Enlarge the image to see the Palestinian women wailing!
I'm giving you my headline from the paper:
"Israeli's Dilemma in Response to Rockets"
"Israel’s Dilemma in Response to Rockets" by STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM — In a concerted effort to suppress rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinian militants, eight of them from Islamic Jihad, in 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday.
Islamic Jihad vowed vengeance, threatening suicide bombings inside Israel, presumably organized from the West Bank. “We emphasize that the response will have the same impact as the catastrophe that hit us today,” said Abu Hamza, spokesman for the group’s military wing. “All methods are open, not only rockets but also martyrdom operations in the territory of 1948.”
Despite the lethality and accuracy of the Israeli airstrikes, Israel finds itself with no effective military answer to the problem of rockets from Gaza. Israelis living near Gaza in towns like Sderot bear the brunt of the rocket attacks, but the government is reluctant to order a large-scale military invasion of Gaza, especially with American-sponsored peace talks about to begin again with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Such raids in the past have caused significant numbers of civilian casualties and provided only temporary respites from the rockets, Israeli officials and experts say. The current strategy of intensified daily raids and airstrikes on militant leaders and rocket-launching cells has taken an important toll on militants, officials argue, while keeping Israeli military and Palestinian civilian casualties low.
Yeah, as the squeeze and strangle the place to death!
But the rockets continue to make daily life in Sderot miserable, with frequent sirens, crowded shelters, frightened children, considerable danger, trauma and stress. Because of collapsed real-estate prices, the people of Sderot are mostly trapped in the town, unable to move and no longer trusting the assurances of their leaders.
Yup, it's ALL ABOUT POOR IZ-RAY-HELL!
On the diplomatic level, the dilemma is nearly as acute. So long as rockets are fired toward Israelis from Gaza, Israelis will be very reluctant, even unwilling, to make a political deal for a Palestinian state that cannot provide them security. And if the Israelis reinvade Gaza in a serious way, killing many Palestinians, it will create a quandary for Mr. Abbas and moderate Arab countries, making it very difficult for them to sanction a political deal with Israel.
“For a long time, there’s been an understanding that the situation is intolerable, and it’s impossible for the government to go on doing nothing and be seen to be doing nothing,” said Mark Heller, director of research at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, referring to the rockets. “But security professionals understand well that they don’t have a rich menu of options here. The choices range from bad to very bad.”
Political pressure is building for a major operation, and the army is unhappy with the militants’ progress on improving the range and payload of these rockets, Mr. Heller said. But after Israeli troops enter Gaza, “the question is what you do the next day, and there’s no clear answer yet,” he said.
“No one wants to stay, and no one deludes themselves that if they go in and then out, it will be more than a brief interlude, and it can strengthen Hamas, which can say that its resistance forced Israel out,” he said.
Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser, agreed that the options were inadequate. “This has been the dilemma from the beginning,” he said. “When you go in, you provide further incentive for them to hit back. And if you don’t go in to reduce the level of the threat, it grows. But sooner or later, if the rockets continue, they will force the government to launch a major operation, which the government clearly doesn’t want to do, since no one thinks it will provide a good or long-term achievement, and the costs will be very high on both sides.”
For Mr. Freilich, now at the Belfer Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, “there is no effective answer except a long string of limited operations, trying to develop an antirocket system, which is years away, and occasional big operations, of limited value.”
In other words, the STATUS QUO and NO PEACE!
The Israeli attacks over the past two days were aimed at Islamic Jihad, which has been firing most of the rockets lately, while Hamas has been firing shorter-range mortars.
Yeah, Hamas isn't responsible for the rocket fire, but they held responsible by Israel.
In one of three separate airstrikes beginning Monday night, Israel killed a senior commander, Majed al-Harazin, around 40, and his aide, Jihad Daher, who were traveling in a car full of explosives.
Palestinians said that they had emerged from hiding a few days ago to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, but had not been allowed to leave, and that Israel might have been able to track them. Israel said Mr. Harazin directed Islamic Jihad’s rocket attacks. A third man was critically wounded, and six passers-by were hurt.
Yeah, doing this during the holiday another insult!
Later Monday night, Israel hit another car carrying a rocket designer, Karim Dahdouh, on his way to launch rockets, and he and another militant died. There were reports that two others also died. On Tuesday morning, Israel struck a group of Islamic Jihad militants leaving a mosque in northern Gaza, killing four of them, including another commander, Hussam Abu Habel.
Yup, missiles flying all over the place!
At his funeral on Tuesday, gunmen fired in the air, accidentally severing a high-voltage power line that fell on the mourners, injuring at least four people. Thousands of Gazans attended the various Islamic Jihad funerals.
There were also reports that Israeli commandos killed another Islamic Jihad leader near Jenin, in the West Bank, but the reports were denied by the Israeli Army and by Palestinians in the West Bank, who said that the local commander, Tareq Abu Ghali, 25, had not been killed. But Khaled al-Batch, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, insisted that the commander had been killed, despite the denials in Jenin.
Also on Tuesday, after rockets and mortars were fired toward the Israeli town of Kerem Shalom, Israel attacked Hamas gunmen near the border in southern Gaza, killing two of them, Hamas said.
The Israeli deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, told Army Radio on Tuesday, “I’m very pleased with our achievements last night.”
Yeah, murderous Zionists would be!
According to the Israeli police, 664 rockets landed in Israel this year through the end of November, killing two Israeli civilians and wounding 122, according to a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld. There were 836 rockets that landed in 2006, he said, and 312 in 2005. Since the rocket firing began from Gaza in 2001, the police said, 13 Israelis have been killed and 307 have been wounded by shrapnel, with many more suffering from shock and trauma.
About half the rockets fired toward Israel land inside Gaza, Mr. Rosenfeld said.
The Israeli Army, which counts launches, says there have been more than 2,000 rockets and mortar shells launched toward Israel so far in 2007, averaging about 250 a month since July, after Hamas took over Gaza."
Yup, ALL ABOUT ISRAEL!!!
HOW MANY PALESTINIANS KILLED IN THAT TIME, NaZionist murderers?
Wanna see some real suffering?
"by Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press | December 19, 2007
GAZA CITY - Israel will keep striking the leaders of groups that launch rockets from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged yesterday after an hours-long aerial assault killed 12 militants including the commander of the extremist group Islamic Jihad.
Islamic Jihad threatened "a wave of martyrdom operations" - suicide bombings in Israel - in response to what it called "a big loss."
The Israeli attack began when aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City after nightfall Monday, killing six men including Majed Harazin, Islamic Jihad's charismatic military commander for Gaza and the West Bank. Rocket-maker Karim al-Dahdouh also was killed in the attack.
Four more men were targeted as they emerged from morning prayers yesterday at a northern Gaza mosque. Two members of the larger Hamas militant group, which rules Gaza, were killed in a separate air strike in southern Gaza.
I mean, the INSULT!!!!
Meeting members of his Kadima party in Jerusalem late Tuesday, Olmert pledged to keep up the pressure.
Of course he does, the murderer!
"We will continue to seek out the heads of the terror organizations," he said, "We will get all those who are responsible for firing rockets. The terror organizations feel this and will feel this in full force in the near future."
Get that, world!
No surprises when they roll in full force!
Defense Minister Ehud Barak emerged from a meeting with James L. Jones, the new American military envoy to the region, and said Israel would not let up in its offensive in Gaza, although the militants' threats of revenge must be taken seriously.
"I hope these successes continue. At the same time we must be on our guard for the responses that may come from the other side," Jones, who spent the day meeting top Israeli military and political officials, did not speak to reporters.
Of course he didn't!
He's embarrassed that America takes orders from Israel!
Israel has intensified its activity in Gaza since Hamas seized control of Gaza, carrying out air strikes and limited ground incursions in response to near-daily rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities. It has killed dozens of militant leaders, including Harazin's predecessor.
The Israeli operation that ended yesterday was the deadliest since Hamas took over Gaza in June.
Islamic Jihad, a small violent group with ties to Iran, has been responsible for most of the rocket fire.
It never freaking ends -- the Zio-prop, I mean!
"There is no doubt that this is a big loss," said Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, who threatened the wave of suicide bombings in response.
Thousands of Gazans took to the streets in funeral processions for the militants. In northern Gaza, bullets from the rifles of mourners severed an electric wire that fell and injured five people, medics said.
Israeli security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters, said they had been tracking the movements of Harazin, 38, for weeks.
It was not immediately clear what the long-term impact of the air strikes would be.
Islamic Jihad has always rebounded from Israeli strikes, and the rocket fire has persisted. Early yesterday, militants fired mortar shells and rockets at Israel, causing no casualties, the military said.
Islamic Jihad has never called a truce with Israel, but its ability to carry out attacks has been limited by Israel's West Bank separation barrier and isolation of Gaza.
Although Hamas hasn't been heavily involved in rocket fire, Israel holds it responsible because it allows others, including Islamic Jihad, to operate with impunity.
For more, read this: Israel's MSM Foru
And this: How MSNBC Mixes Truth With Lies
Yesterday, a top ally of Olmert proposed solving the problem by swapping Israeli territory for disputed land where Jewish communities or neighborhoods have been built.
"What I propose is that we reach an agreement with the Palestinians today over the principle of settlement blocs under Israeli sovereignty and in return an exchange of territory," Vice Premier Haim Ramon said, becoming the first Israeli official to openly endorse the idea"
Blah, blah,blah, blah, WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH.....
BOOM!!!
Here's the guy who is gonna fix it, though:
"Bush to visit Jerusalem and West Bank in January" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press | December 19, 2007
WASHINGTON - President Bush will make his first trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank next month to push Israel and the Palestinians toward peace.
On a nine-day trip beginning Jan. 8, Bush plans to stop in Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. It will be Bush's first presidential visit to each of the countries, except Egypt.
I'll bet it's more about Iranian war plans.
The White House said the trip also will be an opportunity to reaffirm US commitment to the security of American allies in the Middle East, especially the Gulf nations, and work with them to combat terrorism and extremism. Iraq, Iran, regional security, and economic ties also will be discussed on the trip.
Yeah, see?
In Jerusalem, Bush will meet with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and in the West Bank he will meet with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. He will not meet with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in elections in June. That split the Palestinian territory in two - the Gaza Strip run by Hamas and the West Bank controlled by Abbas.
White House press secretary Dana Perino yesterday, referring to Abbas and Fayyad:
"The president wants to deal with the elected leader of all the Palestinians. He is going to focus on talking with them. Hamas is a terrorist organization. He is not going to be talking with them."
Ummm, asshole, HAMAS WON the ELECTIONS!!!!
This is getting a BIT MUCH, don't you think, readers?
Bush says conditions in Israel and the Palestinian territories are ripe for a more aggressive US role."
Which means he'll sign of on Israeli aggression against Palestinians (and who knows who else), while the madman gears up an attack on Iran?
Sigh!
Pray for the world, reader!
