Elder of Ziyon - Comments here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of EoZ
Elder,
As I understand it (as explained earlier, no definitive text of the truce agreement seems to have been leaked), Hamas accepted total responsibility for all rockets and other attacks coming from Gaza - Israel could hardly promise to not ever move into Gaza in return for only one terrorist group holding its fire.
I have read a report stating, that the op in november against the tunnel was launched based on intelligence derived from an arrested would-be suicide bomber coming from the Gaza strip. Needless to say, a suicide bomber coming from the strip would be a breach of the truce, too.
Also, some sources seem to say that Israel merely promised not to launch "large-scale" raids, into cities and refugee camps. Maintaining the razed strip of land in front of the border would be OK, fex, and indeed on the morning of november 4th, PCHR reports IDF troops racing several dunums of land in front of the border without Gaza erupting with rockets. The agreement thus seems to have allowed at least some movement into the strip by the IDF.
When the IDF moved into the strip on november 4th around 20:30 to target the tunnel, it seems to have been Hamas that opened fire on the IDF first, not vice versa. Hitting IDF troops with mortars, six IDF soldiers were hurt by mortar grenades, prompting an IDF helicopter attack that neutralized a mortar position and killed a Hamas man. At around the same time, Islamic Jihad and Hamas started firing, prompting IDF raids on rocket cells, killing 5 Hamas men and one from Islamic Jihad.
PCHR claims that the first shots fired were when the IDF was emptying a building of its inhabitants. PCHR says a 27-year-old was hit in the back, but makes sure not to say who hit her, so its words cant be falsified. Instead, the organisation implies IDF forces shot her by adding that clashes between Hamas and IDF then ensued.
Needless to say, PCHR has a habit of twisting chronology, but there is little in the way of detail from IDF sources to hold it up against.
Henrik
A concise and well-argued piece.
Well done. Hope you were one of the many reactions Falk got on his article.
Found an interesting poll in Al-Arabiya:
According to the first opinion poll conducted since the start of the Israeli bombardment does 60% of the Palestinians in Gaza believe that the decision of Hamas to end the truce was not correct and that Hamas should have renewed the truce.
77% of the Fatah supporters believed that ending the truce was a big mistake.
76% of the Hamas supporters believed it was a good decision to end the truce.
A majority, 54% of the population, was in favor of the factions to launch rockets from Gaza towards Israel.
72% of Fatah supporters however were against firing rockets.
92% of Hamas supporters were pro.
The poll was carried out in the periode 29-30 December by Near East Consulting (hope google autotranslate, translated that name well). 453 people were asked, men and women, (not a large number of people being asked though) throughout different areas in Gaza, but the northern part of the strip as telephone lines got cut. Margin error would be about 4,6%.
The answers on the question which basic need their families needed most (besides security):
42% said food
20% said electricity
and then there is some part of the sentence i could not understand well...
the rest of the percentages were medicines, fuel, national unity, financial aid, freedom of movement.
64% (!) of the population believes that the aim of Israel is to weaken Hamas and Fatah relations more.
22% believe it is to strengthen them (? if understood that correctly)
15% believe that the goal is to strengthen Fatah.
41% believed that the Palestinian Authority will post the most current circumstances (dunno what that means)
38% believes it will emerge stronger
21% that there will be no change.
40% believe that Israel will come out more vulnerable out of this war
36% believe it would come out stronger.
24% believe there would be no change.
47% believe that Hamas will emerge stronger after the war
41% believe it would end up weaker
12% that there would be no change
(and something they refer to which i dont understand either so i skip that one...)
Support for fatah = 28%
Hamas = 14%
and other factions = 8%
As you can see, half of the population (50%) does not place any trust in any of the factions in the Palestinian arena.
http://66.102.9.104/translate_c?
...jk3lIb7iKPtl0_Q
btw:
Saudi TV banned in Gaza
Just reported by people inside Gaza, Hamas banned the Saudi propaganda TV Al-Arabiya to report from inside Gaza. The same TV accused before of sending the locations of Hamas to the Israelis.
For the fun, Al-Arabiya [which means “The Arabic” in Arabic] domain name on the internet in Alarabiya.net, but you should try www.alibriya.net [and that means “The Hebrew” in Arabic].
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2009/...banned-in-gaza/
Tried "the Hebrew" and it leads to al-arabiya.
Anyhow, don't see anything about it mentioned so far on their own website.
Here is another piece to fisk.
Well, I guess AlJazeera.com decided enough was enough with that poll showing too much Pro-Jew sentiment:
http://www.aljazeera.com/vote/vo...voteid=401&
sr=1
The results are now showing 9,181,790 votes, with 1.91% (175,372.19 people) supporting Israel, and 98.09% (9,006,417.8 people) supporting Hamas. Thank you to the stalwart .19th of a person who supports Israel, and yar-boo-sucks-to-you to the .8th of a person who can't overcome their anti-Jew feelings!
The US non-liberal, non-Democrat website Jawa Report, which has always been supportive of Israel and is the epicenter of the ongoing E-Counter-Jihad, has an interesting writeup, including screenshots, that show Al-Jazzera has clearly "adjusted" this poll to show off their Jew-hating credentials to the World.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/...ives/
195686.php
Don't forget Islamic math. 1 Jewish hostage = 1,000 Muslim hostages minimum. They obviously were just applying that formula to the vote results to keep things accurate in that Islamic way. Because you know there are thousands of Jews surfing the aljazeera website everyday. BTW what were you doing there Mohammed.
"BTW what were you doing there Mohammed.
jhrhv | 01.03.09 - 9:55 pm | #"
Any day you need a ringing endorsement for "A**clown of the Year", jhrhv, just let me know, okay?
And "your so welcome" for providing you the link you posted on LGF....ingrate.
"A concise and well-argued piece.
Aaron Carine | 01.02.09 - 8:55 pm | #"
Nice to see all the Anti-Jew folks sticking together, Aaron. Are you posting this from your "Human-Shield" position in Gaza? If not, WHY NOT?
I didn't get any karma points for it. Don't you post there I never see your name?
Teddy,
Now that I have voted I think its almost two percent!
Whoo Hoo~
Did anyone hear about the pro Isreal activist in SF that was murdered in the building where he was taking Arabic? He was learning it to find out what they were chanting at anti israel rallys and was found under suspicious curcumstances at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The family thinks its foul play since he was so active.
"I didn't get any karma points for it.
jhrhv | 01.03.09 - 11:50 pm | #"
Actually, you did, in the form of an up-ding. The very last you receive from me over there, you can be assured of that, habibi.
"Don't you post there I never see your name?
jhrhv | 01.03.09 - 11:50 pm | #"
Ever heard of Opsec?
"Teddy,
Now that I have voted I think its almost two percent!
Whoo Hoo~
callie | 01.04.09 - 12:06 am | #"
Cool beans!
"Did anyone hear about the pro Isreal activist in SF that was murdered in the building where he was taking Arabic?
callie | 01.04.09 - 12:06 am | #"
Yes, the story's disappeared, though. The last bit on it was on Arutz Sheva;
http://www.israelnationalnews.co...ews.aspx/
128689
and JTA.
http://jta.org/news/article/2008...israel-
activist
And that was almost a month ago...
Ever heard of Opsec?
Mohammed the Teddy-Bear | 01.04.09 - 1:18 am
Nudge nudge wink wink say no more.
Commenting by HaloScan
