ISRAEL VS. PALESTINE...AGAIN

[HairOfTheDog]

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) president Abbas (left), and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (right)

Peace talks were halted back in April when Abbas formally strengthened ties with Hamas. Hamas does not recognize Israel and is classified as a terrorist organization by the Israelis.

Since then, amidst all of the ISIS bullshit going down in the region and at the Israeli border with Syria, Israeli and Palestinian tensions have been steadily increasing until earlier this month when boiling point was reached. What's next?

Israel's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza follows violence over the grisly murder of a Palestinian teenager, which was itself in apparent revenge for the kidnap and killing of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank. Here is how events have unfolded since it began:

July 8:
Israel launches Operation Protective Edge, with dozens of air strikes on Gaza in response to mounting rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

At least 28 Palestinians killed in the largest and deadliest Israeli air campaign since 2012.

The Islamist Hamas movement says "all Israelis" potential targets.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas demands an immediate halt to Israel's offensive.

July 9:
Israeli air strikes as Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

July 10:
Egypt opens its Rafah border crossing with Gaza to Palestinian wounded.

US President Barack Obama tells Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Washington is willing to broker a Gaza ceasefire.

July 11:
The Israeli air force says it has carried out dozens of raids targeting rocket launchers, tunnels, Hamas premises and Islamist institutions and the homes of Hamas officials.

July 12:
The bloodiest day of the conflict, with 56 Palestinians dead.

The UN Security Council urges Israel and Hamas to end hostilities, calling on both sides to respect international humanitarian law.

Israel continues border build-up ahead of a possible ground invasion.

July 13:
Israeli naval commandos launch a brief ground operation overnight in northern Gaza, the first since the offensive began, targeting a rocket launcher site.

Abbas asks the UN to put the state of Palestine under "international protection".

July 15:
Israel's security cabinet accepts a ceasefire proposal from Egypt. Hamas rejects it.

Netanyahu warns Israel will expand its campaign if Hamas refuses to accept the truce.

Israel resumes raids after the truce fails to hold.

The UN aid agency for Palestinians describes the damage in Gaza as "immense", with more than 500 homes razed.

July 16:
Israel intensifies its bombardment, killing at least 25 Palestinians, including eight children of whom four were on a beach.

July 17:
Israel begins a ground operation preceded by an intense bombardment. It is the first ground operation since the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed.

Hamas says "Israel will pay a high price" for the operation.

Israel approves the call-up of another 18,000 reservists, taking the total number approved to 65,000.

July 18:
Netanyahu says "a significant broadening" of the ground operation is possible, as air strikes alone cannot alone destroy Hamas's tunnel network.

Notes:
Since July 8, more than 260 Palestinians have been killed and at least 1,920 injured, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian medics. One Israeli civilian and one soldier have been killed.

Nearly 1,200 rockets have been fired at Israel, of which 320 have been successfully intercepted.

[Duchess]

Why does the US consider Israel a friend/ally? I don't view Israel as any better than those they fight. Yesterday I was reading about Diana Magnay, a reporter for CNN who was covering this conflict, at the time she was with some Israelis who were cheering whenever a bomb reached its target on Gaza, they were celebrating and she reported that until they threatened her, she tweeted about it and called them scum, the tweet was later deleted and today I find out that she has been pulled from her post there.

[HairOfTheDog]

The US government fact page does a better job of recapping the alliance than could I.

Here's a snip:

U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONS - Alliance History
The United States was the first country to recognize Israel as a state in 1948. Since then, Israel has become, and remains, America’s most reliable partner in the Middle East. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests.

Israel's founding was preceded by more than 50 years of efforts to establish a sovereign state as a homeland for the Jewish people. The1917 Balfour Declaration asserted the British Government's support for the creation “in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Following the end of World War I (1914-1918), the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine. Immediately after the end of British mandate on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed, and the U.S. recognized Israel that same day. Arabs in the Mandatory and neighboring Arab states rejected a 1947 UN partition plan that would have divided the Mandatory into separate Jewish and Arab states, and the area has seen periods of invasions and armed conflict since 1948.

The United States is committed to realizing the vision of a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: an independent, viable and contiguous Palestinian state as the homeland of the Palestinian people, alongside the Jewish State of Israel. In July 2013 the Israelis and the Palestinians began negotiations on a final status agreement between the parties. That's now shot to hell.
REF: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3581.htm

The $$$$$$ -- How much the US supplies to Israel and Why



Sure, yeah, uh-huh

There have been ups and downs in the US's alliance with Israel during each US presidency, but Obama is definitely not amongst their favorite US heads of state because the Israeli govt doesn't think Obama has been heavy-handed enough with Iran and Syria on their behalf. But, since they want all that money to continue rolling in, Netanyahu doesn't scream too loudly about it. The Israelis do whatever the hell they want anyway.

[Duchess]

We sure do give a lot of money away.

[Maggot]

Israel gave the Gaza strip back to the Palestine's the place is almost a tropical paradise, they could have turned it into a tourist attraction had a government, an economy all kinds of things. Instead they decide to lob bombs into Israel and continue trying to send them into the sea. In my eyes they have been more than kind and tolerant.
They even made phone calls to the houses they were going to bomb before they fired them, telling the civilians to get out. Hamas puts rockets in kindergartens, schools, churches and use humans as shields to fire rockets. How long can a country get bombed until they've had enough?
I've read that some people think the Iron domes are making the war last longer, holy shit the domes are doing a good job at intercepting the rockets. Many of the bombs that Gaza and Hamas are firing land in their own towns then they blame Israel. The 90% of the people in Gaza are getting blamed for the 10% radical element. It is them that are the aggressor not Israel, how long do you put up with a bee buzzing you before you kill it?

[Maggot]

Arab media has released some pictures of a family killed twice once by Syrians and again by Israel. The truth finally comes out and we can all breathe a sigh of relief as the Arab media has this propaganda thing "under control".

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Damn, these crazy fuckers are even fighting in Canada
http://o.canada.com/news/palestine-israe...gary-rally

[Duchess]

Both sides believe their cause is just. I'm in a minority, I view both sides exactly the same.

Images from Gaza -

[HairOfTheDog]

The Palestinians creating tunnels to enter Israel and kidnap Israelis is not something that can be ignored. That's a more serious threat than the rockets Hamas fires off at Israel which are intercepted by the Iron Domes.

If the allegations are true that Hamas kidnapped the two Israeli teens last month and killed them, I think Hamas knew that military retaliation would be coming, no matter how any world leaders advised Netanyahu to handle it. He was gonna do it no matter what. And, I don't doubt that Hamas will put civilians in harms way to rally international support against the Israelis.

I don't think Israel's hands are clean in the history of this fight, nor have they been rooting for the success of the Palestinians in Gaza -- that's just my opinion formed over the years. But, in terms of what's going on now, I do believe that Netanyahu is motivated to end the fighting on the strip for the time being.

Hamas refused an Egyptian-brokered cease fire to which Netanyahu agreed. Why? Because Hamas wanted Turkey or Qatar, both with ties to the Islamic Brotherhood, to negotiate the deal.

So, today, US Sec of State John Kerry is in the region to address the issue. UN Chief Ban-kim Moon is on the case too. Obama and Kerry stress Israel's right to defend itself, but both seem to think it's getting too heavy handed in doing so.

Two Americans fighting with the Israelis were killed in the latest clashes. Reports over the weekend claimed that Hamas captured an Israeli soldier and the Palestinian civilians in Gaza were celebrating. It's seen as a huge gain for Hamas. Last time an Israeli soldier was captured, he was held for 5 years and eventually exchanged for the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. And some think the Bergadhl swap was lopsided.

When the Israeli, Shalit, was released in 2011, this was the cover of the NY Times.




Israel is denying that Hamas captured one of its soldiers and claiming that they made up the story to rally the worn out Palestinians in Gaza. Who knows?

Anyway, it never ends. So, with Israel, Palestine, Egypt, the US, Qatar, Turkey, and the UN all having their hands in the pot at this point, can at least a temporary cease fire be negotiated on the Gaza Strip, yet again? I think so. Time for both sides to regroup, until next time.

[Duchess]

It must be godawful to be living in all these conflicted places. As good as my imagination is I probably don't even really have a clue.

My evening news did a human interest piece about Israel. Young Jews take part in something called Birthright, it's a (free) trip to the homeland, many Jews from across America participate in it and an agency in Philly makes all the arrangements. Out of the hundreds of kids taking part in this only a minute number have cancelled. There is little to no fear and the kids that are already there say this conflict isn't really affecting their trip. They don't want to return home, they feel safe.

[Duchess]

Today has taught me not to voice my opinion of Israel in public. Holy shit. Had I been black, they mighta lynched me.

[HairOfTheDog]

Today has taught me not to voice my opinion of Israel in public. Holy shit. Had I been black, they mighta lynched me.

If it was an on-line mob, I'm picturing you laughing your ass off as they circled you.

There are some damned impassioned opinions and feelings on both sides of the issue and it certainly provokes irritation when someone who sees both sides expresses a difference of opinion. Been there, in-person. I wasn't lynched, but I was accused of being a traitor. A traitor, though I'm neither Jewish or Arab?

[Duchess]

If it was an on-line mob, I'm picturing you laughing your ass off as they circled you.

I do laugh online on the rare occasion I get people fired up but today I did it in real life and people were pissed! Oh my gods.

No matter what I have to say about anything in life I always ALWAYS feel that others are entitled to their opinion because really, who the hell am I to say someone can't have their own thought about something but many people don't feel that way about the opinion of others. If you don't believe as they do, you are dead wrong and a very bad individual.

...and I can't hit anyone with a brick in real life :(

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know what Netanyahu was thinking if this was an Israeli hit, at this target (which reportedly included UN staff), at this time...



Snip:
Gazan authorities said Israeli forces shelled a shelter at a U.N.-run school on Thursday, killing at least 15 people as the Palestinian death toll in the conflict climbed over 750 and attempts at a truce remained elusive.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his horror at the attack on the school at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza strip. "Many have been killed - including women and children, as well as U.N. staff," he said in a statement. "Circumstances are still unclear. I strongly condemn this act."

The Israeli military said its troops were fighting gunmen from Hamas, which runs Gaza, in the area and that it was investigating the incident. A spokesman for the U.N. relief agency said it had tried in vain to arrange an evacuation of civilians from the school with the Israeli army, and noted reports of Hamas rockets falling in the area at the same time.

Pools of blood lay on the ground and on students' desks in the courtyard of the school near the apparent impact mark of the shell, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.

Laila Al-Shinbari, a woman who was at the school when it was shelled, told Reuters that families had gathered in the courtyard expecting to be evacuated shortly in a Red Cross convoy.

"All of us sat in one place when suddenly four shells landed on our heads ... Bodies were on the ground, (there was) blood and screams. My son is dead and all my relatives are wounded including my other kids," she wept.

An Israeli military source however told Al Jazeera that Palestinian rocket fire had been detected in the area and that the rocket fire might have fallen short and hit the shelter.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Chris Gunness, the spokesman for UNRWA, the UN's humanitarian organisation in Gaza, said his organisation had been in contact with Israeli forces as fighting closed in on the shelter.

"We gave the Israelis the precise GPS coordinates of the Beit Hanoun shelter. We were trying to coordinate a window [for evacuation] and that was never granted."

Robert Turner, the director for UNRWA told Al Jazeera there was no warning from the Israelis before the shells landed.

"This is a designated emergency shelter. The location was conveyed to the Israelis," he said. "This was an installation we were managing, that was monitored [to ensure] that our neutrality was maintained. We always call on all parties to ensure that civilians are not harmed."

Israel has attacked UN schools before, saying that they were being used as safe havens for the armed Palestinians. The UN has also previously criticised the Palestinian groups for using UN schools to hide fighters and weapons.

Sources:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast...90287.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/24...16956.html
-----------------------------------------
Even if Hamas was in the area and luring, this shelter should not have been targeted, IMO. If it's proven that Israeli forces are responsible, it only hurts Israel's credibility and helps Hamas propagate its claims/cause. The civilians and the UN workers are real victims in this attack, regardless of anything else.

The UN announced two days ago that Israel was committing possible war crimes. If Israeli forces took out this shelter/school, for any reason, I think it was a very bad strategic move; difficult to justify.

[Blindgreed1]

Considering this fight goes all the way back to Ahab and Abraham, I have a hard time getting excited about it. This is one that will never cease.

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm glad you're not excited about it, Gunnar. That would be a bit strange.

The roots of the conflict/war go back ages, I agree. But, there are many present day impacts and concerns in play here -- though I completely understand that the tunnel threats, the politics and alliances, the propaganda wars, the financial investments...over the last 10 years aren't as interesting to some as they are to others.

Anyway, as an American citizen, I'm interested in how almost $4 billion in US support is being spent in Israel and why. Also, how near an ally to whom we're deeply and historically committed is to war -- in a region where that ally is surrounded by "enemies" -- is of concern to me, too.

This is the worst violence in Gaza in more than 5 years. I'm hoping a cease fire can be reached very soon, though I'm less optimistic now than I was at the start of the week.

[Duchess]

I still feel Israel is just as bad as those they fight. Sometimes I just feel the need to say that.

[Blindgreed1]

I'm glad you're not excited about it, Gunnar. That would be a bit strange.

The roots of the conflict/war go back ages, I agree. But, there are many present day impacts and concerns in play here -- though I completely understand that the tunnel threats, the politics and alliances, the propaganda wars, the financial investments...over the last 10 years aren't as interesting to some as they are to others.

Anyway, as an American citizen, I'm interested in how almost $4 billion in US support is being spent in Israel and why. Also, how near an ally to whom we're deeply and historically committed is to war -- in a region where that ally is surrounded by "enemies" -- is of concern to me, too.

This is the worst violence in Gaza in more than 5 years. I'm hoping a cease fire can be reached very soon, though I'm less optimistic now than I was at the start of the week.

I don't mean to be insensitive HoTD, but I don't think there will ever be peace there. Both sides have a legitimate claim to the same piece of land. It's a blood right for both, so I just don't see any reasonable conclusion. Call me a pessomist, but honestly, if there was a reasonable agreement I believe it would have been brought to the table at some point over the last 2000+ years.

[HairOfTheDog]

I didn't ponder whether you were being insensitive or not, just acknowledged that I understand that you're not interested and explained why I am interested.

Whether there will ever be peace between Israel and Palestine and whether there will ever be the two independent states solution that's been pushed by the US and other western countries aside...I'm interested in the present day politics, the impacts /threats/opportunities/costs to the US, the current influences and strategies at work on both sides, etc...

No worries -- we all have varying interests -- I don't expect them to always overlap.

[Blindgreed1]

I didn't ponder whether you were being insensitive or not, just acknowledged that I understand that you're not interested and explained why I am interested.

Whether there will ever be peace between Israel and Palestine and whether there will ever be the two independent states solution that's been pushed by the US and other western countries aside...I'm interested in the present day politics, the impacts /threats/opportunities/costs to the US, the current influences and strategies at work on both sides, etc...

No worries -- we all have varying interests -- I don't expect them to always overlap.

Well keep in mind that if the US is incurring cost, we are also making some profit. Somebody's got to build all of those high tech missles Isreal is using and Raytheon is right down the road from me. Hey... Maybe THOSE are the jobs Obama promised!