Israel Launches Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza

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Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld has said the next 24-48 hours will be crucial in deciding whether or not a ground invasion of Gaza will take place. Israel is hoping the missile attacks will stop before such a measure.

Egyptian President Morsi is under pressure from factions in his country to take stronger action. Some of the pressure is coming from the Muslim Brotherhood, which put him into power.
“We called on Morsi to cut off all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel and to urge all Arab and Muslim countries to do the same,” said Mahmoud Ghozlan, a high-ranking leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/3-israelis-killed-in-rocket-strike-from-gaza-intensive-israeli-assault-leaves-13-palestinians-dead/2012/11/15/22023084-2f1e-11e2-ac4a-33b8b41fb531_story_1.html

Morsi has instructed his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza as a show of support. I am not sure if that is supposed to occur while fighting is going on, however.
 
The prime minister of Egypt is expected to arrive in Gaza tomorrow (Friday.) He will be leading a high level delegation of Egyptian officials.
A cabinet source said the prime minister and intelligence chief would visit Gaza on Friday to meet officials from Hamas, which runs Gaza, and show support to Palestinians. Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said the health minister and some of Mursi’s assistants would accompany the prime minister.
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But sending a high-level delegation would raise the stakes - potentially forcing Israel to choose between suspending its shelling of Gaza or risking the lives of senior officials from a country with which it signed a peace treaty in 1979.
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A senior Brotherhood source close to the presidency told Reuters Mursi considered the prime minister’s trip to Gaza in the midst of Israeli strikes a “heroic and historic move” that showed the presidency taking strides in its foreign policy.
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chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-palestinians-israel-egypt-mursibre8ae1mn-20121115,0,5913112.story

The Egyptian officials are human shields, it would seem. I guess President Morsi honestly believes the peace process can stop the fighting before Israel meets its security objectives.
 
It seems preparations are underway for a ground invasion of Gaza.
Ehud Barak, the minister of defense, said the targeting of Tel Aviv and the scope of the Palestinian rocket fire “represents an escalation, and there will be a price for that escalation that the other side will have to pay.”
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Mr. Barak also dropped a further hint that planning for a ground invasion of Gaza had begun, saying he had instructed the army to broaden its draft of reservists to “be prepared for any kind of development if and when it will be required.” Israeli officials said 30,000 reservists could be called, and heavy machinery and tanks rumbled south along Israeli roads leading to Gaza on Thursday in preparation for a possible invasion.
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nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-assault.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
 
Dale,

This is interesting:

Egypt PM to visit Gaza in support of Hamas against Israel

(Reuters) - Egypt’s prime minister prepared to visit the Gaza Strip on Friday in an unprecedented display of solidarity with Hamas militants embroiled in a new escalation of conflict with Israel …

Wonder if Israel would really invade Gaza with the PM of Egypt there.

Then again he could open Egypt’s border with Gaza and give the Palistinians even greater support and he isn’t doing that. So I don’t know if this is simply a stunt.
 
I think the peace process died in 1995 when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was gunned down in the streets of Tel Aviv by one of his own.
 
gilliam said:
He really is too smart to get killed like that.
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Israel offered a cease-fire during his visit, but al-Qassam, Hamas’ military arm, vowed to keep fighting. So the cease-fire never happened.

But it seems the prime minister’s three hour tour passed safely for him and for his entourage. However, Gazan medical officials say that during the visit a bomb struck a house killing a child and a militant inside.
washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/brief-truce-quickly-collapses-as-egypts-pm-visits-gaza/2012/11/16/a10d523a-2fd9-11e2-ac4a-33b8b41fb531_story.html

I heard some speculation on the BBC World Service (but I can’t remember the name of the person) that peace is still possible at this point. Both sides could claim victory: Hamas, for demonstrating that it could strike Tel Aviv. And Israel has killed Hamas’ military chief and destroyed a large amount of Gazan missiles, particularly the medium range and long range missiles which concern Israel the most. Plus, according to the commentator, neither side want a ground invasion.

The US is working to help other countries convince Hamas to stop the rocket attacks.
Washington Post article:
A senior Obama administration official said U.S. diplomatic efforts are focused on enlisting Turkey, Egypt and several key European nations to reach out to Hamas, urging the group to begin backing away from its rocket attacks.

But the official said the administration also continues to press Israel not to escalate its operation, fearing that the longer the fighting continues, the more likely it is to draw in other players in a region left even more unpredictable after two years of uprisings and revolution.

“Our message is that we cannot have this conflict drag on, as it just risks greater threat to civilians and risk of widening,” the official said.
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HansTrappist said:
I think the peace process died in 1995 when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was gunned down in the streets of Tel Aviv by one of his own.
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“One of his own” ?? :ehh:

He was assassinated by a far-right religious zealot: not exactly a Rabin supporter.

Abraham Lincoln wasn’t assassinated by “one of his own,” either
 
A New York Times article suggests that Hamas is looking for a diplomatic victory, not a military one.
This time, Israeli forces are fighting a newly emboldened Hamas, supported by the regional powerhouses of Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, and demonstrating its strength compared with a weak and crisis-laden Palestinian Authority.
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For Hamas, the goal is not necessarily a military victory, but a diplomatic one, as it tests its growing alliance with the new Islamist leadership of Egypt and other relationships in the Arab world and beyond.
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“The conflict shows how much the region has changed since the Arab uprisings began,” said Nathan Thrall, who researches Israel and the Palestinian territories for the International Crisis Group, which works to prevent conflict. “Now when Gaza is under fire, the loudest voices come not from the so-called Axis of Resistance — Iran, Syria and Hezbollah — but from U.S. allies like Egypt and Qatar.”
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nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/middleeast/hamas-emboldened-tests-its-arab-alliances.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fworld%2Fmiddleeast%2Findex.jsonp

If this is the case, an invasion of Gaza by Israel may suit the objectives of Hamas.
 
I suspect there are people in the US government, and the West in general who consider Qatar and Turkey’s actions good, when they support the destruction of Syria and it’s Christian community, but evil when they support Hamas against Israel.
 
Seamus_L said:
I suspect there are people in the US government, and the West in general who consider Qatar and Turkey’s actions good, when they support the destruction of Syria and it’s Christian community, but evil when they support Hamas against Israel.
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I don’t think there are any persons in the US government who support the destruction of Syria’s Christian community.
 
pepipop said:
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/9677782/Hamas-military-chief-killed-in-Gaza-air-strike.html

*Jabari is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago. He has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list, the Associated Press reported. His son was also reportedly killed in the targeted airstrike, according to Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, talking to Al Jazeera in Doha.

“We will respond [to the assassination], this I have to say clearly,” he said.

“The Israelis are working to target the local leaders and political leaders in Gaza. We are expecting acts and reactions from the Palestinians.” *
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here we go…

Prayers are need. :signofcross::highprayer:
 
Suspected Collaborator with Israel Executed on Gaza Street
The executed man, identified as Ashraf Ouaida, had a poster hung around his neck accusing him of cooperating with the Israelis in the killing of 15 Palestinian leaders.
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Wael Mohammed, a taxi driver who was standing on the steps of the Aman Mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, said that around 11:45 a.m. he saw a Jeep pull up on Al Jalla Street, from which two masked men dragged Mr. Ouaida to the dirt circle under the Hamas billboard.
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“They took him out from the Jeep with his hands cuffed behind his back, they pushed him under the poster and fired three gunshots at his head from the back,” Mr. Mohammed said. “He was still alive. Then they set his cuffs free and turned him upside down and fired on him again.”
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nytimes.com/2012/11/17/world/middleeast/suspected-collaborator-with-israel-executed-in-gaza.html?_r=0

The poster stated that Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades took responsibility for this killing.
 
Palestinian rocket aimed at Jerusalem for 1st time
Hamas said the two rockets aimed at the two Israeli cities Friday were made in Gaza, a prototype the militants call M-75, and have a range of about 80 kilometers (50 miles).
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The air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem after the start of the Jewish Sabbath in the holy city, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital and located about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Gaza. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket landed in an open area southeast of the city.
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Earlier Friday, Gaza militants fired toward Tel Aviv and an explosion was heard in the city, but no injuries were reported. Hamas had first targeted Tel Aviv on Thursday, an unprecedented achievement for the group.
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boston.com/news/world/middle-east/2012/11/16/egypt-rushes-hamas-aid-gaza/sv86IQuAIQrwt70NwDnzyK/story.html

As the article notes, this new type of missile may have also been fired at Tel Aviv today.
 
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