Let’s hope for the sake of Israel and the Palestinian-Arab people. While I support Israel just going into Gaza, capitulating it and giving moderate Palestinians a pathway to Israeli citizenship. Having a ground-war is just going to give the anti-Semetic crowd more fodder to bash Israel as some “imperialist” and with US being cold to Israel, the UN certainly would make advances to disenfranchise it.From the live blog on the Al Jazeera English website:
Perhaps hope for a ceasefire?
Do you have questions about the assault on Gaza?
Then log onto reddit.com to join the chat with Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba, who is reporting live from Gaza City.
aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012111814125925547.htmlHe will be online today, November 18, starting at 19:00 GMT on Reddit’s “IAmA” page - Ask Me Anything. After the thread goes up, check back here for the link.
i agree. kind of a stupid name they call themselves. they aren’t very original.Never liked Anonymous, always knew it was a Extreme Left-wing anti-Semetic, Fascist terror-group.
I have no respect for a group that bemoans freedom, all the while restricts it for others whom it disagrees with.
What are some of the things that has gone unreported or underemphasized in mainstream media?
What are some misconceptions you think the public has about the conflict going on there, and what can you share with us to dispel them?I agree. They’ve been figthing for thousands of years; this is nothing new.I hate to sound pessimistic but I believe that the Israelis and Palestinians will be fighting 50 years from now.
It has become a business for them. I cannot see a solution.
20-25 years ago, I felt the same way. But I also never thought the Berlin Wall would fall in my lifetime. Or that the Soviet Union would simply dissolve into independent countries. Or that China would embrace capitalism (albeit without relinquishing control of the Communist Party)I hate to sound pessimistic but I believe that the Israelis and Palestinians will be fighting 50 years from now.
It has become a business for them. I cannot see a solution.
Don’t forget the Troubles in Northern Ireland.20-25 years ago, I felt the same way. But I also never thought the Berlin Wall would fall in my lifetime. Or that the Soviet Union would simply dissolve into independent countries. Or that China would embrace capitalism (albeit without relinquishing control of the Communist Party)
Unexpected, unpredictable things happen in world affairs.
Yes, that also seemed to be an intractable situation. I suppose there are some similarities in the situations of Northern Ireland and of Israel.Don’t forget the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
I am in no way trying to lessen the pain that plagued Northern Ireland for decades but at most less than 1000 died in the entire affair. Or am I totally wrong here? I’m not that up on the history of the conflicts.Yes, that also seemed to be an intractable situation. I suppose there are some similarities in the situations of Northern Ireland and of Israel.
I am not very familiar either. My (admittedly, off the cuff) remark suggesting a similarity between Northern Ireland and Israel had to do with conflicts rooted in religion, ethnicity, and national identity when immigrants laid claim to a land, displacing or dis-empowering, the previous residents. Those religious, ethnic, and national identity issues were never resolved. And the descendants of those immigrants are now natives, feelingl no less right to the territory than their opponents.I am in no way trying to lessen the pain that plagued Northern Ireland for decades but at most less than 1000 died in the entire affair. Or am I totally wrong here? I’m not that up on the history of the conflicts.
Emboldened by the rising power of Islamists around the region, the Palestinian militant group Hamas demanded new Israeli concessions to its security and autonomy before it halts its rocket attacks on Israel, even as the conflict took an increasing toll on Sunday.
Hamas, badly outgunned on the battlefield, appeared to be trying to exploit its increased political clout with its ideological allies in Egypt’s new Islamist-led government. The group’s leaders, rejecting Israel’s call for an immediate end to the rocket attacks, have instead laid down sweeping demands that would put Hamas in a stronger position than when the conflict began: an end to Israel’s five-year-old embargo of the Gaza Strip, a pledge by Israel not to attack again and multinational guarantees that Israel would abide by its commitments.
nytimes.com/2012/11/19/world/middleeast/an-outgunned-hamas-tries-to-leverage-rise-of-islamists-in-region.html?ref=global-home&_r=0Hamas’s aggressive stance in the cease-fire talks is the first test of the group’s belief that the Arab Spring and the rise in Islamist influence around the region have strengthened its political hand, both against Israel and against Hamas’s Palestinian rivals, who now control the West Bank with Western backing.
Highly organized and increasingly professionalized yet still secretive and cultlike, Qassam is emblematic of Hamas’s struggle to balance its history as a resistance movement and its governing role in Gaza since 2007.
With an expanding arsenal and financing provided by Iran, Syria, Sudan and other foreign sources, Qassam expanded and matured under Mr. Jabari, adopting clear training regimens and chains of command. Last year he even negotiated with Israel to return an Israeli sergeant, Gilad Shalit — whose kidnapping he had engineered five years earlier — in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Yet Qassam remains a fundamentalist jihadi enterprise whose culture and goals — terrorizing and obliterating Israel — resemble those of ragtag militia cells.
A 2009 paper published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy contains an organizational chart of the Qassam Brigades showing Gaza divided into six geographic areas, each with its own commander reporting to Mr. Jabari. Each also has separate artillery, antitank and antiaircraft units as well as snipers, engineers and infantry, according to the paper, titled “Hamas in Combat,” with forcewide units handling communications, logistics, smuggling, weapons, intelligence and public affairs.
nytimes.com/2012/11/19/world/middleeast/brigades-that-fire-on-israel-show-a-deadly-new-discipline.html?pagewanted=2&ref=global-home“Almost by any definition they have become more institutionalized,” said Nathan Thrall, an analyst who covers the Palestinian territories for the International Crisis Group. “They more or less have been keeping a calm in Gaza. A very imperfect calm, and one that has escalations every three or four or five months, but they are the party that Egypt has gone to to ensure that things don’t get out of control.”
Hoping to avert an Israeli ground invasion, foreign leaders stepped up efforts to broker a cease-fire. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was en route to Cairo, where he intended to “appeal personally for ending the violence,” a statement from his office said.
washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-strikes-media-buildings-in-gaza-expanding-its-range-of-targets/2012/11/18/938c57ca-3180-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_story.htmlWith little apparent progress in cease-fire negotiations in Cairo, British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that Israel would lose support from the international community if it followed through on threats to deploy troops in Gaza. President Obama, at the start of a three-day trip to Southeast Asia, reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right of self-defense but said he was hopeful that the fighting could end through diplomacy.
It was around 3,600 including the security forces. I am from there, originally and lived through most of it. The video sent to me, about the Israeli’s pulling down the Palestinian’s homes was entitled - ‘just like Northern Ireland’.I am in no way trying to lessen the pain that plagued Northern Ireland for decades but at most less than 1000 died in the entire affair. Or am I totally wrong here? I’m not that up on the history of the conflicts.