Israel under seige
Israel reports that rockets are being launched from Gaza into Israel proper about once every ten minutes, but according to Fox News reports, the Israelis aren’t sitting back and taking it;
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Israel struck more than 320 Hamas targets overnight, focusing on underground tunnel networks and rocket launching sites. That brought the total number of targets hit to 750 in three days of the massive offensive, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, remnants of a long-range rocket fired from Gaza landed in a gas station in south Tel Aviv Thursday after being shot down by Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system. No one has been seriously harmed as the “Iron Dome” defense system has intercepted at least 70 of the projectiles destined for major population centers.
“This is one of the most critical tests the region has faced in recent years,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference. “Gaza is on a knife-edge. The deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral which could quickly get beyond anyone’s control.”
Israel has mobilized 20,000 reservists in anticipation of a ground assault from Hamas. The Atlantic Wire notices that there is no international backlash against Israel this time around;
Ordinarily, this moment would be accompanied by a cascade of international opprobrium from Palestinian supporters, demands for restraint, and perhaps calls from Israel’s own allies to rein in its forces. Yet even as the death toll in Gaza grows from the Israeli campaign — Israel has reportedly struck 400 targets in Gaza since yesterday morning from the sea and the air — there has been relative quiet about the battle. Hamas continues to fires its rockets, hundreds of them, deeper into Israeli territory than ever before, but the normally raucous international chorus has barely made a peep so far.
Given the fact that the entire region is in flames, maybe the rest of the world realizes that maybe Israel isn’t the problem. It only took 66 years to come to that conclusion.
Category: Terror War
Per this article in the Jerusalem Post “IAF aircraft struck three underground rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip in response to the fire. Palestinians reported that a 4-year-old boy was moderately injured in the air strike. The IAF later struck an attack tunnel in southern Gaza that was aimed at carrying out a terror attack against Israeli civilians.”
Here’s the link: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/IAF-strikes-Gaza-in-response-to-continuous-rocket-fire-361586#!
“Am Yisrael Chai”
what he said.
At least we know where all that foreign aid money the DoS has been sending the Palestinians. (Insert sarcasm tag here)…
Outstanding for keeping the jets in up status to deliver that many strikes in that time period. Just outstanding maintence . Sharp hand Salute Fellow Airdales Joe
So the world may be realizing that Israel is surrounded by enemies who want her dead and think maybe it’s okay for Israel to defend herself. I say absolutely. Been a long time coming. If Obama had a hair on his ass he would have a battle group in the Med to help support her. After all Kerry said we were earmarking $5 billion to you know, “push back radical extremists”. We need to send a message to all in the ME that we support Israel, always have and always will.
And what does Obama do: He writes a column in Haaretz(liberal Israeli paper)calling for both sides to show restraint. Nice tactic dipshit. It seems that only one side should be told that, but we know this administration won’t say it. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to give the Palestinians a half billion dollars annually and Obama will continue to dither. Thank god Bibi told Obama to go fuck himself.
Climb to Glory…I think if I hear “restraint” come out of Obama’s mouth once more I am going to stick a pencil in my ear for relief. That’s his whole foreign policy…restraint. He wants everything to stay cool and calm until he’s gone, then leave the mess for the next guy. If Obama fails to support Israel, should they need us, there will be dire consequences for America now and in the future. Every time he decides to send a hundred troops here or a hundred there, he could be showing restraint. But when it comes to defending the only ally we have in the ME, he wants them to show restraint. He should be saying, if you guys need any help, we’re there. But he has no balls for that and in my one humble opinion, dislikes or even hates the Israeli nation.
Sparks, are you going to stick it in sharp end first?
Ex…Yes, the other end is for VWP to clean out his ears with.
In Obama-speak, “both sides show restraint” means “Israel, lay down and die, already!”
i before e…(feel free to delete my comment)
On the ABC morning news show, the news was all about Israeli airstrikes… and a bried mention of some Palestinian rockets. The focus was on some Palestinian woman’s destroyed house which she said harbored NO militants… NONE. So at least one outlet is still keeping up the Palestinian propaganda.
David…They never report the dead and wounded Israelis. They only report about the poor Palestinians and some poor woman who was doing nothing wrong and they blew up her house. Bull shit!!! Every Palestinian wants Israel dead and gone. So American media, keep up the good and real reporting of the truth. /sarc/.
I’m seeing stuff not connected to or delivered by All Biased Crappy newsservice that clearly shows the attacks from Gaza and damage to Tel Aviv.
It’s why I don’t watch ABC’s crappy news any more.
A nation has a right to defend itself. No country should have live with constant attacks on their borders. Thanks for posting this. More people need to know about what is happening.
I like the video they released the other day showing the HAMAS SEAL team infiltrate via the ocean only to get smoked by an Apache gunship.
Shit was hilarious.
Geniuses.
Can any of you explain (rationally) this obsessive love for Israel?
Considering this is a nation that literally takes the military technology the US gives…I’ll repeat that…gives them, and sells it to the PRC.
And no, for the feeble minded, I do not support Hamas or any of Israels enemies. I just don’t give a shit about either side until it starts costing US lives, and we haven’t seen the end result of Israel’s backstabbing yet.
Several very obvious possibilities come to mind. Off the top of my head:
1. Other than perhaps Turkey, they’re the only functional democracy in the ME;
2. Quid pro quo for cooperation in other areas;
3. They have a great lobby in Congress; and
4. Cold War legacy/institutional inertia.
None of those are necessarily sufficient justification for supporting Israel. But perhaps individually, and certainly collectively, they are a rational explanation for the “why” – which answers the question you asked.
I’d have expected an “elite” student to have been able to figure that out for themselves with no explanation required.
And I expected someone supposedly as “intelligent” as you pretend to be to at least attempt to channel some Mearsheimer, and understand the geopolitics of self-preservation being tantamount to national survival.
All of which are counterintuitive to our alliance….sorry….totally beta position when it comes to foreign affairs with Israel.
Seriously…I expected more from you, at minimum. I’m sure the Jesus stuff is coming and all that BS, but honestly, I did think you’d present a better argument than that.
Hussar … have you ever had your ass kicked. I mean really kicked hard, by say a little girl, or a crippled boy in a wheel chair? If not, you need a good ole’ southern style ass kicken’ to straighten out you piss poor disposition!
If you believe for one moment anyone here is impressed with your half baked banter …
Further, the “intelligent” and West Palm comments are tell all nuggets.
We have disected your type before and we shall do it again.
Carry on and KMRIA!
Another armchair general bitching and moaning about things he doesn’t understand and how the real world and politics are two completely different things. Typical.
So you’re cool with supposed “allies” selling military technology we give them to the communist Chinese?
Takes all kinds I guess.
You asked a question. I answered the question you asked. I didn’t attempt to do more than that.
You’re not worth that much of my time.
Still: let me spell it out for you. You didn’t ask for an analysis of what US policy towards Israel should be. You asked for a rational explanation of why the US supports Israel – although you phrased that question pejoratively, almost certainly by design in order to provoke.
I gave you an explanation. The explanation is rational – e.g., it provides a plausible explanation of the reason(s) for the “why” of current US policy towards Israel. It does not answer the question of whether that “why” leads to sound policy. That is a question you did NOT ask.
Obviously you didn’t get the answer you expected. So perhaps you first should ask yourself if you were smart enough to ask the proper question.
Here, you weren’t.
Only…you didn’t present anything rational.
The US “alliance” (term used very loosely here) is tantamount to kicking a can down the road…whistling past a graveyard or whatever hokey Southern fried expression one chooses to use.
It’s classic US foreign policy of eating the checkers (not even playing them) vs playing chess.
IE: rational would be what is the result of bending over for Israel 20 or 30 years from now.
Hussar:
rational:
agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible
What I provided is a reasonable/sensible explanation. It is not an analysis of the logic leading to same. You asked for the former, not the latter.
You got precisely what you asked for. Quit blaming someone else for your own error in asking the wrong question.
And now, since I have more important things to do with my time, I think I’ll listen to the Good Book and “Go from the presence of the foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.”
Have a nice day.
Only, actions which lead to the bolstering of ones enemy is not based in any sort of reason or sense.
2. Quid pro quo for cooperation in other areas;
Cough-stuxnet-cough, cough.
Really? How’s that GWOT going?
And I’d love to know what intelligence, in your mind, justifies turning a blind eye to the advanced technology the PRC is getting from Israel.
Hussar-all I was doing was pointing out one example of what Hondo was talking about in his point above, which at the very least adds a little complexity to the discussion.
And, no, the GWOT does not seem to be going very well-but I don’t see how it would be any better if Iran had the bomb-worse for Israel perhaps, but bad for us as well.
I often think that decisions made by our government are counter-productive and strengthen our enemies. I’m not particularly inclined to make excuses for them. I will say that how things look from my (or your) perspective may not be how things look from the perspective of those who make those decisions and that, just maybe, they think that what we get from Israel is worth what they gave away when they sold us out to the Chinese. That takes into account me not knowing exactly what we get from them or the assessment by the powers that be of what they gave the Chinese and how that hurts us.
You’d have a great (seriously) point if the US had a history of making sound, reasonable, logical and long term thinking foreign policy decisions.
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
And in the case of our foreign relations as they are with Israel, they are suicidal.
…if the US had a history of making sound, reasonable, logical and long term thinking foreign policy decisions.
This is often, but not always, the case. Still, foreign policy decisions have to be made and the problem with long-term policy is that you have to make the decisions now, but you won’t know how they work out for a very long time. I think it’s also true that we see the results of bad decisions because we can see those play out in the real world, but we never even know about the good policies or decisions because there is no disaster resulting from them to focus attention.
Again, you are making great points, but you are giving way too much credit to the policy makers.
It isn’t rocket science, and doesn’t require a crystal ball, to figure out that our advanced technology in the hands of the PRC would never be a good thing.
Certainly not worth anything the Israelis could supposedly give us to deal with this current mess, which lack of long range thinking, along with our “alliance” with Israel (among other things.) got us into in the first place.
I am actually surprised that Hondo responded to you, Veteran Marine Rifleman Hussar. The way you couched your question signaled that you were not interested in discussion but were, instead, poised and ready to issue a dismissive retort. And you did. By the way, this is the type of thread that you categorize as horseshit. In fact, you spend more time and effort in the horseshit than not. If you want to dazzle others with your specialized knowledge of geopolitics and wow them with your graduate school readings, well, that place isn’t here. Here you tend to get heartfelt advice like this: Go fuck yourself.
Maybe..possibly…perhaps.
It’s called knowing your audience.
You didn’t let me down. Your little cowgirl hat and spurs are sufficiently tight enough to kill off any oxygen to the brain, so QED and all that.
I mean, at least Hondo does reply with food for thought. You and the squid just rinse repeat the refuge-like “arguement” of the uneducated and unaware.
You are a Sparkle Queen … And I am no Squid!
But GFY … Just the same. You don’t live in my world, but I keep the world you live in safe!
Did I mention GFY and your self imposed intelligence?
Veteran Marine Rifleman Hussar:
Yeah, you have me pegged. I am uneducated and grossly unaware. It is gratifying to see that the online facade (or is it a shield?) you created for yourself has now fallen away. Truly, it is a gratifying thing to witness. It was a matter of time. You nearly burst trying to keep the old self under wraps. And so it goes with you pompous assholes.
Really….butthurt cowboy persona and all aside, I figured you could handle more than just the slightest of bitch slaps.
Seems I was wrong. I’ll put dainty kid gloves back on for you.
Comedy Gold!
Hussar, you ramble like some candyassed college puke who has never seen the real world.
Perhaps Hussar should go hangout over at the CAIR website.
What makes you think he doesn’t?
You see, Hussar is a graduate student. He is studying things. He is, at least in his own mind, terribly knowledgeable about those things. Despite the fact (oh, did I mention he has a penchant, if not a fetish, for facts?) that there are myriad sites where he could find and engage in lofty discussions, befitting his superior intellect, of course, regarding geopolitics and Middle East/North African/Western Asian affairs, he prefers visiting here to impress himself with his particularized knowledge. In this way, he reassures himself that he is truly smart and, since schooling is such a prize, richer than the rest of us in the ways of the world. What’s more, he has some heavily romanticized vision of himself as a renaissance man, though he seems to be embarrassed regarding his claim of service as a US Marine, which I find curious.
No … No … Tell me it is NOT true!
I was starting to believe in him.
I’ll play along, cowgirl.
How was I embarrassed? Because I stated my service had nothing to do with any of the subjects being discussed?
If that’s all you have…well, you know….
You served?
Peace Corps or NOAA?
Maybe he served over at the United Nothing (the UN)?
I’m almost certain he’s a certain nut bag that frequents terminal lance. John should feel honored that antisemites don’t like his web domain.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the Gaza Strip given back to the Paleoswinians in some piss (*OOPS*, peace) agreement or another? Of course the Paleoswinians destroyed anything built by the Israelis and turned it back into the kind of third world shithole they’re accustomed to living in. Some people just can’t be civilized.
With all the foreign aid going to them over decades they should all be living in mansions by now.
Why are we – well, SOME of us – so concerned with maintaining a relationship with a colony of people planted smack down in the middle of a setting surrounded by quarrelsome neighbors who want to wipe them out?
A few things come to mind, one of them being that, post-WWII, some American citizens emigrated to Israel and set up housekeeping. Another could be that the ancient history of that place, including the Roman occupation of the Middle East, has a ‘trickle down’ effect on the rest of us, whether we actually realize it or not. And there’s that whole thing about Israel being the Holy Land and people from many other countries than the USA wanting to make pilgrimages to sites that they only read about, most of the time. My sister, being Jewish, wanted to do that right in the middle of that attack a couple of years ago. She sent me pictures of places she’d been to, including the remains of an old Roman temple.
We have two allies in the Middle East, the Turks and the Israelis. It might be a good idea to keep them as allies.
It’s simple: you don’t turn your back on your friends. And one day, we may have our backs against the wall and need them. I’d speculate that something like that hasn’t occurred to hussar.
That’s something that a snide, self-involved, pseudo-intellectual canker-blossom like Hussar doesn’t understand and never will, because he’s a social moron and an attention-hogging psychic slut.
I’ve tried to figure out why such a dingaling, who likes to wade in and pick fights over nothing decided to attach himself, however distantly, to a bhunch of truly badass befeathered buttkickers like those Polish roughnecks.
Then I realized I was just wasting my time because he couldn’t possibly measure up to their level of ferocity.
Oh, yeah: disclaimer: my sister is Jewish, but I am not. However, I don’t have to be Jewish to be offended by his attitude toward the Jews.
“Canker-Blossom”
I love you … Theresa!
Master Chief, it is going to be freaking cold up here next week.
It is, therefore, heartwarming to be sent that message.
And now Hamas is targeting Diamona. Just fucking great.
While a single rocket is highly unlikely to penetrate the containment or result in any release of radioactivity, just the mere attempt shows how little regard Hamas has for, well, anything.
Misspelled words? I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Typos are just typos. I have a few myself. Some are intentional.
Whoops–Dimona. Don’t want our little pseudo-intellectual troll here to get his panties in a wad over a misspelled word.
REDACTED INFO:
My newphew has been in and around Tel Aviv for the past 4 weeks. An intern studying CT and pol sci, he has first hand on all. The university is sending all home NLT Sat.
3 things:
1. Attacks on US interests always happen after and or during Israel’s response. So we should be on high alert.
2. Saudi Arabia has been under attack now for some time … No MSM reporting.
3. The entire region is falling into the hands of radical Islamists and the current admin is watching with approval.
His plan is almost complete.
Yes, but bodaprez got upset this afternoon because HE was being blamed for the SNAFU at the borders. He… well, he almost threw a tantrum on camera, at the podium. He was UPSET!
Hey, does that sound like a title for an epic poem, or what? The SNAUF at The Borders. (No, not SNAFU. SNAUF.)
Not much being let out to the MSM, but I did find something.
http://www.thenational.ae/world/saudi-reports-mortar-attack-on-border-with-iraq
Brief, but to the point.
http://www.drawsigner.com/post_images/AssHat.jpg
Comrades in Arms: At the time of this grand adventure, I was a Specialist Four (E-4), Field Radio Relay and Carrier Equipment Repairman (MOS 31 L 20) in Headquarters and Support Company, 501st Signal Battalion (Airmobile), 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) “Screaming Eagles”, at Camp Eagle (located West of highway QL-1, between Hue and Phu Bai), Republic of Viet Nam. In 1969 – 1972, when I was a soldier in the old Republic of Viet Nam, the normal tour of duty was one (01) year. But, if you volunteered to extend your tour of duty for an additional six (06) months, the United States Army rewarded you with a special free (not deducted from your accrued leave time) thirty (30) day leave, with round trip transportation to any place in the World you wanted to go (with the exception of Cuba, Albania, North Korea, and Communist China). The first time I did that, I went home for Christmas. When I explained that I could anywhere in the World (except Cuba, Albania, North Korea, and Communist China), Mama told me that if she could do that, she’d go to the Holy Land. Wow! I hadn’t thought of that! So, when I got back to Viet Nam, I volunteered for ANOTHER six (06) months, and told them I wanted to go to Israel. And, that’s what happened. Actually, it gets better. The United States Army gave me airline transportation from Saigon to Tel Aviv. BUT – – – , My beloved United States Army goofed up and made a humongous mistake – – – in MY favor! My return ticket was from Tel Aviv to New York City! So, I spent half my leave touring Israel, and the other half in the United States. Having started my trip in Saigon, my return flight was to Cam Ranh Bay, and thus, during my leave, I had completely circumnavigated the Globe! Here, for your perusal and/or viewing pleasure, is the URL where you can access my post, “MEMORIES OF ISRAEL”, at my own personal web site, “OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE”: http://writesong.blogspot.com/2013/06/favorite-israeli-music-videos.html Thank you. John Robert Mallernee… Read more »