Posted on 08/14/2005 1:25:44 PM PDT by adam_az
Edited on 08/14/2005 1:28:27 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Live thread for posting breaking news about the Gaza Explulsion which is set to begin within the hour...
What did we expect? These people are animals for doing that to their own children. The sign in English was a nice touch.
I think the best comparison is to the Russian Tsar ordering Jews to leave their villages outside the so-called Pale of Settlement (memorialized in Fiddler on the Roof).
I am fervently opposed to the elimination of Gaza Jewry, and I hope that the motivated Israelis who live there will be sufficiently unbroken in spirit that they can inspire pre-green-line Israel to renew its Zionist spirit. I'm not holding my breath.
If the Jews in "Yesh" are smart, they'll start a massive PR campaign in Israel TODAY to let the rest of Israel know that they do not stand alone, that they identify with the rest of the country, and that they are productive members of society.
This touches on another point, actually. How long can Israel hold onto the West Bank and Gaza before the Palestinians wise up and, rather than demanding their own state, start demanding "One Man, One Vote?"
I'm surprised the Palestinians haven't come up with this approach yet.
No. It's time for Israel to disengage itself from the Palestinians. Pull your people out. Build a wall. Wait a few generations. Maybe, just maybe, the Palestinians will get sick of being that Arab world's political sacrificial lamb and decide to put together some sort of rational government.
The other alternative is that the causeless hatred between Israeli factions can wind down.
Perhaps the Tel-Aviv cosmopolitans will feel differently about the forced destruction of Gaza Jewry when they meet some of the refugees. Perhaps they will stop thinking of them as parasitic, shaggy fanatics who endanger the best of their children. Perhaps they will notice the destruction of a $120 million/year organic export industry, and the complaints of hundreds of Arabs who are losing their jobs will resonate with them.
Perhaps the Jews of the West Bank will start an intelligent PR campaign to teach the rest of the country that they are just like them, that they share the value of peace, that they are productive members of Israeli society, and that they are not "settlers" in "territories", but Jews living their lives under the protection of the State of Israel.
One can only hope, and pray, that this will occur.
mortar shells fell in Neveh Dekalim and in nearby Gadid
In the Jewish settlements of Kfar Darom and Netzarim, police said, Palestinian militants were shooting at the remaining settlers.
But it remained unclear whether Palestinian leaders will be able to maintain security after Israeli forces depart. Top officials have vowed to quickly bring order, and the United States and Israel have offered help. But Palestinian analysts have said Hamas and other militant groups may seek to gain political advantage in the new Gaza landscape.
Note the passive verb. "Mortar shells fell" like the gentle raindrops...
Just like Israeli bus passengers "died" possibly of old age or leukemia or kidney failure...
Exactly right! Thanks for posting this.
The end result will be the same, if the Jihadi terrorists have their way.
"Yep. An unquestionable Israeli hero whose commitment to the security of the nation allowed the Muslims to control the 1,300 year old mosques. What does that say about your desire to destroy them?"
It says he made a horrible mistake, one that generations will pay for.
Sharon was once a great general - now he as a doddering old idiot.
Benedict Arnold was once one of Washington's favorite officers, then he became a traitor.
It happens.
"He's a little too fond of playing with pigs to be considered "observant", don't you think? He's clearly motivated by hate. If the Muslims threw pigs on the worshippers, you'd be going more ballistic than you do about the rocks."
It is not against halacha for Jews to touch pigs, in fact, many Jews farm them (but don't eat them.)
"One advantage of running the Israel-Palestine border along the top of the Western Wall will be the PA's newfound responsibility to prevent rock-throwing."
1) I don't think anone proposed that as the line!
2) Palestinian leadership and responsibility... Oxymorons both. If they don't then what? Because they wouldn't.
"Well help me out here. Ben Gurion?"
Dayan gave the keys to the Temple Mount to the Islamik Wakf.
You hit the sauce early today.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1463658/posts
G Gordon Liddy in Gaza
I saw this morning on PMSNBC that the displaced families were to be housed in a really nice trailer park....this is pathetic. Appeasing the terrorists in the misguided hope that the violence will end.
"Can't hardly wait for the MSM, and the UN, and even my own president, to put the thumbscrews to Israel to give up Jerusalem. Am I thinking about the wrong person when I say that Moishe Dayan would not even tolerate this for one minute? Do I have the wrong person?"
After being corrected about Moshe Dayan, David Ben Gurion is his/her second choice about who would not tolerate this for one minute. I agree - he probably wouldn't. Then again I never would have thought Sharon would go this way either.
Ben Gurion, wasn't he the guy who sank a ship full of Jewish refugees because there were some Irgun members on board? And then shot the survivors in the water as they were trying to swim to shore?
(IsraelNN.com) The Palestinian Authority has raised a new demand, now that its leaders have seen signs that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seriously intends to withdraw the Jews from Gaza: the wholesale release of imprisoned terrorists who are from Gaza.
Speaking with Agence France Presse, the PA official assigned to prisoners' affairs, Sufyan Abu Zaidah said, "The Palestinian Authority officially asked Israel to release 650 prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested by the Israelis during the years of the occupation." Abu Zaidah linked the Gaza withdrawal to the proposed prisoner release, saying that the former should be a stepping stone to the latter.
Incredible, isn't it? Seriously, I just don't know what to say in the face of such a demand. These bastards are terrorists, and the retreat from Gaza will not change the fact that they'll be back to complete their "mission".
Allegedly written last week to Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, and leaked to non-mass-media forums, the letter reveals a phenomenon called "last minute refusal". Five lieutenant colonels wrote that possibly up to half of the soldiers, including officers, assigned to Disengagement duties intend to disclose their objection to the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and Samaria on the day they are ordered to carry out the Disengagement mission.
What did they expect? The IDF training manual doesn't cover retreat and surrender.
New York Times is salavating, can't wait:
August 15, 2005
Only the Beginning
This morning Israel finally began withdrawing from the teeming, thirsty strip of land where it settled nearly 9,000 Jews in the middle of more than a million Arabs. Gaza has always been the ultimate example of the bankruptcy of Israel's settlement policy, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should be congratulated for finally doing what he and his predecessors should have done years ago. Now we must hope fervently that the withdrawal proceeds peacefully, without unnecessary provocation from troublemakers among militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
While the withdrawal from Gaza has long been demanded by Palestinians, it is in Israel's interest as well. It will free up Israeli soldiers who have been devoted to the defense of far-flung clusters of Jewish housing surrounded by hostile Palestinians. It is a rational response to the demographic challenges that threaten to leave Jews a minority unless Israel loosens its hold on the West Bank.
Unfortunately, Mr. Sharon seems to think that withdrawing from Gaza will buy Israel time to spend to consolidate in the West Bank. Even the pro-withdrawal officials in Mr. Sharon's hard-line Likud Party maintain that Gaza is not the beginning, but rather the end. Mr. Sharon's own chief political strategist has said that a central purpose of the Gaza withdrawal plan was to take Palestinian statehood off the table indefinitely. The belief appears to be that by "giving" President Bush Gaza, Israel will have bought for itself at least a lack of American pressure so that it can remain in the West Bank.
The Bush administration cannot buy into that line of thinking.
The so-called road map for peace calls for Israel to work with elected Palestinian officials to create a plan for a negotiated Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. The responsibility of the Palestinians is to clamp down on terrorist activity against Israelis. Clearly, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, must demonstrate he can stop extremists from Hamas who labor under the mistaken belief that they will one day destroy the Israeli state.
But Mr. Bush must make clear to Mr. Sharon that the Gaza withdrawal is a first step. He must not allow Mr. Sharon to maneuver him into blessing an indefinite Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Mr. Sharon, the architect of Israel's settlement policy, might have imagined a different legacy, but he will go down in history as the man who rammed the plan to dismantle the Gaza settlements through Parliament, taking on, and defeating, extreme right-wing members of his own Likud Party. Mr. Sharon should be cheered for taking this step. But he must also be forewarned: if there is to be any chance for peace, there are many more steps that must be taken.
"Ben Gurion, wasn't he the guy who sank a ship full of Jewish refugees because there were some Irgun members on board? And then shot the survivors in the water as they were trying to swim to shore?"
That't the perp.
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