Israel launches military offensive on Civilian Targets
The death toll in Gaza has surged to over 600 with Israel and Hamas showing no signs of giving peace a chance.
Sirens wailed, rockets exploded and anguished screams resounded on both sides of the border as fresh casualties were counted and mourned by Palestinians and Israelis.
Secretary of State Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have arrived in Egypt for talks designed to broker a ceasefire deal, but Israeli bombings were intense – more than 70 targets were hit in the Gaza Strip yesterday including five mosques, a soccer stadium and the home of Hamas’ late military chief.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said he’s prepared to continue a “full-scale ground offensive as long as necessary” to squash Hamas’ ability to launch rockets into the Jewish state and infiltrate its southern region through underground tunnels.
Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader, countered that the Islamic militant group will not agree to an unconditional ceasefire.
In a televised speech in Gaza on Monday, Haniyeh said Hamas’ aim is to break a blockade of the Palestinian territory imposed in 2007 after Palestinian elections swept Hamas into power.
“Gaza has decided to end the blockade by its blood and by its courage,” he said.
President Obama says he understands Israel’s need to defend itself against rocket attacks, but believes its military has already done “significant damage” to Hamas.
“We have serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives,” Obama said.
“And that is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a ceasefire.”
At least 10 Hamas militants were killed Monday, taken out by an Israeli missile strike as they tried to sneak into Israel through a tunnel on the border near Nir Am, Israeli officials said.
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Gun battles in Gaza on Monday cost the lives of seven Israeli soldiers, hit by antitank rockets in separate skirmishes. The deaths came a day after 13 Israeli soldiers and 100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza.
Israel has lost 27 soldiers and two civilians since fighting erupted on July 8.
Palestinian health officials said over 580 Gazans have been killed in the past two weeks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying the militants continued to use innocent people as human shields, even hiding rockets in hospitals.
“So this is the cruelest, most grotesque war that I’ve ever seen. It (Hamas) actually wants to pile up as many civilian deaths as possible.”
Netanyahu accused Hamas of “triple war crimes” for hiding behind civilians.
theguttertrash.com 
I’ve never really understood this ongoing drama…
Is it just baddies versus baddies…?
(I almost assumed, at least for an instant and for present discussion’s sake, that Operation Disruptive Wedge was designed to demonstrate to the world and to leftist-liberal-nogoodnik-peacenik Israelis that a once-democratically-elected-and-never-again-to-be Hamas are nothing but rabid terrorists with rockets aimed at the sacred heart of Ben Gurion airport; that any internationalised conferral of legitimacy on a renewed Hamas-Fatah unity ticket at the UN and like multilateral organizations for any recognition of unilateral steps towards a Palestinian Statehood and a Two-State Solution would be a very grave mistake by the world and for ongoing perpetual peace negotiations; and that observers have such short memories that the terrorist abduction and murder of three fundamentalist-expansionist Israelis and the reactionary criminal abduction and murder of a randomly-targetted Palestinian in the occupied/disputed/unsettled West Bank naturally should register as necessitating turning the occupied/disputed/unsettled Gaza Strip upside down with mass-arrests and an inconsequential smattering of extrajudicial, law-enforcement-related killings and thence into a Legitimate-Use-Of-Force-zone once more under the new-old premise that multi-use, seige-breaking, smugglers’ tunnels are of the greatest existential threat to Israel’s and Israelis’ existences and demand a swift and uncompromising response, especially in the face of Hamas’s recalcitrant broken-record of irrational preconditions to establishing a more durable ceasefire, like rescinding the blockade and effective ghettoisation of Gaza; oh, and incidentally, not-targetting an intensive care *boom-boom* unit repeatedly is just a harmless and meaningless joke among friends; but, I’m over that now.)
“multi-use, seige-breaking, smugglers’ tunnels”
You mean the tunnels into Israel?
I like the idea of Israel – stable, democratic. It’s a pity it doesn’t live up to the ideal. But having Israel is preferable to not having Israel, which is the objective of Hamas.
I’d imagine it is difficult to build trust leading to mutual understanding and agreement, with a ‘negotiating partner’ who is committed to your elimination.
The second map shows that the Palestinians would now have a much larger state had they not chosen war and terror over peace.
The Israelis took what was on offer although it was much less than what they wanted. The Palestinians could have done the same and chosen peace. Instead they and five neighbouring Arab countries attacked Israel with a view to driving the Jews into the sea. That same struggle has been going on ever since.
There is no practical solution. The existence of Israel as a Jewish state is the problem. It is politically and theologically unacceptable to the Islamic world.
The Jews should leave now before they are massacred. When this massacre eventually happens the hand-wringing leftists will say they had no idea this would happen. Meanwhile they lend their support to Hamas which is a nasty anti-Semitic terrorist outfit.
When this massacre eventually happens the hand-wringing leftists will say they had no idea this would happen.
Thank goodness I’m not a hand wringing leftist, then … Israel is a bastard state of the British Mandate of Palestine …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine_(legal_instrument)
And what a little bastard it’s been … with assistance from its dog-father the USofA …
Imagine the UN saying that the Northern Territory is to become the New Israel … what joy in the streets that would bring …
Gt Britain and France particularly are responsible for the mess in North Africa and the Middle East ..
‘There is no practical solution.’
Australia could accept all the Palestinians as genuine refugees, then this needless war would end.
“… Israel is a bastard state of the British Mandate of Palestine … ”
Did the British write the Bible ? as I do recollect the Israelis getting a mention there.
Did you all enjoy the wedding snaps ?
How would that help? The problem is the existence of a Jewish state.
“Did the British write the Bible ?”
That is all just Israeli propaganda. Everyone knows that Jews have no connection with Jerusalem.
‘How would that help? The problem is the existence of a Jewish state.’
They have been hankering after Israel for 2000 years, they will not be moved. On the other hand a Palestinian State could be erected anywhere.
I’m not being too serious.
Madagascar looks noice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan
Agricultural Colonies in Australia
http://guides.naa.gov.au/safe-haven/chapter2/kimberley-scheme.aspx
From that link ….
‘Following the Evian Conference, the London-based Freeland League (founded in 1935) proposed the purchase of seven million acres in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia (encompassing the properties of Connor, Durack and Doherty) as a farming settlement for a potential 50 000 refugees from Nazism. The League envisaged that a vanguard party of 500 to 600 ‘pioneers’ would construct homes, a power station, irrigation works, etc, pending the arrival of the main body of colonists.’
Did the British write the Bible ? as I do recollect the Israelis getting a mention there.
Only the first bit … and then the Poms got stuck into the editing … eg The “St James” version
But there is a couple more …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_Bible_translations
But the Jews were displaced from Jerusalem long before …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_and_Judaism_in_the_Land_of_Israel
on the previous thread dunny and l were talking about the israel palistine pr-war, and Tinfoil`osy interjected with,
.
”””””””””””””””””””””
https://theguttertrash.com/2014/07/21/everyone-still-hates-tony-abbott-part-iii/#comment-66549
“l suspect confirmation-bias kicks-in in a big way”(quoting-teabag)
(Tinfoil`osy)Yes, as exemplified by comments like this …
“Israel is taking the opportunity while the eyes of the world are on Ukraine…the State has been murderously opportunistic at such junctures in the past … One Day Israel Will Overstep Its Way Out Of Existence.”(quoting-dunny)
and
“israel killing children(targeted) on the beach”(quoting-teabag)
”””””””””””””””””””””’
with cherry-selections out of context, but Tinfoil`osy misses the point and needs to ask his-self and explain,
Why is south-africa`s apartheid of brutality, land-grabbing, human rights trashing and basic unfairness `bad`,
while israel`s apartheid of brutality, land-grabbing, human rights trashing and basic unfairness `good`?
Israel’s major export is military hardware and software..what is Palestine’s?
Rockets exported to Israel via air
chuckle
… g’day Wally, are you still on fkn holiday!!!
(Claimed as a business trip, I suppose … ?) 🙄
===========================================
Israel’s major export is military hardware and software..what is Palestine’s?
It used to be fear and terror … especially for airline passengers …
(I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s not American re-export-certified power-generation turbines and their derivative products, because the Palestinian Territories are mostly powerless; and because the general electric stuff mostly gets intercepted by Israel, turned into jets under license, and flogged off third-hand to whichever tin-pot regime wants the merchandise for air-superiority in under-reported final-solutions to long-running, ground-based civil wars on little-discussed Indian Ocean islands while the world media’s co-operative focus is on lead cast elsewhere; not that chocolate kings and their groupies don’t also dabble in tender contracts for the fabrication, repackaging, and distribution of weapons-delivery platforms from time to time, and perhaps now more so than ever with an otherwise uncertain economic future looking ever-brighter with gifted night-vision goggles, much-expanded market access, and a contract-of-adhesion specifying common security arrangements, I further suppose; oh, and “thank-you, but I prefer it my way”, still seems to be the order of the day.)
Ah yes.!Those maps!.They make it perfectly clear that them Jews intentions are to swallow up all of “Palestine”.then move on to Syria,Lebanon, Holland then Ireland. Trouble with them so elucidating maps is that you failed to include in the images a little explanatory rider at the bottom which says in tiny,tiny print.”THESE MAPS ARE FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY.BOUNDARY REPRESENTATIONS ARE NOT AUTHORITATIVE” Hmmm.Interesting don’t you think and yet you display these dubious “maps” at the top of your article.I wonder why>
Welcome to the show Albert,
thanks for your comment, l wouldn`t mind seeing a `better` more-accurate map if`ya got one available
(Whereas I’d almost forgotten all of last week’s and earlier’s domestic-international hyperbolic-diplomatic niceties on the ME matter already; possibly amidst a more recent and more simple Our (un)announcing of a (re)new(ed) (dis)interest in specific (geo)politics here, there, and/or elsewhere, and the everyday plights of ordinary persons caught up in the adverse circumstances of conflict; and possibly due to the blinding-bright burnishing(s) of an almost certainly legitimate passport to an enduring and broad-ranging foreign affairs credibility and to an (en)viable impression management technique apt for just about any occasion; it seems We do yet still have some views about securitisation(s) for nation-states and for the the blacked-out areas, by-ways, shops, utilities, public healths and educations, human rights, homes, and day-to-day existences of collateral(ised) people(s) in extremis..)
Demoralising, isn’t it, IvIeta.
Check out Bolt’s ongoing Israel apologetics if you truly want to know the meaning of shilling.
(Mmmm, as long as Flash Appeal Julie manages to maintain a more-Jakarta-than-Geneva posture for Australia’s best diplomatic efforts, I’m almost sure that Boltlandia will overlook any misguided par-participations in such intrinsically depraved organizations.)
The UN Human Rights Council is a depraved organisation. Its mission appears to be to attack the one Jewish state in the world and it spends most of its time doing so. I wonder why that is? Oh, that’s right, breathing while Jewish is a crime against humanity. Silly me.
“Israel apologetics”
Those whose first priority is to attack Israel in this case are either evil or deluded. Those who have any compassion at all for Palestinian civilians will be putting as much pressure on Hamas to stand dow and disarm themselves. It is Hamas that killed hundreds of its own children sending them into tiny dark spaces to dig their terror tunnels. It is the gutless leaders of Hamas who hide underground while exorting its citizens to act as human shields.
The stated goal of Hamas is the destrution of Israel and its Jewish population. Since taking power in Gaza they have vigorously pursued this goal. Every attempt by the Israelis to fight back has, unsurprisingly, been met with condemnation by the Eloi intelligentsia.
Ultimately this battle is not just against the Jews, as the Christians of Mosul now know. At least Sam Harris gets it:
Emotionally I’m quite sympathetic to Israel, it is a stable democracy in a region that seems to be filled up to the brim with hateful, vengeful nutcases.
Because it is a democracy and “on our side” it is held to a much higher standard than the various warring factions of hateful nutcases.
(Harris technically might be correct in his (de)realizations of us-n-them-n-them-n-us; to wit, t’is perhaps true that a part of me still occasionally speculates about the existence of the idea of a mercurial Yahweh setting potentially-as-yet-uninvited-back Covenant-breakers a perverse test of sorts: obsess over a G-dless Temple and continue to engage in repeated antisocial orgies of recursive self-and-other-violence in pursuit of this hallowed olive-grove or that irrigated orange-patch or rejoice that The Promised Land, for the time being and possibly forever, consists of a Covenant-Makers’s Codicil’s mixed-blessing of a somehow-considered-diminished-and-diminishing Whole Wide World of Shalom, precisely as promised. That is, ToraToraTora or TorahTorahTorah, the choice, and, Y’eretz Israel?, the question; but, I have no real answers to matters existential, and none at all when it comes to imaginary communities, Jewish(ness)es) intent or extent, or the natural nexus, if any, between such abstractions and a concrete State of Israel, its actual and/or potential variety of citizens, their locales, their tribes and creeds, their sentiments about political (re/de)construct(ion(s), etcetera.)
* not mine
Im breathing yet I fight for air
This tomb you’ve pulled me down
A nomad in this barren land
Your binds ahold of my desperate hand
The light that projects
Forth from your eyes
Sucks out the life that life that lies within mine
Somber and weak is heart of a slave
Emerge with dispirited hate
Bring me to my feet my rash lioness
Wash away all my pain
The hunger for more forced you out of that place
I was the light you would need
The light that projects
Forth from your mind
Sucked out the hope that lied within mine
I was the light you would need
Wanderer upon the dead sea
Nomad in this barren land.
Worlds away, my heart is gone
Take my desperate hand
Captive in self-loathing calm
A semblance of revenants haunting my thoughts
The temptress you were
The air between your bones is desolate and cold
I was breathing yet I fought for air
That tomb you pulled me down
You were falling to a dark abyss
I should have let you drown
IvIeta ‘gets’ it, rest of y’all can go suck my fat one.