Category Archives: Israel
Gaza wires its school’s with explosives.
I was gonna title this in a smart assed way. “Gazanians take the old ‘burning school house fireworks’ to the next level. But this is too sick for that. The fact that Hamas would wire their own schools and a zoo for that matter with explosives and store weapons and ammunition in them is sick and tragic and every negative adjective you can think of. I could quip ‘Where is the outrage from PETA on this?’ but we all know PETA like every other left wing group from gay rights groups to labor unions are ready to sacrifice their own goals and principles if it means laying a hurt on the ‘right wing’ as they see it, and Israel and perhaps, just perhaps, Jewish people. The evidence is mounting.
NYT. Hamas and Israeli tactics. Very good
A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery
STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM — The grinding urban battle unfolding in the densely populated Gaza Strip is a war of new tactics, quick adaptation and lethal tricks.
Multimedia
Hamas, with training from Iran and Hezbollah, has used the last two years to turn Gaza into a deadly maze of tunnels, booby traps and sophisticated roadside bombs. Weapons are hidden in mosques, schoolyards and civilian houses, and the leadership’s war room is a bunker beneath Gaza’s largest hospital, Israeli intelligence officials say.
Unwilling to take Israel’s bait and come into the open, Hamas militants are fighting in civilian clothes; even the police have been ordered to take off their uniforms. The militants emerge from tunnels to shoot automatic weapons or antitank missiles, then disappear back inside, hoping to lure the Israeli soldiers with their fire.
In one apartment building in Zeitoun, in northern Gaza, Hamas set an inventive, deadly trap. According to an Israeli journalist embedded with Israeli troops, the militants placed a mannequin in a hallway off the building’s main entrance. They hoped to draw fire from Israeli soldiers who might, through the blur of night vision goggles and split-second decisions, mistake the figure for a fighter. The mannequin was rigged to explode and bring down the building.
In an interview, the reporter, Ron Ben-Yishai, a senior military correspondent for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, said soldiers also found a pile of weapons with a grenade launcher on top. When they moved the launcher, “they saw a detonator light up, but somehow it didn’t go off.”
The Israeli Army has also come prepared for a battle both sides knew was inevitable. Every soldier, Israeli officials say, is outfitted with a ceramic vest and a helmet. Every unit has dogs trained to sniff out explosives and people hidden in tunnels, as well as combat engineers trained to defuse hidden bombs.
To avoid booby traps, the Israelis say, they enter buildings by breaking through side walls, rather than going in the front. Once inside, they move from room to room, battering holes in interior walls to avoid exposure to snipers and suicide bombers dressed as civilians, with explosive belts hidden beneath winter coats.
The Israelis say they are also using new weapons, like a small-diameter smart bomb, the GBU-39, which Israel bought last fall from Washington. The bomb, which is very accurate, has a small explosive, as little as 60 to 80 pounds, to minimize collateral damage in an urban area. But it can also penetrate the earth to hit bunkers or tunnels.
And the Israelis, too, are resorting to tricks.
Israeli intelligence officers are telephoning Gazans and, in good Arabic, pretending to be sympathetic Egyptians, Saudis, Jordanians or Libyans, Gazans say and Israel has confirmed. After expressing horror at the Israeli war and asking about the family, the callers ask about local conditions, whether the family supports Hamas and if there are fighters in the building or the neighborhood.
Karim Abu Shaban, 21, of Gaza City said he and his neighbors all had gotten such calls. His first caller had an Egyptian accent. “Oh, God help you, God be with you,” the caller began.
“It started very supportive,” Mr. Shaban said, then the questions started. The next call came in five minutes later. That caller had an Algerian accent and asked if he had reached Gaza. Mr. Shaban said he answered, “No, Tel Aviv,” and hung up.
Interviews last week with senior Israeli intelligence and military officers, both active and retired, as well as with military experts and residents of Gaza itself, made it clear that the battle, waged among civilians and between enemies who had long prepared for this fight, is now a slow, nasty business of asymmetrical urban warfare. Gaza’s civilians, who cannot flee because the borders are closed, are “the meat in the sandwich,” as one United Nations worker said, requesting anonymity.
It is also clear that both sides are evolving tactics to the new battlefield, then adjusting them quickly.
Toronto anti Israel protest. Jan 10th 09
Weapons being fired from UN school Gaza
Here is a link to lots of IDF films which give evidence of the uses Hamas makes of civilian institutions and structures. To use a civilian building as a military base, to shield your forces and equipment by placing non combatants in the way is a direct contravention of international law and allows for defensive actions against these locations as legitimate targets.
The civilized rules of conduct however are exactly that. The consequence of centuries of experience of conflict and how to express it with the minimal horror and loss of life and labor. Islam however, is anti civilization. It’s methods in war demonstrate contempt for any system which enhances life. Hamas is an Islamic organization which very recently implemented some of the most harsh aspects of sharia law such as amputation and crucifixion. When one protests on behalf of Gaza, Hamas and other Islamic organizations, one should ask oneself how life would be for you under it’s rule.
Girl on the right sends live photos from today’s Gaza protest Toronto
More added as they arrive please check back every hour or so
Here is a picture of the most suicidal useful idiot perhaps in all of Toronto. Do gay people really not understand what Islam intends to do to homosexuals the moment they have the numbers to enforce sharia law without being concerned about secular law or gay rights?
I think he should wave that flag around in Gaza. Of course, Hamas would butcher him, film it and claim the Israeli’s did it.
Toronto Saturday 2009 Jan 10
Sid Ryan on Michael Coren jan 9 and 7 2009 various segments on Gaza
Video of Hamas hiding and firing weapons from civilian locations and mosques
Canada’s clear non relativist support of Israel in this conflict
Last night (Jan 8th 2009) I attended an information night in Ottawa Canada where two members of the Canadian government of Stephen Harper’s conservative party spoke as well as the ambassador from Israel. One of the members was John Baird, minister ot transport and Pierre Polivere MP.
Both spoke well but Baird was impressive. I did not bring my recorder last night but John was clear not only in his support of Israel but what I feel is more important, his condemnation of relativism. To paraphrase him, ‘while all killing of children is a crime, we view the murder of children in Gaza as the fault of Hamas’ referring to the tactics of human shields by the Palestinians.
In fact this recognition of the tactics of terrorism and using the baited death of children as a propaganda tactic for war is ultimately a very good thing for the world as a whole. Perhaps if other nations stop buying into relativism and recognize publicly this tactic for what it is, the tactic will lose its usefulness and children will stop being killed. I view Baird’s statement as humanitarian. France and other nations too afraid of their own Muslim immigrants to make a clear statement of principle, (and you can be certain they are in possession of the facts) are merely encouraging Hamas fighters and other terrorists to seek the deaths of their own women children and non combatants as a propaganda tool against those who they would destroy.
Perhaps the Canadian government is beginning to lead the way out of the western worlds lazy slide into post modern relativism. What a fantastic thing that would be.
The Globe and Mail newspaper also demonstrates Canada’s position on the use of children as shields or to put it as one Israeli did last night “The Israeli’s build bomb shelters for their children. The Palestinians use their children as shields”
Ottawa blames Hamas for civilian deaths at school
Harper government’s staunch support for Israel stands in sharp contrast with international reaction to incident
OTTAWA — Canada’s Conservative government says Hamas is responsible for civilian deaths at a UN school where Israeli mortar fire killed at least 40 yesterday, arguing they have used civilians to shield fighters.
The Harper government says a ceasefire can work only if Hamas not only stops rocket attacks but permanently disarms, maintaining a staunchly pro-Israel position as many other Western nations pressed for an immediate ceasefire.
The Israeli military operation in Gaza has now killed more than 660, including an Israeli mortar blast yesterday at a United-Nations-operated school in Jabalya, northeast of Gaza City, where at least 40 were killed. Six Israeli soldiers and four civilians have been killed.
Canada’s junior foreign minister, Peter Kent, said that despite sketchy details on the school strike, it is clear that Hamas “bears the full responsibility for the deepening humanitarian tragedy.
For the rest of this article please visit the Globe and Mail.
Norwegian police detain 27 in clashes over Gaza
Notice what the police said. “This has nothing to do with the situation in Gaza,” Johan Fredriksen, chief of staff of the Oslo police, told the website of the daily Aftenposten.
If this had nothing to do with Israel what did it have to do with?
Eeyore
OSLO, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Oslo police detained at least 27 people on Thursday after pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed in one of the worst such outbursts in the Norwegian capital since the 1980s. Shop windows in the city centre were shattered and police repeatedly used teargas to break up groups of activists demonstrating over Israel’s crackdown in the Gaza Strip. The violence started when about 1,000 pro-Palestinian supporters showed up at a rally sponsored by Norway’s largest opposition party in support of Israel. Television pictures showed they burned Israeli flags and threw projectiles at police clad in body armour who separated the two groups. “This has nothing to do with the situation in Gaza,” Johan Fredriksen, chief of staff of the Oslo police, told the website of the daily Aftenposten. “These people came to the protest with knives, bats and Molotov cocktails,” he said, speaking about the pro-Palestinian side. “You have to go back to the early 1980s to find a similar situation in Norway,” Fredriksen said, adding that police were still concerned about security across the city. Clashes also took place near the Israeli embassy. Tabloid VG on its website said that Oslo was the site of a “street fight” with groups of men throwing rocks and bottles at police. One police car was trashed and one officer injured. Before the flare up, some 15,000 people walked through the city centre for a peaceful, torch-lit protest, police said. (Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa and Richard Solem; editing by Michael Roddy)
Activists storm Israeli consulate in Montreal. J post
“Canada should immediately end diplomatic ties with the Israeli apartheid regime, starting with the expulsion of Israeli representatives from Canada,” one of the demonstrators was quoted as saying.
The protesters blocked access to the consulate, calling for the expulsion of its staff, until they were physically removed by police.
Slogans such as “fight the power,” “turn the tide,” and “end Israeli apartheid” were reportedly chanted during the demonstration.
More here: From what I can find, it appears to be a classic mix of leftists and Islamists.
More foaming Muslim preachers demanding dead jews and exploding Muslims
Maybe it’s just a matter of a few rabies shots?
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For details analysis and references on this video please visit mere rhetoric
There is a lot of great stuff there actually. Looking forward to perusing the site more often.
India Israel, Hindu’s and jews join to oppose common enemy.
As we saw in a previous post here on Vlad linking to an article from The Ottawa Citizen the Muslim terrorists who attacked Mumbai and made special efforts to target Jewish people and institutions in India where trying to sour relations between Israel and India.
From a phone call to the terrorists who attacked the Jewish center..
The caller went on: “If the hostages are killed, it will spoil relations between India and Israel.”
Fortunately their logic is poor. The fastest way to unite a people is to attack them. So I was delighted to see this report from Pajama’s media about a planned rally of Hindu’s and Jews and other victims of Islamic terrorism for Washington DC Jan. 20th.
“The oldest traditions of the world, Hinduism and Judaism, are facing the biggest threat of our times in the form of Radical Islam. Today this problem threatens humanity itself. The brain washing of Islamic children with intolerant ideologies, is being funded by countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran. There is an urgent need to control the use of enormous oil revenues directed at efforts to Islamize the whole world.”
Israel and the Jewish people as well as India and the Hindu’s could of course educate the western world, most of who’s inhabitants often feel that history begins at the renaissance , as to how well Islam has acted as a neighbor and more often as oppressor. Nice to see India’s relations with Israel strengthened by the attacks even though that was entirely predictable.
After the attacks on Bombay in 2001 it took a year before tensions escalated between India and Pakistan before the US and Bush administration had to step in and defuse a nuclear Mexican stand off. It has only been a couple of months since the Mumbai attacks by the same actors, renegade perhaps but state actors for Pakistan. It is worth paying close attention to India as well as how the Obama Admin. will deal with it. The US of course will have to try and defuse the situation but the same method, getting Pakistan more onside with the war on terror, simply can’t work this time. Pakistan is both the source of regional terrorism and it’s greatest victim.
If anyone is aware of a historical situation similar to this one, please write about it in the comments section. Certainly Indian action against Pakistan would be as in the situation with Israel, a lose lose. Indian inaction also like Israel, means death by a thousand cuts.
3:36 AM EST Jan 8th 5 missiles hit N. Israel from lebanon
It would appear that Israel now has a two front war with five missiles reported by Hizbolah TV to have hit Northern Israel. There is no clear indication of who is firing these missiles. It could be Hizbolah or it could be Palestinians in Lebanon perhaps trying to draw Hizbolah into the war, or it could even be Hizbolah firing the missiles and blaming Palestinians to avoid repercussion. In any case much more will be known very soon.
Hamas’s ‘CNN strategy
Thank you Grace for your tireless efforts combing the Canadian media for good material.
From Canada’s National Post:
Alan M. Dershowitz
“On the first day of Israel’s ground attack, approximately 30 Palestinians, almost all Hamas combatants, were killed. On the same day an Islamic suicide bomber blew herself up in a mosque in Iraq, killing 40 innocent Muslims. No protests. Little media coverage.”
As Israel persists in its military efforts — by ground, air and sea — to protect its citizens from deadly Hamas rockets, and as protests against Israel increase around the world, the success of the abominable Hamas double war crime strategy becomes evident. The strategy is as simple as it is cynical: Provoke Israel by playing Russian roulette with its children, firing rockets at kindergartens, playgrounds and hospitals; hide behind its own civilians when firing at Israeli civilians; refuse to build bunkers for its own civilians; have TV cameras ready to transmit every image of dead Palestinians, especially children; exaggerate the number of civilians killed by including as “children” Hamas fighters who are 16 or 17 years old and as “women,” female terrorists.
Hamas itself has a name for this. They call it “the CNN strategy” (this is not to criticize CNN or any other objective news source for doing its job; it is to criticize Hamas for exploiting the freedom of press which it forbids in Gaza). The CNN strategy is working because decent people all over the world are naturally sickened by images of dead and injured children. When they see such images repeatedly flashed across TV screens, they tend to react emotionally. Rather than asking why these children are dying and who is to blame for putting them in harm’s way, average viewers, regardless of their political or ideological perspective, want to see the killing stopped. They blame those whose weapons directly caused the deaths, rather than those who provoked the violence by deliberately targeting civilians.