Hamas

Welcome to another edition of updates on the War in Gaza. We’re starting to see a higher volume of spam and remarks from trolls so Comment moderation has been turned on.

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* 8.5.*9.

Take a look at the news and what do we see

John Bolton in the WAPO The Three-State Option.
CNN Top Hamas official defiant over rocket strikes.
The Economist Now the ground war.
Ottawa Citizen Only the end of Hamas can bring peace to Gaza.
The Telegraph Gaza will explode if US stays on sidelines.
Haaretz Lull now
Huffington Post Hamas Is Responsible for the Civilian Casualties in Gaza.
Huffington Post Photos From Israel That You Won’t See on the News.
NY Times The Toughest Q’s Answered in the Briefest Tweets.
Ventura County Star Israel Losing PR War

Chabad War News and Info.

In the blogosphere:

The Muqata and Israelly Cool are liveblogging. Apparently they have inspired Backspin to do so as well.

The IDF Spokesperson provides this video of the IDF attacking terrorists:

They also provide more information about what has been happening. Here is an incomplete summary of their summary:

• A mosque used to store mass amounts of weaponry
• An underground bunker in the area of Gaza city. The attack caused secondary explosions indicating there were explosives inside. Tunnels in the area collapsed.
• A number of smuggling tunnels, near Rafah, used by the Hamas terror organization as passages for terrorists in and out of the Gaza Strip and that formed part of the purchasing and supply system of the organization
• 80 trucks with humanitarian aid were transferred into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing

Seraphic Secret shared The Unbearable Lightness of the Blood Libel.

Mere Rhetoric provides a report on the SF Consulate Conference Call – Operation Cast Lead Media Strategy.

The Elder asked Is Israel winning the media war? He also has a post that asks Why would Israel want civilians to die?

And rounding out his trifecta is The Zionist Collaborator Hierarchy.

Over at Yourish are the following:

Czech FM to Israel: We’re telling you to lose, Saving Hamas by diplomacy and Firming up the narrative: Israel can’t win.

At the Occidental Israeli you can review Operation Cast Lead – Arab World III.

Mother in Israel shared Pictures of Israeli Soldiers Treating Palestinian Weapon Smugglers.

Weasel Zippers shared this disturbing post Daily Kos: “I Find Satisfaction in the Death of an Israeli Soldier”…..

And

UN Complains Their Ambulances Can’t Reach Gaza Wounded, Fails to Mention Their Vehicles are Being Used as Hamas Troop Carriers….

Blackfive wrote about the Palestinian war crime of the day.

The Jawa Report shared this SF: Interesting Pro-Hamas Protest Banner.

Crittenden has another round up called Heil Hamas.

Shiloh Musings has a List of Wounded Soldiers.

LGF has Guardian Hits Bottom, Digs. While you are there read Staged Photos Pouring Out of Gaza.

Carl in Jerusalem to be interviewed on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

Don’t forget to read Captured terrorist being treated at Soroka Hospital with IDF troops.

Ammaro blogged Peace.

On The Fringe provided for spite: re palestinians’ preference for martyrdom.

Esser Agaroth blogged about increased Rocket Range.

Daled Amos shared Audio: Alan Dershowitz On Fox Radio Discussing Disproportionate Force and Video: Children of Hamas.

This ends the latest round up. More to come later today.

Just posted this little ditty on Yourish.

Sometimes the world is a funny place in that way that makes you throw your head back and laugh with reckless abandon. And sometimes it is the kind of funny that makes you wonder if somehow you are living inside a piece of Salvador Dali’s artwork.

It is well and good to moan the loss of life and suggest that goodwill be spread to all mankind. It is a noble sentiment but it is not one that is shared by all people. One of the fundamental flaws of some people is the belief that kindness will always generate a similar response. Because the reality is that this is not true. Sometimes treating people the way that you wish to be treated means that you are going to take a boot in the ass and a poke in the eye.

I teach my children to be nice, kind and respectful of others because it is the right thing to do. I also teach them to be aware of when that sort of behavior is not received well. Because good, bad or indifferent there will come a time when others will try to take advantage of them.

And right now a terrorist organization of thugs and slugs is taking advantage of the good will and kindness of many people. Far too many people look at Hamas and praise them for the charitable work they do for their people. That is great. Yet it ignores the reality that they also exploit them.

They exploit them by hiding in hospitals and mosques. They exploit them by intentionally placing them in dangerous situations. They hope that there are civilian casualties so that they can play upon world sympathy. And that is simply wrong.

But the ideology that allows them to intentionally send the innocent into harm’s way is one that we cannot accept as being equal to others. We cannot provide a free pass. We cannot celebrate shared values and coo over how interesting their culture is. Because it celebrates death and that is just not equal to cultures that celebrate life.

Crossposted on Yourish.

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.