Israeli air strikes flattened bastions of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip today in the third day of an offensive that has killed more than 325 Palestinians in the deadliest violence in the territory in decades. "We have an all-out war against Hamas and its kind," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in parliament, using a term he has employed in the past to describe a long-term struggle against Israel's Islamist enemies. Broadening their targets to include the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes bombed the Interior Ministry, which supervises 13,000 members of the group's security forces. The building had been evacuated and there were no casualties. Israel also targeted the homes of at least two top commanders in Hamas's armed wing. The commanders were not at home at the time but several family members were killed....The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said at least 57 of the dead were civilians. It based the figure, which an UNRWA spokesman called "conservative", on visits by agency officials to hospitals and medical centres.
Israeli air strikes flattened bastions of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip today in the third day of an offensive that has killed more than 325 Palestinians in the deadliest violence in the territory in decades.
"We have an all-out war against Hamas and its kind," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in parliament, using a term he has employed in the past to describe a long-term struggle against Israel's Islamist enemies.
Broadening their targets to include the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes bombed the Interior Ministry, which supervises 13,000 members of the group's security forces. The building had been evacuated and there were no casualties.
Israel also targeted the homes of at least two top commanders in Hamas's armed wing. The commanders were not at home at the time but several family members were killed.
...The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said at least 57 of the dead were civilians. It based the figure, which an UNRWA spokesman called "conservative", on visits by agency officials to hospitals and medical centres.
Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas targetsin the densely populated Gaza Strip for a third day on Monday, and there's no sign that the attacks will end. The raids are in retaliation for rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli towns that intensified after Hamas ended a six-month cease-fire a week ago. Israeli tanks are being deployed on the border with Gaza, and Israel has threatened a ground invasion if the rocket firing doesn't stop....The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "In Israel, people at all levels of society (wrongly) believe in the omnipotence of the army. As they see it, the army can straighten out anything that politics can't, namely, establishing calm. In reality, though, Israel's massive retaliatory attacks will only bring about a lack of calm. And they might even unleash a third intifada."...The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "Instead of bringing Hamas to its knees, Israel's most recent severe attacks on the Gaza Strip ... will only create new martyrs. For many years, this mechanism has functioned like clockwork."
Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas targetsin the densely populated Gaza Strip for a third day on Monday, and there's no sign that the attacks will end. The raids are in retaliation for rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli towns that intensified after Hamas ended a six-month cease-fire a week ago.
Israeli tanks are being deployed on the border with Gaza, and Israel has threatened a ground invasion if the rocket firing doesn't stop.
...The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"In Israel, people at all levels of society (wrongly) believe in the omnipotence of the army. As they see it, the army can straighten out anything that politics can't, namely, establishing calm. In reality, though, Israel's massive retaliatory attacks will only bring about a lack of calm. And they might even unleash a third intifada."
...The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"Instead of bringing Hamas to its knees, Israel's most recent severe attacks on the Gaza Strip ... will only create new martyrs. For many years, this mechanism has functioned like clockwork."
(The quoted parts are as good as commentary gets -- the rest is all too standard-issue WoT/recycled Israeli government rhetoric. SPIEGEL's news article is titled The Gaza Conflict: Hamas' Strategy of Escalation.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said the blame for renewed violence in the Middle East can be pinned on Hamas. Others, though, say Israel's response with mass air strikes has been disproportionate....In a statement released on Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "I am deeply concerned by continuing missile strikes from Gaza on Israel and by Israel's response."French President Nicolas Sarkozy was even more critical of Israel, calling the air raid campaign against the Gaza Strip "disproportionate force." Sarkozy spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by telephone on Sunday and also condemned "the provocations which have led to this situation."Javier Solana, chief of foreign policy for the European Union, said "the EU has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel," before adding "the current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said the blame for renewed violence in the Middle East can be pinned on Hamas. Others, though, say Israel's response with mass air strikes has been disproportionate.
...In a statement released on Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "I am deeply concerned by continuing missile strikes from Gaza on Israel and by Israel's response."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was even more critical of Israel, calling the air raid campaign against the Gaza Strip "disproportionate force." Sarkozy spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by telephone on Sunday and also condemned "the provocations which have led to this situation."
Javier Solana, chief of foreign policy for the European Union, said "the EU has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel," before adding "the current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians."
Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignored - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent
We've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more - providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs - who, as we all know, only understand force. Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis - just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated". And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" - as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.
We've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more - providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs - who, as we all know, only understand force.
Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis - just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated". And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" - as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.
And does the docile compliance of Fatah in the West Bank stop the violence against the plestinians, stop the land grabs, stop the IDF shooting children dead ? No. We have the perverse situation where the colonisers make the law that resistance is illegal whilst also making all acts of oppression just. And the world nods its head and agrees.
Lie after lie after lie. There is nothing the palestinians can do to appease the israelis. Their very existence is provocation enough. Let none believe there is a behaviour from the palestinians that would allow justice to breath, it is not in their gift.
When the israelis say "hamas and their like" you can hear the same murderous contempt that fuelled the word "untermenschen". When israelis talk of war to the "bitter end", I hope they are not convinced there is a final solution to the palestinian problem.
Israel is certainly damaging itself, but this is self-harm by proxy.
But finally I am less disgusted by Israel's behaviour than I am by the gleeful collusion of our own political elites. How can they see this and call it anything other than an atrocity ? keep to the Fen Causeway
Even knowing that retaliation was certain, Hamas seemed to end the cease-fire in part because of its longstanding discipline and consistency. For years it has preached to Palestinians the rejectionist credo that Fatah negotiated with Israel and got nowhere; Hamas's way of armed force, it argued year in and year out, was the only way. And so it appears that Hamas turned its logic against its own cease-fire: Hamas's supreme leader, Khaled Meshal, said on Saturday that the truce had yielded few results. If there were no specific benefits -- like freed prisoners or an end to Israeli blockages on Gaza -- then the option, again, was a return to violence.
Even knowing that retaliation was certain, Hamas seemed to end the cease-fire in part because of its longstanding discipline and consistency. For years it has preached to Palestinians the rejectionist credo that Fatah negotiated with Israel and got nowhere; Hamas's way of armed force, it argued year in and year out, was the only way.
And so it appears that Hamas turned its logic against its own cease-fire: Hamas's supreme leader, Khaled Meshal, said on Saturday that the truce had yielded few results. If there were no specific benefits -- like freed prisoners or an end to Israeli blockages on Gaza -- then the option, again, was a return to violence.
Interesting to see this point being made in the NYT. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
