Gaza

Just a quick pseudo-rant about the war in Gaza. I sound like Yosemite Sam, fortunately I don’t look like him.

Welcome to another edition of updates on the War in Gaza.
Previous editions of the round up can be found below:1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6*6.5 *7* 7.5* 8.

Let’s go see what sort of news and analysis is floating around the Net today.

The AP reports Israeli forces bisect Gaza, surround biggest city.

Time Magazine Israel Enters Gaza: Negotiating With Extreme Prejudice.

From The Washington Post we have Israeli Forces Push Farther Into the Gaza Strip.

Also from WAPO Invasion Offers Benefits but Also Risks to Both Sides.

The Inquirer.net reports that Indonesian Islamists want to send troops to support Hamas.

Just stellar reporting from CNN. Got to love a headline like this: Palestinian medical sources: 485 now killed in Gaza. That sort of headline feeds the wolves and useful idiots who prattle on about disproportionate response and massacre. It is misleading and unbalanced. Sigh.

The LA Times has an op-ed piece from Michael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi:

In Gaza, the real enemy is Iran. I want to highlight one section of that essay:

Though civilians have, tragically, been hurt, about three-quarters of the 400 Palestinians killed so far have been gunmen — an impressive achievement given that Hamas fires rockets from apartments, mosques and schools and uses hospitals as hide-outs.

Israel has recently allowed nearly 200 truckloads of food and medicine to enter Gaza, even under shellfire. It is in Israel’s urgent interest to minimize civilian suffering and forestall international criticism. For that same reason, Hamas welcomes the suffering of Palestinian civilians. According to a BBC report on Dec. 30, dozens of ambulances were dispatched by Egypt to its border with Gaza, only to remain empty because, according to Egyptian authorities, Hamas wasn’t allowing wounded Palestinians to leave.

Reuters reports that Gaza statement a misunderstanding -Czech minister.
The WSJ Iran’s President Has Much at Stake in Gaza Outcome. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll go visit Gaza now.

From JPost Counterpoint: Collective responsibility vs. collective punishment.

And now on to the blogs:

The Muqata and Israelly Cool are liveblogging. So is the IDF Spokesperson. There is a good summary of what has happened at this post and another VLOG from Captain Benjamin Rutland.

The Rebbitzin’s Husband explains Four lies about Israel and Gaza.

The Other McCain Israeli air strikes kill cute kittens and Hamas terrorist leaders and Greenwald vs. Goldfarb. Greenwald just goes overboard…again.

Omri is on top of things, as usual. Go read:

No, Of Course Hamas Is Not “Holding Gaza Hostage”

Wherein You’re Asked To Evaluate A Very Weird BBC Interview
Diplomatic Pressure Means The IDF Has Less Than A Week To Win

Soccer Dad covered Amanpour’s poor pitiful meme and don’t forget to read his Gaza Tidbits. Not because he links to me but because he has solid information that you should know about.

From Doug Ross @ Journal you need to read and look at the pictures in Maps can really point to places… where life is evil now.

Judeopundit What’s the truth about those rockets, anyway?.

Josh Miller has some good points in That ‘Ole Thought Experiment Again.

Firedoglake is still foaming at the mouth with their post Violence is the Tool of the Incompetent. Do they intentionally bury their heads in the sand.

Yourish shared French police bar pro-Israeli protesters from Israeli embassy, Gaza war – a random selection and Countering Hamas propaganda.

At Seraphic Secret you need to read Terrorist Rhetoric: Fact vs. Fiction or What I Learned in Hollywood.

Take a look at RBO’s RBO News & Views — The Rockets Bright Glare Edition.

Smooth Stone’s Terror Alert:Text Messages Being Forwarded to Jews By Muslims Not To Go To Manhattan.

Crittenden has another good round up right here.

From Daled Amos France Does A Variation On ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ and Pro-Hamasnik Helpfully Posts Video Of Hamas Blowing Up Their Own. Note, read the second post. There is far more too it than the headline suggests.

One more post from D.A. regarding the population density of Gaza.

Westbankmama shares a tale that isn’t quite Dickens in A Tale of Two Hospitals.

Rafi says that Al Jazeera interviewed the wrong guy. He also notes that today is the third anniversary of Ariel Sharon’s stroke.

Here are ruminations worth reading “Jews Drink Children’s Blood”

What can you do in 15 seconds? It is a thought provoking post.

Jill has a round up of links about Mayor Bloomberg’s visit to Israel.

This concludes the current round up. We’ll be back a bit later with more updates.

Welcome to another edition of updates on the War in Gaza.Previous editions of the round up can be found below:1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6*6.5 *7* 7.5

Again we’ll start with the MSM:

There have been multiple stories of internecine fighting among the Palestinians. JPost reports Hamas moves on Fatah ‘collaborators’.
JPost also reports that 30 troops have been injured and that tens of thousands combat reservists are being called up.
Also at JPost Analysis: Hamas could not be deterred.
In Haaretz Sayed Kashua writes Hit them where it hurts.
Also from Haaretz ANALYSIS / Israel’s aim in Gaza is to break Hamas resistance.
Newsweek has an op-ep Piece that says Obama Must Get Tough With Israel.
Daily Mail reports the ghoulish story of the parade with dead children.

Victor Davis Hanson writes about Creepy Times and I have to agree with him. Check out this excerpt and then read the rest:

“There is something especially nauseating about the latest Middle East war — scenes of worldwide Islamic protests with photos of Jews as apes, protesters (in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida of all places!) screaming about nuking Israel and putting Jews in ovens, parades of children dressed up with suicide vests and fake rockets, near constant anti-Semitic vicious sloganeering,”

Michael Totten discusses who is following the law and who is not in Gaza and the Law of Armed Conflict.
Benny Morris says Israel has no choice but to be tough on Hamas – and Iran.
Go Read Clashing Civilizations by Mark Steyn
Another Front provides another look at the war in cyberspace.

The IDF blog has some posts that are worth looking at. Some of the material here has been taken from there. Including this video of troops preparing to enter Gaza

The Muqata and Israellycool are liveblogging the war.

Go to Mere Rhetoric and read Overview And Map Of Israeli Ground Operation. Two more to read while you are there:
Of Course: Iranian And Lebanese Journalists Leaking IDF Military Maneuvers (Plus: Calls Growing To Ban Al Jazeera) and CNN: Israel Is Overreacting Because The Palestinians Are Too Incompetent To Murder Israelis Consistently

Take a look at Yourish and read One more Gaza update for the evening.

Joshuapundit has a blog post that irks me called Hamas Forcing Civilians To Stand On Roofs.

Why does it irk me? Well because there are so very many examples of barbaric behavior by Hamas yet so many useful idiots choose to chastise Israel for disproportionate force, a term they don’t really seem to understand.

That leads to a few posts from Daled Amos:

Looks Like Someone Finally Looked Up What “Disproportionate Force” Really Means!,
and
Israel’s Ultimate Goal And What Lies Ahead To Achieve It.

Seraphic Secret shared a post called the IDF Enters Gaza and included a few pictures to boost morale.

My Shrapnel writes More on Gaza.

The Occidental Israeli points out a mistake made by Fox in Fox News Places Gaza Campaign in South Asia. While you are there take a look at Operation Cast Lead – Arab World II.

From This Ain’t Hell there is the IDF’s announcement of ground operations in Gaza [Jonn].

Lady Light says The World Hates Jews. Don’t know if I agree with her, or maybe I do. But it could be worse because if you’re African your blood is meaningless to the world. Africa burns and no one cares. Really it is a pathetic commentary about the way things are, but that is a separate post.

Comments from Left Field has post in which he says that both sides are wrong. Go read The Gaza Ground Operations Begin. I think he touches on a few good points, but there are some big holes.

The Agonist argues that Israel is moving for Regime Change. But they lose me when they talk about the moderate wing of Hamas. Did they not read the Hamas charter that calls for the destruction of Israel. Is there some subset of Hamas that has a moderate version of a charter. A charter that doesn’t call for the complete destruction, just a small part.

Maybe Zombietime knows about the moderates, “I’m a little spooked”: Palestinian protests bring Gaza fighting to San Francisco. Nah, I didn’t think so.

Gateway Pundit blogged about a similiar thing with Surprise!… Pro-Hamas “Youths” Torch Cars After Paris Protest. While you’re there don’t forget to read this post too.

WestBankMama advises Don’t Believe Everything You Read. Smart idea, hopefully people will listen.

Carl has The ‘obstacles’ to a ‘Palestinian’ reichlet.

I encourage you to go watch Save the Gazans (new EoZ video).

Soccer Dad got a nice mention here.

Want to do more to help? Go to How To Help Us Win and check out their list of suggestions.

I am beat so I am going to end this early. But I’ll be back with another update tomorrow.

Welcome to another edition of updates on the War in Gaza.

Previous editions of the round up can be found below:1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6*6.5 *7

The long awaited ground invasion of Gaza has begun. Now we hope and pray for a quick operation in which there are minimal casualties and a speedy resolution. Still we are realistic about war. There will be lives lost on both sides.

But we believe that sometimes wars are both just and necessary and this is one of those moments. The IDF site stated that the goal of the invasion is:

The objective of this stage of the operation is to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of the Hamas in the precise area of operation, while taking control of some of rocket launching area used by the Hamas in order to greatly reduce the quantity of rockets fired at Israel and Israeli civilians.

One more comment. I make no bones about being Pro-Israel. I think that Israel like all countries should be criticized, but it must be balanced and fair. All too often that is missing and that is part of the reason some conversations immediately degenerate into mud slinging.

Also, I link to some news sources that I find questionable, but I like to try and see what people are saying on all sides. But I will not link to articles that are completely over the top, hate filled rants or screeds. So take it for what it is worth.

Now on to the news:

Here is a Vlog from Captain Benjamin Rutland:

CNN reports that ground troops have entered Gaza.
The New York Times asks Is the Real Target Hamas Rule?
Additional analysis from the Times can be found here.
Al-Jazeera provides an interview called Hamas in The Eyes of An Expert.
JPost wrote about more posturing by Hamas in ‘Gaza will become graveyard for troops’
Rabbi Daniel Gordis has a column that discusses the role of Jews who do not live in Israel In Perspective: Does Uncle Leonard have a say?
In Slate Rosner writes Can Israel Win the Gaza War?
YNET reports Europe Backs IDF Invasion.
Times Online shared Gaza Missile Maze.
Commentary Magazine Three Goals of The Ground Operation.
Haaretz Israel launches a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
And now from the blogosphere:

Jameel and Aussie Dave are still liveblogging the conflict.

The IDF blog contains some very interesting statistics. Here is a quick snapshot:

• Today, over 950,000 Israelis live within range of rocket and mortar attacks.
• There have been approximately 7,200 rockets (Grads, Qassams) and mortars launched at Israel since 2005.
• Between Israel’s evacuation of Gaza and the election of Hamas (Aug. 15, 2005 – Jan. 25, 2006), there was an average of over 15 rocket and mortar attacks a month.
• Between Hamas’ election and Hamas’ forceful takeover of the Strip (Jan. 25, 2006 – June 14, 2007), there was an average of over 102 attacks per month—an over 650% increase.

From Yourish we have Updating the Gaza war.

Don’t forget to read Operation Cast Lead – Day 8 – Updates (UPDATE: Ground Operation Launched) and Confirmed: Hamas Wants To Use WMDs Against Israel, Trigger Full-Blown Regional War.

Harry’s Place discusses the ground invasion.

Shiloh Musings shared Day 8 in Netivot and shared a post about what it is like to seek shelter in a sewer pipe.

My Shrapnel discusses her feeling in Gaza.

Treppenwitz blogged about a prayer for our soldiers.

Allahpundit Israel invades Gaza; Update: “A lengthy operation”

Muslim World Today discussed Israel’s War on Terror.

If you haven’t read any of the reports about the protests you might be surprised and or sickened by what you see/read.

From Atlas Shrugs POLLER IN PARIS: PRO-HAMAS RALLY, “DEATH TO THE JEWS”and MORE MUSLIM MADNESS: RAMPAGING, ATTACKING BUSINESSES, ASSAULTING JEWS IN UK

Gateway Pundit said Bloody Riots in London… Pro-Hamas Protesters Attack Police At Israeli Embassy.

From Something Something The Choice of Israel.

Roger Simon Israel Alone.

Stay tuned for additional updates to this post throughout the day.

“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.”-Theodore Roosevelt

Welcome to another edition of updates on the War in Gaza.

Previous editions of the round up can be found below:
1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6*6.5

And now on to the round up:

The New Republic features Hamas is a Taliban State.

The Cyberspace wars continue as YNET has been hacked.

CNN reports Bush blames Hamas for Gaza conflict.

Reuters reports the obvious Hamas warns it is ready to confront Gaza invasion. JPost offers Hamas: We foiled an attempted entry of IDF soldiers into Gaza.

Also on Jpost Mashaal: Black fate awaits IDF in Gaza.

Fox has Son of Hamas Leader Gives Glimpse Into Terror Organization.

The Tehran Times says Iranians volunteer to fight to death for Gaza.

At the Irish Times you can read Israeli leaders fighting a war within a war.

From Globe and Mail we have Pathless in Gaza.

The Salt Lake Tribune has news and analysis about civilian casualties during war. You can find it here.

Charles Krauthammer wrote a column called Moral Clarity in Gaza.

Dershowitz in the Wall Street Journal: Israel’s Policy Is Perfectly ‘Proportionate’

Mark Steyn: Gaza has its version of rocket scientists.

From the blogosphere

Jameel and Aussie Dave are still liveblogging the conflict.

Jewlicious has A Message of Peace to the People of Gaza from the People of Israel and Scenes from the Gaza Concentration Camp.

A Soldier’s Mother writes about the fear she feels for her son’s safety here.

Israel Matzav says that Livni has a blog but it is only in Hebrew. He also discusses the need for the Israeli Foreign ministry to hire more English speaking bloggers to write for them.

The American Power Blog discusses Richard Falk and the Left’s Construction of Gaza.

Bloodthirsty Liberal writes Fatah, Hamas, Enemies.

Hugh Hewitt has a list of the Hamas Arsenal.

From The Other McCain ‘We will remain on the path of jihad until the end of days’.

Gateway Pundit Pro-Hamas Protesters in Florida Tell Jews: “Go Back to the Ovens” and Terrorists Launch Missiles At Israel From UN School in Gaza (Video).

Solomonia shared And…Gang Rampage in London…

Jules Crittenden wrote We Regret to Inform a post that covers a variety of topics including suggested reading, and comments about some of the IAF bombing runs.

Jill from Writes Like She Talks wrote Gaza and Israel: Reflections and resources.

Firedoglake has one of the most egregious cases of misunderstanding, mischaracterization and obfuscation of the truth in a post they call: “The Associated Press Translation Guide for Gaza.”

Mere Rhetoric’s post Temporary Israeli Restraint Won’t Buy It International Legitimacy. Don’t Be Stupid. makes sense to me.

The Infidel Bloggers alliance has an opinion about invasion: Israel Should Not Invade Gaza.

Phyllis Chesler discussed The Fourth (Islamist) Reich in America: “Attack” Protesters On the Move.

This concludes update number 7. Stay tuned for more.

“Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”
General William Tecumseh Sherman

The War in Gaza continues and there are mixed reports about what is going on. We are continuing to provide you with a round up of news reports and blog posts regarding the war. The round up includes professional analysis, front line reports as well as human interest stories.

The goal is to provide you with a more complete picture than you would receive solely by watching the news or surfing the net on your own.

Previous editions of the round up can be found below:
1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6
**************
Let’s get started by presenting a report from CNN that says bombs continue to fall as tanks wait on the outskirts of Gaza.

Xinhua reports that Hezbollah says Israel would be surprised by Hamas rockets. The article says that Israel will be surprised by the range of the rockets. Sounds to me like a good reason to continue the offensive.

The BBC reports that a variety of stars have issued a ridiculous call for an end to bombing. Where were they when the rockets were falling on Sderot and why do they not condemn Hamas.
JPost says Israel to treat more injured Gazans.

Caroline Glick’s piece Column One: Hamas’s march to victory is worth reading. She questions the wisdom of the government and what their goals are.

One more JPost piece about what is going on in The Arab Street.

The Times Online reports Israel set to begin ground war against Hamas in Gaza.

Andrew Sullivan writes that Israel holds the higher moral ground but faces some challenges in
Some Truths for Now

Glenn Greenwald claims that the US doesn’t spend time discussing American interests when it comes to Israel in More oddities in the U.S. “debate” over Israel/Gaza.

From the IHT Divisions deep at Arab league meeting.

From Breitbart On eve of his death, Hamas leader in Gaza predicted victory. Guess again.

From the blogosphere:

Jameel and Aussie Dave are still liveblogging the conflict.

Powerline shared The Conflict’s Root Cause

The IDF has a blog called IDF Spokesperson.

At Seraphic Secret you should read Gaza: A Matzav Within The Matzav.

Daled Amos came across a Podcast From Gaza.

Want to know the character of Hamas? Go read:

Video: Hamas Prepares Army Of Women And Children To Be Suicide Bombers During Urban Warfare

Bookworm’s post How to define proportionality in the face of evil should be read.

Don’t forget to read But it’s anti-Zionism, not anti-Semitism.

Judeopundit shared New horizons in nonsense. A look at ridiculous remarks made by Norman Finkelstein.

Israpundit follows up on the Caroline Glick column with a post called Israel is capitulating.

Esser Agaroth has a list of updates and good links that merit attention, including the S’deroth Media Center.

The Elder has some good posts Quick fisking of Richard Falk and Secondary explosions – another shortcoming of international law.

Solomonia has a good round up of news and information here.

Right Wing Nuthouse blogged GLENN GREENWALD IS PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.

Life in Israel has a map that provides a look at the range of the rockets.

A Blog For All has some good statistics to review in Operation Cast Lead: Day 7.

Hot Air asks the rhetorical question, Gloves coming off?

Mottel blogged Social Media and How it Will Help Israel Win the War.
Soccer Dad’s post The memeorandum difference shows that we are getting the word out there.

Ezzie has suggestions for Where To Read About The War.

Avodah Ivrit discusses Common Sense.

Stay Tuned for more update throughout the day and beyond.