83 thoughts on “IDF Kills 14 in Gaza, Hamas Renounces Ceasefire, IDF Disagrees With Netanyahu on Responsibility for Eilat Attack – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. You wrote an interesting analysis, but for me a major factual error paints the article black.

    You wrote: “Hamas has called off the ceasefire it had been honoring since the end of Operation Cast Lead in 2009”

    Honouring? In the breech!
    My daughter lives in the Eshkol area and has been witness to tens of kassam rockets fired into the area since the end of Cast Lead, and don’t forget the RPG on the schoolbus that killed a schoolboy.

    You might argue for justification (I would argue against) but to blithely say they honoured the ceasefire is simply not true. And if you want to claim you were quoting the media then you should at least have added the words that Hamas “claimed” to have kept the ceasefire, and not written it the way you did as if it were fact.

    1. Hamas honored the ceasefire. You, as most Israelis, refuse to acknowledge that not every rocket that is launched from Gaza is launched by Hamas. And if you can prove that all those rockets were launched by Hamas, I’d like to see yr evidence.

      1. Of course Hamas is responsible. They control the Gaza strip.
        If a group of settlers started firing missiles into Gaza would you absolve Israel of responsibility?

        1. Groups of settlers commit crimes against Palestinians all the time – and not only does the Israeli state not stop them or prosecute them except in very rare circumstances, it actively helps them.

        2. That’s as feeble an argument as blaming the Norway massacre on the Norwegian government just because they “control” Norway.

        3. You may be unaware that Hamas, which is a nationalist group like Sinn Fein and not a bunch of anarcho-terrorists like al Qaeda, has actually been fighting salafists within Gaza. There has been zero proof of Hamas participation in the Eilat attack, whereas salafists have previously been active in this area and it’s a better bet that they are responsible. While we are all speculating at this point, some of us are saying the evidence is lacking while others like Grendal apparently have secret information they picked up from the aluminum foil wrapped around their pointy heads.

        4. No, Hamas is not responsible until you prove they were actually responsible, directly responsible. As for blaming Israel for a rocket attack, settlers have fired rockets at Palestinian villages and Israel has not prosecuted the Yeshiva students who did it (as far as I know). So yes, if Israel does nothing to punish those responsible then Israel is at fault. Hamas, on the other hand, until now, has done a reasonably good job of maintaining the ceasefire for the past two yrs. The Israeli death tonight, while terrible, is a direct result of the havoc Israel has wrought on Gaza.

          1. I don’t think you can say that the recent rocket death is a “direct result” of havoc in Gaza. Hamas has controlled rogue rocket firings somewhat, but plenty of them happen. No one on either side should be targeting civilians, and both sides should be doing all they can to stop such actions.

          2. Hamas isn’t responsible you say ? It’s not what Hamas says:

            “Al Qassam website – In response to the Israeli killings against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, An Israeli man was killed and ten others wounded, including four seriously injured, following the fall of “Grad” missiles at a house in the city of “Beersheba” on Saturday night.

            In the evening of Saturday, a rise in numbers of rockets fired by Palestinian resistance factions on Israeli military bases and sites surrounding the Gaza Strip.

            Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – claimed responsibility for firing four missiles “Grad” on the “Ofukeem”, which lies 20 kilometers west of the city of “Beersheba” in response to the Israeli attacks against Gaza residents. ”

            http://www.qassam.ps/news-4859-In_response_to_its_attacks_on_Gaza_civilians_Resistance_Grads_kills_an_Israeli_man.html

          3. I meant Hamas wasn’t responsible for the Eilat attack, not for the revenge attacks against Israel. Of course it’s responsible for those. Gaza has been mauled by Israel & Hamas isn’t about to sit back & play dead in response.

            Pls read what I write more carefully before assuming & erring in interpreting it.

          4. And just so you’ll see they have done so before:
            “Hamas claimed responsibility Thursday for shooting a missile that struck an Israeli bus, critically wounding a teenage boy on his way home from school.”
            http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-07/world/israel.gaza.violence_1_hamas-claims-responsibility-rockets-and-mortars-idf?_s=PM:WORLD

            But i guess you do not see those attacks ( on a yellow school bus visible for miles) as a violation of the cease fire.
            I guess that if it was one of relatives on the bus (and i do not wish that upon you or any of your relatives) you would have formed a different opinion.

          5. I’ve noticed the Hasbara has already started their new narrative on plenty of blogs:
            the killing of a man in Beer Sheva is suddenly integrated in the ‘Hamas has fired 500.000 rockets on Israel’.
            I’ve come across various people who elegantly jumped from the attack in Eilat to the one person killed in Beer Sheva without even mentioning the bombing of Gaza in the meantime.
            Leonid is a Hasbara parrot. He doesn’t even read the link that you give him in direct answers to his own comment: that means he is absolutely not here to try to understand but only to dump his propaganda.
            I posted a link yesterday to Maan where the Popular Resiatance Committee claimed responsability for the killing in Beer Sheva as a RESPONSE to the bombing of Gaza. Leonid doesn’t care, he just continues ‘hasbarazing’.

            PS. Since when is a CNN-article something trustworthy.

          6. I think that deir yassin continues to violate your comment rules with her personal attacks.

          7. Richard, This is what you claim :
            “settlers have fired rockets at Palestinian villages and Israel has not prosecuted the Yeshiva students who did it (as far as I know).”

            i am unaware of such activity , a google search didn’t produce any results. Would you be able to provide a link ?

      2. Has Hamas, done nothing connected to terrorism or violence, in your opinion, Richard, since the end of Cast Lead?

        Of course I can’t prove that a card carrying member of Hamas actually lit the proverbial match on the rocket, but it’s obvious that there is a blind eye to the smuggling of the rockets to these “renegade” groups who blatently disregard Hamas’s order to cease fire.

        Reading between the lines you write, anytime a settler or other fanatic Israeli commits a crime against Palestinians then the Israeli Govn is to blame, but if a Palestinian commits an act of terror it was some splinter group that Hamas can’t manage to control whilst trying their utmost to do so.

        Or worse, now Palestinian terrorists don’t (and probably never did) exist, it was always the Israelis who kill their own children in “black flag” operations. How low can you get on this blog? The innocent victims aren’t even buried yet and here commentators are accusing Bibi and co of murdering them for political gain! This time some of you out there have crossed the red line of decency. If you can’t admit that a Palestinian is ever capable of a terrorist act and always jump on the “conspiracy” theories then dialogue has no future and Bibi has been right for the first time in his life when he says there is no partner for peace.

        Listen to yourselves! Look in the mirror! If you all want to be taken seriously outside this blog or outside Mondoweiss then keep to your serious, factual and logical arguments which can be debated here seriously and keep within the boundaries of sense.

        1. Just for the record, It wasn’t Richard who came up with the Black Flag nonsense, he actually told Gene Schullman that his conspiracies were offensive, and i am sure that when he will log in again he will deal with the others.

          Richard however was trying to claim that the terrorists were attacking a Soldiers, because they attacked a bus on which some soldiers were present.

          Richard, according to the Geneva convention
          1. All military vehicles must be marked as such to be considered a valid target.
          2. Unless you can come with the numbers of civilians and soldiers that were riding that specific Bus your assessment is baseless.
          3. A Soldier who’s not engaged in fighting isn’t a valid target (according to the Geneva Convention)
          so even according to the international law you advocate with so much passion, this Bus was not a valid target.

          1. Leonid, if a soldier who’s not engaged in fighting isn’t a valid target can you explain how Israel justifies the killing of probably thousands of so-called terrorists in Palestine, most of whom were not engaged in fighting at the time (many of whom never engaged in fighting at any time.)? Some were engaged in sleeping at home with their wives and children, and these families along with other families living in the same building were all assassinated.

          2. I never said the bus was a valid target nor did I justify killing soldiers. What I said was that SOME might make the claim that is was justified to attack the bus because it was largely composed of soldiers. And that indeed is what some on the far-left are saying. I have nothing more to say about this nor should you, please. I’ve said my piece. Let’s move on.

          3. @ Leonid: First of all, Gene Schulman never used the term Black Flag, he used “False flag” which is quite another thing (you can look them up on wikipedia). So please don’t put words in my mouth. Gene Schulman is not a conspirator, so his conspiracies cannot be offensive. Richard was referring to conspiracy “theories”. He, too, is wrong. I never theorized that there was a conspiracy, rather that it might have been a false flag operation which could provide a justification for retaliation. Both Israel and the US have used such in the past, and they have nothing to do with conspiracies, as has been suggested by 9/11 deniers.

        2. @ Shmuel
          “This time some of you out there have crossed the red line”
          Are you talking about the IDF killing three children in Gaza, all while admitting that they haven’t any idea about who exactly are responsible for the attack in Eilat ?
          “The innocent victims aren’t even buried yet and blahblah”
          Well, your army didn’t wait to bury the victims before starting their retaliations, did they ?
          “Listen to yourselves ! Look in the mirror !”
          Stop whining, when did you ever condemn anything done by the IDF ? You’re apparently more shocked by some bloggers discussing who could actually be behind this attack than the accusations against the Palestinians, and that they are paying the price, collectively. Hypocrite, you say ?
          Josph Dana has just posted this:
          http://972mag.com/idf-spokesperson-israel-did-not-claim-that-prc-was-responsible-for-the-eilat-attack/
          There’s a link to Paul Woodward: “Israeli army hasn’t the faintest idea who launched the Eilat attacks”

          @ Leonid
          How convenient of you to quote the Fourth Geneva Convention. If my memory is correct, Israel has not signed many of the Additional Protocols. I wonder why, but we could maybe ask Shmuel, he’s a judge.
          Article 33 says that nobody may be punished for an offense he or she did not commit personally. It goes for these three children in Gaza too, right ?

          1. @ DY

            Are you familar with article 51 ?
            The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations.
            http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-proto.htm

            Please direct your complaint to Hamas, PRC etc, they run their operations from the heart of civlian places, they are the ones to blame in the deaths of the uninvolved civilians.

          2. The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations

            This is garbage. Only a hasbarist could argue that the fact that Gaza contains civilian population means that Israel is jusitified in murdering Gazan babies. How monstrous of you to make such an argument. Simply monstrous. And it make me extremely angry. There is NO justification for killing babies. None. You can quote the Geneva conventions till the cows come home but no diplomat who wrote the Conventions ever thought someone like you would rhetorically rape his work as you have done to justify the unthinkable.

            And don’t you DARE bring up the stupid friggin’ human shield canard again. We’ve dealt w. it here & the only power that uses human shields is the IDF. I’ve documented it here a number of times. There is NO credible evidence, NONE that Hamas uses human shields. And if you breathe another word of this here in violation of the comment rules, you’re toast.

          3. @ Leonid
            Israeli chutzpah has no limits.
            You have the nerve to link to the Protocol 1 Additional to the Geneva Convention of 1977 that your own country – I guess you’re Israeli – hasn’t even signed herself ! You’re one big fu… (sorry, Richard) joke.
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_the_Geneva_Conventions
            So when Israelis need to ‘hasbarize’ they mention some international law and when the same law is used against them, it’s not valuable because they haven’t signed it.

            That “human-shields-hiding-among-the-civilians”-mantra has been debunked many times, but I guess you’re just parroting from the Hasbara list. And those Israeli soldiers on a public bus, they were not “hiding among civilians” or it’s only applicable for ARABS ,
            And we all know that Gaza is as big as Canada and there is plenty of space to live in. Talking about human shields, maybe you could by the same logic explain how mostly Mizrahi Jews were settled along the borders of the State of Israel.
            If you took your head out of the sand, you would know that Hamas and PRC have denied all implications in the attack, which they never do when they are actually implicated.
            The PRC has for example claimed responsability for the killing of one Israeli in Beer Sheva:
            http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414799
            You still didn’t answer if those three kids in Gaza were legitimate targets.

            Hopefully Haver will come around. He will make meatballs out of your ‘law degre’.

          4. @ DY
            I refuse to participate in an uncivilized debate.
            You are being uncivilized hence, i will not honor you with a response.
            all the best.

          5. Yes, of course. When the Hasbara doesn’t work, the other part is being ‘uncivilized’. Then of course you didn’t have to explain whether those kids in Gaza were legitimate targets or not.

          6. @ DY
            you are taking as much responsibility to your actions
            as Hamas and PRC takes for theirs
            Why am i not surprised ?

          7. I thought Deir Yassin’s reply was just terrific. You just chickened out Leonid with your ‘I will not honour you with a response’ nonsense.

          8. Elisabeth, When someone is calling me a “You’re one big fu… (sorry, Richard) joke”
            i will not honor his response.
            I thought that Ad-hominem attacks are prohibited.
            Comment Rule number 1 states : insults, baiting, vulgarity, harassment or abuse directed toward the blog owner or other commenters are not tolerated.

            Was i wrong ?
            If you think her answer was terrific, you can debate with her, you are in fact supporting a comment rule violation.

          9. @ Leonid
            I apologize. You’re right. I withdraw my “you’re just one etc”. I should have kept that for myself. I’m sorry.
            Maybe you should look at the comment rule number 6 too, the one about the ‘human shield’.

        3. As another commenter pointed out to you, this is terribly unfair as I do not in any way support the notion of a black flag operation & have explicitly said so here. What is true is that I can’t figure out given the Shabak warning how the IDF failed so miserably to prevent the attack or understand what was happening. The fact that there was a second attack 6 hrs after the first (indicating the IDF didn’t know the extent of the attack or numbers of terrorists they faced) & that the IDF killed Egyptian policemen indicates total disarray & failure on the IDFs part in many phases of this operation.

          I’d also prefer that you judge this blog on its own merits and not lump it in with Mondoweiss as if there is no difference between us.

        4. What you call Palestinian “terrorists” are Palestinian iiregulars fighting for their homes against the terror of Zionists under cover as “Israel”. So, Palestinian terrorists do not exist — precisely as you say.

          1. Sorry, if there are Israeli terrorists there are Palestinian as well. You can’t have it both ways unless you’re willing to be just as bad & dishonest as the far right pro Israel types who find no fault w. anything Israel does.

      3. Hamas never once honored the ceasfire.
        Hamas is how should I put it? Oh, baal ha-bayit of Gaza therefor it’s responsible for every rocket that is being fired from Gaza.

        1. Just as Israel is responsible for every terror attack it mounts against Gazan civilians. By yr logic, Palestinian terror attacks are justified against Israel because of Israeli terror attacks against Gaza. Where does that vicious circle lead us?

      4. [read the comment rules. This site & comment threads are not venues for rearguing issues like the Hamas Charter or Mohammed al Durrah. If that’s your game go elsewhere. And read the rules before trying to comment again.]

    2. shmuel, your statement is false. Whatever one might think of Hamas, they have shown themselves to be true to their word, and they have never broken a ceasefire with israel. I believe they do their best to contain other groups that continue to shoot occasional rockets at Israel, usually immediately following the murder of Palestinian farmers or fishermen or other civilians by IDF. You make the same rush to judgment as the one Bibi has made in launching this most recent attack on Gaza, once again killing babies and children. Rather than learning more about those responsible for the attack in southern israel, the waters seem to be getting more and more muddy, as even israel’s own mouthpieces can’t seem to get their stories straight. If it does turn out the attack at Eilat had nothing whatsoever to do with Gaza, I wonder if we will hear more than an oooops! from Bibi. Or even that.

  2. I’m afraid we are dealing with a criminal state, to the core.
    Criminality -IS- their way of life & they are very good at this.
    They have experience of 63 years (and counting).
    When you really think about it this jut boggles the mind.
    They need victory after victory simply in order to exist.
    I can’t believe it myself but what can I say – ITS REAL!

    1. I understand — the regime and the state itself are beyond redemption. The magnitude of Israeli crimes can just take your breath away. Nothing ever justified or continues to justify the destruction of the Palestinians in their own land. Nothing. On one you tube video, an Israeli woman is looking across to Gaza, I think, and she says “They should all disappear!” with a sweep of her manicured hand. Can you believe it? Precisely the words issued by a German about World Jews a while back! It is astonishing.

      1. Yep, during Cast Lead, the Danish Television interviewed some Israeli tourists looking at the bombing of Gaza all while picknicking.
        The footage is on the net somewhere with English subtitles, but I didn’t find it. The sequence with the woman you’re talking about starts around 00:25
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjw8U0AcH4Q
        The journalist specifies that the hilltops are usually cherished by birdwatchers….

  3. That interview with Avital Leibovitz by Lia Tarachansky is mind-blowing. She clearly states that the IDF doesn’t know anything else than the attackers came from Gaza (‘The Real News’ also questions this point), and still the first house they blew up belonged to a Popular Resistance Committee member, killing his two years old son among others.
    So Leibovitz is clearly admitting that they target at random or that this was a political killing, having nothing to do with the attack in Eilat.
    I’m sorry for being cynical – and I apologize – but I really can imagine Bibi’s remake of the 9/11-This-Is-Good-For-Israel in a “This is really good for ME”.

    1. I hear ya Deïr Yassin.
      Can you imagine how I must feel KNOWING (for the rest of my life) that this is the place i was born and educated in…and that for a time I even bought into their sh*t…
      just makes me sick thinking about it.

      1. Dear Ex Israeli: I have many Israeli friends who feel as you do. I feel the same about my own place of birth, the good ol’ USA. We commiserate a lot together about this, and look forward to the day when we can celebrate the end of this wickedness.

    2. I think the similarity to 9/11 is over-powering. In both cases, the GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATES by failing to intercept the terrorists before the killing occurs. In both cases, the government uses the terrorist attack as an excuse to do something violent and unjustified that they already wanted to do.

      My guess is that there are so many people ready to participate in a terrorist action that anyone who can pretend to be a HAMAS or PRC or Al-Qa’eda organizer can enlist such people into a terrorist action which can be blamed on the pretended organizer. BLACK FLAG operations are not unknown on the part of the USA or in Israel.

      This argument alone should be enough to motivate all USAers and Israelis to oppose instantaneous knee-jerk military responses.

    3. They don’t even know they came from Gaza. All the IDF lady said was that they had kalishnikovs, which are the weapon of choice everywhere outside the US.

  4. I read somewhere – and Danaa who comments here occasionally, stated that too in a comment on 972mag – that the Israelis had been warned shortly before the attack through a phone call from Jordan.
    I can’t find the informations any longer, or rather I forgot where I read it.
    Danaa linked that to the fact that one of the killers of Vittorio Arrigoni was a Jordanian citizen too (that’s a fact) -killed during the taking-over of the house where they had barricaded themselves in Gaza.
    Anyhow as someone said: The Israelis didn’t want Fatah, they got Hamas, they didn’t want Hamas, they got Salafists. Though the Palestinian civilians are the first to suffer from those lunatics.

  5. Just so you know, the news about Egypt recalling it’s Ambassador was premature. This time we apologized to the Egyptians right away and I think this may have actually done something.

    In the meantime another Rocket Hit Beer Sheva and killed one person. How would you expect Israel to react? Sit and do nothing ?

    1. You didn’t “apologize.” You expressed “regret,” which is NOT an apology. And Egypt still isn’t satisfied & you still have thousands of Egyptians trying to destroy the Israeli embassy in Cairo & demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. I wouldn’t be too smug about all this if I were you. This could snowball far outside yr control. Israel doesn’t rule the roost as it once did I’m afraid.

    2. The rocket hitting Beer Sheva killing one person was a retaliation from the Popular Resistance Committee as a response to the killing of four of its members and the two years old son of one of their members during the first raid on Gaza though the IDF has more or less admitted that they have no idea who are responsible for the Eilat-attacks.
      So don’t turn things upside down: Israel attacked Gaza and the PRC and they retaliated.
      I posted a link to maannews above where the PRC claims responsability for the Beer Sheva attack. They have also said on various occassion immediately after the Eilat attack that they were not responsible.
      The Israeli reaction is one of paranoia, and it also shows profound signs of basic racism; “some Arabs did it, let’s just bomb the hell out of some Arabs then, no matter who, they’re all the same”.

  6. RE: “Israeli media can’t seem to acknowledge readily Palestinians were killed today in Gaza.” ~ R.S.

    SEE: VIDEO (07:49) – Is Change possible in Israel? [Uploaded by HaimBresh on Mar 15, 2011]
    Prof. Haim Bresheeth tries to answer this question – why can some Israelis change, and support the Palestinian cause, but change seems elusive in Israel? Should we wait and hope for such change?
    LINK – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIj0l6C5VqE

  7. Go back and read all your comments. The terrorists got exactly what they wanted — an escalation of hostilities. Bibi got exactly what he wanted — an escalation of hostilities. Mourn the dead on both sides of this… And curse the leadership of both sides… As there are sure to be more dead. As for bibi, the true statesman would not have attacked gaza. The true politician looking to score points? Aha! So Bibi “started it.” Hamas went with the flow. As I said, curse them both. Btw, take a look at http://www.hatebreakers.org.

    1. I don’t think anyone would attempt a comparison of a “true stateman” with Netanyahu. It is strange to see these words in reference to him and his ilk, even a negative reference. I was shocked back to the idea that , yeah, where are the statesmen? Not here in American, that’s for sure. And I am not sure Israel has ever had a statesman. Would you call Begin a statesman? Fat chance.

  8. Richard, Egypt has not recalled its ambassador. And the Egyptians were not killed on the Gaza border. Sometimes you seem to rush to post things – in cases like these it’s best to wait until some of the facts are clearer.

    1. “And the Egyptians were not killed on the Gaza border”.
      No, they were in fact killed within Egypt proper where Israel has absolutely nothing to do.
      http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=20516
      And it’s rather grotesque hearing the Israelis blaming the Egyptians for not surveilling the borders when we know that Israel only accepted to return the Sinai to Egypt under condition that no Egyptian military presence would be stationed there except a limited number of police officers.
      Egypt has asked on various occasions the permission to mobilise their military forces in the Sinai during the uprisings, but Israel refused.

      1. My point was that this incident happened in the south, not near Gaza.
        As for Egyptian presence in the Sinai – Israel has given permission for the entry of military forces a number of times, including last week. Even without these forces, however, there were no such attacks under Mubarak’s rule, proving that the Egyptians can thwart them if they want to.
        Bottom line: the Egyptians are not free of blame.

        1. Yeah, isn’t that amazing, Israel has to give permission to the Egyptians to do whatever they want on their own territory. It’s not that Israel needs any permission, even outside it’s own territory….
          Things are changing in Egypt, and though the Egyptians are very nice and gentle people, they have a long history of feeling humiliated by the Israelis. ‘Karama’, dignity, NOT pride, but dignity is very important in the Arab world.
          Maybe the Israelis should try to adapt to the new geo-political realities.

          PS. By the way, I recommend the video with Haim Bresheeth posted by Dickerson3870 above.

          1. They have to get permission because that’s what was agreed upon in the Camp David accords. It’s rather disingenuous to blame Israel for something the Egyptians signed on to.

            I watched Bresheeth’s harangue up until the point he called all Israelis “lunatics”. Sorry, I don’t accept such hateful language, just as I would not accept someone calling all Palestinians “terrorists”.

          2. It’s rather disingenuous to blame Israel for something the Egyptians signed on to.

            Not disingenuous at all since it’s in Israel’s interest for Egypt to be better able to police its border region with Israel & Gaza. So it is Israel’s fault, not Egypt’s, that it can’t muster the level of security personnel necessary to defend the area.

            Regarding “lunatics,” you don’t find a national leader who orders strikes on an enemy country before he even knows precisely who has attacked his country, to be a bit of a lunatic??

        2. It happened about 100 miles from Gaza, not a very long distance.

          Bottom line: the Egyptians are not free of blame.

          Bottom line: the IDF (& not Egypt) is responsible for defending Israel’s borders & it did a damn lousy job in this instance.

          1. Article 3 of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty:
            “Each Party undertakes to ensure that acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, or violence do not originate from and are not committed from within its territory, or by any forces subject to its control or by any other forces stationed on its territory , against the population, citizens or property of the other Party.”

          2. I guess you’ll have to forgive the Egyptians as they’re not feeling terribly enthusiastic about that peace treaty after Israel killed five of its policemen. In fact, another commenter notes a presidential candidate who’s demanding renegotiation of the treaty. I’d say Israel has more to lose than Egypt regarding the treaty & should stop pointing the finger at Egypt & start looking within at its own army which didn’t prevent the attack.

          3. @ Sam
            If I understand correctly
            1. Egypt is not allowed any military presence in the Sinai without Israeli’s permission
            2. Egypt should still control its side of the border -without that military presence that they are not allowed without Israel’s permission);
            It seems like having one’s cake and eat it too, to me.

  9. Is it just me, being cynical? It just strikes me as too convenient development for the Gov’t. 1) The “housing protests” will cease now (nobody likes economic protesters at war time). 2) Military budget cuts threat is over now. And last, but not least – 3) Palestinian independence declaration in UN in September can now be considered out of question.
    I don’t want to sound as a conspiracy theorist, but this IS convenient.

  10. Leonid, I can see you are confused so I’ll explain it to you. Persons unknown from places unknown committed acts of violence in southern israel. Nobody has taken responsibility, and even the israelis can’t get their stories straight about who they blame.

    Israel, with its usual zeal and thirst for violence against Palestinians, immediately attacked Gaza, killing people israel claims are terrorists, plus several others including young children.

    Palestinian counter-terrorists in Gaza responded with rockets fired at israel.

    Hamas denies involvement in the Eilat attack, but does not deny involvement in defending Gaza against overwhelming military force by the israeli war machine which attacked without verifying any Palestinians or anybody from Gaza were involved in the original incident.

  11. @Leonid:

    Since Hamas doesn’t have the kind of precision weaponry used by israel I think it very unlikely they were targeting the bus.

    In any case, your claim that this was a violation of the cease fire is ridiculous. Clearly any truce was first broken by Israel as always:

    “Hamas on Thursday night sent a message to reporters saying the strike was in retaliation for the killing of three Hamas leaders last weekend.”

    http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-07/world/israel.gaza.violence_1_hamas-claims-responsibility-rockets-and-mortars-idf?_s=PM:WORLD

    1. Firing “imprecise” weaponry into areas where civilians might be harmed is a clear violation of international law, as the Goldstone Report makes clear.

      The IDF justifies firing into civilian areas by saying its forces were under immediate danger of attack — the only justification allowed by international law. Goldstone demolished THOSE arguments as well in at least eight instances.

      This makes members of both the IDF and Hamas (and their commanders/bosses) “terrorists” by my definition — people who deliberately attack noncombatants BECAUSE THEY CAN. They are not soldiers, they are not freedom fighters. They are cowards and criminals, and should be dealt with as such.

      1. I Believe i was referring to an incident that took place in April (i think) in which that Hamas fired a Kornet anti missile laser guided tank on a school bus. Killing a 16 years old and wounding the driver. Luckily it was after the driver dropped off all of the students but one.

        So Marry. please get yourself familiar with the facts about Hamas. Last Friday (8/20) Hamas TV claimed they fired a C704 on an Israeli navy ship. this is a radar guided land-sea missile.

        1. @Leonid
          No doubt if Hamas is able to build weapons comparable to those used against Palestinians by the IDF it won’t be too long before Israel ceases its aggression against Gaza. Israel has shown it is only willing to fight so long as its feels its own are relatively safe from harm.

    1. Leonid, not sure what you are getting at here. All I see is that this doctor was a loyal Palestinian, as the Israeli military victims in the Eilat attack were loyal Israelis.

      1. Mary, about time you’ll learn something about those you advocate for.
        Hamas military wing mourns only the members of the military wing, therefore by american standards and law, this “doctor death” was a terrorist. If Israel killed him, they had a good reason.

        You don’t believe me ? you think Hamas mourns every Palestinian who die ? go back to the website linked above, and count the number of people who died and mentioned on the Hamas MW website, then compare it with the total number published, did you get the picture ?

        1. I’m getting sick & tired of you claiming to know anything at all about Hamas. From whence yr knowledge on the subject, sir? Yr expertise? From reference books, visits to Gaza, courses you’ve taken with a specialist on the subject–or just from yr own personal prejudices which substitute for knowledge or insight?

          I’m also deeply offended by you saying that a medical doctor should be killed. Not to mention that they were taking the man’s 2 yr old son to hospital & I featured a picture of the poor child’s body being rushed into the hospital. You are really a brute, but someone who swaddles himself in self-assurance & pro-Israel righteousness. It disgusts me. I don’t know you at all. You may be a perfectly nice person to your friends and family. But you come across here as precisely the opposite.

          I’m going to moderate yr future comments. If any future ones are equally offensive you may lose yr comment privileges entirely. You might line up yr replacement from Hasbara Central & tell him to be on the next flight landing at BG (it’s an inside joke you won’t get).

    2. His brother was the militant, not the doctor. And besides, he was taking his 2 yr old son to hospital. How can Israel kill a 2 yr old boy who sits in plain sight on a motorcycle? I find this notion repulsive & yr defense of it equally so.

      The IDF at the time of the killing admitted it was targeting a diff. vehicle & hit the three on the motorcycle by accident. You don’t even believe yr own beloved IDF?

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