PM Netanyahu embattled with discontent within his cabinet and a threatening 3rd intifada when some of his settler supporters went on a rampage in Greater Jerusalem, decided to punish the Palestinians collectively. This is totally unacceptable and the White House refuses to act except the now infamous words: “It’s not helpful.” Israel is digging a deeper hole for themselves and will become more isolated in the world community. How long will Israel be treated with kids gloves and will the United States let them act with impunity by using a veto in the U.N. Security Council? Barack Obama – Hillary Clinton – Susan Rice – John Kerry – Samantha Power have kept silent by using words and not acting. As usual, the White House will mind Israel to be moderate in its killing of Palestinians and let the War be of a short duration.
IDF strikes 50 targets across Gaza as operation gets underway
(JPost) – The IDF struck 50 targets throughout the Gaza Strip late Monday night and early on Tuesday, marking the start of Operation Protective Edge, launched to
extinguish Hamas rocket fire oncontinue collective punishment by master Israel. [edit is mine – Oui] Forty seven targets were hit by Israel Air Force aircraft, and an additional three were hit by Israel Navy ships off the coast of Gaza.“We are entering into a long operation,” a senior IDF source said. “We are only at the start. Patience is required. We are preparing further steps and a gradual expansion of our order of battle,” the source said, referring to a growing presence of Ground Forces deployed to the Gaza Border. The operation is being led by the IDF’s Southern Command.
« click for more info
Lieberman jettisons Bibi's sidecar on the way to Gaza war and the next election. (Tikun Olam)The IDF is currently gathering intelligence ahead of its next wave of strikes, according to the source. In recent hours, Hamas fired rockets at Kiryat Malachi, and at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in the Eshkol region.
“We are preparing to add to our two special infantry formations that are on the Gaza border, and which are now busy with efforts against [cross-border] attack tunnels,” the source said. “We have fully deployed Iron Dome batteries. And we are moving towards a significant phase of the operation, in terms of attacks on targets,” he added.
Israel used the excuse of an terror attack by a rogue clan in Hebron for punishment of Hamas after its alliance with the Palastinian Authority of Abbas in support of a unity government for all Palestinians. Israel knew by assassinating some members of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, there would be a response from the miliants with shelling. As the IDF propaganda continues …
In the West Bank, the position of Hamas has been damaged by the army’s response to the kidnap and murder of three Israeli youths in June, which resulted in the arrest of hundreds of Hamas members, raids on weapons caches, and against its civilian and economic networks.
“In Gaza too, it is feeling increased pressure. As a result, Hamas is currently seeking an accomplishment. Hamas had high expectations two months ago. It had just joined a Palestinian unity government [with Fatah]. Now, it finds itself in a poor situation. It’s gotten poor results from the kidnapping, its position in terms of Palestinian security prisoners has worsened [due to the arrest of hundreds of Hamas members last month], and its sovereignty in Gaza has sustained blows,” the IDF source said.
Operation Solid Rock, Gaza Invasion, Begins
Continued below the fold …
Operation Solid Rock, Gaza Invasion, Begins
(Tikun Olam) – Bibi Netanyahu, desperate to distract the public from the serial ineptitude of his police force in preventing two appalling kidnap-murders, one of Israeli youths and another of a Palestinian, has begun Operation Solid Rock (Tzuk Eytan-could also be translated as “Mighty Cliff”). The IDF is mangling the translation of the phrase by calling it “Operation Protective Edge.” That isn’t even close to the Hebrew. But who ever accused the IDF of being precise and accurate?
Now, finally IDF soldiers, who’ve been posting to Facebook pictures of their bodies engraved with messages calling for revenge (for the murder of the three Israeli youths near Hebron) will get their wish. They can slaughter (almost) all the Gazans they wish.
« click for more info
Bombing raids and incursions by the IDF ahead of Israel's Knesset election - Nov. 2012 (Getty Images)I’m tempted to call it Operation Falling Off a Cliff, for that is what these military adventures always turn into. A military source has told my Israeli partner that “a ground invasion is inevitable,” but “it will be limited.”
Typically uncouth Israeli officials like to use such snappy phrases as “cutting the grass” or “the landlord’s gone mad” to describe these regular love letters from the IDF to Hamas. These recall the hard-hearted Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus. Remember that his hard-heart led to the liberation of the Israelites and the founding of their nation in their own land.
All of these deaths are needless of course. They’re testimony not just to Israel’s obduracy and rejectionism, but to the indifference of the international community which needs to come to its senses and intervene to stop the slow-mo decimation of peace, justice, and Palestinian sovereignty.
Obama: Israel, Palestinians alike must show restraint
[Written by Obama due to the start of a Conference for Peace in Israel– oui]
‘All parties must protect the innocent and act with restraint, not vengeance,’ Obama says in op-ed, praising Abbas, but not Netanyahu, for peace efforts.
In an op-ed piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Obama called it a “dangerous moment” for the region where a vaunted US peace effort recently collapsed. Writing in emotional terms, he said he couldn’t imagine the pain suffered by the parents of the three Israeli teens, but was also heartbroken by the senseless murder of a Palestinian teenager who many suspect was killed as payback.
“All parties must protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not vengeance and retribution,” Obama said.
Obama’s comments, published in Hebrew, Arabic and English, reflected growing US concern about tit-for-tat violence spiraling out of control as the fragile situation in Israel appears to deteriorate.
Letter from America: Obama’s peace assets in the Middle East – July 2013
Creating chaos to further the Zionist project of Eretz Yisrael …
Liberman to Kerry: Forget Israeli-Palestinian accord, focus instead on regional agreement
(JPost) – Give up trying to broker an Israeli-Palestinian accord, and focus instead on a comprehensive regional agreement, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told US Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting Thursday in Paris.
Liberman, meeting Kerry for the first time since the breakdown in March of the US-backed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, said Israel’s ongoing conflict is not only with the Palestinians, but the entire Arab world – of which the Palestinians are a part.
For that reason, Liberman said, it was necessary to reach an accord that will include the moderate Arab states, the Palestinians and the Arab Israelis. He said this was the first time there was a commonality of interests between Israel and the moderate Arab countries, with both very concerned about an Iranian nuclear threat, al-Qaida and the threat from global jihadists, and that the conflicts in Syria and Iraq will spill over to neighboring countries.
Liberman said that today there was a “foundation” for creating a new “political-diplomatic structure in the Middle East,” adding that the establishment of an independent Kurdish state is a “foregone conclusion” as Iraq is falling apart “before our eyes.”
Lieberman calls on Peretz to quit over appointment of first Arab minister
- ○ Move green line to include Israeli Arabs – making Israel pure, not a racist policy?
○ The Nation: FC Beitar Jersulam as image of today’s Israel