"John Kerry truce bid assailed, defended; US calls Israeli criticism unfair" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff July 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry’s allies on Monday mounted a vigorous defense of his efforts to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, responding to withering and increasingly personal attacks from the Israeli political and media establishment.
Now I'm feeling the need to defend him, if for no other reason than he represents my country and government. I mean, I have been critical of some of the things he has said and done, but I can do that. He's mine and he is supposed to be working for me. For this parasitical foreign power funded by US tax dollars to be attacking him is offensive.
Following a flurry of unsuccessful negotiations in the Middle East over the weekend, Kerry was roundly criticized in Israel for misreading the situation, giving too much weight to demands from Hamas, and not doing enough to defend Israel.
He offers up a ceasefire that disarms the Palestinians and leaves the siege in place and they are still not happy.
The language has been unusually charged from a traditionally strong ally of the United States, marking another low point in an often-tense relationship with Israel’s current leadership, and it spurred Obama administration officials to publicly defend its chief diplomat from what they consider unfair attacks.
I don't know how strong an ally they are after they were caught spying on us and its Mossad agents were cheering during the filming of the WTCs on 9/11.
“The reality is that John Kerry, on behalf of the United States, has been working every step of the way with Israel in support of our shared interests,” said National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
Shows you that is tribe is an ungrateful band.
The conflict threatens to hamper the relationship between the United States and Israel in the long term, and it could compromise Kerry’s effectiveness in the ongoing roiling crisis. The criticism of Kerry has come mostly from Israeli commentators who have cited anonymous Israeli government officials in what some US officials on Monday called a “misinformation campaign.”
US officials said they were upset that Israeli officials had apparently leaked details of what Kerry viewed as a draft proposal for a cease-fire and mischaracterized its contents.
“It’s simply not the way partners and allies treat each other,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Maybe they are not really an ally.
At the White House, Tony Blinken, the deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Monday, “What you see, I think, unfortunately on a regular basis, are people leaking things that are either misinformed or attempting to misinform.”
And they have been doing it for a long, long time.
Kerry’s failed nine-month effort to broker a lasting solution in the Middle East and create a Palestinian state ended when talks broke off in April. Critics of Kerry at home and abroad said the result was predictable, and that he had risked America’s credibility and had stuck his own neck out too far.
At least he tried.
Kerry’s defenders said he deserved credit for his untiring efforts to forge peace and for his optimism that the two sides could be brought together. But Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza that started July 17 has turned long-term diplomatic hopes into a focus on a short-term cease-fire, and Obama dispatched Kerry to the Middle East last week.
On Monday, Kerry said in Washington that, with escalating violence in the region, “I will and we will make no apologies for our engagement.’’
The secretary of state had floated a document outlining a possible framework for a cease-fire over the weekend. The document called for a seven-day halt to fighting, followed by talks on a more comprehensive solution. It did not spell out that Israel could continue destroying tunnels Hamas had built for smuggling and terror attacks in Israel.
But Kerry’s failure over the cease-fire caused his opponents in the region to cast him as ineffective — and worse. He was labeled “nebbish,” a Yiddish word for a pitifully ineffectual person, in the pages of Ha’aretz, a leading liberal newspaper.
Why not pile on the insults?
David Horovitz, the editor of the Times of Israel, wrote on Sunday that Kerry’s cease-fire proposal marked “a betrayal.”
“Over the weekend, US Secretary of State John Kerry ruined everything,” columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha’aretz. “Very senior officials in Jerusalem described the proposal that Kerry put on the table as a ‘strategic terrorist attack.’ ”
Shavit continued, “The man of peace from Massachusetts intercepted with his own hands the reasonable cease-fire that was within reach and pushed both the Palestinians and Israelis toward an escalation that most of them did not want.”
Barak Ravid, the diplomatic correspondent for Ha’aretz, wrote that Kerry’s plan might as well have been written by the head of Hamas.
“Kerry isn’t anti-Israeli; on the contrary, he’s a true friend to Israel,” he wrote. “But his conduct in recent days over the Gaza cease-fire raises serious doubts over his judgment and perception of regional events. It’s as if he isn’t the foreign minister of the world’s most powerful nation, but an alien, who just disembarked his spaceship in the Mideast.”
The level of insult is unforgivable.
The spat over Kerry’s role — and the cease-fire proposal he had been pushing for days — comes during mounting frustration over the growing violence. The Obama administration has had limited ability to influence events, and there are few signs of any breakthroughs.
Only when it comes to Israel.
Administration officials have continued to call for “an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire” so that more long-term negotiations can begin. But the region remained violent on Monday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, “We need to be ready for a prolonged campaign.”
Thanks for the warning.
Although most of the criticism has come from commentators — rather than government officials — most government officials have done little to defend Kerry. Official statements in his defense were muted.
Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the United States, said during a conference in Washington on Monday that “criticism of Secretary Kerry for his good faith efforts to advance a sustainable cease-fire is unwarranted.” He said he was speaking on behalf of Netanyahu.
Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, also defended Kerry on Monday after hearing from two Kerry aides how “hurt and angry” the secretary was over the attacks.
“It’s unwarranted and inappropriate to criticize him for an effort to bring peace closer or bring about a cease-fire,” he said in an interview. “It’s not fair.”
Can't believe I'm siding with Abe on this.
Kerry has expressed his frustrations with Israel. Last week he was caught on a microphone making a frustrated and sarcastic remark about a new wave of Israeli airstrikes on a Gaza neighborhood. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry said, talking with an aide.
I commented at the time that he is much like Darth Vader. There is still good in him. When you think about it, Cheney was more like the Emperor.
Kerry also drew ire from Israeli commentators for traveling to Paris to meet with leaders from Qatar and Turkey, two countries that have supported Hamas. Kerry was meeting with those leaders in part because the United States does not negotiate with Hamas.
“He meets with Qatar. The guys who are funding Hamas!” Mitchell Barak, a Jerusalem-based political consultant, said in an interview. “How does that look to an Israeli? It doesn’t look great that they understand what is going on or what Israelis are going through.”
Oh, yeah, I forgot that should be the central concern in all our lives. The self-centered arrogance and conceit of God's chosen people is disgusting.
After Kerry presented the document calling for a seven-day cease-fire on Friday, US officials insisted he was not presenting a formal proposal but circulating a draft that was based on an earlier Egyptian proposal. The proposal was leaked to the media in Israel, presumably by Israeli officials.
“The proposal that was criticized was not a US proposal,” Blinken said. “It was a draft to elicit comments from the Israelis. It was basically a discussion paper based on the original Egyptian proposal.”
It’s not the first time Kerry has been in a war of words with Israeli officials. In January, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon of Israel criticized his efforts to broker a long-term peace agreement. “American Secretary of State John Kerry, who turned up here determined and acting out of misplaced obsession and messianic fervor, cannot teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians,” Ya’alon said at the time.
Because Kerry said the endlessly expanding settlements killed his efforts.
After US officials reacted angrily, Ya’alon issued an apology. Those peace talks also collapsed, and three months later the latest violence began.
--more--"
This could all be a staged script of good cop, bad cop, you know.
Israel's Ground Invasion of Gaza
Israel's Ground Assault in Gaza Continues
Furious Friday
Serenity Now
The 21st-Century's First Genocide
This next item seemed to be very timely indeed:
"How Not To Be Anti-American, Anti-Semitic, No Better Than Hitler, And Beneath Contempt
Winter Patriot
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
As you may have noticed, in our current so-called culture, it is extremely and increasingly important neither to be, nor to be perceived as, on the "wrong" side of certain issues.
Being, or simply being called, anti-American, anti-UK, anti-Israel, anti-NATO, and/or (especially) anti-Semitic, can jeopardize one's supposedly inalienable rights, among them: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Fortunately, it is quite easy not to be anti-American, anti-Semitic, and so on. There are ten rules that you need to learn and understand. Once you begin to apply these simple rules, you will be pleased to see that they make difficult thinking totally unnecessary.
~~~
1. Accept the (elected and unelected) great leaders (and spokespeople) of the USA, the UK, Israel, and NATO as your own (even if you don't like, and/or didn't vote for, any of them). To the greatest extent possible, (con)fuse their grandeur with your own identity. Understand that they not only lead your country (even if you live in a different country): they are your country, and by extension, they are you. Realize that your hopes, ambitions, loyalties, responsibilities, even your destiny are intricately and irreversibly entwined with theirs, and therefore you as an individual no longer have any independent meaning.
2. From now on, when we say "we", we mean "our great leaders" individually and collectively. This replaces the outmoded usage which erroneously referred to our former individually-oriented selves, and possibly also our family and our friends.
3. Whatever we do is Good. We know this because we do it.
4. Whatever we say is True. We know this because we say it.
5. Our enemies are whoever we say they are. (See rule 4.)
6. Whatever they do is Evil. We know this because they do it.
7. Whatever they say is False. We know this because they say it. (It is also Evil for them to say it. See rule 6.)
8. If we don't want to talk about something they've accused us of doing, this proves we didn't do it. If we had done it, we would talk about it, because it would be Good. (See rule 3.) But since the accusation is False (see rule 7), it is too heinous to warrant any response whatsoever. Similarly, if they don't want to talk about something we've accused them of doing, this proves that they did it. (See rule 4.) Of course they don't want to talk about it. It was Evil. (See rule 6.)
9. Any criticism of American policy or practice is inherently anti-American, and any criticism of NATO or UK policy or practice is inherently anti-NATO or anti-UK respectively. Given America's direct influence on NATO, and indirect influence (through NATO) on many countries, including the UK, any criticism of NATO or the UK is inherently anti-American as well.
10. Any criticism of Israeli policy or practice is not only anti-Israel but also anti-Semitic (see rule 4), no better than Hitler, and therefore beneath contempt. Given the support Israel receives from the US, the UK, and NATO, all anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements are also anti-NATO, anti-UK, and anti-American as well.
~~~
Current events provide numerous free opportunities for ordinary citizens to put these simple rules into action, so as not to be (nor to be seen as) anti-American, anti-NATO, anti-UK, anti-Israeli, and most importantly, anti-Semitic. It only takes a little bit of common sense.
For instance, the rules show that it is clearly Good for us (rule 2) to spend billions of dollars and engage the services of brutal terrorists (whom we didn't really engage at all; see rule 8) in an attempt to destabilize Ukraine (even though, at the time, Ukraine was a peaceful sovereign independent nation; see rule 3). And we are fully justified in calling our Good actions there "bringing democracy" and/or "enhancing stability" (see rule 4), despite the fact that our intervention has empowered monsters and brought about horrible suffering (none of which is in any sense our fault; see rule 8). But it would be Evil for the Russians (our enemies; see rule 5) to interact with Ukraine in any fashion whatsoever (rule 6), even if they merely sought to stabilize the country (which they wouldn't, especially if that's what they said they were doing; see rule 7). In other words, any Russian actions with respect to Ukraine, including seemingly honest cooperation in trade, transportation, or any other area, is Evil (rule 6), and would be Evil even in the absence of the current chaos, which we didn't cause (rule 8). And anyone who says otherwise is anti-American (rule 9), anti-Semitic (rule 10), no better than Hitler, and beneath contempt.
If you understand all this, then when your friends and neighbors start talking about how fantastic it was when Obama stood up to Putin and told him to keep his grubby mitts off Ukraine, you will know how not to be anti-American, anti-Semitic, no better than Hitler, and beneath contempt. When they ask your opinion, you won't say, "America had no right to intervene in Ukraine in the first place, let alone now!" That would be anti-American, beneath contempt, and so on. Instead you might say, "Right on, bro! Obama rocks! Time to kick some Rooskie butt!" Then you could excuse yourself and go to the bathroom. And if you had to throw up, you could do it in private.
For another example: if you understand the rules, you can easily see that it is Good for us (rule 2) to commit all manner of horrible atrocities against the Palestinians (rule 3) but it is Evil for the Palestinians (our enemies; rule 5) to retaliate in any way (rule 6). And anyone who says otherwise is anti-Semitic (rule 10), no better than Hitler, beneath contempt, and so on. You don't want to fall that low. You don't want to be seen as having fallen that low. So when they ask your opinion, you won't say, "What the Israelis are doing is horrible, and the American support for it is sickening!" Instead you might say, "Right on, bro! Bibi rocks! Time to kick some Aayrabb butt!" Then you could excuse yourself and go to the bathroom again.
~~~
It's all very simple once it's been explained properly. And, to be honest, it wasn't very difficult to list and explain the ten simple rules. But many otherwise intelligent writers, whose work I read quite regularly, have failed to notice these valuable guidelines. I think they must have been busy with other matters.
Case in point: Chris Floyd has recently posted a brillant but anti-American and anti-Semitic column concerning Operation Protective Edge and the US Senate's unanimous and generous support for Israel at this critical time. Protective Edge, as you may have heard, is a purely defensive operation against beaches, hospitals, and other carefully selected military targets, launched by Israel in response to (and in the hope of deterring) rocket attacks from Gaza.
Floyd quotes James Marc Leas, who has assembled a timeline which shows very clearly that Israel had attacked Gaza more than a hundred times in the three weeks prior to the launch of the first such rocket attack, and this leads Floyd to conclude that the Israelis, and the Americans, are lying when they claim the current Israeli actions -- high-tech brutalities against defenseless captive civilians -- constitute a legitimate response to the rocket attacks.
Floyd says, in effect, "They're all lying, and they know it. They have to know it. Anyone who has been following the news has to know it. But they're still lying. And they're getting away with it."
It's all very convincing, except that Floyd fails to take into account rules 3 and 4,
In other words, what difference does a timeline make? If we say we're only retaliating, then we're only retaliating. It doesn't matter if the retaliation began before the action that supposedly triggered it. If we say we're simply taking defensive action, then we're simply taking defensive action. If we say we're protecting the children, then we're protecting the children. And that's the whole story.
James Marc Leas has deliberately crafted his timeline to cast doubt on these obvious facts. Therefore, he and his timeline are both anti-Semitic (rule 10). And Floyd's reference to Leas is not only anti-Semitic, but anti-American as well (rule 9). It's no better than Hitler, and beneath contempt.
As if this were not bad enough, Floyd also quotes Max Blumenthal and Jon Schwarz -- for very different reasons, but with eerily similar results. Bluemthal has compiled another timeline, this one concerning the murder in June of three Israeli teenagers. This timeline shows very clearly that we hid critical information, and that we lied -- to our own people and to the rest of the world -- about what we knew, when we knew it, what we were doing, and why we were doing it.
It's all very convincing, except that Blumenthal also fails to take into account rules 3 and 4.
In other words, what difference does a timeline make? If we say we think the boys are still alive, then we think they're still alive. It doesn't matter if we already know they're dead. If we say we know who kidnapped them, then we know who kidnapped them. If we say we are trying to rescue them, then we are trying to rescue them. And that's the whole story.
Max Blumenthal has deliberately crafted his timeline to cast doubt on these obvious facts. Therefore, he and his timeline are both anti-Semitic (rule 10). And Floyd's reference to Blumenthal is not only anti-Semitic, but anti-American as well (rule 9). It's no better than Hitler, and beneath contempt.
As for Jon Schwarz, he dug up a quote nearly fifty years old, in which we explained that Egypt's 1967 blockade of an Israeli port was an act of war, and that therefore Israel's military action against Egypt in response to the blockade was fully justified. Jon Schwarz and Chris Floyd both wonder, if a short-term Egyptian blockade of a single Israeli port was enough to justify a war, why does't a long-term Israeli blockade of all of Gaza justify any reaction whatsoever?
It goes without saying that there's a big difference between an Egyptian blockade of Israel and an Israeli blockade of Gaza. In the simplest terms: if we do it, it's Good (see rule 3). If they do it, it's Evil (see rule 6). I'm amazed that some otherwise intelligent people don't get this.
Max Blumenthal, Jon Schwarz, James Marc Leas, and Chris Floyd seem like very bright guys. I don't think they deliberately set out to put themselves on a level with Adolf Hitler. I think they did it inadvertently, simply because they don't understand certain things.
These writers share outdated concepts. They put credence in established facts. They rely on systematic logical reasoning. They believe the truth or falsehood of a statement can be determined without regard to the identity of the person who made it. And they believe that whether an action is Good or Evil can be determined without regard to the identity of the person who performed it. Because they have not yet abandoned these outdated ideas, they continue to say and write the most anti-American and anti-Semitic nonsense, which renders them no better than Hitler, beneath contempt, and unworthy of any serious response.
But I don't think it's deliberate. I don't think they strive to be no better than Hitler. I don't think they aspire to be beneath contempt. I just think nobody has ever taken the time and gone to the effort to explain certain things.
Until now.
--MORE--"
It is always nice to be part of a community, and I needed that guidance:
"Hamas rejects Israeli offer to extend cease-fire; After period of retrieving bodies, rockets resume" by Ben Hubbard | New York Times July 27, 2014
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — Hamas resumed rocket attacks on Israel late Saturday after rejecting Israel’s offer to extend a 12-hour humanitarian cease-fire by a day, casting more doubts on international efforts to end 19 days of fighting.
As Israel’s security Cabinet met to consider a UN request for the broader extension, sirens signaling incoming rockets sounded over central and southern cities. Eleven rockets were fired at Israel over the next three hours, four of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, officials said. Three mortar shells landed in open areas.
Related: Under Israel's Iron Dome
Pony up another $400,000, American taxpayers.
Despite extending the truce by 24 hours, Israeli officials said the military could respond to further attacks from Gaza, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier Saturday, families across the Gaza Strip emerged from shelters during the initial cease-fire to survey the damage to their neighborhoods, collect belongings, and help dig bodies from the rubble.
********************
Secretary of State John Kerry, meeting in Paris with Arab and European foreign ministers, pressed for an extension of the 12-hour humanitarian pause, repeating his argument that any temporary truce must be followed by an enduring solution that would address both the Palestinians’ desire to break free of the economic embargo of Gaza and the Israelis’ security needs.
Yeah, and he got drilled for it.
Chief among those needs are a halt to rocket fire by Palestinian militants on Israeli cities and towns and the destruction of an extensive tunnel network built by Hamas to sneak fighters into Israel and store weapons.
“I understand that Israel can’t have a cease-fire” in which “the tunnels are never going to be dealt with,” Kerry said. “The tunnels have to be dealt with.
“By the same token, the Palestinians can’t have a cease-fire in which they think the status quo is going to stay,” he said. “Palestinians need to live with dignity, with some freedom, with goods that can come in and out, and they need a life that is free from the current restraints.”
That must have hit a nerve.
Kerry met with diplomats from Turkey, Qatar, Germany, Britain, and Italy, along with a representative of the European Union.
He later met separately with Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, the Qatari foreign minister, and Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister. Qatar and Turkey support Hamas and have served as intermediaries with Khaled Meshal, the group’s political head, who resides in Doha.
The secretary of state had hoped that a succession of short truces might yield enough latitude to begin unwinding the conflict.
Palestinians in Gaza got a taste of what that might look like during the cease-fire on Saturday.
Here in Beit Hanoun, a hard-hit town in northern Gaza, Akram Qassim, 53, stared in disbelief at a huge smoking crater strewn with rubble and twisted metal from an Israeli airstrike, all that remained of the three-story house he had shared with his two brothers and their families.
*******************
Four houses clustered nearby had also been reduced to piles of rubble. “Are all these houses tunnels?” Qassim asked.
The truce also allowed Palestinians to dig bodies from the rubble.
Gruesome!
More than 100 were recovered from battle zones across Gaza on Saturday, including 21 members of one family, driving the total Palestinian death toll to more than 1,020.
Each one of those numbers is a unique individual soul lost forever, someone's son or daughter, mother or father.
Five more Israeli soldiers were also reported killed, bringing the Israeli death toll to 43, including three civilians.
Same there.
For Palestinians, the majority of the dead have been civilians. Palestinians see the war as a new case of Israeli aggression and believe that Israel has done little to protect civilians or their property from the devastation wrought by its airstrikes.
They are not the only ones seeing that.
But Hamas is known to place weapons and fighters in residential neighborhoods and other places where civilians gather, including mosques.
No casualties were reported from Saturday’s rocket attacks on Israel. Police in Tel Aviv dispersed a peace rally attended by several thousand people because of the threat of Hamas rockets, the Associated Press reported.
Oh, the ISRAELI PEOPLE WANT PEACE, too?!!
And all it gets is an AFTERTHOUGHT PARAGRAPH to conclude the story?
--more--"
"No accord to extend Mideast cease-fire; Israel says Hamas fails to honor its own pause" by Isabel Kershner and Ben Hubbard | New York Times July 28, 2014
You know why I'm not liking it.
JERUSALEM — Israel and Hamas went back and forth Sunday over proposals to continue a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, but the Israeli military said it was resuming its aerial, naval, and ground combat because of Hamas’s “incessant rocket fire throughout the humanitarian window.”
Hamas, the militant group that dominates Gaza, called for a new 24-hour pause Sunday, hours after Israel had declared the end to its own cease-fire following a barrage of rocket attacks into its territory. That daylong cease-fire, requested by the United Nations, was to have lasted until midnight Sunday.
In a subsequent vote at an emergency meeting early Monday, the UN Security Council called for an ‘‘immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire.’’
Some Israeli politicians, however, have begun talking about the possibility of escalating the offensive against Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, which entered its 20th day Sunday, as intense international efforts during the weekend to press for an immediate, broader cease-fire appeared to have failed.
Huge clouds of smoke could be seen from the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City that run close to the border with Israel, and fewer Palestinians were out on the streets Sunday than had been a day before.
A Hamas official in Gaza said it would observe a 24-hour cease-fire out of respect for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that ends Ramadan. But Sunday afternoon, sirens wailed in Israeli communities close to the border, warning of incoming rocket or mortar shells from Gaza.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ that “Hamas doesn’t even accept its own cease-fire. It’s continuing to fire at us as we speak.”
Well, someone is.
Hamas wants to break the seven-year blockade of Gaza and believes the only way to force serious negotiations on ending the closure is to keep fighting.
They would not feel that way if the world powers would step in and stop Israel.
Israel wants more time to destroy Hamas’s rocket arsenal and military tunnels and to inflict enough pain to deter the Islamic militant group from launching rocket attacks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry spent several days in the region last week to seek agreement on an immediate weeklong truce during which talks on a new Gaza border deal would begin, but Israel’s Cabinet rejected the idea, in part because it would have meant calling off tunnel demolitions.
You have my sympathy, Mr. Secretary.
In a phone call Sunday, President Obama told Netanyahu the United States is growing more concerned about the rising Palestinian death toll and the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The conditions didn't worry them much before.
The White House said Obama reiterated that Israel has a right to defend itself and condemned Hamas rocket attacks that have killed Israelis, but pushed for an immediate cease-fire.
Yeah, I've heard that before.
The 20-day war has killed more than 1,030 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and wounded about 6,000, the Associated Press reported, citing the Palestinian health ministry. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed in the Gaza Strip.
The wounded is staggering!
The ministry said that at least 10 people were killed by Israeli fire Sunday and that three more died from wounds they had sustained. Around the time that Israel called off its truce in the morning, two Palestinians believed to be militants were killed in a strike as they rode on motorbikes east of Khan Younis.
Believed to be?
An Israeli reserve soldier was killed overnight by mortar fire from Gaza as he waited in a staging area along Israel’s border, according to the military, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed to 43 since the campaign began on July 8. Three civilians in Israel have also been killed by rocket and mortar fire.
An Israeli airstrike killed one person in Gaza when it hit a vehicle carrying municipal workers on their way to fix water pipes, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Police said Israeli tanks fired shells on densely populated areas south of Gaza City. One shell hit an apartment building and several shells struck a building. Navy boats also resumed firing on Gaza’s coast, police said. The Israeli military said it hit some 40 sites throughout Sunday.
In southern Israel, one person was injured and a house was damaged by a rocket launched from Gaza, Israeli police said. The Israeli military said more than 50 rockets were fired Sunday.
Also Sunday, the Israeli military acknowledged firing a mortar shell that hit the courtyard of a UN school in Gaza last week but said the yard was empty at the time and the shell could not have killed anyone, the AP reported.
They are incorrigible.
Palestinian officials have said three Israeli tank shells hit the school in Beit Hanoun on Thursday, killing 16 and wounding scores. The school served as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the fighting.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said Sunday a military investigation determined that ‘‘a single errant mortar landed’’ but that it was ‘‘extremely unlikely that anybody was killed as a result of this mortar.’’
Sorry, but an NBC reporter that witnessed it said it was Israel.
More than 160,000 displaced Palestinians have sought shelter at dozens of UN schools, an eight-fold increase since the start of Israel’s ground operation more than a week ago, the United Nations said. Hamas and other militants in Gaza have fired more than 2,400 rockets at Israel, many toward major cities.
Israel says go to the shelters, then shells them!
Israeli airstrikes have destroyed hundreds of homes, including close to 500 in direct hits, according to Palestinian rights groups.
Lerner repeated Sunday that Israel would “continue to operate against the tunnels” and said that the pause in militant rocket fire on Saturday had proved that Hamas was able to control fighters in Gaza.
Atai Shelach, a former commander of the combat engineering unit in the Israeli military, told reporters in a telephone briefing that the only way to deal with the problem of the tunnels was to have soldiers in Gaza. He said Israel had discovered up to 40 tunnels and scores of access points and had destroyed several of them.
“We are in the middle of the operation,” he said, adding, “We won’t find all of them, and once we go out, they will start digging again.”
While Hamas said it was responding to the United Nations and was taking the needs of Gaza’s residents into consideration in seeking a new cease-fire, Netanyahu was facing political pressure from partners in his governing coalition and from some ministers within his own party not to take the pressure off Hamas.
Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, issued a statement on his Facebook page on Sunday morning saying: “Israel stands at a historic decisive moment. It is possible to defeat Hamas decisively and to dismantle its rockets and tunnels.”
So does the world.
He contended that Israel was winning the conflict and that with the Israeli public united in support of the operation, this was no time for a cease-fire that would allow Hamas to regroup. Addressing Hamas, he added: “No cease-fires, no lulls, no discussions. You have our phone number. When you are ready to demilitarize, call us.”
Never mind that last-paragraph protest reported above.
Shaul Mofaz, a centrist member of the Israeli Parliament and a former defense minister, told Ynet, a leading Hebrew news site, on Sunday that Israel had enough troops inside Gaza and stationed along the border to take the ground operation to “the next stage.”
--more--"
"Israeli leader signals prolonged campaign in Gaza" by Isabel Kershner and Ben Hubbard | New York Times July 29, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister Monday signaled there would be no quick end to the three-week-old Gaza war, telling Israelis that they must prepare themselves for a prolonged conflict in order to crush what he described as the double threat of rockets and “death tunnels” into Israel dug by Hamas and its associates.
Related:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
No wonder I'm so sick of the $hit-shovel.
The televised speech by Benjamin Netanyahu came after an informal lull by both sides in deference to a Muslim holiday was shattered by new fighting.
Explosions hit a children’s play area in a Palestinian refugee camp near Gaza City and killed at least 10, explosions struck Gaza’s main hospital compound, and a mortar attack killed up to four Israelis on that country’s side of the border.
Israel also said Gaza gunmen attempted to infiltrate its territory through one of the military tunnels. The attackers fired at soldiers and several of the gunmen were killed, the military said. Israeli forces say they have located 31 tunnels, are aware of the existence of 10 more, and have demolished close to 20.
There was no indication Monday that either Israel or Hamas, the main militant group in Gaza, were prepared to embrace growing calls for an immediate halt to the conflict.
“Israeli citizens cannot live with the threat from rockets and from death tunnels — death from above and from below,” Netanyahu said in his remarks.
(Cue somber and morose violin music)
He said Israelis would not “end this operation without neutralizing the tunnels, whose sole purpose is killing our citizens.”
At least 1,072 Palestinians have been killed and 6,450 wounded since July 8, the vast majority civilians, the Associated Press reported, citing Hamas health officials.
The Israeli military says 52 soldiers have been killed, including four killed Monday in the mortar attack on southern Israel.
Two Israeli civilians and a Thai citizen working in Israel also have been killed.
About a 20-to-1 ratio, huh?
Efforts by the UN Security Council and US Secretary of State John Kerry to achieve even a temporary halt in the fighting have proved ineffective so far.
He got savaged by Israel yesterday.
Netanyahu did not announce an immediate broadening of the ground invasion in Gaza or any change in Israel’s stated goals of destroying Hamas’s rocket and tunnel infrastructure. But he suggested that the military campaign required “perseverance and determination” and said that the demilitarization of Gaza had to be “part of any solution, and the international community must demand that.”
Why don't you disarm instead?
His defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, spoke of a campaign that could last “more long days.”
“If the terrorist organizations in Gaza think they can break Israel and its citizens,” Yaalon said, “they will come to understand in the next few days that this is not the case.”
That is ominous.
Israel and Hamas accused each other of responsibility for the explosions at the Shati refugee camp and Shifa Hospital. Hamas and its affiliates said Israeli aerial attacks were responsible.
The Israelis said errant Palestinian rockets that had been aimed at Israel but misfired were the cause.
If that is true, it destroys the Israeli claim of a threat. Rockets can't even get out of their own territory?
The missile or rocket explosion hit an outside wall of the hospital compound, about 200 yards from the main entrance, and caused damage but no casualties.
Plainclothes security officers barred reporters from entering the compound to get close to where the rocket or missile fell.
In the explosion at the Shati refugee camp on the western edge of Gaza City, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that at least 10 children were killed as they played in a park.
The Palestinian agency attributed the explosions to Israeli missiles. Gaza’s Health Ministry, offering a slightly different account, said the dead included at least eight children and two adults.
But Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, denied that Israel had carried out any attacks at Shati or near the main Gaza City hospital, Shifa, saying those blasts “have absolutely nothing to do with us.”
The Israeli military said the explosions had been caused by rockets initially aimed at Israel by militants that had gone astray.
Hamas fired barrages of rockets deep into Israel, setting off sirens as far north as the Haifa area.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had warned Palestinian civilians in several areas of the eastern and northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes “immediately,” through phone calls and text messages, signaling further escalation.
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"At least 100 killed Tuesday in Gaza, official says" by Karin Laub and Peter Enav | Associated Press July 29, 2014
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A Palestinian health official says at least 100 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza on Tuesday.
The high death toll comes as Israel has escalated its military offensive in the coastal strip.
Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the toll counts those killed from midnight on Monday.
Since the start of Israeli ground operations in the Gaza Strip, there have been several instances when the daily Palestinian death toll surpassed 100.
Israel has escalated its military campaign against Hamas, striking symbols of the group’s control in Gaza and firing tank shells that shut down the strip’s only power plant in the heaviest bombardment in the fighting so far.
Flares turned the sky over Gaza City orange overnight and by daybreak, as the conflict entered its fourth week, heavy clouds of dust hovered over the territory. A thick column of black smoke rose from a burning fuel tank at the power plant.
Gaza is on fire.
The pounding came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned of a ‘‘prolonged’’ campaign against Hamas. It was not clear if this meant Israel has decided to go beyond the initial objectives of decimating Hamas’ ability to fire rockets and demolishing the group’s military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border.
Already, the intensity and the scope of the current Gaza operation is on par with an invasion five years ago, which ended with a unilateral Israeli withdrawal after hitting Hamas hard.
See: Memory Hole: Cast Lead II
In Tuesday’s strikes, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of attacks, leveling the home of the top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, and damaging the offices of the movement’s Al-Aqsa satellite TV station, a central mosque in Gaza City and government offices.
Oh, Israel also ATTACKED the MEDIA, huh?
Where's the outrage?
Haniyeh, whose house was turned into a mountain of rubble by a pre-dawn airstrike, said in a statement Tuesday that ‘‘destroying stones will not break our determination.’’
No one was hurt in Haniyeh’s home. Since the start of the war, Israel has targeted several homes of Hamas leaders but none was killed presumably as they appear to have gone into hiding.
Gaza’s power plant was forced to shut down after two tank shells hit one of three fuel tanks, said Jamal Dardasawi, a spokesman for Gaza’s electricity distribution company. The shelling sparked a large fire and a huge column of smoke was seen rising from the site. Dardasawi said 15 workers were trapped inside by the fire and that the damage would take months to repair. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Even before the shutdown, Gaza residents only had electricity for about three hours a day because fighting had damaged power lines.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, did not comment on the explosion at the plant, but told The Associated Press that Israel’s latest strikes signal ‘‘a gradual increase in the pressure’’ on Hamas.
‘‘Israel is ‘‘determined to strike this organization and relieve us of this threat,’’ Lerner said.
International calls for an unconditional cease-fire have been mounting in recent days, as the extent of the destruction in Gaza became more apparent.
More than 1,110 Palestinians have been killed and more than 6,500 wounded since July 8, according to Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health official. The U.N. has estimated that 75 percent of those killed are civilians.
At least 26 Palestinians were killed early Tuesday in the airstrikes and tank shelling on four homes, according to the Red Crescent.
The house of the mayor of the Bureij in central Gaza was hit in an airstrike, and five bodies were pulled from the rubble, the Red Crescent said. Those killed included the mayor, 50-year-old Anas Abu Shamaleh, his 70-year-old father and three relatives.
In the southern town of Rafah, seven members of one family were killed in an airstrike and seven members of a second family were killed when tank shells hit their home, according to the Rafah office of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which keeps a casualty count.
In central Gaza, seven people, including five members of one family, where killed by tank shelling on a home, the Red Crescent said.
Israel has lost 53 soldiers, along with two civilians and a Thai worker.
After reading what I just read, who gives a f*** anymore? Sorry.
Tens of thousands of Gazans have been displaced by fighting in the border areas, which have come under heavy tank fire. Late Monday, Israel urged residents of three large neighborhoods in northeastern Gaza to leave their homes and immediate head to Gaza City.
Despite appeals for a cease-fire, both sides have been holding out for bigger gains.
Hamas has said it will not stop fighting until it wins international guarantees that a crippling border blockade of Gaza will be lifted. Israel and Egypt had imposed the closure after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, defeating forces loyal to their political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Actually, they won elections and the jew$media knows it.
So what else are they distorting or lying about?
Over the past year, Egypt has further tightened restrictions, shutting down hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border that had provide crucial tax income to Hamas. The closure of the tunnels drove Hamas into a severe financial crisis.
Sissi an Israeli servant.
Israel has said it is defending its citizens against attack from Gaza by hitting Hamas rocket launchers, weapons storage sites and military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border.
Israel said its troops will not leave Gaza until they have demolished the tunnels which have been used by Hamas to sneak into Israel to try to carry out attacks. On Monday, Gaza militants infiltrated through one of the tunnels and killed five soldiers in a firefight. One of the assailants was also killed. Separately, four Israeli soldiers were killed by mortar shells from Gaza that hit southern Israel.
Israel media have said the army has destroyed close to 20 of 31 identified tunnels, but that 10 more tunnels are believed to be in areas of Gaza still outside Israeli control.
After the deaths of the soldiers, Netanyahu signaled that Israel is intensifying its air- and ground campaign. ‘‘We will continue to act aggressively and responsibly until the mission is completed to protect our citizens, soldiers and children.’’
Overnight, Israel carried out about 70 airstrikes, the military said.
Haniyeh’s house, located in a narrow alley of the Shati refugee camp, was reduced to rubble. Residents placed a large framed portrait of Haniyeh atop the rubble, and draped Hamas flags and Palestinian national banners over the debris.
Neighbor Imhane Abu Ghaliyeh, 60, who lives 50 meters (yards) from Haniyeh’s home, said area residents fled after apparent warning missiles were fired.
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"For Israeli Arabs, torn loyalties amid fear" by Aron Heller | Associated Press July 28, 2014
TIRA, Israel — Facing the threat of rocket fire along with the rest of Israel, residents in this central Israeli Arab town have found themselves caught in the middle between Jewish neighbors and their fellow Palestinians who are dying in growing numbers in the Gaza Strip.
The people of Tira, a town of some 25,000 people known for their warm relations with nearby Jewish communities, have Jewish friends, speak Hebrew fluently, and are largely integrated into Israeli society. But with relatives in Gaza and the West Bank, they also empathize with the Palestinians.
That internal strain becomes especially hard during times of violence, and tensions have risen since the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants began on July 8.
‘‘The Jews look at us like Arabs and the Arabs look at us like Jews,’’ said Ahmad Nasser, 21. ‘‘We are in the middle.’’
The markets in Tira are usually packed on the weekend with Israeli shoppers. But business has slowed to a trickle in the weeks since the conflict began, perhaps because Israeli-Arab relations have soured or simply because no one feels like going out in such times, said Mohammed Abdulchai, 52. He said the war has been bad for business, with the fear of rockets shared by everyone.
‘‘The rocket doesn’t know if you are a Jew or an Arab,’’ he said.
Arab towns are as vulnerable as those of Jews, perhaps even more so because they have less means of protection. Of the three civilians killed by rocket fire since the war began, one has been a Jew, one has been an Arab, and one has been a Thai worker.
Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s 8 million residents and, unlike their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold citizenship rights. But they often complain of being treated as second-class citizens. Most don’t serve in the military, which is mandatory for Jews, and many Jews consider them disloyal for sympathizing with the country’s enemies.
The fighting in Gaza has brought the tensions out in the open. Israelis have been outraged by some Israeli Arabs staging pro-Palestinian protests in which they have thrown rocks and blocked streets. Arabs say they have encountered increasing racism and violence from hawkish Israelis as well as calls for Arab businesses to be boycotted and for those who have posted support for Gaza on Facebook to be fired.
Jewish supremacism isn't racism.
More than 1,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded over the past 19 days in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.
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Not much to celebrate this year:
"Muslims mark end of Ramadan with Eid celebrations" by Aya Batrawy | Associated Press July 29, 2014
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Millions of Muslims across the world celebrated the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday Monday, which marks the end of the monthlong fast of Ramadan.
The three-day-long holiday is a time to celebrate the completion of Ramadan, a month devoted to worship and repentance during which observing Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset every day.
But the mood was dark for millions affected by the Syrian civil war, the Gaza war, and the militant advance in Iraq. Many were just trying to survive to observe the holiday.
Beyond the Middle East, the few remaining Muslims in the Central African Republic’s capital city ventured out to a mosque under the watchful guard of armed peacekeepers.
Others such as Aminata Bary stayed at home, too fearful to venture out for fear of attack from Christian militias who drove thousands of Muslims from the capital this year.
In the Philippines, an insurgent group attacked people traveling to celebrate with their families, killing 21, including at least six children, in the bloodiest incident by the gunmen in recent years.
In Gaza City, streets were largely deserted, as residents huddled indoors for safety. At least 1,072 Palestinians have been killed and 6,450 wounded in the last three weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas, according to Hamas health officials. Tens of thousands have been displaced.
The mood was equally subdued for the more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. ‘‘Eid has no flavor here at all,’’ said Umm Ammar, who fled her country three years ago with her family and now lives in an encampment in Lebanon.
Muslims in Indonesia, parts of Africa, Europe, and the United States marked Eid on Monday. Millions in Morocco, India, and most of Pakistan are still fasting and will likely celebrate Tuesday.
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Also see: Breaking the Ramadan Fast
Let's end it where we began:
"Millions displaced by religious violence in 2013, Kerry says" Associated Press July 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — Millions of people were forced from their homes because of their religious beliefs last year, the US government said Monday, citing the effects of conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and the Central African Republic.
Secretary of State John Kerry called the displacement of families and damaging of communities from sectarian violence a troubling trend in the world, as he launched the State Department 2013 report on religious freedom.
The report, which is released annually, said that in much of the Middle East, the Christian presence is becoming ‘‘a shadow of its former self.’’ Hundreds of thousands of minority Christians have fled Syria after three years of civil war.
You can thank George W. Bush for it.
It also highlighted more than one million people displaced in the Central African Republic during 2013, amid an upsurge in Christian-Muslim violence.
In Southeast Asia, anti-Muslim violence spread from Myanmar’s volatile west to central Meikhtila, with up to 100 deaths and 12,000 displaced.
Kerry further cited the ‘‘savagery and incredible brutality’’ by the Al Qaeda-inspired militant group active in Iraq and Syria, known as the Islamic State, saying it had slaughtered Shi’ite Muslims and forcibly converted Christians under threat of death.
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I'll be praying for you, John.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Israel steps up air attacks amid new cease-fire bid" by Isabel Kershner and Fares Akram | New York Times July 30, 2014
JERUSALEM — As Israel intensified its aerial assaults on Tuesday against symbols of Hamas rule in Gaza and other targets, new efforts were underway to forge a cease-fire, though they were mired in confusion and mixed signals after 22 days of fighting.
The renewed diplomatic push came after what Palestinians said was a devastating hit on the only electricity plant in the Gaza Strip, which set off a huge fire and threatened to create a major humanitarian crisis, with the Palestinian enclave lacking the means to operate the water and sewage systems and hospitals.
I called it a genocide, and that is exactly what this is. No denying it, and it is there for all the world to see. History has made iota judgement.
After increasingly urgent international calls for a halt in the hostilities, the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main Palestinian factions fighting in Gaza, were ready for an immediate 24-hour truce, and that a Palestinian delegation was planning to head to Cairo for broader cease-fire talks.
In a statement from the West Bank city of Ramallah, the leadership said that it had held intensive consultations with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and that a request by the United Nations to extend the truce to 72 hours was being considered favorably.
But Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, immediately responded in a text message that the announcement of a unilateral 24-hour truce was “incorrect and has nothing to do with the positions of the resistance.”
He added: “When we have an Israeli commitment with an international obligation of a humanitarian cease-fire, we will study it. But declaring a unilateral truce while the occupation kills our children, this will never happen.”
Later on Tuesday, Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing who lives in hiding, said there would be no cease-fire until Israel stopped its attacks and the blockade on Gaza was lifted.
“We will not accept any middle-ground solutions at the expense of the resistance and our people’s freedom,” he said in a two-minute audio recording on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa television station, which resumed broadcasting a few hours after Israeli airstrikes on its headquarters in Gaza City early Tuesday.
If this war-criminal assault will not lead the "world community" to break the siege of Gaza like they broke the siege of Berlin then there is no more use for the NATO powers.
The Israeli leadership did not publicly respond to Abbas’s initiative.
A military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, said Israeli forces were continuing operations in Gaza “to deal with the tunnels, to address the rockets, and to strike at Hamas’s infrastructure.” But he said he had “no confirmation” that the military had struck the power plant and said that in any case the plant “was not a target.”
Oh, well, then that lame-ass excuse and prevarication means Israel didn't do it. Glad they cleared that up.
Militants from Gaza fired rockets toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, and the Gaza Health Ministry reported that 13 people had been killed in Israeli shelling of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its offensive on July 8, most of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have been killed since the army sent ground forces in on July 17, and three civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.
A senior Palestinian official with knowledge of the latest cease-fire contacts said that internal Palestinian talks were continuing. Speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate diplomacy, he said that Khaled Meshal, the exiled Hamas political leader who is based in Qatar, had agreed to a truce, but that there seemed to be disagreement or problems of coordination with some Hamas officials in Gaza.
The Palestinian official added that the strike on the power plant might be an additional factor pushing the sides toward a cease-fire, to avert a crisis. The plant had been Gaza’s main source of electricity in recent days, after eight of 10 lines that run from Israel were damaged.
The Palestinian announcement seemed to be part of a larger effort involving Egypt, an important participant in any cease-fire deal for both Israel and Abbas. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Abbas had initiated a proposal to bring representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad to Cairo for another round of cease-fire talks, which Egypt supports.
Regarding the talks, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, said: “On principle, we have no objection and accept. A delegation will be formed, and we might leave for Cairo soon.”
Israel favors Egypt as a broker, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described Egypt’s original proposal for a cease-fire, which Israel accepted and Hamas rejected, as “the only game in town.”
All the more reason not to trust them.
Who can we trust?
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry signaled Tuesday that the Obama administration had not abandoned its hope of arranging a cease-fire.
Oh, him again.
Kerry emphasized that Netanyahu had told him on Monday that he might accept a truce if it would allow Israeli forces to continue to operate against Hamas’ tunnels, some of which run under the border into Israeli territory and have been used for attacks.
“Last night we talked, and the prime minister talked to me about an idea and a possibility of a cease-fire — he raised it with me, as he has consistently,” Kerry said at a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin.
All chummy again, huh?
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I watched Al-Jazeera for a half-hour before I began posting today and saw Israel shelled another UN school, this time in the Jabaliya refugee camp at 4:30 in the morning -- after the UN had given the coordinates and Israel had told people to go there. The on-the-scene report moved me to tears.
I don't care what the mouthpiece organ of Jewish supremacism known as AmeriKan ma$$ media says, what I saw in that small report was Israeli barbarity.
UPDATE: UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness breaks down live on TV after Israeli massacre of children in Gaza school
