Posted on 07/23/2014 6:25:39 AM PDT by Star Traveler
Israel’s mood at the start of this war with Hamas was one of confident assurance. We wouldn’t be deterred by the rocket threat, and Hamas would be contained.
That’s utterly changed. The rockets turned out to be the least of our concerns. And the national mood now is a mixture of anguish at the growing toll of IDF dead, anger at the feckless response of parts of the international community — notably the US — and confidence in the troops and (atypically) the political leadership.
To lose the lives of 30 Israelis to terrorism is, appallingly, nothing new in a country that survived the suicide bombing onslaught of the second intifada. As the former Shin Bet intelligence chief Avi Dichter pointed out on Tuesday, 30 Israelis were killed in a single Hamas suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya on Passover Eve March 27, 2002. That was the worst, but still only one of dozens upon dozens of bombings that battered Israel’s buses, restaurants and shopping malls a decade ago.
But to lose 30 soldiers battling vicious Islamic extremists in Gaza produces anguish of a different nature. Our soldiers are our future. They’re the youngsters among us, who have been required because of Israel’s unique geographic and geostrategic peril to place themselves on the front line for years of service before their young lives have really begun. We feel guilty that we’ve pitched them into war. We, the safe civilians, draw our strength from the sky-high level of their determination and motivation to protect us. We wish it were us, the grownups, who were on the front line. We’d have much preferred for the rockets, targeting all of us, to have been the chief threat.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
The bad guys within Israel, the wimpy wisheywashers are whining.
To talk of thwarting is pacifist claptrap.
The task is to kill, to destroy Hamas.
To say the least. Like a bot, Star Traveler starts threads and adds two or three comments of his own to make the threads look active. He uses formulaic cut-and-paste from one thread to another (so I have been answering him using the same strategy).
He consistently tries to ignore US law and argue that the hundreds of millions of dollars that we have given to the PA-Hamas government, which are illegal under US law, are not payments to Hamas.
He used to argue that Israel's only agenda in this war was to dig up the tunnels and implied that anything further would be war crimes.
He vociferously urged us to believe that the FAA decision to isolate Israel was not politically driven.
When he posts his lies, I try to tell the truth.
What really got me going was at the beginning of this war, when he urged everyone who disagreed with him to "SHUT UP" because they were (a) hurting Israel's war effort, (b) giving the Islamonazis fuel to argue that Israel and its allies want to kill all Muslims and (c) as bad as the Nazis because moving a hostile population of suicide bombers is analogous to murdering 6 million Jews with gas and ovens, to say nothing of the Gypsies, gays, Polish army, etc.
Then-Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani made the first official visit to Hamas-controlled Gaza of any head of state in October of 2012. During the visit, he pledged over $400 million in assistance to the territory, and some significant but currently-unknown amount of that money has ended up in Hamas's pocket.
Arab Nations Vie to Broker a Gaza Ceasefire Deal
"But Israel says that much of the money that is funneled to Hamas in Gaza goes not to make life better for the inhabitants but to purchase rockets aimed at Israel and to finance the building of deeply-dug tunnels that Hamas uses for smuggling weapons into the strip, storing and manufacturing arms, and infiltrating terrorists into Israel to kill and kidnap Israeli citizens."
"The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, is flying to the Middle East, on a trip to promote a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in a private jet financed by Qatar, the chief ally of the Gaza-based terror group."
I posted that article on the Secretary General and it’s shameful that he’s using that jet, but that is not the USA supporting Hamas in Gaza.
I also posted the articles for Qatar being a supporter and a financier for Hamas and was the first one on Free Republic to show the new block being formed by Turkey and Qatar, versus, Egypt and Jordan, with Israel in alignment. But, again, this is not the USA supporting Hamas in Gaza.
Just like when Reagan supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, against the Soviets, and that came back to bite us in the rear end ... many if these kinds if things, like supporting Qatar to offset the Iranian influence and hegemony in the Gulf will probably come back to bite is in the rear end, too.
But ... That is not the USA supporting Hamas in Gaza.
Here is some more 'little knowledge'.
The Problem with Aid: International Donations Not Always Welcome in Gaza
"People who are not in with Hamas don't see any of the relief goods or the gifts of money," Khadar says. On the sand dune where his house once perched, there is now an emergency shelter. The shelter is made of concrete blocks that Khadar dug from the rubble, and the roof is the canvas of a tent that provided the family with shelter for the first summer after the war. "Hamas supporters get prefabricated housing, furnishings and paid work. We get nothing," Khadar complains.
SO... are you calling this Gaza CITIZEN a LIAR ?
What is interesting is that I have provided multiple links showing that what I said is true, while all you have done is DENY , DENY, DENY.
Where is YOUR PROOF ?
Here’s my SHUT UP post ... :-) ...
Israel ambassador to U.S. Jews: Hamas winning war of public opinion
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3181017/posts
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.605502
NEW YORK — Ambassador Ron Dermer, Israel’s chief diplomatic representative in the U.S., asked some 700 American Jews on a conference call this week for their help shifting the messaging on Israel. Israel is being routinely portrayed in both conventional and social media as an angry, well-armed giant leaving many innocent victims in its wake during the current crisis with Hamas, Dermer said.
The call was organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, which this week sent federation leaders to visit targeted towns in Israel, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Dermer told his audience that Hamas may be winning the war over public opinion, as Israel is vilified for the civilian casualties its bombs cause in Gaza, while Hamas is not being blamed for instructing Palestinians to stay in their homes – even when they have been warned by the IDF that the locations will be bombed imminently.
“Hamas is putting its missile batteries and command centers next to schools and hospitals. That is a major war crime. While we are doing everything possible to keep civilians out of harms way, Hamas is trying to put their people into harms way. Gaza’s interior minister said people should ignore warnings and go back into their homes. We are taking action to minimize to the greatest extent possible number of civilian casualties, they are doing everything to maximize it.”
— — —
We need to make ABSOLUTELY CLEAR when we talk about and support Israel, that it is NOT engaging in a GENOCIDAL CAMPAIGN against the Palestinian civilians - but that it’s HAMAS who is.
We must be STRONGLY EMPHATIC that Israel does NOT COMMIT WAR CRIMES against Palestinian civilians and explain the ways that Israel goes about avoiding collateral damage, while strongly attacking Hamas and its missiles that are flying into Israel.
If you believe that Israel should commit war crimes and engage in a GENOCIDAL CAMPAIGN against Palestinians — then just SHUT UP! ... because you’re doing Israel no favor with your genocidal talk!
There are criminals in Gaza just like there are in the USA.
Just like in our society, where there are criminals who insert themselves into all levels of our society, from normal companies, to the police, to judges, to agencies of the government ... since we find that in the USA, you’ll find that in Gaza. But we don’t shutter a company in the USA because we found a criminal or two in it.
So, just as criminals here in the USA benefit by a functioning and working society and the benefits from that society ... Hamas can benefit from being in a society there too ..but we don’t shut down society because there are criminals who benefit from society being there.
You go after the criminals, who are the terrorist operatives, Hamas, and you don’t go after Palestinian civilians ... like the Israeli Ambassador, yesterday, said Israel did not do!
Does the US send ‘aide’ money to QATAR ?
Does QATAR send ‘aide’ money to HAMAS ?
Even five year olds can see the connection. Why can’t you ?
You still confuse “humanitarian aid” - which the USA sends through UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) ... with “support for Hamas”, which neither the USA or Israel does.
And you seem to think that criminals don’t exist I’m Gaza just like they exist I’m the USA, where they extort and confiscate money and goods here in the USA. What we do here is “go after the criminals”!
The Israeli Ambassador made it clear yesterday that Israel does not have a problem with the Gaza residents, but with Hamas ...
— — —
Manor, the Israeli ambassador, vowed that Israel would “destroy” Hamas’s military infrastructure.
“However, the Gaza residents are not our enemies. Israel is fully committed to international law,” he said.
— — —
He spoke at the UN Human Rights Council and said that.
There is no difference. They elected and support them.
So, you think that all those tunnels were built without the knowledge of the Gaza residents?
Read the Andrew McCarthy article on National Review. I am sure you haven’t read it, either that or you just don’t care who controls the Middle a east and what terror they wreak.
Think of this way, Israel is one of the anchors of sanity in the Middle East. It is fortunate that a couple of Middle Eastern countries are now defending Israel because those countries now see the sanity slipping away, while Obama and Kerry side with the Terror.
It was reported that ISIS is now demanding genital mutilation. Obama sised with ISIS for a while, also.
Where are you getting this idea that I and others want Israel or the US to kill the non-Hamas citizens of Gaza ?
Aide is tied into goods produced in the USA, which goes directly to that country, and there are conditions and strings attached. As I said before, even aide that Reagan sent to the Mujahideen was a bad idea, even though it was meant for our foreign policy of getting the Soviets out of Afghanistan and running down their war machine. It came back to us with the attack on 9/11!!
Likewise now, even though we have that foreign policy if opposing Iran and bolstering others in the region to offset Iran’s hegemony there, it’s something that can come to bite us in the rear end.
But even with that foreign policy and with that aide having to do with goods and material and the strings attached ... it is not the USA supplying arms and money to Hamas.
US blocked Qatari funds intended for Hamas employee
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3180818/posts
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-blocked-qatari-funds-intended-for-hamas-employees/
The United States has blocked the transfer of Qatari funds earmarked for the salaries of civil servants hired by Hamas in Gaza, The Times of Israel has learned.
A diplomatic source in the Gulf state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Qatar had transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Arab Bank for the salaries of some 44,000 Hamas civil servants. Those civil servants — employed by Hamas in Gaza since its takeover of the Strip in 2007 – were rendered jobless by the unity agreement with Fatah last month.
But the money was never processed by Arab Bank and delivered to Hamas, the source told The Times of Israel, due to pressure from the Americans, who consider Hamas a terror organization.
“This is strange, since funds from Qatar have never been blocked in the past,” the source said, referring to the $400 million aid package pledged by Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa during his visit to Gaza in October 2012.
Hamas’s deputy political bureau chief Moussa Abu Marzouk lambasted Arab Bank for neglecting to process the funds in comments posted on his Facebook page June 28.
It shows up in many many posts ... saying to nuke the entire area of Gaza, to drive them into the ocean, to starve them out, to ship them overseas to another country ... LOL ...
it cokes up in just about every thread I’m the subject if Israel and Hamas and the war they are in.
AND ... outside if Free Republic, it is a CONSTANT and FALSE ACCUSATION, which requires Israel to continually deny it and for Israeli supporters to constantly deny any such thing. It’s being raised RIGHT NOW in the UN Human Rights Council, as we speak.
We gave billions to the P.L.O.
They support HAMAS.
Connect the dots, my friend.
Sure, we don’t do it ‘directly’, but the money and weapons get to Hamas (and other terrorist orgs).
Again I will ask, do you remember the FOOD FOR OIL deal ?
I don’t think they were built without their knowledge, but that the Palestinian civilians can’t do a thing about it, because Hamas has shown itself to be totally ruthless, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a few days ago!
So.... we blocked the funds that were going to pay the salaries of the NEW GOVERNMENT’S CIVIL SERVANTS, but the money for weapons continues to flow unimpeded ?
If anything, these ‘civil servants’ are unlikely to be the CRIMINALS in GAZA that you repeatedly mention.
Why did we need to cut THEM off, deprive them of their paychecks ?
Are you implying, now, that the entire government of Gaza is HAMAS and that is why they should not get paid for their employment ?
Then the Palestinian people should be thanking the Israelis for cleaning out Hamas and should welcome them.
The Palestinian people will be even more miserable if Hamas ever wins and the New Hamas allies ever take over. What the Obama administration wants for the Palestinian people is a thousand times worse than what they have now.
The USA paid for its own attack on 9/11, too ... and as I said, these things do come back to bite us in the rear end, even though we have the policy of blocking and thwarting the hegemony of Iran I’m the region.
But that is not the USA supplying arms and money to Hamas in Gaza.
And I do know that there are problems with aid, but that is not going to stop aid from being given to civilians, despite criminal behavior - with individuals or governments or agencies. “People” will still be helped, regardless ... and criminals will still ply their trade, regardless.
It’s like an individual on the street, in that you may help them with food - and that’s good in and of itself, but then — that gives the person more money to perhaps buy drugs or alcohol, which is self-destructive behavior. But, we’re not going to have massive starvation for civilians or no shelter or no clothes, because of that. No one would put up with massive deprivation for entire population groups.
That’s what you’ve got going on, in that there are people who need help - and then - there are criminals who take advantage if that situation.
“A diplomatic source in the Gulf state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Qatar had transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Arab Bank for the salaries of some 44,000 Hamas civil servants. Those civil servants — employed by Hamas in Gaza since its takeover of the Strip in 2007 – were rendered jobless by the unity agreement with Fatah last month.
But the money was never processed by Arab Bank and delivered to Hamas, the source told The Times of Israel, due to pressure from the Americans, who consider Hamas a terror organization.”
So... if we send funds to the Palestinian government, WHO are we actually sending it to ?
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