WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Posted on 05/30/2005 8:03:35 AM PDT by Alouette
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Violence flared in Gaza with an Israeli airstrike on Palestinian rocket launchers just hours after Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 400 prisoners as a gesture to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The Israeli airstrike early Monday was a rare attack since a February truce. The Israeli military said the air force targeted rocket launchers just before an attack was to be launched from northern Gaza, and two launchers were destroyed.
Hospital officials said a man and two women, apparently bystanders, were wounded by shrapnel. Palestinians said unmanned aircraft fired the missiles, but the military would not comment on that.
The violent Islamic Jihad said one of its cells, which minutes earlier fired three rockets at an Israeli village just outside Gaza, was the target of the airstrike.
An Israeli missile strike during a flare-up of mortar and rocket fire 10 days ago in southern Gaza seemed to spur the militants on to more violence, the longest sustained fighting since the truce, which is aimed at stopping a four-year conflict.
In two other incidents Sunday, three Palestinian militants were killed when their weapons exploded. One died as he was trying to fire a grenade at Israelis in southern Gaza, the military and Palestinians said.
Two other militants were killed and three seriously wounded when explosives they were carrying blew up, Palestinians said. Residents said they belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Abbas' Fatah Party.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the Cabinet decision to free 400 prisoners was "part of Israel's effort to help Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the moderate Palestinian forces."
Previously Israel had said the Palestinian Authority must disarm militants and halt all violence before Israel continues steps agreed to under the Feb. 8 truce.
The truce emerged from Sharon's summit with Abbas in Egypt. The package included an end to violence, handover of five West Bank towns to Palestinian control and release of 900 prisoners.
Israel freed 500 prisoners and turned over two towns but stopped the process at that point, charging that the Palestinians had failed to carry out their pledge to disarm the militants in the towns under their control. Also, Israel complained, Palestinian militants still attempt many attacks that are foiled by Israeli security.
Though he approved freeing 400 prisoners as a gesture, Sharon told his Cabinet that Israel has "very grave complaints" about Abbas' performance in reining in militants, according to a statement from Sharon's office.
Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti said the prisoner release could take place as early as Thursday, after the names of the prisoners are published and opponents have a chance to object.
Palestinians criticized the decision, saying Israel broke its agreement to consult them on which prisoners to release.
The Palestinians demanded the release of 360 prisoners who have been in jail for more than a decade, but Israel refused to free prisoners involved in violence, said Issa Karake, a member of a Palestinian committee that was to have negotiated the release with Israel.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli custody, many rounded up by troops during more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
In ABC TV interview broadcast Sunday, Abbas said he has succeeded in countering the "culture of violence" among his people, and there would be no more suicide bombings. But he warned that if progress toward a peace agreement is not achieved in meetings with Sharon next month, "despair and loss of hope will come back and a (bring) return to the old ideas" of armed resistance.
Israelis, meanwhile, charge that violent Palestinian groups are merely using the cease-fire to replenish their stocks of weapons and explosives.
It's always the Israelis who "break the truce."
The violent Islamic Jihad said one of its cells, which minutes earlier fired three rockets at an Israeli village just outside Gaza, was the target of the airstrike.
Notice how this is not considered "breaking the truce."
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
• The elections are held in Iraq
• Sunni clerics denounce elections
• Voters are killed on election day in Terror attacks
• But election results are announced
• Sunni turnout is less than 20%
• Sunni clerics reject results
• Shia dominated govt is formed
• Sunnis call for US troops to leave
• New Shia dominated govt calls for phased pullout of US forces
• US forces begin a phased pullout
• They re-locate outside the cities in isolated fortified camps
• Terrorists blow off Iraqi parliament, Presidential palace Prime Minister’s residence
• Terrorists assassinate Ministers, Parliamentarians
• A full scale civil war starts between the Sunni dominated insurgents and the new Shia and Kurd Iraqi military
• Iran sends in insurgents to back Shias
• Saudis, Syrians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Palestinians send in insurgents to back Sunnis
• Saudis and Kuwaitis call for US action to stop Iran from intensifying the Iraqi civil war
• US seizes the opportunity and bombs Iranian nuke facilities
• Iran tries to crash missiles into Israel and Europe
• Internal rebellion breaks out in Iran
• US special forces start operating inside Iran to topple Mullah regime
• Iranian/Hezbollah forces stage terrorist attacks in Israel and in the West
• US launches an air blitz of Iran followed by a land invasion and sets up a new regime
• The Shah of Iran returns to Iran as a private citizen
• Shia-Hezbollah led terror attacks across the West and Israel intensify
• Israel invades Lebanon to wipe out the Hezbollah threat
• Egypt/Syria threaten Israel with serious consequences.
• Terrorist attacks originating from Gaza intensify in Israel
• Israel warns Syria with military action
• Spectacular mega terror attack in Israel
• Israel declares Syria to be culpable and launches a swift land and air assault on Syria
• Syria appeals for Arab military action to save itself
• Egypt, Jordan and Saudis start military action against Israel
• Israel overruns Jordan to join up with US forces stationed in Iraq
• Israel occupies Damascus
• US forces enter Syria from Syrian-Iraqi border in the North, join up with Israeli military
• After the conquest of Syria, Israel turns on Egypt, annexes Sinai, crosses Suez Canal and threatens Cairo
• Mecca, Medina, Mena, Jiddah taken off the map thru IAF (Israel Air Force) nuke strikes
• Upheaval in the entire Arab world
• Western diplomats and businessmen attacked, kidnapped, beheaded
• Anti-American riots in Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia.
• Musharraf and Yudhyono regimes under tremendous pressure to give up pro-US stance
• Musharraf assassinated by pro-Jihadi elements in Army due to his association with the US. The Jihadis last straw being his helping the Americans in finding Iran's nuke sites as a trade off for letting AQ Khan off the hook. But Mushy's gamble does not pay off, as he loses his job and life.
• Jihadi regime in Pakistan ups hostility with India
• Jihadis succeed in smuggling nuclear devices in the US and exploding them simultaneously
• US army takes over US administration, suspends constitution
• US military regime blockades the UN and declares it persona non-grata
• US enters into emergency war council with Russia and Britain
• The triple alliance starts nuclear bombing military targets across the Islamic world
• Pakistani nukes taken out in first strike
• Pakistan explodes some nuke devices on India
• Indian retaliation wipes off Pakistan off the map – death toll in South Asia is over half a billion
• Widespread Hindu-Muslim riots in India on the lines of the Gujarat riots of 2002. Muslim population decimated, Hindus and Christians also suffer heavy death toll.
• Nuclear campaign launched by the triple alliance intensifies as many cities in the Islamic world are taken off the map to wipe off the air forces.
• Seaports in the Islamic world crippled to decapitate the navies
• Radiation causes second wave of deaths. The toll in secondary deaths more than three billion
• More than half of the fatalities are Muslims.
• Almost the entire population in the Muslim world is decimated.
• China joins war against Islam, wipes off Muslim (Ughir) population in Eastern Turkestan
• Muslims in Europe launch a wave of terror attacks in European capitals
• Conditions in Europe very disturbed in a civil war like situation
• Right wing coups in France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark. The new regimes join the triple alliance
• Widespread anti-Muslim riots in Europe aided by the militaries of those countries and NATO forces
• Domestic military action against Muslims in Europe intensifies as European militaries do combing operations to flush out Muslims
• The post-war Muslim population worldwide now accounts for only one percent of the global population concentrated mostly in Europe
• Military action ends, US, Britain and Russia announce reconstruction plan for the world
• Islam outlawed across the globe
• Residual Muslims worldwide embrace Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. Judaism
• Humanity enters post-Islamic phase.
Is it my mind playing tricks on me or does it seem that every time Israel makes a concession to the Palestinians that the latter escalate their violence against the former?
Good for the Israelis. I wish President Bush would stop sending my money to the Palestinian government. It enables that govt to survive without doing anything productive.
The saving grace for Israel is that the various Palestinian factions hate each other more than the Israelis.
It is like a mugger who has been emboldened.
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Nope it is the truth.
And then you woke up.
"Total War" is what is required against the Islamics. Notice how we haven't heard a peep from Carthage lately.
5000 years of recorded history proves conclusively that "Peace" can never be "negotiated". The losers must beg for it.
"after Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 400 prisoners as a gesture to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas"
-- I don't see anything about the bombs that the Israeli's were to strap to the 400 terrorists when they were returned to Abbas. I thought that that was part of the technology transfer section of the 'road map'?
How nice that we forced them into releasing those prisoners and then gave them $50 million so they could rearm them. Yeah, I'd say we're the best friend Israel has. < / sarcasm >
Why would they do that? The Constitution itself provides for suspension of habeus corpus. Not much beyond that would seem very useful anyway. The Army would not take over the Administration, unless no civilian head of government could be found. They might take over running the country (although they hardly have the manpower for that), but it would still be under the command of the National Command Authority, whomever that title might fall upon when it was all sorted out. The vast majority of military, officers, NCOs and enlisted, take their oath to "support and defend the Constitution" pretty seriously.
That's a good one!
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