be a chance for real peace.
=========== Berlin ===========
In Berlin, players from the team of Israel (with Palestinians) celebrate after together beating Poland
in the 'Street football world Festival 06', Sunday, July 2, 2006.
Posted on 07/02/2006 12:51:50 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Israel's prime minister said on Sunday he had ordered the army to "intensify" operations in Gaza to free a captured soldier after aircraft attacked the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
The pre-dawn strike on Haniyeh's empty office in the Gaza Strip followed warnings from Israel that no one in the Hamas-led government was immune from attack.
"I have given instructions to intensify the strength of action by the army and security services, to hunt down these terrorists, those who send them ... and those who harbor them," the Israeli leader, Ehud Olmert, said at a cabinet meeting.
"I have said, and will repeat, nobody will be immune."
Hamas' armed wing responded to the helicopter missile strike on Haniyeh's office by threatening to attack Israeli power plants, institutions and schools if Israel carried out more air strikes against government offices and infrastructure.
Israel, which pulled out of the Gaza Strip last year, sent troops and tanks into the south of the territory on Wednesday after Palestinian gunmen, some from the Hamas armed wing, seized Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid a week ago.
It has kept on hold a threatened push into northern Gaza.
Internal security chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet that the crisis might take months to resolve.
"We have to take a deep breath ... There is no magic solution," said Diskin, head of the Shin Bet.
Surveying his wrecked office, Haniyeh found shattered furniture and windows, and a portrait of late president Yasser Arafat blown off the wall.
"This is the policy of the jungle and arrogance," Haniyeh told Reuters. "Nothing will affect our spirit and nothing will affect our steadfastness."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction was defeated by Hamas in a January election, condemned the attack.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called it "inadvisable."
One Hamas member was killed in a second Israeli attack on an office used by forces loyal to the Islamic militant group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction. There have been few casualties in the overall Israeli operation so far.
DEADLOCK
Palestinian officials said Egyptian-led diplomatic efforts to free Shalit were continuing but making little progress because of Israel's Gaza assault.
"I'm not hopeful," senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.
A Palestinian official has quoted mediators as saying 19-year-old Shalit was alive after being treated for wounds.
Olmert ordered the armed forces "to make sure no one sleeps at night in Gaza," Israeli Interior Minister Roni Bar-On told Israel Radio.
A U.N. official said widening an Israeli offensive to the northern Gaza Strip, where militants have been launching rockets at Israel, could displace up to 25,000 Palestinians.
With a Palestinian humanitarian crisis looming and under international pressure, Israel reopened Karni, the main commercial crossing into the Gaza Strip. Israel, which had said Gaza's borders would be sealed indefinitely after Shalit was abducted, opened fuel pipelines.
After Shalit's abduction, Israel launched air strikes against Gaza's main power plant and road bridges.
It also detained eight members of the Hamas cabinet and nearly two dozen lawmakers in the occupied West Bank.
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said they would soon be tried for membership of Hamas, which Israel regards as a terrorist organization.
Hamas's armed wing warned Israel to end its offensive.
"If the occupation continues aggression and terrorism ... it will drag the region into a sea of blood and the consequences will be terrible," said Abu Ubaida, a spokesman.
Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.
1.)Hamas will remain steadfast against the agression of the Israelis.
2.) It is Israels fault that their soldier hasn't been released yet because they made the attack they made into the Gaza.
Surely no one would think that the peaceful Hamas orgianization, well known for their humanitarian work though out the world, would ever do anything to provoke such an attack./sar.
Evidently making an unprovoked incursion into Israel and kidnapping a soldier and a civilian, killing the civilian outright, and probably killing the soldier also, doesn't qualify as an agressive act.
I love the way they put wayyyyy down at the bottom, Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, and not bothering to mention the rockets, artillary, shootings etc. that they have perpetrated.
To the left, none of that is agressive, just poor old displaced Palistinians trying to find a home!
Yeah, and get Israel more angry. If I was Hamas, hide, your a@@ is grass. 6 foot under it.
You had to know it would be Jews who would come up with a new form of warfare. One without casualties.
But empty offices have something to fear. And now with Israel promising to intensify the attack, more empty offices are doomed.
But even with few if any Arab casualties and concrete mostly the target, Israel is still condemned.
Let's get this done before Muslims have infiltrated every western nation to the point where there will be serious bloodshed HERE.
Islam and democracy are not compatible. Islam is a dangerous, insidious parasite in western civilization.
Go Israel, take the battle to the enemy.
Hamas and the other pali terrorists will appeal as victims in the situation they created to the world for negotiation. Some surrounding supposedly islamic country will offer to participate in negotiations (they definitely WON'T offer to resettle these troublemaking terrorists in their own country though) with the State Dept in the background nodding vigorously in approval. Israel will acquiesce and release hundreds of pali terrorists captured over time. And if, that's a BIG IF, the young Israeli is alive after being tortured inhumanely, he'll be released. Hamas will be the acknowledged legitimate ruling govt. BS!
Hamas and the other pali terrorists will appeal as victims in the situation they created to the world for negotiation. Some surrounding supposedly islamic country will offer to participate in negotiations (they definitely WON'T offer to resettle these troublemaking terrorists in their own country though) with the State Dept in the background nodding vigorously in approval. Israel will acquiesce and release hundreds of pali terrorists captured over time. And if, that's a BIG IF, the young Israeli is alive after being tortured inhumanely, he'll be released. Hamas will be the acknowledged legitimate ruling govt. BS!
=========== Berlin ===========
In Berlin, players from the team of Israel (with Palestinians) celebrate after together beating Poland
in the 'Street football world Festival 06', Sunday, July 2, 2006.
Wonder how many of these palis will be suicide bombers later?
Rock 'n' roll, guys.
First reaction is that if the murdering pali leaders (taking another play from araRATfink) can't use them as suicide bombers and giving them the usual pep talk while walking them to their deaths then they'll be murdered and told to their families and the world that these athletes were collaborators.
Translation: "Look at my palms! Do they look greased to you? I see no grease!"
That's a good question.
There are those who say that the Gaza-based Hamas didn't plan this, that it was planned by Kaled Meshaal in Damascus and carried out by some partisans. Why would he do it? Maybe because he didn't like the steps that the Gaza Hamas was taking to form a "unity government" with the PLO/Fatah. So he ordered this attack knowing that it would put the local Hamas in a bind.
Now the local Hamas does not want to reveal that it is not in control of itself, that outsiders from Damascus can control actions taken in their name. So from that point of view, they had to take responsibility. Furthermore, Hamas has very few friends, and does not want to risk alienating Meshaal who has been helping them smuggle in weapons and cash. And Meshaal does not want to lose his influence. He gains by having Hamas ostracized, so he does not want to see the Gaza Hamas make a deal with Fatah that would mean ending conflict with Israel and resuming EU/US aid to the PA.
Another factor to consider is how Hamas has conducted its PR this last year. Hamas claims that its fighting is what caused Israel to leave Gaza. In part that is how they won the election. They have also claimed this kidnapping as a victory. So they cannot go backwards. Releasing him would cause them to lose a lot of face both inside Gaza and with Damascus and Tehran.
They don't have many choices. They could either lose a lot of face, accept the quartet demands and make a deal with the PLO (which they sort of did already, though not a good one and one that caused Meshaal to react), or they can bunker down and fight like Meshaal wants them to. Looks like they have chosen the latter.
I don't think so. I think Israel is going to crush Hamas, destabilize the PA and try to get Abbas & his Fatah back in power.
What Israel needs to do is humiliate Hamas. They need to free the soldier unconditionally AND make Hamas look bad in the process. Hamas knows this which is why it won't release the prisoner. If they do, they will look bad and weak.
So, either way Israel has to win this battle. Either Hamas has to be humiliated, or they have to be defeated.
Hammas continues to target civilians. The brave terrorists are certainly not going up against men. Even when they attack unarmed women and babies from ambush they all wear masks. Why? They all look alike.
Spirit smirit. We'll just have to kill enough of you, most especially the "leaders" like Hniyeh, until the rest get the message.
Two so far. But in this particular exhange, that's still one less than the Israeli losses. They lost the 18 year old kid shot upon capture, plus the 2 soldiers killed when the 3rd was captured.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.