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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: dfwgator

So you’re saying that since laws don’t stop murder or assaults or rapes, then they are useless. Now, that would be a laugh ... LOL ...

What these laws do is provide CONSEQUENCES if they are done. People involved in an operation are arrested, companies are shut down, money and arms routes are closed off. Those are consequences.

The thing here, though, the US Government is not doing that with Hamas in a Gaza.

As I said earlier to another “confused person” ...

— — —

Sorry, as I pointed out earlier, the USA does not give money or any arms to Hamas in Gaza. There is nothing showing that at all.

The problem you have is mixing up Hamas, the terrorist organization, with the Palestinian civilians who live in a 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.

The government of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said their fight is not with Palestinian civilians, but with Hamas, the terrorist organization.


61 posted on 07/23/2014 7:44:52 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

Those Palestinian “Civilians” Voted for and support Hamas.


62 posted on 07/23/2014 7:46:12 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Piranha

We’re not talking about “plausible deniability” ... but that it is simply not being done ... that the USA is sending either arms or money to Hamas in a Gaza.

I keep hearing from some people mentioning humanitarian aid, but as I said before, even Israel knows the difference between humanitarian aid -versus- arms and money going to Hamas.

Israel lets through all humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, but they don’t let through anything to Hamas in the way of arms or munitions.

The USA even STOPS money from being transferred to Hamas from OTHER COUNTRIES ...

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.


63 posted on 07/23/2014 7:53:00 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: dfwgator

About a little over half the voters in the USA voted for Obama but no one has put all those voters in jail yet ... LOL ...

And note, no one has said that they can’t have a job, that they can’t get any Social Security retirement, that they can’t be allowed to have Medicare, that they are not allowed to drive or — to sum it up — that because they voted for the worst guy ever to be a President of the USA — that they are to be deprived of anything (for that vote) as a civilian in the USA.


64 posted on 07/23/2014 7:58:00 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

People voting for Hamas knew exactly what they were.


65 posted on 07/23/2014 7:58:53 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Star Traveler

You can deny it as much as you want, but it is a fact that the US is a major sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood and has diverted hundreds of millions of dollars to the Hamas terrorist organization, which is an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood.


66 posted on 07/23/2014 8:00:25 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: Sherman Logan

You are misunderstanding what I said.

The Bible says that no man knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man is coming. Read the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 24:42-44. Believers are to be ready and be faithful. Believers are also to be studying His Word, the Bible.

God has given us many details. The last 7 years in particular have details that are given in the prophets and in the N.T.

I don’t know what you’re “not buying.”

Before the 7 years there is a period described as “the beginning of birth pangs,” described in Matthew by Jesus, Matthew 24:5-8. You might read it and recognize that you are living in those times.

His coming seems very near.

He has given us some details to recognize that are in His Word and told us to be diligent to show ourselves approved to God as workman who do not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of God. 2 Timothy 2:15

We don’t have to depend on “Bible scholars,” many of whom are false teachers and money lovers.

Every true believer in Jesus Christ has a resident Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to guide him in his study of God’s Word. The best way to study IMO is inductively. There are some good inductive Bible studies available today.

God wants us to know these events and He gave them in a progressive order. Sometimes they are understood by repeated “digging” for the treasures.


67 posted on 07/23/2014 8:06:58 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: NorthMountain

The way Isralis deal with it is to grieve over just one! (not to say anything about 30).

As the article points out ... this is how they think about it, as a very small country where their callup of 74,000 would be the equivalent to the USA calling up over TWO MILLION FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND SOLDIERS in just a few weeks!

Quoting ...

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.


68 posted on 07/23/2014 8:08:42 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: Piranha

I deny that the USA has provided arms and/or money to Hamas in Gaza because no one has shown that to be true or documented.

Others who are saying that is so — are simply “talking through their hat” and letting their “wishing it to be true” — turn into statements of fact which only exist in their own imaginations.


69 posted on 07/23/2014 8:12:42 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: dfwgator

I would say that those voting for Obama likewise knew ... but even so ... they are still not having any rights for being a civilian in this society removed from them.


70 posted on 07/23/2014 8:15:17 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’d be surprised at how many so-called “conservatives” fell for Obama’s schtick.


71 posted on 07/23/2014 8:16:39 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: huldah1776

I guess you’re going to be offline from Free Republic the rest of the day ... :-) ...


72 posted on 07/23/2014 8:17:44 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: dfwgator

Well ... I can guarantee you I didn’t in either election ... :-) ...

However my vote didn’t seem to have much of an effect.


73 posted on 07/23/2014 8:22:09 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

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130215#.U8_Sx-NdWAg

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/06/16/Naftali-Frankel-kidnapped

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/israel-deeply-disappointed-us-will-fund-palestinian-hamas-unity-govt

http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-should-americans-fund-hamas-1401913021

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/05/05/us-aid-indirectly-helps-hamas-under-deal-with-palestinian-authority/

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/07/20/unrwa-gives-rockets-to-hamas-why-is-u-s-still-funding-it/

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/12/palestinian-authority-designed-new-hamas-backed-govt-around-loopholes-to-keep-u-s-foreign-aid-coming-rep-says/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/1/may-salaries-for-terrorists/?page=all

Don’t make me keep doing your work for you. As long as you continue to spout lies, some of us are going to have to publicize the truth.


74 posted on 07/23/2014 8:28:48 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: dfwgator

You’d be surprised at how many FReepers accept Star Traveler as a conservative.


75 posted on 07/23/2014 8:29:34 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: Sherman Logan
Which means crushing Hamas can only be done by separating it from the other inhabitants. Which cannot be done as long as the people of Gaza are willing to provide a sea in which Hamas can swim. There is, of course, zero evidence of any rejection by Gazans of Hamas similar to the Sunni Uprising that rejected and expelled al Quaeda in Iraq a few years back.

If the people of Gaza are "willing to provide a sea in which Hamas can swim", then the people of Gaza ARE Hamas. We are currently distinguishing between Hamas' fighting branch and support branch, with the "civilian" support branch being considered an illegal target.

That's not how we fought WW2, the last war we actually won. Then, the entire population of the enemy side was considered "fair game". We bombed the cities of Germany and Japan, knowingly killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. And that's what finally broke them.

The war will not end until the wives and daughters of the enemy beg their men to make it stop.

76 posted on 07/23/2014 8:30:23 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Star Traveler

Yes, that is so, but not so with aid coming from the US; surely you can see that Hamas will control it through intimidation and murder and infiltration.


77 posted on 07/23/2014 8:30:51 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: huldah1776

Wow, neat.


78 posted on 07/23/2014 8:31:44 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: TurkeyLurkey

The USA doesn’t fly it in (Israel shut down the air space), and the USA doesn’t ship it to a Gaza port (Israel shut down the Gaza ports for shipping), and that leaves only “over land” - and Israel controls that. There’s nowhere else for it to go except through Israeli hands.

Egypt does control the Gaza-Egypt border, but they’ve shit that down, and I’ve never heard any reports of the USA shipping anything through Egypt, to Gaza.


79 posted on 07/23/2014 8:49:21 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

Yes, there have been reports of things coming into Gaza from Egypt, but not US “humanitarian aid,” mostly terrorists and weapons.


80 posted on 07/23/2014 8:53:34 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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