Israeli offensive in Gaza was years in the making

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-offensive-gaza-years-making-195916153.html

By JOSEF FEDERMAN | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — With little notice, Israel has launched a blistering air offensive against the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group. Here's a look at why the violence erupted, the goals of the warring sides and how it may end:

LIGHTNING STRIKE

Israel opened its offensive with a surprise airstrike on Nov. 14 that killed the shadowy leader of Hamas' military wing. Since then, it has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in what it says is a systematic campaign to halt years of rocket attacks launched from Gaza. While Israel claims to have inflicted heavy damage, dozens of rockets have continued to fly out of Gaza each day.

WHY NOW?

Israel launched the operation in response to days of rocket attacks out of Gaza, highlighted by a rare missile strike on an Israeli military jeep that wounded four soldiers. But the operation was actually years in the making. Since a previous Israeli offensive four years ago, Hamas has restocked its arsenal with more sophisticated and powerful weapons smuggled in from Egypt through underground tunnels. After a lull following Israel's previous offensive, rocket fire has steadily climbed the past two years. The Israeli military says more than 700 rockets were launched into Israel this year before it launched the offensive last week. In this environment, Israeli officials have said it was only a matter of time before a new round of fighting broke out.

THE BATTELFIELD

Hamas seized control of Gaza, a densely populated strip of land sandwiched between southern Israel and Egypt's Sinai desert, five years ago from the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, has developed is rocket arsenal to the point where nearly half of Israel's population is in range.

WHY FIRE ROCKETS?

Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, say the rocket fire is a legitimate response to continued Israeli attacks. They also claim they are resisting Israeli occupation of the territory. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, ending a 38-year military occupation. But it has maintained a blockade of the territory in a step it says is needed to prevent arms smuggling. In the murky world of Gaza politics, the attacks also stem from internal rivalries between groups eager to prove their militant credentials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says no country would tolerate repeated missile attacks on its civilians.

RISKY BUSINESS

Prolonged fighting carries great risks for both sides. As Israel presses forward, the number of Palestinian civilian casualties is likely to rise — a scenario that could quickly turn international opinion against it. Israel's previous offensive left hundreds of civilians dead, drawing international condemnation and war crimes accusations. By continuing to fire rockets, Hamas raises the risk of tougher Israeli attacks, including a possible ground offensive. Well aware of these risks, both sides are working through mediators to arrange a cease-fire.

TERMS OF THE DEAL

Israel wants a halt to the rocket attacks and an end to arms smuggling into Gaza, most likely in a deal that is guaranteed by Egypt or other international parties. Hamas wants a halt to Israeli assassinations of its leaders and a lifting of the Israeli blockade. While gaps remain wide, both sides have strong interests in a deal. Bringing quiet to Israel's embattled south will make Netanyahu a national hero, weeks before parliamentary elections. Hamas, branded a terrorist group by Israel and the West, has seen its influence grow as the Arab Spring brings Islamists to power across the region. A cease-fire, particularly an arrangement guaranteed with international partners, would cement Hamas' control of Gaza and give it more of the international recognition it covets so much.

BY THE NUMBERS

—More than 100 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed, according to Palestinian medical officials. Three Israeli civilians have died from rocket fire.

—Israel has attacked more than 1,350 targets in the current offensive, according to the Israeli army. Hamas and smaller armed groups have responded with nearly 600 rockets, the army says.

—Israel says its new "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system has shot down more than 300 incoming projectiles.

How many rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel this year?

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / November 15, 2012

Month Rocket and mortar "attacks" Total rockets and mortars fired

Oct. 92 171

Sept: 18 25

Aug. 16 24

July: 19 27

June: 94 218

May: 6 6

April: 8 8

March: 156 192

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/1115/How-many-rockets-were-fired-from-Gaza-at-Israel-this-year

Edited November 20, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/49889264/#49889264

NewsNation | Aired on November 19, 2012

Israel using 'Iron Dome' to intercept rockets

Israeli officials say over 900 rockets have been fired at the country in the past 6-days. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Where's all the Hamas sympathizers ? I thought they would jump all over this thread...well not really. It's full of facts.

[lostinblue 1,989]

This is just a first step in the never ending attack to wipe out Isreal.Probe here ,Probe there for weakness.Arab Spring = the entire middle east in the great war.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

This is just a first step in the never ending attack to wipe out Isreal.Probe here ,Probe there for weakness.Arab Spring = the entire middle east in the great war.

+1

[abezyo 35]

Nobody sympathizes Hamas...I only sympathize the children who make up more than half the population in the most densely populated area in the world. But go ahead and accuse me of being a Hamas supporter.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Nobody sympathizes Hamas...I only sympathize the children who make up more than half the population in the most densely populated area in the world. But go ahead and accuse me of being a Hamas supporter.

I doubt anyone wants to see children suffer. What is Israel suppose to do? Hamas was elected by the people of Gaza or so we were told and the people of Gaza know full well that Hamas is all about. It's not like anyone expected Hamas to refrain from firing rockets into Israel and in fact it was less than a year after the IDF pulled out of Gaza after Operation Cast Lead that the rocket attacks started all over again.

Now if you lived in Gaza and you had children would you want someone like Hamas in power? Apparently the people of Gaza do so it shows they have little or no care in that regard.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[abezyo 35]

I doubt anyone wants to see children suffer. What is Israel suppose to do? Hamas was elected by the people of Gaza or so we were told and the people of Gaza know full well that Hamas is all about. It's not like anyone expected Hamas to refrain from firing rockets into Israel and in fact it was less than a year after the IDF pulled out of Gaza after Operation Cast Lead that the rocket attacks started all over again.

Now if you lived in Gaza and you had children would you want someone like Hamas in power? Apparently the people of Gaza do so it shows they have little or no care in that regard.

Like I just commented on the other post, Nobody wants to see violence in that beautiful piece of holy land. One day I hope for peace in all. I hope for everyone to just calm the hell down and let people live their life in happiness and prosperity. Will we ever see it? Maybe but I dont think it will be in our generation.

If I lived in Gaza and had children would I want someone like Hamas in power? No. Would I want Israel to run the Gaza strip also? No. You know what I would want? To run my own life under my own rule peacefully. Thats all!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I doubt anyone wants to see children suffer. What is Israel suppose to do?

One nation, equal rights for all.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

One nation, equal rights for all.

Meanwhile back in the real world where a thing called reality actually takes place....

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/more-diplomacy-try-halt-israel-gaza-fighting-023756686.html

Israel says prefers diplomacy but ready to invade Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller | Reuters – 18 hrs ago

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed dozens more targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that, while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire.

Egypt said a deal for a truce could be close, though by late evening there was no end to six days of heavy missile exchanges as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed his next steps with his inner circle of senior ministers.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi, who has been trying to use his influence with Hamas, his fellow Islamists who run Gaza, to broker a halt. Obama "underscored the necessity of Hamas ending rocket fire", the White House said.

The leader of Hamas, speaking in Cairo, said it was up to Israel to end a new conflict that he said it had started. Israel, which assassinated a Hamas military chief on Wednesday, says its air strikes are to halt Palestinian rocket attacks.

To Mursi and in a subsequent call to Netanyahu, Obama said he regretted the deaths of Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

Israeli attacks on the sixth day of fighting raised the number of Palestinian dead to 101, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said, listing 24 children among them. Subsequent deaths raised the toll in Gaza to 106. Hospital officials in the enclave said more than half of those killed were non-combatants. Three Israeli civilians died on Thursday in a rocket strike.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, touring the region in the hopes of helping to broker a peace deal, arrived in Cairo, where he met Egypt's foreign minister in preparation for talks with Mursi on Tuesday. He also plans to meet Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

With the power balances of the Middle East drastically reshaped by the Arab Spring during a first Obama term that began two days after Israel ended its last major Gaza offensive, the newly re-elected U.S. president faces testing choices to achieve Washington's hopes for peace and stability across the region.

ROCKET FIRE

Militants in the Gaza Strip fired 110 rockets at southern Israel on Monday, causing no casualties, police said. Israel said it had conducted 80 air strikes on the enclave. The figures meant a relative easing in ferocity - over 1,000 rockets have been fired in the six days, and 1,350 air strikes carried out.

For the second straight day, Israeli missiles blasted a tower block in the city of Gaza housing international media. Two people were killed there, one of them an Islamic Jihad militant.

Khaled Meshaal, exile leader of Hamas, said a truce was possible but the Islamist group, in charge of the Gaza Strip since 2007, would not accept Israeli demands and wanted Israel to halt its strikes first and lift its blockade of the enclave.

"Whoever started the war must end it," he told a news conference in Cairo, adding that Netanyahu, who faces an election in January, had asked for a truce, an assertion a senior Israeli official described as untrue.

Meshaal said Netanyahu feared the domestic consequences of a "land war" of the kind Israel launched four years ago: "He can do it, but he knows that it will not be a picnic and that it could be his political death and cost him the elections."

For Israel, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon has said that "if there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack".

Yaalon also said Israel wanted an end to guerrilla activity by militants from Gaza in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai peninsula.

Although 84 percent of Israelis support the current Gaza assault, according to a poll by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, only 30 percent want an invasion.

DIPLOMACY "PREFERRED"

"Israel is prepared and has taken steps, and is ready for a ground incursion which will deal severely with the Hamas military machine," an official close to Netanyahu told Reuters.

"We would prefer to see a diplomatic solution that would guarantee the peace for Israel's population in the south. If that is possible, then a ground operation would no longer be required. If diplomacy fails, we may well have no alternative but to send in ground forces," he added.

Egypt, where Mursi has his roots in Hamas's spiritual mentors the Muslim Brotherhood, is acting as a mediator in the biggest test yet of Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel since the fall of Hosni Mubarak early last year.

"I think we are close, but the nature of this kind of negotiation, (means) it is very difficult to predict," Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, who visited Gaza on Friday in a show of support for its people, said in an interview in Cairo for the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

Egypt has been hosting leaders of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction.

Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had also been to Cairo for truce talks. A spokesman for Netanyahu's government declined comment on the matter.

Egypt's foreign minister, who met U.N. chief Ban on Monday, is expected to visit Gaza on Tuesday with a delegation of Arab ministers.

THOUSANDS MOURN FAMILY

Thousands turned out on Gaza's streets to mourn four children and five women who were among 11 people killed in an Israeli air strike that flattened a three-storey home the previous day.

The bodies were wrapped in Palestinian and Hamas flags. Echoes of explosions mixed with cries of grief and defiant chants of "God is greatest!".

Those deaths drew more international calls for an end to hostilities and could test Western support for an offensive that Israel billed as self-defense after years of cross-border rocket attacks.

Israel said it was investigating the strike that brought the home crashing down on the al-Dalu family, where the dead spanned four generations. Some Israeli newspapers said the house might have been targeted by mistake.

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of the coastal enclave, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border.

Israel has also authorized the call-up of 75,000 military reservists, so far mobilizing around half that number.

The Gaza fighting adds to worries of world powers watching an already combustible region, where several Arab autocrats have been toppled in popular revolts in the past two years and a civil war in Syria threatens to spread beyond its borders.

In the absence of any prospect of permanent peace between Israel and Islamist factions such as Hamas, mediated deals for each to hold fire unilaterally have been the only formula for stemming bloodshed in the past.

Hamas and other groups in Gaza are sworn enemies of the Jewish state, which they refuse to recognize and seek to eradicate, claiming all Israeli territory as rightfully theirs.

Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2006. A year later, after the collapse of a unity government under President Mahmoud Abbas, it seized Gaza in a brief civil war with Abbas's forces.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Meanwhile back in the real world where a thing called reality actually takes place....

Perception is reality.

Behavior is believable.

Expectation is energy.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Perception is reality.

Behavior is believable.

Expectation is energy.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/155-games-while-you-wait/

[OriZ 3,157]

Like I just commented on the other post, Nobody wants to see violence in that beautiful piece of holy land. One day I hope for peace in all. I hope for everyone to just calm the hell down and let people live their life in happiness and prosperity. Will we ever see it? Maybe but I dont think it will be in our generation.

If I lived in Gaza and had children would I want someone like Hamas in power? No. Would I want Israel to run the Gaza strip also? No. You know what I would want? To run my own life under my own rule peacefully. Thats all!

As a half libertarian I'll say Amen to that. We all need to run our own lives and get government the hell out of our way. Including in free countries such as the US.

[^_^ 5,021]

As a half libertarian I'll say Amen to that. We all need to run our own lives and get government the hell out of our way. Including in free countries such as the US.

So you want to be your own government?

Are you going to be issuing visas for people who wish to visit your home?

You need to issue a visa fee schedule ASAP.

With wait time estimates.