Posted on 07/17/2014 2:50:44 PM PDT by Star Traveler
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon ordered the Israel Defense Forces to launch a ground incursion in the Gaza Strip Thursday night, in order to "damage the underground tunnel terrors constructed in Gaza leading into Israeli territory."
Earlier, Israel resumed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip at 3:00 P.M. after a six hour temporary cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza residents. The cease-fire began at 9:00 A.M. on Thursday morning, though Hamas fired rockets at Israel roughly two hours later.
11:54 P.M. Israeli army to request cabinet to green light the recruitment of 18,000 more reserves in case the ground operation in Gaza is expanded. Chief of Staff Lieut. Gen. Benny Gantz says that "we'll launch a joint ground-aerial assault, using full force. We'll continue to expand the fire all over the Gaza Strip."
IDF Spokesperson Moti Almoz said that the IDF has entered the second phase of the operation, which will last for however long is necessary. "Large ground forces, assisted by massive backing from the air force and the navy, are currently taking over areas in the Gaza Strip and acting against tunnels and other targets," he said. Almoz addressed Gaza Strip residents and called on them to evacuate the areas where the IDF is operating. (Gili Cohen, Amos Harel)
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Can you imagine the USA calling up THREE MILLION SOLDIERS in a couple of weeks?! That what Israel did, with their equivalent population size.
One more thing ... Israel is only going in to Gaza to a distance of THREE KILOMETERS from the border, and no further. That's the extent of their mission at this time.
Israel says that it is an “incursion”, Shep Smith says it is an “invasion.” Gosh . . . who to believe?
Sounds like the days of the cat-and-mouse or tit-for-tat days of Sharon and Arafat.
A. Will Israeli forces only make a dent and hope the show of force is sufficient, or
B. Will they send a loud message?
Probaby A.
The UN is probably already planning a special session to Israel, and Kerry has probably already notified them of his condemnation of their actions.
Now that I’ve seen what Israel’s stated goals are, I would call it a “limited invasion” ... :-) ...
To my thinking invasion has a much more incendiary meaning. It is a word that liberals love to use to imply that the ones doing it are the perpetrators of the war - whereas incursion is the act of an army trying to defend itself.
I prefer incursion when it comes to Israel.
Stay out of the urban areas, those are killing zones where vehicles lose their biggest advantage (mobility).
They’re going no further in than three kilometers.
Annex it, wipe out Ham-ass, and settle the situation once and for all.
Israel doesn’t want to annex it. They don’t want almost two million Palestinians added to the population of Israel ... :-) ...
What is the political relationship between Gaza and Israel. What controls, if any, does Israel still have on the area? Thanks.
It’s a semi-autonomous region. Israel did have military control over the region a few years ago, before they pulled out. Israel forcefully moved out all Israelis who were living there, so no Jews remain.
Israel maintains an embargo on the area so that no weapons get in through normal channels. It’s embargoed from the sea and land. The only border that is not Israeli controlled is the one with Egypt, but Egypt doesn’t just let Hamas drive tanks and other war machinery across their border, but smaller stuff is smuggled in through tunnels that Hamas digs. But Egypt has destroyed a lot of them.
There is an air embargo over Gaza, too .. so no planes can fly in there, although there is an airport there (no planes flying ... :-) ...).
Israel has no military presence there or military governance, so they are self-ruled totally, except for the embargo not allowing in arms.
Now this is different than the West Bank, where they are under military law and governance. That area is NOT part of Israel, so Israeli civilian law doesn’t apply in the West Bank, but military law does. There are certain autonomous areas in the West Bank where no Jews are allowed and it’s controlled by the Palestinian Authority, but they are in no way like Gaza ... which is about totally autonomous.
You might as well think of Gaza as another country, because that’s the way Israel made it when they left.
If Israel were to go back to “military occupation” in Gaza, it would take a major war to do so, and the political fallout around the world against Israel would be tremendous.
Israel, at least at this point in time, has no inclination of taking over the governance of a population of almost two million Palestinians who will all object to Israeli soldiers being there. There’s not a single Jew in that area.
Israel only has “control” in Gaza “from the outside” and only in terms of what gets across the border. Israel has absolutely no control inside. If Israel were to try to get control inside, as I said, it would take a “war of conquest” (which would have to be justified politically on the world scene) and it would require a very long-term occupation. And note, there is NO OCCUPATION of Gaza right now.
Okay ... but the strict embargo sounds pretty controlling.
Anyway, I've also heard reports that Israel controls electricity and water to the region, along with some finances. Is any of that right?
Thanks.
An embargo like that is controlling, but ONLY for arms and what can be used by Hamas militarily. Look at what Hamas can do right now, even with the embargo. Just imagine what it would be without the embargo.
Yes, utilities do come from Israel, but Israel doesn’t use these utilities against Palestinian civilians, for the purpose of either getting back at them or driving them out of the region. There have been plenty of comments on Free Republic that Israel should use the utilities as a weapon against civilians - but Israel doesn’t.
There have been a few politicians there who want to, but that usually gets resolved.
For the taxation issue, you might read this. It’s something in general for the Palestinian Territories ...
Taxation in the Palestinian territories
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Palestinian_territories
Thanks.
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