They had been massing at the border between Gaza and Israel ….
They have now entered with artillery, tanks and war planes ….
All this at end of the Muslim Holiday and with over 200 rickets fired into Israel….
The fighting has also affected Israel and Gaza residents…
Just after midnight, the Israeli military announced that air and ground forces had joined in an attack on Gaza, but a military spokeswoman did not detail the number or type of troops that had crossed the border.
For most of Thursday, the air war between Israelis and Palestinians had raged unabated with casualties continuing to climb on both sides amid rocket fire and airstrikes.
Here’s what to know:
- Israeli forces have entered Gaza, according to the Israeli military, but the number and type are unclear.
- Hamas has fired more than 200 rockets at Israel since Wednesday night.
- Gazans awakened on a usually joyous Eid al-Fitr holiday to devastation caused by Israeli airstrikes.
- Unrest has broken out in towns across Israel as bands of Jewish and Arab citizens clash.
Violence also continued to spread within Israel as officials braced for a fourth night of street unrest that has seen Arab Israelis and right-wing Jewish Israelis fight one another in towns across the country. Israeli politicians from across the ideological spectrum condemned attacks by “vigilantes” from both sides, and commentators warned that the communal upheaval may be harder to stop than the military conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group, which governs Gaza.
Soon after sunset on Thursday, clashes between Jewish and Arab Israelis had resumed in several cities….
People who oppose brutal, violent, unlawful insurrections, should show some consistency when they occur overseas.
So obviously, Israel is completely within its right, just as the U.S. Government was to put down a far smaller insurrection that was attempted on 1/6.
Israel and the Arabs issues are NOT that simple…
The “insurrection” was over the ethnic cleansing that the Israelis were committing against the Palestinians.
Z?
The whole thing stinks …
I firmly believe that the leaders involved do NOT want a ‘Peace Agreement “
Hamas wants a Death Agreement. They are fine with as many Arabs as possible dying in exchange for one Jew dying.
So, sort of hard to make peace with those folks, though Israel has wanted peace for a very long time.
Israeli has killed more Palestinian children in this skirmish than Hamas has killed Israeli adults and children combined.
Maybe you heard that from someone in a group you belong to, but it is almost certainly untrue.
The deaths of any Palestinian citizen though are due to the actions of Hamas.
Hamas wants dead Palestinian children.
Of course there is also the justified self-defense principle, especially as it relates to an insurrection to be kept in mind. Again, it does not make sense to fully condemn MAGA and Q-Anon but make excuses for Hamas.
Human shields are used for a reason.
Palestinians love their children as much as Israelis – regardless if you want the rest of us to believe that they are subhuman.
The people do regarding their children, but Hamas does not. That is why Hamas needs to be crushed.
If was Golda Meir who said something to the effect of , “we may forgive them for killing our children but we will never forgive them for causing us to have to kill theirs.”
Irregardless, it is the official policy of the Palestinian Authority that Israel has no right to exist and they believe, and teach in every school, that every Jew should die.
How can one make peace with those who will not abandon that mindset? Of course, that is putting aside the fact that the Palestinian government believes it is ok to kill any gay person on site.
Who exactly will a Palestinian state be safe for as long as they continue to have those policies?
Yet, some people root for them like they are “the lovable losers.”
Those words were mine because Palestinians were being evicted from their homes because they were not Jewish.
If you are referring to my church when you use the term “group”, my earlier comment that I don’t recall EVER hearing a discussion in church about the MidEast still applies.
I think the eviction issue is more nuanced than you may realize. There have certainly been many Jews evicted from their lifelong homes in Israel, by the Israeli government, because the land was going to the Palestinians. It was broadcast live on television. People get evicted in the United States as well of course. Israel is a legitimate democratic government though and can set its own laws.
Irregardless of any thing regarding “evictions” there is not the justification for the murdering of civilians. When that is what is happening, the government, any government, has the obligation to stop it.
People in the US do not get evicted for the reasons that the Palestinians got evicted.
One of my sisters spent an extended vacation in Israel a few years ago. She visited both Israeli areas, Palestinian areas and at least one Christian area. She stated that she witnessed the Jewish hatred of the Palestinians and also the Palestinian hatred of the Jews. Interestingly, she also noted how that the people in the Christian areas felt that they were treated unfairly by the Jews too.
The bottom line is that Israel is a Jewish State by necessity. Obviously, it is the only Jewish State anywhere on Earth.
Still, they extend an incredible amount of political and civil rights to non-Jews. They are surrounded on all sides by people who want to kill them. It is a tough existence.
There are of course many Muslim nations in the Middle East and Palestinians will of course point out that they were mistreated in all of them. So, they want their own country and they want the Jews out entirely.
But you have to understand why Israel exists and why it is so important for them and for Jews all over the world to want to see Israel survive as a Jewish State.
Just one of those things is a necessity to understand what the Holocaust was, less than 100 years ago of course, and all the implications that came of it for the Jewish people.
And there should not be such a thing as a Muslim state either. People should be free to practice their own religion in all countries, and the US should openly advocate that goal.
Every other nation in the Middle East (and many in Africa) are officially Muslim states. Palestine would be a Muslim state.
As a Jewish state, Israel allows all non-Jews, including Muslims, the right to vote, serve in government, worship freely, etc.
What would Hamas offer to Israel? Leave or die. And they would still preach that every Jew, anywhere on Earth, should be killed.
Nobody is asking you to convert to Judaism or be Jewish is anyway, but if you do not understand the need for a Jewish homeland, you really should learn more about many aspects of world history, but especially the Holocaust.
There is a huge Holocaust Museum in Skokie (which I admit sadly I have not been to), that might help you understand better.
For sure, the holocaust was a horrible event and we should make sure nothing like that happens again. But oppressed groups can eventually become the oppressors. You know better than me that Palestinians don’t have the Same rights as Jews. You won’t be able to convince me that is okay. And just as many Jews worldwide support a Jewish state, so do many Palestinians worldwide support a Palestinian state.
I don’t think Palestinians are blameless in their conflict with Israel, but surely you can at some level understand their desire to be treated equally and fairly.
I don’t want to keep arguing this because we won’t change each other’s mind.
It was more than a “horrible event.”
Not based in fact and certainly not a view shared by President Joe Biden or those within the mainstream of American thought. Arresting or stopping terrorists is not “ethnic cleansing” Of course, plenty of people in MAGAland will also claim that what happened on 1/6 was justified and that “ethnic cleansing” is happening against white people.
Israel is bending over backwards to try to try not to kill Palestinians The government is imploring Jews to not harm Arabs and stating that they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law if they do.. Palestinians, led by Hamas, want all Jews dead and are willing to act on it. It is sad when any American chooses to sympathize with a terrorist organization.
As I pointed out….
There is also a political side to this from BOTH parties leadership…
It just seems to me like they use this to stay in power…
I did not intend to minimize the evils of the Holocaust. I am open to a better choice of words. Help me out.
Arafat had a fair offer for peace, but he failed to take it, and Palestinians now suffer because of that decision. Israel has every reason not to trust Hamas, but the hatred that Palestinians have towards the Jews has been earned over the decades with the blockade of the Gaza Strip, settlements in the West Bank, forced evictions such as this past week, and other laws that clearly make Palestinians second class residents. It is not reasonable to expect peace when people are treated that unfairly.
A better choice of words?
For starters there is no such word as irregardless.
But I digress, as someone who actually lost close relatives in the Holocaust it was a horrible event. What else would someone call it? If we’re playing semantics at least use real words.
Zreebs did.
He gave a thoughtful description of the problems now facing Israel. Problems brought on by a craven political leader desperately trying to hold on to power by fermenting violence.
How very Republican of him.
The Israeli military may or may not be operating actually on the ground in Gaza…
Sorry, Keith, but if you want to criticize [criticise] CG’s choice of words, you should also avoid confusing “foment” with “ferment”.
I usually forbear from correcting others’ usage on this not-fit-for-print-publication blog unless their errors cause some real ambiguity, obscurity or contradiction, but when Zreebs or you point out others’ usage errors while making some counterpoint, it seems only fair for me to let your targets know that they’re not alone in their imperfections.
Hot Topic…
I’d Agree with James that this issue is vary complicated one..
It seems too convenient for Netanyahu to engage Hamas at this juncture when the rival parties were trying to form a government to Oust him…and his political corruption case continues to roll on…Not saying this is the only motive, but it sure is a factor in the escalation up…
Israel and Palestine Issue is much deeper than any simplistic blog post, you could write 10 books and never get at the heart of all the issues…but obviously the settlements and the evictions and the removal of Palestinians from the lands they occupied pre-WWII set up this current ongoing conflict.
I don’t know much about the Hamas stability when compared to Netanyahu’s instability with the Israeli elections issues of the last two years…but I would argue they were probably under some pressure between their lack of access to Vaccines and Medicines to fight covid, the poor economy they have and other issues that a galvanizing enemy like Israel helps cement their position of power in the Gaza Strip. Also, who knows if there are outside influences pushing Hamas to act…
Agreed Bdog….
Good insight….
And as for the substance, as one whose Jewish paternal grandparents lost many relatives to the Holocaust, I think there is one universal and inescapable moral imperative upon Jews, partial Jews, secular Jews, atheistic Jews and even Jews who repudiate both the religion and the Jewish community: never to allow anyone to mistreat anyone in the way that Jews themselves have suffered persecution.
That applies to the victims of Jim Crow, Muslim Uighurs and Rohingya, Christians and Jews being driven out of Muslim lands and to Arab Muslims and Christians living in Israel, Palestine and the Gaza.
Agreed DSD….
Good insight….
Dave, my point, in addition to the fact that the word irregardless does not exist, was that Zreebs’ choice of words in describing the Holocaust was directly spot on. The auto correct on my phone notwithstanding, that remains a fact.
There was a bullshit attempt to defend what Israel is doing in Gaza last night when we all should know that Bibi is trying to save his political ass by driving this crisis. The conflict meets both his and the Hamas political agenda.
But we were subjected to the usual series of “what abouts” to justify the wholesale murder of civilians. Very much like the justifications/excuses the Republican in Congress have made for an attempted insurrection.
So please proceed with your political correctness, hopefully I haven’t said anything that is unforgivable.
Dave, I am aware that my posts often have typos in them. I was not aware that I was misspelling Cheney’s name, so I appreciate your comment. it is especially appreciated when it is a recurring mistake such as it was with misspelling Cheney’s name. You can point out my mistakes as often as you like.
My comment about James praying “Hale Mary” would get him into trouble with his grammar school nuns was more of a joke than an me actually being agitated. Perhaps you would have appreciated the joke if you went to Catholic school.
Apologies if I offended you.
Neither of you did anything offensive or anything that calls for forgiveness. (And I’d forgotten about the sense- and fact-distorting powers of Auto-Correct.) Heaven knows, I’ve made my own share of typos (which I can’t correct afterwards in the way I can on Sporcle or Wikipedia).
As to CG’s attitude, I can’t remember his writing anything sympathetic to the Arabs’ plight (unless he can blame it on other Arabs).
He seems to want a benign Jewish patronage of those Arab Christians and Muslims who don’t want to leave similar to the way that white American Southerners thought they were treating their black fellow-citizens in the century following Reconstruction, although perhaps (given Jewish memories of ghettoes) without overt segregation or petty apartheid.
DSD, now that is offensive.