Top StoriesMay’s sharp fall in jobless numbers added to the greenness of the ‘recovery’ (or less bad) thesis; overnight June’s unemployment figures were so awful that they could have stunted at least, the wavering shoots.
We cannot dismiss the threat that Hamas poses
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Guy Rundle may want to dismiss and ridicule the significance of Hamas’ explicit commitment to eliminate Israel and kill its people, and its growing ability to fire rockets and mortars into ever-increasing areas of Israel, but Israelis do not. Indeed, the Israeli public’s overwhelming and sober support for the military operation is a bellwether of the seriousness with which Israelis take the thousands of rockets and mortars that have been fired by Hamas for years, dramatically escalating after Israel’s lock, stock and barrel withdrawal from Gaza in August 2005. For Rundle to question why the military incursion occurred now is disingenuous. The range and sophistication of missiles and rockets from Gaza into Israel’s southern cities, particularly Sderot with its 20,000 residents, has increased over the last few years, particularly under the cover of last year’s ceasefire. Hamas can now target and reach strategic assets like power stations and chemical factories in Ashkelon, Israel’s largest and economically critical port at Ashdod and nuclear facilities at Dimona. According to Rundle’s ludicrous claim, Israel’s leadership is only interested in burnishing its security credentials for re-election purposes, but what kind of responsible government does not respond to rockets being fired at its citizens? Rundle also ignores the fact that one million Israelis are now under direct threat of rocket attack and it was Hamas’ decision to not renew the six-month ceasefire that ended on 19 December, which they underlined with another barrage of hundreds of rockets and mortars. Furthermore, regardless of the “low” number of Israeli fatalities, thousands of Israelis have suffered injuries and trauma associated with indiscriminate rockets and mortars landing on their homes and schools. A 2008 study revealed that over 75% of Sderot children displayed symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress syndrome. How many Israeli fatalities, kindergartens flattened and hospitals destroyed are needed before the likes of Rundle will be less disapproving? Should Israel be punished because it has implemented security systems and responses that are geared towards minimising the number of Israeli victims of rocket attacks? The tragic deaths of any innocent Gazan brings no comfort to Israelis, who just want to go about their daily lives. But the sad reality is that Hamas fires rockets from civilian areas and uses its own people and children as human shields, knowing full well the propaganda value of Palestinian civilian deaths. Here’s five things we can all hope for: let Hamas renounce violence as an option, stop its noxious anti-Israel incitement, accept Israel’s legitimate existence, endorse peace as a strategic goal and for Rundle and his ilk to wake up to reality. |
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28 Comments
Gallant little Israel. I weep for thee! :’(
Here’s another thing we can hope for: independent media access inside the Gaza ghetto so that we can all assess what’s actually happening. No ?
And I thought we weren’t allowed to mention the nuclear facilities - what’s that for ?
The reality is that the whole world has grasped why Israel embarked on its killing spree in Gaza. Two reasons…firstly that it was dsetermined to destroy the democratically elected Hamas government…and, more vitally, the outgoing Bush administration had decided to make a blank cheque presentation of its final 3 weeks in office so that the Israeli killing machine could do whatever it wanted in that critical time before Obama comes in and corrects what’s been an appalling blot on American foreign policy for years.
Israel will finish up talking with Hamas, whether it likes it or not.
What will be harder for it will be to stem the international stench it thought it might have avoided.
The reality is that Sderot is a paradise as far as trauma is concerned…compared to the Nazi style bombardment of Gaza all day and all night (oh and there are no shelters in Gaza guys)..by land, sea and air. How many of these apologists for Israel would spend an hour in Gaza let alone a day in Sderot.
Essentially, the Israelis are cowards.The Palestinians will happily stop digging tunnels, making pitiful homemade rockets and engaging in suicide bombing if the Israelis will just let them be supplied with warplanes, missiles, and attack helicopters as they are…by the US. That’s also why the Israelis prefer to do their killing from a great height or a great distance…Ugh!
“…the democratically elected Hamas government…”
Indeed. As the Palestinian people sowed, so are they reaping.
Well said Brian. However, I fear the Obama government will continue the current US government’s policy only with better PR.
You have to email thew public affairs department of each organisation & say you will not buy their products due their investment in Israel, which is conducting a genocide against the Palestinian people.
LIST OF GLOBAL COMPANIES TO BOYCOT WHO INVEST HEAVILY IN ISRAEL;
check out the following link for a start:
http://www.mylinkspage.com/israel.html
Most of these companies operate in Australia.
However, I need a detailed list of those Israeli companies who export to Oz, as well as those Oz companies who export to Israel. The Australia Israeli Chamber of Commerce lists are not working at present…….I wonder why?
NOTE:
Any goods with a bar code beginning with 729 are Israeli manufactured.
Tell the business where you find them that you will not be buying any goods from Israel due to their genocide against the Palestinian people.
I’ll be passing this information onto the couple of dozen persons on my personal email list who will pass it on to the the couple of dozen on their lists etc etc….within a month or two we have the potential to censure Israel for its genocide against the Palestinian people……..GO TO IT, ALL
Yes Mark the same as Israel, when the elected Begin,he was a paragon of virtue or Sharon the man who bears responsibility for the massacres in Lebanon. I suppose if you put people in a concentration camp,starve them cause they wont do what you want them to do,kill them at will and thats in GAZA and the West Bank,where the settlers have free reign to kill Palestinians,to steal their land water ect.
Yes Mark as you sow so shall ye reap
Allon Lee hasn’t read my article very carefully, if he thinks I am ridiculing the Israeli victims of Hamas rocket attacks. Here’s what I said:
“That is not to minimise the effect of rockets falling relentlessly on a civilian population, nor the meaning of the relatively small number of deaths. To say as one commentator did, that the rockets have ‘nagged’ Israelis is to misidentify the act (even if you consider the rockets legitimite resistance). “
Possibly that’s a little compressed, but I think it’s pretty clear that I was acknowledging the relentless psychological toll, and that the deaths - about the same number as one Israeli bomb on an apartment block - couldn’t be disregarded.
Nor do I believe for a second the argument that the use of longer range rockets prompted the current attack - 98% of Hamas rockets are still short range Qassams.
Nor did I get into the question of who broke the ceasefire, of the legitimicy or otherwise of Hamas’s acts, historical fault etc. I simply made the point that to claim a six year rocket campaign as both a measure of your forbearance, and an existential threat authorising unlimited force, was dishonest and cynical.
Allon Lee can take or leave my suggestion that the attack’s motives are political as he wishes - but it’s an opinion shared with a fair few others, not least half the op-ed contributors of Haaretz. Indeed in the 24 hours since the article was published, Lipni, Barak, Netenyahu and Olmert have started openly fighting with each other over war aims, withdrawal conditions, victory standards etc, the first three in a sprint to the electoral finish line, the last desperate not to have another muddled war on his account.
As the Gaza attack starts to look more and more like Lebanon 06, the remix, I’d suggest Lee ponder whether my analysis is not a more accurate picture of this unfolding moral and strategic disaster.
Tip to the ever strident Kevboy to help your ‘campaign’…….it’s b-o-y-c-o-t-t
This bears repeating from the string yesterday (on the Rundle story):
I was right and James K was wrong about the genuine lull or truce effectiveness but for the crippling blockade as constructive breach by Israel and Barak as Defence Minister.
The second reference he gives http://www.israelpolitik.org/2009/01/07/how-did-the-cease-fire-end/
discloses that in July, August, Sept, October the rocket fire was 1, 8, 1, 1, respectively compared to 149, 149 and 87 in April, May, June respectively, and 126 and 98 in November and December to the 21st of that month.
Allowing for splinter groups and human vagaries that’s an impressive recognistion of the truce. It all turned to crap in November with the blockade still severly in place, and reportedly early Nov Hamas tunnel from Gaza to Israel and highly fatal blowback by the IDF for that.
A very similar pattern for mortars at 8, 3, 3, 1 for July, August, Sept, October, compared with 373, 206, 158 prior in respective months and 71 and 78 in Nov and Dec.
The pathetic averaging exercise to cover up gravity of Ehud Barak’s escalation in early November stands as a genuine criticism and the charge that Israel were in constructive breach of the ceasefire by maintaining the crippling blockade also looks to be borne out by the ‘Friends of Israel’ figures.
These figures are truly damning given 5000 deaths and injuries mostly civillian in Gaza. So far I see no reason to avoid the conclusion that Israel caused the war with constructive breach of the truce with ongoing blockade of food and medical supplies that by November became intolerable causing desperate tactics by Hamas, leading to crushing retaliation now. These rocket and mortar figures have not been published anywhere in the mainstream press here. That in itself is shameful.
Well, John Ryan, here’s how I arrived at my statement of harsh geopolitical reality. Are Gazans
a) better off, or
b) any closer to the goal of an independent state
for having elected Hamas, when more moderate alternatives were available?
I can’t see how the answer can be anything but ‘no’, on both counts. It follows that the election of Hamas was a mistake. Mistakes generally have to be paid for. It’s as sad as it was predictable that the currency of this payment is blood.
Mark, are you suggesting that Israel’s decision to escalate aggression because Hamas was elected should be judged as a mistake by the Palestinians for electing Hamas? Surely not?
“At the heart of Israel’s justification for the Gaza attack is a paradox” said Rundle yesterday.
But he is dishonest. He knows the number, accuracy and range of these missiles has been increasing rapidly.
Today he extends that dishonesty: “Nor do I believe for a second the argument that the use of longer range rockets prompted the current attack”
By Hamas’ own leadership admission the ‘lulls’ or ‘ceasefire’ are used only to rearm.
There is no paradox in Israel acting now and as Allon Lee points out: “it was Hamas’ decision to not renew the six-month ceasefire that ended on 19 December, which they underlined with another barrage of hundreds of rockets and mortars”.
Election or no election the government would not stay in power long without taking (in ruddspeak) “quick and decisive action” but this instance it actually means something!
Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s right-wing opposition leader and still favourite to win next month’s elections, said yesterday that Israel needed a “clear victory” against Hamas and the movement should “ultimately be removed” from Gaza. He called for a victory against the Islamist movement “that will cripple its capability” to attack. “At a minimum, the firing of rockets must stop and the smuggling corridors that have enabled Hamas to smuggle thousands of rockets into Gaza must be sealed,” he told a news conference.
“We are fighting a just war, perhaps the most just war there is.”
Mr Netanyahu’s lead in the polls has diminished in the last 2 weeks and the overwhelming majority of Israelis support this action by their government and military.
If you want to call that a ‘political motive’ fire ahead!
Livni & Barak would be better for the cause of peace than Netanyahu but Hamas is the biggest obstacle to peace of all.
A very predictable piece by the Zionist lobby. I watched watched with interest a news story on the hundreds (700+ at last count) of Israeli citizens who have been arrested over their opposition to the attacks on Gaza by the israeli govt and must question lee’s statement of the “Israeli public’s overwhelming and sober support for the military operation”. Such clinical language aswell - a military operation, sounds so clean and precise. Yet we are seeing the real facts on the ground.
-Almost 1000 Palestinians dead, 1/3 of them children
-4300 Palestinians injured
- 50+ dead from the murderous bombing of the elementary school in Jabaliya
- UN convoys attacked
- Ambulances targeted
- White phosphorous munitions outlawed under international law
- Use of experimental weapons known as Dense Inert Metal Explosives, or DIME. The weapon causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh without shrapnel injuries,
and it goes on and on…
Lee goes on to state “But the sad reality is that Hamas fires rockets from civilian areas and uses its own people and children as human shields, knowing full well the propaganda value of Palestinian civilian deaths.” A Heartless, racist and shocking statement.
Tom McLoughlin’s point on the breaking of the ceasefire is pertinent to the situation, along with the fact that the IDF has been planning this assault for 18mths. Why now? Outgoing US administration & upcoming elections perhaps? who knows? The question needs to be asked, what really is the difference between the Gaza strip of 2008/9 and the Warsaw ghetto of 1943.
as i said in my first comment James K, the longer-range rockets constitute only 2% of those being fired, according to reports. All these quibbles are simply attempts by israel supporters to hide from themselves the truth of the attack, which is mass indiscriminate death without a skerrick of just cause
It is entirely predictable that the apologists for Israel’s latest series of outrages are all singing from the same government songbook issued at the outset of the current invasion.
Insofar as they sucker your correspondents into a fruitless debate about Hamas rockets fired into Israel they are evidently successful. A little knowledge of history would not go astray.
Israel has since 1948 waged a war against the rights of Palestinians to occupy their own land. They have engaged in ethnic cleansing on a grand scale. At various times they have bombed, invaded, occupied, imposed embargos upon, stolen further land, ingnored countless UN resolutions, ignored rulings of the World Court and generally behaved as a lawless rogue state. It is only the continuing support of the US that enable their continued existence.
In these endeavours they have had the uncritical support of the Australian government. Every year since 1989 the UN General Assembly has voted on a resolution entitled “Peaceful Settlement of the Palestine Question. Each year the overwhelming majority of UN members vote in favour. Each year those voting against are the US, Israel, some quasi colonies such as the Marshall Islands, and Australia.
The Australian media faithfully parrot Israeli misinformation such as President Ahmadinijad’s alleged threat to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They constantly criticise Hamas for allegedly refusing to recognise the right of Israel to exist, without demanding that Israel recognise the right of Palestine to exist. Israel has refused since 1948 to recognise the rights of the Palestinians whose land they stole.
We now have the extraordinary admission of Olmert that he telephoned Bush and demanded that Rice abstain on the latest Security Council resolution. A resolution that Rice had been instrumental in drafting. There could be no clearer indication of who really calls the shots in Washington.
It is long past time to terminate the real terrorists: Israel.
absolutely Guy tho it won’t be too long til you’re manacled with the label -“anti-semitic”.
Here’s five things we can all hope for: let Israel renounce violence as an option, stop it’s noxious anti-Palestinian incitement and accept a Palestinian homeland to pre-1967 borders, endorse peace as a strategic goal and for Lee and his ilk to wake up to reality. !
Here’s five things we can all hope for: let Israel renounce violence as an option, stop its noxious anti-Palestinian propaganda war and news media manipulation and let journalists into Gaza, accept Palestinians’ legitimate human rights, endorse peace as a strategic goal and for Israelis and their ilk to wake up to reality.
Allon Lee: as you have probably gathered from the above comments, your dimwitted defense of the Israeli NAZIS is just not working in OZ.
You’re a disgrace to your Australian citizenship.
A pox on AIJAC & its fascist equivalents around the world.
What’s this ‘reality’ we keep hearing about, and why does it despise Arabs?
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Damo: yes….the Zionist Mark Duffets of this world ARE actually serious…can you see why there’s no traction for a meaningful discussion of this issue with such bigots.
Sad but true……the solution to this problem will NEVER be found in Israel. Unless Obama breaks the stranglehold of the US Jewish lobby over Washington, there will be a full blown war in which millions on both sides will perish.
Of course the Zionists will be blaming everyone but themselves for the tragedy.
I said “He knows the number, accuracy and range of these missiles has been increasing rapidly.” but I should also have added “and they are continuing too”.
1. A dramatic increase in the extent of rocket fire and mortar shelling (despite
the six months long lull in the fighting) in 2008, the peak year of rocket fire and
mortar shelling, a total of 3,278 rockets and mortar shells landed in Israeli territory
(1,750 rockets and 1,528 mortar shells).
The number of landings in 2008 more than doubled compared to 2007.
2. A significant increase in the number of Israeli residents exposed to rocket
fire within 40 km of the Gaza Strip: before 2008, the city of Sderot (about 20,000
residents) as well as villages around the Gaza Strip were the preferred target of rocket
fire and mortar shelling. In 2008, other cities and hundreds of thousands of Israelis
gradually entered the circle of fire: first the cities of Ashkelon and Netivot, Ashdod, Beersheba, and other cities within a range of 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. The rocket attacks created a new reality in which nearly one million Israeli residents (about 15 percent of the entire population) are exposed to rocket fire and mortar shelling in various levels of intensity.
3. A significant improvement in the effectiveness of rockets and mortar shells possessed by Hamas and an increase in their quantity: in 2008, Hamas put into use 122-mm Grad launchers (for ranges of 20.4 km and approximately 40 km) and standard 120-mm mortars, which were smuggled into the Gaza Strip (probably from Iran). Those standard rockets and mortars, significantly different from self-manufactured rockets and mortars, not only increased the range of fire but also increased its effectiveness. That is a result of increasing the rockets’ warhead size and their fragmentation. As for the mortars—the standard 120-mm mortars are more precise and their range is greater than that of the other mortars
4. 6 months more Tel Aviv?
Nuclear facilities at Dimona? Did not they tell us there werent any?
What else are they fibbing about?
I take JamesK (at least as proxy) you concede the truce worked for 4 months. That it broke down in November. I know the causes of that break in the truce are controversial. Let me be so presumptuous as to suggest how it happened:
The tunnels to Egypt were working as fast as they could but never fast enough to supply 1.5 million Gazans. The Israelis showed no real interest in lifting the “economic sanctions” via their crippling blockade via the Israeli border. They mitgated any sympathy with the ‘knowledge’ their enemy was importing missiles via the Egypt/Philedelphi border of 9 km or so. Besides they weren’t going to give their sworn enemy Hamas a break, that had survived the US/Israel backed coup a year previous because free flow of food and and supplies would set Hamas up as a successful govt that delivers on it’s election.
So they starve Hamas, and 1.5 million Gazans half of them children. Hamas gets desperate. 45% of the children in Gaza are anaemic and with that life threatening illnesses. Others have no hope of timely medical services. Eqypt won’t help because they have their own diplomacy to juggle with the US and Israel - the toughest players in the region.
So Hamas lets a tactical tunnel go thru to the Israeli side. They need extra leverage to bargain with to lift the starvation blockade and bolster their government credentials. They are thinking of kidnapping another Israeli soldier like Gilad Shilat - by the way Google to Xinhua (Chinese?) News agency suggests the tactic is ongoing 12 Jan 09:
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14835695
Israel springs the tunnel and responds with maximum air force killing 5 Hamas members. Up until this time there has been 4 months of near to complete break in shelling of rockets and mortars. But this exchange effectively brings the ceasefire to an early conclusion. Hamas rockets recommence at the previous intensity pre June 08.
Only this time the southern Israelis have enjoyed the peace alot and they vote …
And this report of a $4B dollar gas supply in Gaza waters which can potentially supply 10% of Israel’s energy budget is also worrying, that there are seriously mixed motives as in economic motives:
“BG Group at centre of $4bn deal to supply Gaza gas to Israel …”
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article1826739.ece
dated 23 May 2007.
So Gaza does have something Israel can use after all. Like a smaller version of Iraq oil in play? And who benefits from the income of that? Certain sleazy politicians running for office, maybe getting a few donations?
Also one assumes it never occurred to Israel that they could simultaneously open the Israeli side of the border to full throttle food medical and other genuine supplies and at the same time bomb the Philadelphi tunnels with a bit of warning to protect civillian lives?
How complicated can it be? Stock standard carrot and stick. But there is no carrot under a Right wing USA and Israeli administrations. These people are failed politicians and failed individuals with a capital F.
Muslims and Jews suffer from the same problem that two feuding women suffer from. Their way of handling the problem is to remain enemies forever, with no expectation that either will proceed to the extent of actually throwing a deciding blow.
Catty words will be exchanged, and the hate will seethe until both are dead because no standard was ever set as to who the winner is, or could be.
Sadly, the only thing that is going to solve this conflict is an all out war, since, regardless of the success of any initial peace agreement, the region does not want Israel in the region at all. It’s not ever going to change.
Personally, it’s shocking to me that so many supposedly educated people can’t admit, or even understand this very crucial point.
So, it’s understandable that most people who are not emotionally invested in the situation are sick of hearing about it, and see it as something that can never be solved by “talks” alone. I think that has become fairly obvious.
In fact, if history has proven anything, it’s that repeating the word “peace” over and over again is a fairly ineffective way to solve most conflicts.
People change their priorities when they face serious consequences, such as being wiped out en masse.
If you like, set the standards for war, provide a safe haven for those who would like to leave the region before the shit hits the fan, and resolve this situation once and for all.
It’s not even tragic anymore. It’s a stale joke that has been repeated over, and over again.
Please,can someone, anyone,explain why it is that Hamas,who can apparently target and reach strategic Israeli assets, have not done so?
And why,the Israeli politicians in whose short term political interest the engineering of this invasion of an occupied territory is, have not bothered to check that the Israeli troops are literate enough to recognise ambulances when they see them?
Not to mention those Palestinian babies who have deliberately set themselves up as targets.
Allon Lee needs a much stronger argument than this in order to justify the mass murder of civilians.