No ceasefire will take effect until Hamas have exhausted their current stockpiles of Iranian manufactured / locally assembled rockets. The ceasefire will then come into effect and last until Hamas have replenished their weapons stockpile. Seems pretty hopeless to me.

Hammas started this with sending over 100 rockets into Israel before Israel retaliated! Hammas is the one that put out official statements like " Bombs are more valuable than 'Palestinian' children." There is not a day that has gone by in the last year that some sort of homemade explosive device has not fallen on Israeli soil from Palestine. I dare say the U.S would be pushed to attack if even a few bombs fell on American soil.

I have no sympathy for terrorist. The Palestinians knew what they were doing when they elected Hamas along with their violent agenda . If Israel doesn't destroy these obviously violent terrorist then it will just be a breeding ground for more terrorist and it will spread to the U.S. and Europe. It already has in some cases.

BTW: Palestinians aren't a historic people, they really have only been called this in recent history. They were just nomad arabs that settled in Hebrew land while the Hebrews were being persecuted. If you look at a map they are the same descendents as the other Arabs throughout the vast middle east. Have you ever wondered why other Arab countries won't grant them a little bit of land next to Gaza or take them in? It is because they have become so violent and uneducated they cause trouble. They could take the beautiful Gaza strip and become a tourist destination but they are hell bent on violence. Here is my advice to hamas: don't poke a hornets nest unless you want to get stung.

Any cease fire is a distraction by hammas to relocate and hide their missile stockpiles and smuggle more in. Remember Torah Borah, cease fire is terrorist for let me restock and relocate resources. Israel needs to stop playing softball, either bomb them into submission, or send the tanks in, bulldoze whatever is left and then use an old Russian policy of scorched earth. Any survivors can be shipped off to live to their hammas supporters, Iran.

Gaza has proven it wants to be a terrorist nation, so send them to live in a terrorist nation. Then they'll learn a tough lesson, Iran doesn't want them either, Iran just wants them to do Iran's bidding but have no real respect for the Palestinian people.

Kallie, this link may interest you.

http://theisraelconnection.blogspot.com/2008/09/origin-of-name-palestine-truth-is.html

@ORB Hamas has around 120,000 rockets. How long is it going to take to exhaust their stockpiles? And isn't it amazing that they complain about not being able to get any food or resources into Gaza but they find away to bring in 120,000 weapons?

The one thing we want to remember in all of this is that Israel is defending themselves in the constant attacks against them.

At some given point Israel needs to try to locate Gaza's stockpile of weapons and try to blow them up and maybe that will end some of this for a while.

Good morning, Debora.

Good post.

Thank you Chefaz, It just seems like in all the news media; even the paper I work for here in Germany, are trying to blame Israel. Wrong so wrong.

It makes no sense whatsoever. One of the tiniest nations in the world, all Israel wants is to be left in peace. One of the amazing things that Israel does is to ship food and free medical care into Gaza and has for a long time now. In spite of what is happening now, Israel continues to do this.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6455

In spite of it's size and consistent hostilities from it's "neighbors", Israel continues to lead the world in technological and medical advancements. If we lose Israel, we lose the golden goose.

BTW, have been meaning to tell you that your new avatar is beautiful. Was not aware that you are in Germany now. Stay safe and GOD Bless you and yours richly. Always good to see you, Debora.

Thank you chefaz, we are stationed here until July and then back to America.

Thank you so much for the complement chefaz. Good to see you too, You take care as well and remember these wars will all end one day.

Why are so many people prejudice against the Jews and Israel? This conflict was clearly started by the people of Gaza and their Islamic friends and yet the media and so many people are blaming Israel for defending its
children. Why?

Excellent question. If one wanted to be flippant, you could say jealousy but maybe it's just plain stupidity.

Good Morning Chef!!

Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, won parliament seats in Gaza in 2006 and took control of the area in 2007.

See....be CAREFUL who you elect! The people are suffering for their choice of government

Lenny12-- If you try to bully and pick on a guy that is stronger than you and he finally turns and beats you up, I guess you will blame him too!!!

And a very fine good morning to you, Fed. :)

I'd love to see the people say that they've had enough and take out Hamas on their own.

Wizza

Its not about land, never was! Its about Jesus...the muslims hate Him!

I don't understand what He ever did to deserve such hatred, I mean healing the sick, dying to save the world...seems to me they should be grateful and not hateful.

Lenny, its not Israels fault that the Palestinians are inept!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDohNq9BORo&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Behind the Scenes: Palestinian Demonstrations

See what the Palestinians teach their CHILDREN????

I want to remind you that, seven years ago, Israel withdrew from every square inch of Gaza. Now, Hamas took over the areas we vacated. What did it do? Rather than build a better future for the residents of Gaza, the Hamas leadership, backed by Iran, turned Gaza into a terrorist stronghold. They fired thousand of rockets at our cities, at our towns, at our civilians, at our children. They've smuggled thousands of rockets and missiles into Gaza, and they deliberately place these rockets and missiles in civilian areas: in homes, in schools, near hospitals. This year alone, they fired over one thousand rockets and missiles at Israel, including close to 200 rockets in the last 24 hours....

I'm stressing this because it's important to understand one simple point. There is no moral symmetry; there is no moral equivalence, between Israel and the terrorist organizations in Gaza. The terrorists are committing a double war crime. They fire at Israeli civilians, and they hide behind Palestinian civilians. And, by contrast, Israel takes every measure to avoid civilian casualties. I saw today a picture of a bleeding Israeli baby. This picture says it all: Hamas deliberately targets our children, and they deliberately place their rockets next to their children. Despite this reality – and it's a very difficult reality – Israel will continue to do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties....."

http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/netanyahu-tells-foreign-press-there-is-no-moral-symmetry-the-terrorists-are-committing-a-double-war-crime/

Hamas have never honored a truce or a pact.

For the Hamas rocket attacks, Israel should wipe out the Hamas militant areas once for all.

Or else these Hamas Islamic militants will be repeating these rocket attacks.

Also blowing up the bank was great. Blow up the hospitals too!

Let these Islamic extremists pray their Allah all day and night! Why do they need hospitals when mosques are good enough?

Lenny12
ARE YOU SAYING if you attack a country and that country kicks your ass and you lose a lot of lives that you are the victim.?????..
LENNY..WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING???

Hamas demands that Israel stop killing its leaders and asks for more freedom to travel and to import goods, NBC’s Richard Engel reported. According to al-Jazeera news service, Khaled Meshaal, a Hamas leader, said Israel must lift a six-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

You dont ever make a deal with the devil! Those "goods" are weapons! The blockade prevents suicide bombers! If they want to blow themselves up, because their lives are so miserable, have at it...IN GAZA!!

Israel has got to unify their borders. Now is the perfect time. Strike down Muslim held East Jerusalem and tear down that dome of the rock and rebuild The Temple. The Splitting of Jerusalem is Biblical prophecy for the end days, tribulations and great undoings. I can't believe so many people advocate for a militant religion to co-exist "peacefully" inside Jewish borders, when the muslims have been offered citizenship and rejected it outright. These people don't want to unite Israel, giving them Gaza would only secure their ambitions. Backed by Tehran who denies the Holocaust even existed (The last time the Jews didn't have a home) and Iran has openly said they are going to "wipe Israel form the face of the earth" and most Islamic nations still don't recognize Israel as a state.

And Egypt? You think they are actually supporters of the U.S. PLEASE! That is the biggest show, the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to play the U.S. like they haven't attempted an invasion of Israel, or supported Hezbollah and Hamas.

Don't take it from me what Islam, a militant religion, wants...here, listen to the co-founder of Hezbollah, and an Iranian.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/media/video/ondemand/escape-from-darkness

And even if you don't agree with his Christian views, does Islam really sound like something that you want more of anywhere other than where it's at?

The US, Jewish lobby and others ought to notice the double games and backstabbing by the so-called US allies like Turkey (a strong NATO ally), Qatar, Sunni Saudi dominated Arab League rulers and others.

Turkey and the long list of backstabbers have been supporting the Hamas, who have made the lives of Jews in Israel miserable.

@ Jonathan - It's because they are all muslims man, figure out the common link, it's not to hard to see.

@ George Pauljohn - Actually, history does make a country. You think the U.S. wouldn't have been formed if not through the conflicts throughout the centuries?
Secondly, the Gaza Muslims were offered full citizenship a couple years ago and rejected it outright, they want nothing to do with being a part of a country.
Theft of real estate? Where do you get that? As far as Western Records go, these are Israeli lands, not Muslim. Gaza included. And as for Jerusalem...eh hem, built by Hebrew Kings. You don't think this gives them the right to their own little state which Western records indicate they carved out centuries before Islam was even created (by muhammed beheading everyone who didn't convert to his new religion in Mecca).
And if you want more recent records, after world war 2, when millions upon millions of homeless jews were left wandering out of concentration camps, ALL the ALLIES decided to give them back what the Brits took in world war I from the Ottoman Turks...Israel. We have given them this land, they have defended it, we have been strong allies, why are you sticking up for a few thousand militant muslims in gaza saying it's about real estate?

If it's about real estate, wouldn't it make more sense for the few thousand gaza militant muslims to move to one of the surrounding Islamic totalitarian nations than splitting up Israel? Kick them out, give them the ultimatum to stay or to leave. Those who stay, prepare to be blasted and bombed until there is nothing but room for bulldozers to put up a few more Jewish neighborhoods. Look on a map, and tell me that Israel isn't surrounded by Muslim nations.

The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with
nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with
commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be
hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called
'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join
the slaughter.

Unlike nearly all of the Old
Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly
open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of
the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah,
and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.

Most of today's Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy
book's many calls to violence according to what their own moral preconceptions
find justificable. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments
that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny.
Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people,
but bad ideology.

Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate
or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued
until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed.
Muhammad's own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the
remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have produced a trail of blood
and tears across world history.

Other than the fact that Muslims haven't killed every
non-Muslim under their domain, there is very little else that they can point to
as proof that theirs is a peaceful, tolerant religion. Where Islam is dominant
(as in the Middle East and Pakistan) religious minorities suffer brutal
persecution with little resistance. Where Islam is in the minority (as in
Thailand, the Philippines and Europe) there is the threat of violence if Muslim
demands are not met. Either situation seems to provide a justification for
religious terrorism, which is persistent and endemic to Islamic
fundamentalism.

The reasons are obvious and begin with the Quran. Few verses
of Islam's most sacred text can be construed to fit the contemporary virtues of
religious tolerance and universal brotherhood. Those that do are earlier
"Meccan" verses which are obviously abrogated by later ones. This is why Muslim
apologists speak of the "risks" of trying to interpret the Quran without their
"assistance" - even while claiming that it is a perfect book.

Far from being mere history or theological construct, the
violent verses of the Quran have played a key role in very real massacre and
genocide. This includes the brutal slaughter of tens of millions of Hindus for
five centuries beginning around 1000 AD with Mahmud of Ghazni's bloody
conquest. Both he and the later Tamerlane (Islam's Genghis Khan) slaughtered an
untold number merely for defending their temples from destruction. Buddhism was
very nearly wiped off the Indian subcontinent. Judaism and Christianity met the
same fate (albeit more slowly) in areas conquered by Muslim armies, including
the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe, including today's Turkey.
Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of a proud Persian people is despised by
Muslims and barely survives in modern Iran.

So ingrained is violence in the religion that Islam has never
really stopped being at war, either with other religions or with itself.

Muhammad was a military leader, laying siege to towns, massacring
the men, raping
their women, enslaving their children, and taking the property of others as his
own. On several occasions he rejected offers of surrender from the besieged
inhabitants and even butchered captives.
He actually inspired his followers to battle when they did not feel it was right
to fight, promising them slaves and booty if they did and threatening them with
Hell if they did not. Muhammad allowed his men to rape traumatized women
captured in battle, usually on the very day their husbands and family members
were slaughtered.

It is important to emphasize that, for the most part, Muslim
armies waged aggressive campaigns, and the religion's most dramatic
military conquests were made by the actual companions of Muhammad in the decades
following his death. The early Islamic principle of warfare was that the
civilian population of a town was to be destroyed (ie. men executed, women and
children taken as slaves) if they defended themselves. Although modern
apologists often claim that Muslims are only supposed to attack in self-defense,
this is an oxymoron that is flatly
contradicted by the accounts of Islamic historians and others that go back
to the time of Muhammad.

Consider the example of the Qurayza Jews, who were completely
obliterated only five years after Muhammad arrived in Medina. Their leader
opted to stay neutral when their town was besieged by a Meccan army that was
sent to take revenge for Muhammad's deadly caravan raids. The tribe killed no
one from either side and even surrendered peacefully to Muhammad after the
Meccans had been turned back. Yet the prophet of Islam had every male member of
the Qurayza beheaded, and every woman and child enslaved, even raping one of the
captives himself (what Muslim apologists might refer to as "same day
marriage").

One of Islam's most revered modern scholars, Sheikh Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, openly sanctions offensive Jihad: "In the Jihad which you are
seeking, you look for the enemy and invade him. This type of Jihad takes place only when the Islamic state is invading other
[countries] in order to spread the word of
Islam and to remove obstacles standing in its way." Elsewhere, he
notes: "Islam has the right to take the initiative…this is God’s religion and
it is for the whole world. It has the right to destroy all obstacles in the form
of institutions and traditions … it attacks institutions and traditions to
release human beings from their poisonous influences, which distort human nature
and curtail human freedom. Those who say that Islamic Jihad was merely for the
defense of the 'homeland of Islam' diminish the greatness of the Islamic way of
life."

The widely respected Dictionary of Islam
defines Jihad as "A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the
mission of Muhammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the
Qur'an and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for
the purpose of advancing Islam and of repelling evil from Muslims…[Quoting from
the Hanafi school, Hedaya, 2:140, 141.], "The destruction of the sword is
incurred by infidels, although they be not the first aggressors, as appears
from various passages in the traditions which are generally received to this
effect."

Muhammad's failure to leave a clear line of succession
resulted in perpetual internal war following his death. Those who knew him best
first fought to keep remote tribes from leaving Islam and reverting to their
preferred religion (the Ridda or 'Apostasy wars'). Then, within the closer
community, early Meccan converts battled later ones. Hostility developed
between those immigrants who had traveled with Muhammad to Mecca and the Ansar
at Medina who had helped them settle in. Finally there was a violent struggle
within Muhammad's own family between his favorite wife and favorite daughter - a
jagged schism that has left Shias and Sunnis at each others' throats to this
day.

The strangest and most untrue thing that can be said about
Islam is that it is a Religion of Peace. If every standard by which the West is
judged and condemned (slavery, imperialism, intolerance, misogyny, sexual
repression, warfare...) were applied equally to Islam, the verdict would be
devastating. Islam never gives up what it conquers, be it religion, culture,
language or life. Neither does it make apologies or any real effort at moral
progress. It is the least open to dialogue and the most self-absorbed. It is
convinced of its own perfection, yet brutally shuns self-examination and
represses criticism.

This is what makes the Quran's verses of violence so
dangerous. They are given the weight of divine command. While Muslim
terrorists take them as literally as anything else in their holy book, and
understand that Islam is incomplete without Jihad, moderates offer little to
contradict them - outside of opinion. Indeed, what do they have? Speaking of
peace and love may win over the ignorant, but when every twelfth verse of
Islam's holiest book either speaks to Allah's hatred for non-Muslims or calls
for their death, forced conversion, or subjugation, it's little wonder that
sympathy for terrorism runs as deeply as it does in the
broader community - even if most Muslims personally prefer not to interpret
their religion in this way.

Although scholars like Ibn Khaldun, one of Islam's most
respected philosophers, understood that "the holy war is a religious duty,
because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to)
convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force", many other
Muslims are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the Quran's near absence of
verses that preach universal non-violence. Their understanding of Islam comes
from what they are taught by others. In the West, it is typical for believers
to think that their religion must be like Christianity - preaching the New
Testament virtues of peace, love, and tolerance - because Muslims are taught
that Islam is supposed to be superior in
every way. They are somewhat surprised and embarrassed to learn that the
evidence of the Quran and the bloody history of Islam are very much in
contradiction to this.

Others simply accept the violence. In 1991, a Palestinian
couple in America was convicted of stabbing their daughter to death for being
too Westernized. A family friend came to their defense, excoriating the jury
for not understanding the "culture", claiming that the father was merely
following "the religion" and saying that the couple had to "discipline their
daughter or lose respect." (source).
In 2011, unrepentant Palestinian terrorists, responsible for the brutal murders
of civilians, women and children explicitly in
the name of Allah were treated to a luxurious "holy pilgrimage" to Mecca by the
Saudi king - without a single Muslim voice raised in protest.

For their part, Western liberals would do well not to
sacrifice critical thinking to the god of political correctness, or look for
reasons to bring other religion down to the level of Islam merely to avoid the
existential truth that this it is both different and dangerous.

There are just too many Muslims who take the Quran
literally... and too many others who couldn't care less about the violence done
in the name of Islam.

Israel targets Gaza bank as diplomats work to negotiate a ceasefire

Hmmm, no headline about Hamas not targeting anything and just hoping for civilian casualties.

Hamas demands that Israel stop killing its leaders and asks for more freedom to travel and to import goods

LOL! I would be ok with this except for the little Hamas Charter thingy that's hanging out there. How retarded are these people? They've sworn to obliterate Israel and continue their terrorist attacks on Israel. When Israel takes them up on their declaration of war they demand that Israel stop killing their soldiers and let them import more weapons. LOL!!!

Israel kills more innocent people than the Islamic terrorists.

@Max-

So, it's called casualties of war. Show me a war where there have been no casualties in "innocent" lives lost. And also, Muslim militants, or basically all of Islam since Islam is a militant religion, have adopted the practice of hiding in schools, hospitals, behind women and children...etc. What do you expect?

Max...Can you back that broad biased opinion up with any factual information? I didn't think so.

Look at the statistics of the current conflict or those of Israeli war crimes in the past:

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/israeli-war-criminal-list-goes-global/

@Max -

And what is your solution Max? Would you like Israeli troops and defense measures just let rockets and missiles reign down on their country?

Here is a situation for you to consider:
Suppose there was a county in the USA, lets call it Gaza County. Gaza County USA, somewhere near Dearborne Michigan I hear, starts firing missiles supplied from Iran into various parts of surrounding U.S. What would you expect the U.S. Military to do? If you expect the US would avoid all "innocent" casualties if they sent troops in? Or what would your theory be as to what would happen or how to resolve this issue?

@Max-

Oh yeah, and did you not hear me say Muslim Militants have adopted the practice of hiding behind women and children, in hospitals and schools, etc? Are those numbers supposed to go down? I don't understand you're thinking, and beside's you're gonna have a hard time proving innocence, as pointed out earlier. What, innocent people just sit around playing late night poker game with their jihadist friends, whom of course they politically disagree with.... *pffft* keep dreaming, but when war hits more densely populated areas, more casualties of war are reported.

Oh and second of all, those stats you linked are from an article posted from 2010, read the top...read the link itself, it says it's from 2010.

Arab boys just can't shoot....or they would hit something.....Keep up the GOOD work Ben...Thank you.

Max...I have found out that there are three kinds of people in this world. One's that are good at math and one's that are not.

134 Palestinians dead, 3 Israelis dead...but the Israelis are the victims. Riiiiiiight.

Sometimes when you start a fight you get your @ss handed to you. Remember Lenny from the novel "Of Mice and Men". The Palestinians started it again and are getting the @ss handed to them.

To astounding:

Thanks for your post (1.25). I found it very interesting and confirms much of my own observations of muslim behavior.

What so many people fail to realize is that, ultimately, this conflict will only end with the death of each and every member of Hamas or the sudden complete transition of that group from their stated goals (the destruction of Israel and "liberation" of Palestine - for Muslims.)

Each time one or more leadership groups attempts to come to peace with Israel, the fanatics rise up and cause problems. When you arm all of the fanatics and tell them they are right to want to destroy Israel, you will never be able to have peace. There is no leadership that can control the fanatics. Iran and Syria thrive on the chaos which comes from having armed fanatics pointed at Israel or any government intent on peace.

It is only when all of the fanatics are disarmed or dead that there can be peace.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/spy-spy-hamas-publicly-executes-six-suspected-collaborators-with-israel-graphic-photos/#

‘Spy! Spy!’: Hamas Publicly Executes Six ‘Suspected Collaborators’ With Israel (*GRAPHIC PHOTOS*)
Yeah, good luck with those peace negotiations! They KILL their own!

Funny how there are so many "experts" touting their immense knowledge about the situation in Gaza. What a crock. Sounds almost like the Republicans, druming up support for the last election. Raise your hands - all those living in that area. A little knowledge with a big bias is a very dangerous position.

John, are you saying that you believe Gaza to be an innocent country? Are you saying that Gaza is not trying to steal from Israel what belongs to Israel?

I hope this is not what I'm hearing.

astounding: If Muslims, irrespective of nations they are in, can join hands in their jihad, then all non-Muslims need to join hands against those doing jihad to reduce our losses.

This also means that at least trouble making Muslims should be kicked out from all non-Muslim nations starting from the US, Britain, Europe and other non-Muslim nations.

Why should we keep Trojan horses/traitors in our midst?

Sounds like the Obama Talking points. All lies and Transparent

It is difficult to say: when it all started!

Leave Israel and Gaza for now!

Once the followers of Islamic cult set their feet in a place, the contributions of most Muslims have been only raping, stealing, looting, killing, telling lies, giving false excuses for their acts and trying to fool others!

Orginally, in the current Israeli areas Jews were living. From where did the followers of Islamic cult pop up there?

For justice to humans, Isreali areas should belong to Jews! Period!

@Alco -

You're so blind it isn't even funny. (A liberal still finding ways to blame the right for something.)

You realize Barrack Obama is still president right? At some point you can't keep blaming another president or someone else for whatever it is you're trying to say.

Oh, and 3 kids in a soccer field? *sarcasm upcoming* Oh my! The tragedy!

How 3 thousand dead because you muslims flew planes into the world trade towers? Or how about the bombings on subways in England and Spain, Japan? What about the Quran, and it's advocation for girls to be married starting at the age of 7? (That's supporting or being a pedophile you know?) What about Islam promoting mass rapes as "fit punishment" for females. You realize Islam was founded by a guy who cut the heads of thousands of people in Mecca when he first started his religion right?

Islam is a militant religion. ....pffft....3 kids in a soccer field. Please, more died in the rubble debri here from the world trade towers for no reason other than being where they were on that particular day.

I guess you forgot about the palestinians blowing up a bus and killing the children on it? Inconvenient truth??

Arab boys just can't shoot....or they would hit something.....Keep up the GOOD work Ben...Thank you.

Yes, OBL used to hide and make his followers do the battles just like Hamas militants hide in civilian areas!

Even while hiding OBL had his army of wives and children around him! What a beast to follow!

The Twinkie will survive but instead of Cream inside it will have Salsa and will be called Twinkie'ole

Tasty....

Here we go again....its all Obama's fault....luckily you bozos are now the minority in America....

I apologize I keep forgetting that the truth hurts

just curious WE..are you real or some kind of bot?

Yes the truth does hurt....you lost the election and now you have to live under our rule.....you opinion does not matter in the least...you have been marginalized...your full of sour grapes...lots of hurtful truths here bozo...

Ricardo, Obama couldn't afford my vote!

we have had eough

I apologize I keep forgetting that the truth hurts

The truth usually hurts when it is told. You're NOT telling the truth, so no, no pain - just your lies and continued whining. The usual sh!t. Get over your loss. Most of America has.

The truth is...you need more time to get over the loss. Take as much time as you need. No hurry, but get over it.

we have had eough You wouldn't' know the truth if it blew you up Remember Obama 4 more

TylerisATool

@Raida and Ricardo,

All i can say is that each person who gets downsized in hours to "Part time" or loses their jobs entirely over the next 4 years doesnt have to look far for the cause. All they have to do is walk out into any parking lot and look for Obama stickers to see the cause of the jobs losses. Welcome to 25 million more food stamp recipients in 2013 alone.

I got laid off under Clinton, then Bush, when I lived in Cali. What other excuse you have, other than you don't like the current President?

Prove what you just pulled out of your ass (that hole under your nose).

Janet Pinter. It is the opposite the media in US is controlled by the Jewish lobby to keep people ignorant like you forever. What we read here in NBC is not half of Israel does with Palestinian for many years. 1000 Palestinians killed is not news here in the US controlled media. 1 Israeli killed is big news all over the place. NBC is just reporting the obvious. Fortunately now people have something called Internet so censorship from the Israeli media can no long prevail. Actually is possible that in Israel a good portion of the people get the real news even though the attempts of the right wing government of Israel trying to suppress. It reminds us whe the Bush administration want to bomb Al jazira because they showed dead Iraqis. In other words lets attack the messenger.

The real truth is that the Muslims have always been the aggressors and the Israelis have always just defended themselves. Your just racist against Jews. Pathetic.....

@ Ricardo, yeah that was real evident when they killed James Miller in cold blood, even as he was carrying a white flag and attempting to show the world the truth. The IDF lied and changed the story several times before finally admitting the truth, but to this day have never prosecuted the soldier responsible. Wake up you biased jew worshipper.

He should not have butted in where he did not belong.....period. That's the thing with all you conspiracy guys, you don't know when to leave things alone....you try and force your beliefs on everyone, and your rationale is that 'your attempting to show the world the truth'....problem is we already know the truth and it does not resemble your lies one bit...

@Nilo -

Conspiracy whack job. Go back to your basement and put your tin foil hat on, someone is trying to tap into your brain!

Thanks Ricardo. If Israel attacks Iran, then Obama shouldn't send any help. I agree, we shouldn't butt in where we don't belong. Finally a worshipper of Israel that I finally agree with.

yes it does seem that the media is taking Hamas side on these matters.

Agreed.

i bet it has to do with under dog sensationalism

mmm...I'll beg to differ here. Israel is always the underdog. Hamas can lob all the rockets they want at Israel but if Israel retaliates, immediate finger pointing and outcry. How long did it take Turkey to fire back on Syria when rockets landed in their back yard??? Not long and no one said a word about it.

Additionally, look at how much support hamas has as far as islamic countries go compared to Israel.

http://www.masada2000.org/geography.html

do the right thing and wipe them all out?

why don't you just round them all up and send them to concentration camps....what's the difference?

Think about it

Not all - the hamas! Civilians are collateral damage. If you are going to quote me - at least use the full quote.

Also the difference is the hamas - their charter calls for the destruction of Israel. Not exactly a bunch of choir boys. The hamas target Israel's civilians and hide among their own civilians.

If you can point out something positive about the hamas - please let me know - otherwise I consider them to be a cancer of society.

What gave Saddam confidence was the under-the-table deals that he had with high level players in Washington. Im sure it also had to do with the CIA supporting Saddam and allowing him to live--quid pro quo.

Incidentism

Posted: 18 Nov 2012 09:24 PM PST by Daniel Greenfield

Once upon a time it was the objective of the military to win wars. Now the objective of the military is to avoid incidents.

An incident happens when civilians are killed, prisoners mistreated or some other event that is photographed, videotaped and then flashed around the world. This results in an Incident, capital I, that triggers much artificial soul-searching by the media which spends the next two years beating the incident to death and flogging its corpse across television programs, newspaper articles, books, documentaries and finally, if it's a big enough incident, a real life movie version that is based on the book, which was based on the article, where the idealistic reporter/lawyer/activist who uncovered the truth about the incident will be played by Matt Damon or George Clooney.

The main objective of the military in most civilized countries is to prevent this chain of articles, programs, books, documentaries, dramatized plays and Matt Damon movies from coming about by making sure that no Incident can ever happen. And the best way to do that is by not fighting. And if the enemy insists on fighting, then he must be fought with razor sharp precision so that no collateral damage takes place. And if someone must die, it had better be our own soldiers, rather than anyone on the other side whose death might be used as an Incident.

Incidentism isn't derived from a fear of Matt Damon movies, but from the perception that wars are not won on the battlefield, but in the minds of men. And that perception has a good deal to do with the kind of wars we choose to fight.

The military, whether in the United States or Israel, does not exist to win wars. It exists to win over the people who don't want it to win a war.

The guiding principle in such conflicts is to use the military to push back the insurgency long enough to win over the local population with a nation building exercise. This program has never worked out for the United States, but that doesn't mean that generations of military leaders don't insist on going through the motions of applying it anyway.

In Israel, the last time the military was sent to win a war, was 1973. Since then the military has been used as a police force and to battle militias in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. In the Territories, the ideal Israeli soldier was supposed to be able to dodge rocks thrown by teenagers hired by Time correspondents looking to score a great photo. Today the ideal Israeli soldier is capable of visiting an American college campus to dodge the overpriced textbooks hurled at him by the local branch of Students for Justice in Palestine or the International Socialist Organization, while explaining why the IDF is the most moral army in the world except for the Salvation Army.

The ideal Israeli soldier, like his American, British and Canadian, but not Russian or Chinese, counterparts, is supposed to avoid Incidents. That means operating under Rules of Engagement which make firing at an assailant almost as dangerous as not firing at an assailant.

The ideal American soldier is supposed to avoid the Taliban, or as one set of orders urged, patrol in places where the Taliban won't be found. And that's sensible advice, because if the goal is to avoid creating an Incident, then avoiding the enemy is the best way to avoid an Incident. Unfortunately the enemy has a bad habit of appearing where he isn't supposed to be and creating his own Incidents, because Taliban and Hamas commanders are not concerned about being yelled at in a fictional courtroom by Matt Damon. They actually welcome Incidents. The bigger and bloodier the Incident, the more hashish and young boys get passed around the campfire that night.

American soldiers operate under the burden of winning over the hearts and minds of Afghans and New York Times readers. Israeli soldiers are tasked with winning over New York Times readers and European politicians. But some hearts and minds are just unwinnable. And most wars become unwinnable when the goal is to fight an insurgency that has no fear of the dreaded Incident, while your soldiers are taught to be more afraid of an Incident than of an enemy bullet.

Israeli leaders live in perpetual fear of "losing the sympathy of the world", little aware that they never really had it. The "Sympathy of the World" is the strategic metric for conflicts. And so Israel does its best to minimize any collateral damage by using pinpoint strikes and developing technologies that can pluck a bee off a flower without harming a single petal. But invariably the technocratic genius of such schemes has its limits, an Incident happens, the Israeli leftist press denounces the Prime Minister for clumsily losing the sympathy of the world, and international politicians order Israel to retreat back behind whatever line it retreated to during the last appeasement gesture before the last peace negotiations. And its experts ponder how to fight the next one without losing the sympathy of the world.

American and Israeli generals live in fear of losing political support and so they never put any plans on the table that would finish a conflict. Instead they choose low intensity warfare with prolonged bleeding instead of short and brutal engagements that would finish the job. They talk tough, but their enemies know that they don't mean it. Worse still, that they aren't allowed to mean it because meaning it would be too mean.

Incidentism leads to armies tiptoeing around conflicts and losing them by default. Avoiding them becomes the objective and that also makes Incidents inevitable because the enemy understands that all it will take to win is a few dead children planted in the ruins of a building; in a region where parents kill their own children for petty infractions and frequently go unpunished for it. The more an army commits to Incidentism, the sooner its war is lost. Prolonged low intensity conflicts are ripe with opportunities for Incidents, far more so that hot and rapid wars. And so the hearts and minds, those of the locals and those of New York Times readers, always end up being lost anyway.

War is no longer just politics by other means, it actually is politics with the goal of winning over hearts and minds, rather than achieving objectives. The objectives of a war, before, during and after, have become those of convincing your friends and your enemies, and various neutral parties, of your innate goodness and the justice of your cause. Propaganda then has become the whole of war and those who excel at propaganda, but aren't any good at war, now win the wars. The actual fighting is just the awkward part that the people who make the propaganda wish we could dispense with so they can focus on what's really important; distributing photos of our soldiers protecting the local children and playing with their puppies.

Take all that into account and the miserable track records of great armies are no longer surprising. Armies need to prove their morality to win a war, but are never allowed to win a war because it would interfere with proving their morality. Conflicts begin on the triumphant moral high ground and end with the victors slinking back defeated after an Incident or two has been splashed all over the evening news and the book based on the article on it has already been optioned by Matt Damon's production company for a movie to be funded by the same people who fund the terrorists.

The war of words, the conflict of images and videos, the clash of arguments, has become the sum of war. And that war is unwinnable because it must be fought on two fronts, against the cultural enemies within and the insurgents outside.

An army cannot win a war and win over the New York Times at the same time. And so long as it fears Incidents more than operating in an aimless counterinsurgency twilight that eventually shades into defeat, then it is bound to lose both to both the terrorists and the New York Times.

Daniel Greenfield is a New York City based writer and blogger and a Shillman Journalism Fellow of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

That is a terrific and so true piece.

Israel should invade and drive all of Hamas into the sea to drown or be cut down by artillery. Anyone left - like women and children will be shipped off to Egypt or Lebanon.

A single rocket landing in Israel should result in a hundred artillery rounds on the launch coordinates and surrounding areas. If civilians are there then I guarantee after the first retaliation or so there won't be many more hanging around.

Get tough and Hamas will crumble.

Less....... that won't work because Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan do not want the Palestinians or Hamas either. Other wise they would be there already.

I just hope that the cease fire does not take place. Just keep fighting until one side is completely destroyed. The civilized world is sick of hearing about this conflict, so be done with it.

This should, once and for all, prove who the real Supreme Being is, God or Allah.

Ixor Excellent article. Contemporary warfare techniques have been a failure. Over thirty years of trying to make it work and it has not won over the hearts and minds but instead have made them more aggressive and determined to win. Trying to homogenise everyone has also been a mistake. You would think the people making these decisions would quit trying to manipulate the masses and start offering real solutions which in part must come from the masses themselves.

The last time the UN did anything useful was in 1948.

Useful? I would say it was downright stupid considering all of the problems that creating a country smack dab in the middle of another one caused.

Smack dab in the middle of what country??? A British Territory that re-established a former nation??? Smack dab in the middle of that country??? Is that the one that you mean???

Or could you be referring to Pakistan??? The nation that never was until it was carved out of the eastern and western portions of India in 1947.

Just because it was a british territory doesn't mean it wasnt still Palestine. And Palestine was split into two states.

Palestine was never a country. This was posted up above as an "interest" link but maybe you should read it. A "two state" solution was offered in the beginning. It was refused. Israel was immediately attacked upon independence and has been fighting for survival ever since.

http://theisraelconnection.blogspot.com/2008/09/origin-of-name-palestine-truth-is.html

No thoughts on Pakistan???

Israel was placed where it was intentionally. Not for religious nonsense, but because it's basically a giant aircraft carrier for the UN and US in that part of the world. Those who put Israel there were not stupid and knew the trouble it was entail.

mandy... you really need to improve in your history readings, and understandings of peoples and their geographies.

Your "Palestine" Mindy,..... was created when 5 arab armies invaded and Stole Jewdea, East Jewrusalem, and Samaria from Israel 64 years ago.

Ahrura Mazda:

The same religion and forces you defend are the ones that trashed your Zoroastrian name sake.

Think about it.....

And for the record, I hate it when people refer to the terrorists in Gaza as "Palestinians." Show me a Palestine on a map. Anything produced since all the allies agreed to give Israel back to the Jews who were all homeless and walking out of concentration camps. (What year was Israel founded again? Strange it was so close to the end of WWII eh?)

And when Saladin retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders, he wasn't the nice guy the movies and things prove he was. Every inhabitant of Jerusalem had to pay to walk out of the gates when he took the city, those who couldn't afford his price, were beheaded. But this is nothing radical for Islam, so the shock must be lost on you Mindy.

Research the Habiru, how they, a nomadic and fierce fighting people agreed with Egypt in ancient times to settle down, farm, and protect Egypt's northeast border. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habiru Learn how generation after generation the Habiru were treated worse and worse, until they were like slaves, then learn that they went out of Egypt armed, and carved out a small kingdom. The Habiru, or Hebrew modern day... built Jerusalem and Israel. Mecca is the Muslim holy city, not Jerusalem....until muslims captured it of course.

Zionist this and Zionist that, you know, you muslims really are easy to smoke out.

So let me get this straight, you're mad because 100,000 dollar missiles are saving innocent lives?

@astounding;

you muslims really are easy to smoke out

So are bigots like yourself, that suggest blacks should move back to Africa. You say Ilsam is not a religion of peace, ok, but you are definitlely not for peace either, suggesting we bomb cities and colonize them , you and your re reg here are very hypocritical.

But it is ok for you to preach hate right?

I believe you are a Hamas sympathizer trying to make the Jewish look bad.

If Mexico was given the amount of aid Israel receives from the US, i'm sure they'd be just as well off. But no luck there. Just drug smuggling for the CIA in return for m16s and other weapon stockpiles. Thats makes it so much easier for the cartels to flourish. Yay us, right?

Thanks for opening that door. Here's what goes on (besides lobbing rockets on a regular basis at Israel) in the concentration camp. BTW...did you know that concentration camps had banks??? I sure didn't!!!

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxaDmAyt84g

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g660378-West_Bank_and_Gaza-Hotels.html

Further proof of the race card er...I mean racism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1dvwgjDAT8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cggZu0QQUU

More fun stuff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/08/gaza-first-five-star-hotel

http://current.com/groups/gaza/89622397_beautiful-sandy-beaches-of-gaza.htm

Oh please, Palestinians in Israel have access to healthcare and have representation in government. That is how the Israeli Democracy works. Israel left Gaza voluntarily and instead of worrying for their citizens Hamas chose terror. Hamas should have used some of the foreign aid money given to them to invest in things other then rockets.

Hmm, one of the world's most technologically advanced armies indiscriminately bombing impoverished people

maybe if they stopped spending the 27+ billion dollars the US gives them each on rockets and started spending it on food medicine education and creating an economy they would have a better life. Maybe if they stopped sending suicide bombers into Israel they would be welcomed to use the roads. Its another case of the criminals playing the victims card and the big problem with playing the victims card is that you never get past being the victim.

They illegally bulldoze Palestinian homes with military guarding

They bulldoze the homes of families who attack Israel. So put your family in check stop attacking Israel and your families wont lose their homes. Use your money for wiser things than creating bombs

Ahrura Mazda:

The same religion and forces you defend are the ones that trashed your Zoroastrian name sake.

Think about it.....

Ahura -

The strangest and most untrue thing that can be said about
Islam is that it is a Religion of Peace. If every standard by which the West is
judged and condemned (slavery, imperialism, intolerance, misogyny, sexual
repression, warfare...) were applied equally to Islam, the verdict would be
devastating. Islam never gives up what it conquers, be it religion, culture,
language or life. Neither does it make apologies or any real effort at moral
progress. It is the least open to dialogue and the most self-absorbed. It is
convinced of its own perfection, yet brutally shuns self-examination and
represses criticism.

This is what makes the Quran's verses of violence so
dangerous. They are given the weight of divine command. While Muslim
terrorists take them as literally as anything else in their holy book, and
understand that Islam is incomplete without Jihad, moderates offer little to
contradict them - outside of opinion. Indeed, what do they have? Speaking of
peace and love may win over the ignorant, but when every twelfth verse of
Islam's holiest book either speaks to Allah's hatred for non-Muslims or calls
for their death, forced conversion, or subjugation, it's little wonder that
sympathy for terrorism runs as deeply as it does in the
broader community - even if most Muslims personally prefer not to interpret
their religion in this way.

Although scholars like Ibn Khaldun, one of Islam's most
respected philosophers, understood that "the holy war is a religious duty,
because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to)
convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force", many other
Muslims are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the Quran's near absence of
verses that preach universal non-violence. Their understanding of Islam comes
from what they are taught by others. In the West, it is typical for believers
to think that their religion must be like Christianity - preaching the New
Testament virtues of peace, love, and tolerance - because Muslims are taught
that Islam is supposed to be superior in
every way. They are somewhat surprised and embarrassed to learn that the
evidence of the Quran and the bloody history of Islam are very much in
contradiction to this.