They’re the ones who train, equip, fund, and control the armed groups in Gaza, just like Arab states and the Soviet Union did before them. And the world wants Israel to negotiate with Iran’s forward bases? LOL

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Our Father in Heaven, before we go into battle, every soldier among us will approach you each in his own way. Our enemies too, according to their own understanding, will ask for protection and for victory. And so, we bow before your infinite wisdom. We offer our prayers as best we can. I pray you watch over the young Jack Geoghegan. That I lead into battle. You use me as your instrument in this awful hell of war to watch over them. Especially if they’re men like this one beside me, deserving of a future in your blessing and goodwill. Amen.

2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan: Amen.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Oh, yes, and one more thing, dear Lord, about our enemies, ignore their heathen prayers and help us blow those little bastards straight to Hell. Amen.

This escalation is new, and it puts yet another big hurdle into the long-fruitless negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Rockets directed at Tel Aviv or Jerusalem are attacks on Israel just like attacks on Ashkelon or any hamlet in the Golan. All those attacks are indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilian areas.

More to the point, though, they have claimed with a large amount of historical precedent on their side that those borders (1967) were indefensible.

What historical precedent are you referring to? How is that starting point for negotiations different now than it was for any prior US Administrations? If they want distance from the Palestinians why set up civilian settlements in the heart of those areas and along the edge of those disputed territories?

They may be hoping that with a new Islamist regime in Cairo, the Egyptian army might march into Gaza to repel the IDF and set off a regional war.

They are smarter than that and so are you.

Those calls actually produced a cease-fire that lasted about three hours before Hamas sent more rockets out of Gaza again, unleashing longer-range rockets that took aim at Israel’s commercial center of Tel Aviv.

Well if you are looking for a reason why Egypt might be incensed over the Israeli operation it is because they did make an effort to work with Hamas and the Israelis to secure a truce and as several Israeli papers reported, those negotiations did lead to an informal truce. That truce did lead to a period of calm but ended with the targeted killing of the Hamas guy responsible for enforcing the truce. He is a terrorist and an enemy of Israel but as analysts have pointed out, he was also the de-facto subcontractor and partner for Israel in Gaza who was in a position to reign in the motley assortment of militant groups there responsible for a significant portion of the rocket attacks. Was his ‘contract’ terminated for poor performance or were there other considerations?

So what is Israel’s strategy here? What do they hope to accomplish? That is the real question here. So far the only positive that I can see is that they have depleted Hamas’s weapons supply. Otherwise, there isn’t much to be gained and lots to lose. Another war in Gaza puts more pressure on Egypt to support Hamas. It further undermines the regime in Jordan. It takes attention away from the atrocities of the Assad regime. It diverts attention from Iran. Israel seems to be stuck with the same strategy it employed four years ago which failed. I can’t see how this operation enhances Israel’s long term security. It will play well at home politically but it offers Hamas a chance to do the same in Gaza and beyond.

SWalker on November 16, 2012 at 1:51 PM

In the thread titled “SWalker is a moron.”

MelonCollie on November 16, 2012 at 1:58 PM

wow dude… Your wit is teh awesome… Not…

Obama, no matter what he spews, will side with his brothers. He made them.

The Arab ‘Spring’ is his baby. Open your eyes, fools.

Schadenfreude on November 16, 2012 at 12:27 PM

What he said.

What? Ron Paul posted on this thread? Where?

SWalker on November 16, 2012 at 1:51 PM

In the thread titled “SWalker is a moron.”

Why are you laughing?

Can somebody point smelley1228 in this direction so he/she/it can see an example of real anti-Semites in action?

MelonCollie on November 16, 2012 at 1:47 PM

What? Ron Paul posted on this thread? Where?

Cough cough… Mohammad the Pedophile was born in 570AD and didn’t “Invent” Islam until 622AD. Just sayin…

SWalker on November 16, 2012 at 1:33 PM

Do you think that they teach MATH in madrassas?

I can recite the entire Qur’an forwards and backwards…on 78 RPM…just like the man known as “Jesus Christ a/k/a God a/k/a Charlie Manson,” according to his Los Angeles County booking sheet, can do with the Beatles’ Helter-Skelter. The imam told us all about him. He sounds very wise, may the peace of Allah be upon him. He kills wives and sons of Jews, may the peace of Allah be upon him. A martyr and political prisoner for the world movement to stop the oppression of peoples by the Worldwide Jewish Conspiracy, may the peace of Allah be upon him.

/

It’ll piss everyone off short-term. But it takes Gaza off the table as far as being a physical source of trouble and isolates all of the sh*theads in one area.

Then tell the Palestinians to take it or leave it. The West Bank is now their home. If they want to have it be an actual state, with diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, great. If not? Wuddeva. There’s a fence up that works well. Iron Dome can be focused on one territory instead of two. The terrorists can stew in their own waste. It’s up to them.

Yeah, yeah. There’ll be “International Outrage”, and cries of genocide. So what. That’s gonna happen no matter what Israel does. Israel may as well get some peace of mind, and perhaps some strategic stability, out of the whole mess.

It’s time to stop playing nice. It’s either this, or a binary solution: Either Israel gets paved over (with a consequential retaliatory strike that kills 10s of millions of people in the Middle East), or Israel just pre-emptively kicks all of the Palestinians out of the territories and hunkers down for a long, dark period of solitude.

We have family friends, by the way, who are visiting from Tel Aviv. They are in their 70s and 80s. They’re pretty convinced that Israel isn’t going to make it. It broke my heart when they said so yesterday. The resignation that they’re exhibiting and that they say is endemic to their circle of friends is terrifying.

G-d bless them.

Isn’t the Dome built on the Temple? i.e. it would blow up the wailing wall too.

That said, I’m for seeing the Gaza Strip become a Gaza Strip mall and parking lot.

The_Livewire on November 16, 2012 at 1:33 PM

I’ll pray for peace, but I sure would not mind if the Dome of the Rock got hit by one of these rockets.

Make Humus from Hamas.

Shaughnessy on November 16, 2012 at 1:34 PM

But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.

Make Humus from Hamas.

That said, I’m for seeing the Gaza Strip become a Gaza Strip mall and parking lot.

What’s that you say? Mohammed didn’t create Islam until the 4th century AD?

You lie, you dirty, lying, sexist, racist, bigoted, homophobic, theocratic, maniacal, homicidal, suicidal, totalitarian, Islamophobic, Nazi-loving Zionist!!!!

How else could Muslim Palestinians have lived in Judea and the Kingdom of Israel in the 5th century BC, if the Prophet Mohammed wasn’t born until the 4th century AD? Huh? Huh, you big, fat, lying liar!!

/

Resist We Much on November 16, 2012 at 1:24 PM

Cough cough… Mohammad the Pedophile was born in 570AD and didn’t “Invent” Islam until 622AD. Just sayin…

Arab Spring ==========> Autumn Middle East ablaze and world closer to war.

freedomfirst on November 16, 2012 at 12:51 PM

“Arab Spring? I built that!” – President Barack Obama

“Autumn Middle East? Bush’s fault!” – President Barack Obama

If Egypt is dumb enough to attack Israel alone, they will be pushed back so fast…..

ny59giants on November 16, 2012 at 12:23 PM

This time, Egypt will have full and unconditional support of the American President, army equipped by American corporations and bankrolled by American taxpayers. It will not be easy to repel them again.

Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel.

ted c on November 16, 2012 at 12:35 PM

Na-uh! It’s the capitol of the State of Palestine, which has ALWAYS been there. There has NEVER been a State of Israel and we CAN prove it. Just look at these 6th grade geography books from a school in Gaza! See that? NO ISRAEL.

What’s that you say? Oh, P-U-H-L-E-A-S-E!!! Those were NOT Jews living in Judaea and Samaria, the capitol of the Kingdom of Israel, in the 8th century BC. Damn, my good man, what are you thinking? They were Muslim Palestinians with Muslim surnames like Horowitz, Hirschfeld, and Cohen that Jews stole from the years later.

What’s that you say? Mohammed didn’t create Islam until the 4th century AD?

You lie, you dirty, lying, sexist, racist, bigoted, homophobic, theocratic, maniacal, homicidal, suicidal, totalitarian, Islamophobic, Nazi-loving Zionist!!!!

How else could Muslim Palestinians have lived in Judea and the Kingdom of Israel in the 5th century BC, if the Prophet Mohammed wasn’t born until the 4th century AD? Huh? Huh, you big, fat, lying liar!!

/

Welcome to the Brave New World we live in. Republicans are afraid of being called names by Democrats, the Israeli’s for some damned inexplicable reason are worried about what their enemies think of them.

SWalker on November 16, 2012 at 1:14 PM

The Palestinians are smarter than the Israeli’s just as the Democrats are smarter than conservatives. This is a war and they are fighting to win and they know that the will of the people matter, not the weapons. Conservatives keep saying that guns don’t kill people, people kill people, without really understanding what that means in a larger context. Having all the weapons in the world doesn’t matter if you lack the will to use them, or lack faith in your own cause.