After Hamas’s Bloody Triumph, Showdown With Israel Looms(Laughing Gunman Pretends Call To Rice)

The Sunday Times ^ | June 17, 2007 | Uzi Mahnaimi

[Fireone]

““We’ve been instructed to cause as little damage as possible to the local population.”
Sounds like a page out of the U.S. Iraq war playbook. Let the
enemy know you’re afraid to kill them.
Next, Israel will issue a directive to lock up all panties,
lest they end up on the enemy’s head.
GREEN GLASS....TURN THE WHOLE MIDDLE EAST INTO GREEN GLASS!

[okie01]

The mob was now all but hysterical. A Hamas television crew recorded what happened next. Al-Madhun begged for his life, crawling in the dirt, bleeding, surrounded. He was beaten and thrown to the ground. Then at least five gunmen riddled him with bullets.

And the Democrats' response to this kind of behavior? Negotiate!

Somehow, I don't think the foreign relations equivalent of a "time out" is going to work...

Nancy Pelosi will never truly understand these animals until they are in the process of separating her head from her shoulders.

[Stultis]

“GOING into Gaza is inevitable,” said Brigadier-General Moshe Yaalon

Or, Moshe, you could just try turning off the electricity and water to all of Gaza whenever Hamas threatens Israel or fires off a rocket. Sheeesh.

[elcid1970]

BLOODY SAVAGES!!!

Any questions?

[wingsof liberty]

Dont you just love the spin? After what they did with the executions in front of families, people thrown off rooftops, etc. and now Hamas points out the “Look at the law and order we have brought to Gaza?” The logic of terrorists once again rears its ugly head. Even if most governments are speaking out against them, they have the undying support of Syria and Iran, so why should they care what everyone else thinks?

[poindexter]

“We won’t have more than a week for the fighting,” said an Israeli source familiar with the plan. “We’ve been instructed to cause as little damage as possible to the local population.”

There are the seeds of Israeli defeat. If we have learned nothing from 60+ years of "limited war", it is this:

Total war or no war.

[The Bronze Titan]

"Officials close to Rice fear a raid on Gaza<.\/b> could deal another blow to American influence."

NO! - WRONG, STUPID!

A TAKE-OVER BY HAMAS....has dealt another blow to American influence!

[familyop]

"In Gaza, looters swarmed through his offices and a laughing gunman sat in his chair, picked up his phone and pretended to call Condoleezza Rice"

It would be just awful, if Abu Mazen...er, Abbas were involved in some terrible accident. Israel would just have to clean up the stronger terrorist leadership in Gaza (Hamas) and the West Bank (Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades...er, Fatah).

[familyop]

Our Government’s influence against Israel has dealt another blow to American influence.

[familyop]

"which side is the slimes supporting, or is that the dumbest question of the day?"

The London Sunday Times is supporting the terrorists, of course--like all of the other papers over there.

[The Bronze Titan]

I agree wholeheartedly with you.

We are so tentative, so cautious, so wanting-to-please everyone, that we please no one, and do more harm in the longrun to our national interests.

I think that the debacle in Iraq has put our policy makers in neutral for tackling the many world problems head on.

[Jabba the Nutt]

This is the kind of thinking that leads to miscalculations:

"The IDF, for all its history of rapid victories over Arab armies, found Hezbollah’s martyrdom-seeking fighters hard to defeat."

IDF didn't fight in their normal way, they were lead by a leftist Prime Minister. IDF has spent the past year fixing the mistakes they made last time. It's going to be a hot summer for Jihadis.

[Maynerd]

“We won’t have more than a week for the fighting,” said an Israeli source familiar with the plan. “We’ve been instructed to cause as little damage as possible to the local population.” . . . Israel move swiftly yesterday to announce it would allow food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, and in London Gordon Brown promised new investment.

What a joke. I feel for the Israel soldiers who will die uselessly because of their farcical leaders.

[headstamp]

“this should be the green light for the IDF , with full US support, to just go in and total Gaza.
Without regard for civilian casualties , they should flatten the place , just level it ,and shoot anyone trying to escape.”

Unfortunately they are already going PC.

“We won’t have more than a week for the fighting,” said an Israeli source familiar with the plan. “We’ve been instructed to cause as little damage as possible to the local population.”

[omnivore]

Although both sides still cling to a belief in a single Palestinian state, they are now irredeemably divided by soil and ideology, one pinning its hopes to compromise and peace, the other infused with a mission to conquer Jerusalem, expel the Jews and rejoin the lands of Islam in a holy union.

That's a little wishful thinking, to claim that the splodies in the West Bank are just happy campers who want peace and compromise.

The worst part of the Gaza pullout was Israel giving up control of the Gaza-Egypt border. Regardless of what else they do, they need to take about a 2 kilometer-wide strip of Gaza on that border, from Israel to the sea, and just pave it and fortify it on both sides, patrol it with armored vehicles, maybe even dig a canal from the sea to Israel there, to prevent tunneling. Make it totally impossible to move between Gaza and Egypt. That would solve half the problem. Once they have Gaza controlled and contained on all sides, then it's a "drain the swamp" deal. As long as they allow traffic with Egypt, forget it, it'll be a mess forever.

Targets for upcoming conflict:

1. Water infrastructure: all tanks, pipelines, pumping stations, desalination plants, purification or treatment plants. The only source of water in Gaza needs to be whatever is allowed to be piped in from Israel. No water if you act splodey.

2. Runways of any length, and all parked aircraft, including helicopters. Eliminate any possibility of transporting weapons/ammo in from Egypt or elsewhere. This is a complement to closing the border with Egypt by means of an armor thrust right down the line to the sea.

3. Energy infrastructure, electricity, power stations and transformers, gas/oil/petrol tanks, everything. If it doesn't run on batteries, it doesn't work. They'll just have to park their cars until they learn not to be splodey.

4. Communications infrastructure, phone switching buildings, satellite uplink antennas, cell towers. No cell service, no regular hardwired phone service, receive-only from satellites, if they can rig up a Honda generator to their receiver, until it runs out of gas.

5. And of course, any known Hamas or other terrorist personnel, heavy weapons, rocket lauchers, etc.

If they do it right this could be a turning point for progress. Israel just needs to plant their foot squarely on the Paleoswinian's throats. No traffic to Egypt, or anywhere else, whether land, sea, or air. No electricity. No gas for cars. No modern communications. Most important, the only fresh water allowed in is what comes in from Israel.

[fight_truth_decay]

UPDATE:

In West Bank, Fatah hits Hamas-led Parliament
Maher Abukhater, Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

Sunday, June 17, 2007

(06-17) 04:00 PDT Ramallah, West Bank — Fatah gunmen took aim at Hamas rivals in the West Bank on Saturday, storming the Hamas-led Parliament and ransacking offices of the Islamist group amid fears that last week’s fighting in the Gaza Strip could trigger a wider reprisal campaign here.

No deaths were reported during a host of incidents around the West Bank, which came despite Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to rein in militants affiliated with his Fatah party. Fatah still holds sway in the West Bank, but its forces were overpowered in the Gaza fighting, leaving Hamas in sole control of the seaside strip of land.

Palestinian officials said preventing outbreaks of Gaza-style violence will be the priority of an emergency Cabinet that will be named in the next day or so. Four days of clashes between armed camps in Gaza killed at least 90 people and deepened worries over the possibility of civil war.

“We have told the security forces to quell any attempt to attack people or offices, regardless of their affiliation, and to use force, if necessary,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, an Abbas ally who is secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The new Cabinet, whose authority effectively might be limited to the West Bank, will exclude Hamas. It will be headed by Salam Fayyad, a moderate lawmaker and former finance minister who is respected by the United States and Israel.

On Thursday, after Hamas finished its rout in Gaza, Abbas declared a state of emergency and fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas. But Hamas insists that Haniyeh is still head of the Palestinian government, thus creating competing authorities and deepening the divide between the West Bank and Gaza.

Many Palestinians fear the violence might erase the chance of merging the two areas, which are separated by Israel, into a future state. The split, however, could make it easier for the United States and other Western nations to restore aid to a Palestinian government without Hamas, which calls for Israel’s destruction. The United States and European Union consider Hamas a terrorist group and cut off aid after it won parliamentary elections last year.

The U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, met with Abbas on Saturday and indicated he expected the United States would renew aid soon after the new Palestinian government is formed.

Factional violence in the West Bank has been limited in scope and severity, even though Fatah’s militias have a huge advantage over Hamas in the number of fighters and weapons. But the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades linked to Fatah are loosely organized and prone to acting on their own, making it more difficult to prevent assaults against Hamas.

During previous rounds of fighting, whenever Hamas delivered a blow in Gaza, Fatah answered in the West Bank. Its gunmen abducted Hamas activists or shot at the Parliament building and headquarters of the Cabinet, until last week led by Hamas.

In the West Bank on Saturday, Fatah gunmen stormed the Parliament building in Ramallah and accosted lawmaker Hassan Khreisheh, an independent endorsed by Hamas. Khreisheh, who holds the position of second deputy speaker in Parliament, said he believed the men planned to abduct him but that Fatah leaders intervened and the attackers left.

Elsewhere, Fatah gunmen set fire to Hamas-affiliated offices in Nablus and raided the municipality building, hoisting the Fatah flag. They instructed employees from Hamas not to return and said they would name a committee to run the municipality.

In Al Eizariyeh, near Jerusalem, dozens of men raided the offices of an Islamic trust and kicked out employees. In Bethlehem, attackers set fire to the bookstore of a Hamas member of the City Council and ransacked his home.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, called the West Bank attacks “a real coup and real terrorism.”

“We will take all steps to secure an end to these crimes,” he said.

Gaza remained relatively calm for a second day after ferocious fighting that had spanned the length of the impoverished enclave. Looters ransacked the home of the late Yasser Arafat and overran a police outpost operated by Fatah on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing with Israel.

The Erez portal is the main route for people between Israel and Gaza but has been closed for days due to the fighting.

Reaching out to his vanquished foes, Haniyeh named two former commanders from Fatah to head the police and national security branches. Hamas has vowed to restore law and order in Gaza, where militant factions, criminal gangs and private armies have carried out abductions and killings with impunity.

In other developments, Avi Dichter, Israel’s public security minister, said the Israeli government would allow the passage of food and other basic items into Gaza to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

Israel refuses to deal with Hamas, raising practical questions about how it would manage border crossings with Gaza under the control of the Islamist group.

This article appeared on page A - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/17/MNG56QGQJI1.DTL&type=politics