between the innocents, and the AK, while the AK user hides behind the innocents. What sort of culture can produce a mindset like that?
Even the Nazi’s, the Imperial Japanese Army, and the Soviet Armies would not do such a thing. ( Although I admit they had thier own ideas about what to do with the innocents ). How can a religous culture that has produced people like that for over a millenium call itself, ” The Religion of Peace”? As James points out, they even hate themselves, and won’t lift a finger to help the Palestinians they claim to support.
, Israel is the only country in the Mid East that will even give Palestinians due process in Law. If Hamas wins, and Iran establishes hegemony over Palestine, and then destroyes Israel, what will happen to the Palestinians, now that they have outlived thier usefullness?
I am with Miss Birdlegs and Kris on this one, Israel must do what she must to protect herself, she is the only hope the Mid East has.
“Islam” does not mean “peace”, it means “submission (to God’s will)”.
And “God’s will” is defined by your local mullah, tribal sheik, or fatwah producing cleric.
We must not only watch as Israel defends herself against the Islamic threat, but we must actively assist. Openly assist.
And a joint strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons assets would be a darn good idea for the long term security of all. What are the Arabs going to do? Hate America and Israel? Fund, train and support terrorists who attack in the U.S. and Israel?
Write stern warnings in the U.N. all day long if it pleases you, but this will not end until Israel wins, or is defeated. A return to status quo ante just perpetuates the skirmishing and attrition warfare against Israel. At least until Iran goes nuke and fulfills their stated threat to wipe out Israel.
Harsh measures, indeed, and not at all “proportionate.” Victory, or defeat, is not proportionate either.
However, at the rate our economic miseries are about the be worsened by the idiots in Washington, we may have to just forget about Israel and learn to recite the Koran since we will be taxed and spent into a 7th Century lifestyle anyway.
Ya know, I’m finding it more and more difficult to take anything Hamas says seriously. I know part of it is the language barrier – Arabic grew up in the crossroads of the world, where barter is a way of life, so what seems exaggeration or outright fantasy when read or directly translated (“Four sheckels! You reduce me to a pauper! My kids will not eat!”) is nothing more than a minor nuance I shouldn’t interpret literally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Tc-B563ww
Yeah. Talk about school kids and small arms and cute little furry bunnies gathered peacefully in residential neighborhoods, they do not cause high-order secondaries like that.
– Max