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The terrible cost of thwarting Hamas [Israel]
The Times of Israel ^ | Wednesday, July 23, 2014 | David Horovitz

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 ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hamas; israel
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To: Sherman Logan

Israel isn’t going to convert to Christianity; the remnant of Israel is going to recognize Jesus as their Messiah when He returns. The same God who says this also says through His prophets and in the New Testament through His Son and the apostles that ISRAEL WILL NOT BE DESTROYED.

There are going to be more than a few battles, but God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Christians, will deal with the nations who have come up against Israel.

Where does that put us? Our illustrious leader has pitted us against Israel.


21 posted on 07/23/2014 6:54:31 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: UCANSEE2

The USA doesn’t send Hamas billions a year. The USA doesn’t send a penny a year to Hamas in Gaza.

The USA does send humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and so does Israel and a lot of other countries. Israel doesn’t have any problem with this as the government of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said their fight is not with Palestinian civilians, but with Hamas, the terrorist organization.


22 posted on 07/23/2014 6:55:51 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler

Where do you think that “Humanitarian” money ultimately goes?


23 posted on 07/23/2014 6:56:39 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: UCANSEE2
Quit sending them billions of dollars every year.

US aid to Gaza is under $200M/year, with little if any of that going to Hamas. They no doubt manage to get their hands on some of it anyway, but not because we give it to them.

Hamas gets support from rich Gulf states, they don't need money from us.

24 posted on 07/23/2014 6:58:02 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Sherman Logan
Hamas gets support from rich Gulf states, they don't need money from us.

Including our "friends", the Saudis.

25 posted on 07/23/2014 6:58:53 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: TurkeyLurkey

No doubt. None of which provides a strategy for “winning” this conflict with Hamas.


26 posted on 07/23/2014 6:59:14 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: NorthMountain

You don’t understand - then - Israel grieving over just ONE killed, much less 30!

They have a different mentality about it, than your post exhibits.


27 posted on 07/23/2014 7:00:49 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler

Despite your claim,
the USA supports Hamas, the Moslem Brotherhood,
the “rebels”, and even the Islamic terrorists
who grabbed hundreds of girls in Africa.


28 posted on 07/23/2014 7:01:26 AM PDT by Diogenesis (The EXEMPT Congress is complicit in the absence of impeachment)
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To: Star Traveler

All of Israel is the 1/3 remnant of Jews who will survive the attacks by the nations

Zechariah 13:8-9, when the Shepherd comes again:

“And it will come about in all the land,” declares the LORD,
“that two parts in it will be cut off and perish; but the third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say; ‘they are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

Also Zechariah 14 describes God’s Battle with Jerusalem’s Foes (the Nations).


29 posted on 07/23/2014 7:04:28 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: dfwgator

It doesn’t ultimately go to Hamas, if that’s what you mean.

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.


30 posted on 07/23/2014 7:07:10 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler
You are disingenuous.

The money goes directly to Hamas
for rockets to kill Jews and Israelis,
for weapons to kill Jews and Israelis,
for tunnels to kill and kidnap Jews and Israelis.

The money, including US Taxpayer money, goes to Hamas, and the murderous terrorists in Africa where Lerner even BACKDATED the form.

31 posted on 07/23/2014 7:10:48 AM PDT by Diogenesis (The EXEMPT Congress is complicit in the absence of impeachment)
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To: TurkeyLurkey

“All of Israel” ... is ... all who are alive then ...

It would be the same today, if I said “all of Israel” in some statement to you right now — I’m definitely not talking about the dead people ... LOL ...

SO ... yes ... ALL of Israel will be saved on the day the Messiah of Israel returns!


32 posted on 07/23/2014 7:11:02 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Diogenesis

Yes, the US government is an active supporter of Hamas and the Most fanatic Islamofascists in Syria. The US government gave $900 million to Hamas in 2009 after its violent coup d’etat (if you can call Abbas’s administration an etat). The Obama administration never has wavered in its support of Hamas.


33 posted on 07/23/2014 7:12:21 AM PDT by Piranha (Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have - Saul Alinsky)
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To: Diogenesis

You’re trying your best to make that false statement of yours to be true, but according to all the facts presented and that exist ... it is not true ... anymore than it is true here in the USA that we as a society support crime like murder and theft and assaults, because these criminals manage to steal and extort money here in the USA, and commit those crimes!


34 posted on 07/23/2014 7:14:29 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler

Have I made my point, yet?

35 posted on 07/23/2014 7:15:58 AM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: dfwgator

Apparently, we just “don’t understand”.


36 posted on 07/23/2014 7:16:45 AM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: Piranha

Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s against the law in the USA for the government (or anyone else) to give money or arms to Hamas, which is an officially designated terrorist organization, per USA official documents.


37 posted on 07/23/2014 7:16:55 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: NorthMountain

And you think that is going to change the way the Israelis think about it?


38 posted on 07/23/2014 7:18:18 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler
Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s against the law in the USA for the government (or anyone else) to give money or arms to Hamas, which is an officially designated terrorist organization, per USA official documents.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Like that ever stopped anyone.

39 posted on 07/23/2014 7:19:07 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Star Traveler

Israel is a small country and thirty deaths is a lot. But.... how many hamas hajis are dead? In urban close fighting you cannot avoid casualties (look at our fighting in Fallujah and Sadr City). The IDF should keep it up though so they don’t have to pay more in blood later.


40 posted on 07/23/2014 7:21:10 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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