infiltrate to Kibbutz Sufa, near the southern Gaza-Israel border, via an underground tunnel. IDF video footage of the terrorist scurrying back into the tunnel, followed by blowing up the tunnel/tunnel entrance - brief story and video linked below.
My own notes from the past couple of days: 2 days ago when I tried to deliver a sample of my wines (the 2nd set of samples) to the Israel Wine Institute in Rehovot I could not as the Institute had closed due to incoming missile warnings. Yesterday I was out checking on and working in one of my vineyard sources near Givat Yeshayahu, a small farming village south of Bet Shemesh. As I worked in the vineyard doing leaf-pulling, 2 IAF attack helicopters flew a few meters over my head, heading south. About 10 minutes after that, an IDF armored ground vehicle pulled up nearby me and checked me out. After seeing me they simply asked if everything was OK, I said fine and asked if there was a problem in the area to which they said "no!"
But they wouldn't have been so on top of me if they weren't expecting something in the immediate area. Givat Yeshayahu as mentioned is a farming community, a diverse one that has a fair share of good quality wine grape vineyards. I have worked with a few different farmers in the area since I first came to Israel in 1997. The first vineyards planted strictly for me are in this area: 5+ acres of harder to find varieties Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, and Petite Sirah. I plan to build my winery in this area.
One of the farmers I've worked with has Romanian, US, and Israeli citizenship and is a staunch Israeli liberal, who doesn't think Israel should have settlements in the West Bank at all. He regularly works with local Arabs in his vineyards, including and most importantly his vineyard foreman. Some of the Arabs he works with live over the green line in the west Bank, some on the Israeli side. During conflicts such as the current one, his workers have difficulty crossing the border.
A few weeks ago I had a pleasant conversation with his vineyard foreman as he saw me pulling leaves in the adjacent vineyard; we discussed the pros and cons of the level and timing of the leaf removal I was doing. Yesterday neither he nor any other Arab workers were anywhere to be found in the area.
Hamas' actions recently take work away from their own people.
The Jewish Press reports - ( New Window )
Thanks for the heads up!
So is this sort of like an Israeli version of humblebrag?
lol
. Poor little David going up against the giant Goliath. Poor Goliath, quick David had the technological advantage, it was a slaughter. At the end he stood astride the lumbering slob who the sling shot had rendered unconscious and David reached down and took the giants own sword and beheaded him..."so that all the people of all the earth will know that their exists a god belonging to Israel.
and it hasn't changed, the one guy has god on his side,
we give the one side tanks ,planes, advanced computer net works and in defiance of the worlds condemnation and UN bans we give them the bomb. The big lumbering guy? We make sure that tanks, bombs, missles, and defense systems are denied him. And so he fights with Molotov cocktails, and obsolete rocket launches. He loses hundreds, thousands more wounded, the other side loses one person. We label the man aiming the smart bomb from a modern jet
fighter ....hero and underdog and the poor loser who is burying his kid ..we label him terrorist and bully.
Hamas says they will continue to fight (and die)until Israel releases the strangle hold on the Gaza strip that impoverishes the people herded into the area and has been roundly condemned by the world.
The people impoverishing the Palestinians are their own leaders.
I'm not even going to bother with most of this drivel, but I would like to point out that "we" most certainly did not give Israel the bomb. They developed it on their own.
It seems you don't have a clue what the term terrorist means.
Link - ( New Window )
. Poor little David going up against the giant Goliath. Poor Goliath, quick David had the technological advantage, it was a slaughter. At the end he stood astride the lumbering slob who the sling shot had rendered unconscious and David reached down and took the giants own sword and beheaded him..."so that all the people of all the earth will know that their exists a god belonging to Israel.
and it hasn't changed, the one guy has god on his side,
we give the one side tanks ,planes, advanced computer net works and in defiance of the worlds condemnation and UN bans we give them the bomb. The big lumbering guy? We make sure that tanks, bombs, missles, and defense systems are denied him. And so he fights with Molotov cocktails, and obsolete rocket launches. He loses hundreds, thousands more wounded, the other side loses one person. We label the man aiming the smart bomb from a modern jet
fighter ....hero and underdog and the poor loser who is burying his kid ..we label him terrorist and bully.
Hamas says they will continue to fight (and die)until Israel releases the strangle hold on the Gaza strip that impoverishes the people herded into the area and has been roundly condemned by the world.
Apparently it held up, but the moment it expired, a rocket hit Israel
When the fuck has Hama's ever said their goal is "to release Israel's stranglehold on Gaza?"
Their explicitly stated goal is to drive every Jew out of "Palestine." Period. Nothing less than that.
Why on earth does anyone not get that by now? Deliberate stupidity? WTF?
Hamas fires 40 rockets fired into Israel since end of humanitarian truce today. 3 intercepted.
link - ( New Window )
Link - ( New Window )
Link - ( New Window )
The weapons were found in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA said in a statement, adding that the school was vacant.
UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations. This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law, the statement read.
The discovery would seem to confirm Israels oft-repeated claim that Hamas and other Gazan terror groups use civilian infrastructure to hide weapons.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/20-missiles-found-in-un-run-school-in-gaza/#! - ( New Window )
Link - ( New Window )
The idea that Hamas needs to stir up the people is as,valid as saying the blacks were happy under slavery. The Palestinians are unhappy, they are locked into Gaza in violation of every international decree. Israel claims that releasing those barriers threatens her safety, and certainly that has validity too.
Certainty the Arabs handle this poorly and should have accepted Israel ,if not on moral grounds, but as a practical reality. But Israel doesn't want that either. Outside dangers keeps Israel united and gives her an excuse to continue outrageous and I would judge cruel and criminal behavior in the Wear bank...that Israel covets not only as war bounty but as part of gods promise. So every time they need to show the world intemperate the Arabs are, knock down another complex and displace another thousand people.
This is our holy war. We have a strange bond of very unlike bedfellows. The strong Christian right that believes in the literalness of the Old Testament and the rich highly intellectual American Jewish community. I would argue that the one is the worst of us and the other the best of us. But standing together they are strong and any disagreement is shunted off as anti sematicism.
I have heard the mayor of Jerusualem say that "of course they will never surrender the city, God gave it to us".
I have seen the brilliant and engaging Israeli Minister of Defense lean across the table on The Charlie Rose show and tell his Egyptian counterpart, "but you see it's all our land, God gave it to us.".
Take God out of the equation and Israel s claims lose their power and in that sense I think this is our holy war.
And as much as I admire, like and respect American Jews, and I do, I sometimes wonder at the intellect that demands that America take god, and part curly Christianity out of all parts of govt at both the federal and local level while they support a theocracy that outdoes anything that The Ayatollas want in Iran or The Taliban wants in Afghanistan. Ahhh and that's her ultimate dilemma, in the consuming urge to create a "Jewish" State what do you do with The Palestinians?
. Now as far as labeling me an idiot, everything I have read says that Hamas goals are limited and defined. There is the freedom of passage and the release of a specified number of political prisoners. Presented with contrary evidence I will offer a retraction. What is more likely, I would suggest, is that you haven't read anything about this specific issue and apply the bromide for every occasion that masks and justifies Israels intemperate moves.
. To me, and I'm a man who actually reads the bible in a min religious sense, the huge contradiction is: Yes,god gave the Jews (in a bible I don't believe in but The Jew and Christian does) the land, but he took it away when they sinned and disregarded him. So while I don't think that religious believes should parade as international policy, I find that even using same that Israel has trumped herself.
would've saved yourself a lot of keystrokes there, grizz.
i wonder why some people jump to "anti sematicism" when they read garbage like that...
Wow, just wow. Obvious troll is obvious.
And if you do that,since Israel was created a State for the Jewish peoples, is it not the land and State to be controlled by a Jewish citizenry, and wherein others must obey their(non religious)laws? Not dissimilar in that aspect as illegals/undocumented/non-US citizens must obey US laws?
Anyway, stay safe Lou.
Now we may be going to war with Iran over a UN charter that forbids that country from getting the bomb.
Only America,subject to the Chritian right and the Jewish left, doesn't think that's crazy.
Ahh but Israel is good and little and they are bad and zealots'.
The diaspora was fact before the Roman occupation and way before the time of Christ. There was a thriving Jdwush settlement in New Holland, France, Poland, Germany, Russia.
The injustice of the Dreyfus affair started the Zionism movement and the creation of a homeland. The shameful horrors of The Holocaust sealed the deal. So now we have a people who have not leaved in Israel for about 2500 years laying claim to it. The Arab /Persian world has been living under Imperialism since Alexander the Great. Cleopatra was not Egyptian, she was Macadonean (a part of Greece) The hieroglyphics in the pyramids would never have been deciphered without the Rosetta stone because the occupation was so intense that the Egyptian language is banned. Next The Romans occupy, then the Ottoman empire (who btw, loot the beautiful white marble that covered the great pyramid at Gaza). As the Ottoman empire recedes (The Turks at that time were considered part of Europe) The Western powers move in and carve up the Near East. Germany, France and England take territories and create countries and boundaries artificially.
. Against this now the worldwide Jewish community says, "hey we've been mistreated, we need our own homeland, we re taking Israel because se lived there briefly some 2500 years ago. Arabs asked for and got a meeting with FDR on a battleship as the war was winding down . "hey', they said, we feel sorry about what happened , but we didn't do it,make Germany give them land". Roosevelt supposedly was convinced and wouldn't have backed the un charter. Truman laughed and said there weren't a lot of Arabs voting.
The people of the Near East didn't see Semites returning, they saw Westerners and saw an extension of imperialism. Ben Gureon had said terrorism is all right as ling as its Jewish, so he blew up hotels with British troops them. The people of the area said, we have lived in peace with the Jews who stayed here but we will resist this incursions if Westeners who have no right to the land save through a bible we,don't believe in, and if you have America backing you and if you have the f16,the Abrams, the apache, The cruise missile and the Hydrogen bomb we will resist with any means we can and we will label the man you label as a terrorist as our freedom fighter.
And so it was and so it will be.
Israel was humane in many ways,much of the land was purchased at fair market price. And the Arabs might have concentrated on making their people better off and not resenting so much as Jewish work ethic, brilliance (along with tons of foreign money) transformed the land.
But the bible is really worth reading. It can make your hair stand on end as a testimony to ethnic cleansing and genocide. The lord punished the Egyptians for enslaving his chosen people. He freed the Jews and they wandered in the desert, through the time of Moses and beyond. God sent them to Israel, told them this was the land he had promised them . God appeared to his people in full battle gear, told Joshua to kill all the inhabitants...women children, dogs...all were to be killed. Joshua was fearful ,march round the walls ,sound your horn and the walks will fall down. Joshua did as,instructed, the walls fell down, z Jews killed every man woman, child and bet. Hebron was next, every man woman and child only the kings heads were displayed ,because Jehovah wanted the unclean to know his power. The slaughter continued,came the last town /city and the killing was going slowly (maybe even Joshua was getting tired of seeing kids slaughtered), but God appeared again in person, he extended the day,stopped the sun in the sky,took his sword and personally made sure that all the woman and children were killed.
And that's how The Jews came to occupy Israel. Only it didn't last long. David, Saul and Solomon three generations and The Northern and The Southern kingdoms warred against each other, the weakened remains fell prey to aeons of occupiers and God turned on his people for Sodem and Gremora (sp?) and for ignoring him.
And that has been used to support this current invasion and occupation.
Israel has to be supported. But the bible is a poor basis for doing it and the vile acts she is doing with the settlements should be stopped forwith.
just like his other rambling post, the most recent one can be summarized as "joos are bad."
Compared to this guy, Yogi Berra sounds like Sir Lawrence Olivier reading Shakespeare.
JERUSALEM The Israeli military announced a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip late Thursday after 10 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.
"Our goal is to target Hamas' tunnels that enable terrorists to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks," Israel Defense Forces announced on Twitter.
The move comes hours after fighting between Israel and Hamas militants resumed following a brief lull to allow Gaza residents to stock up on food and other supplies.
Two hours into that cease-fire early Thursday, Israelis near the border were forced back into bomb shelters after rockets were launched at them. After that, the five-hour truce held until exactly at its end, when Gaza militants began launching at least 40 rockets and mortars into Israeli towns and cities. Sirens sounded as far north as Herzilya, in the center of Israel.
consistently ca-razy.
note the expert use of alliteration. sorry folks, some talents just can't be taught.
So I'm not really sure your point-- but the whole "ethnic cleansing" propaganda is absurd.
Palestinians, ethinically, are no different from many other Arabs in the area and they didn't start calling themselves Palestinians until 50 years ago.
There are many Arabs in Israel who live normal lives, are citizens, and there are Arabs in Parliament. The Israelis are not trying to eradicate these people.
Furthermoe, the Palestinian population keeps growing.
stop holding out on us, Lou.
On Thursday, the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees, announced that it had discovered rockets hidden in a vacant Gaza school.
If that's true, clearly Hamas wouldn't really hesitate to use their own citizens as shields and then snap twitter photos when Israel blows up a school used to stockpile rockets.
Once Israel commits ground forces as they have, they will not abate until certain objectives have been met. Those being the destruction of Hamas' capability to store and fire missiles from the northern part of Gaza.
You're better than me. I stopped after three words...not worth the agita this early in the AM.
Listen, I think you make a big error in viewing Israel is if there is some single common agenda driving the government here, other that retaining it's character as a "Jewish" state, which MOST of all means a safe haven for Jews, and second of all means a state where broadly accepted Jewish values prevail. And "Jewish values" include an awful lot of things that would also easily be described as "humanitarian" values...
Getting back to the politics of it a bit, Israel is a very alive and thriving multi-party democracy: much, much moreso that than a "theocracy."
Being a multi-party democracy, the agendas of each PM (and government in general) change, sometimes rather drastically, with each change in the ruling party and it's coalition.
What moved me from being pretty far leftist and a dove to the moderate right was the way Arafat and the Palestinians responded to Ehud Barak's clear leftist win and strong mandate as PM to finally "close" the establishment of a Palestinian state at Camp David with the guidance and encouragement of Bill Clinton.
Arafat basically spat in the faces of both Barak and Clinton. He not only refused to accept the deal (Barak put the "best offer" in years on the table for the Palestinians, including giving the PA control over and a capital for their state in East Jerusalem, which is very, very difficult for the Israeli public to support) he refused to negotiate. Barak was leading a coalition that likely would have bent over backwards to accede to PA demands had the demands been at all reasonable and had they been presented and pressured for in a peaceful way - ie with hunger strikes, or non-violent demonstrations, etc etc.
But rather than negotiation of any peaceful and progressive sort, Arafat actually mobilized terror cells both withing the West Bank, Gaza, and even among Israeli Arabs living inside of Israel, and raised the 2nd "Intifada."
This was the point that I realized finally myself that the Palestinian Arabs don't want Peace with Israel, they want Israel destroyed, gone, wiped off the map.
We cannot broker peace with these people, not until an enlightened leader like a Ghandi or a Mandela appears on the scene to lead them.
Or like Golda Meir said, until they "decide to love their children more than they hate Israel."
Israel Bombs Gazas Only Rehab Hospital: Staff Forced to Evacuate Paralyzed Patients After Shelling - ( New Window )
I think you neglected this part:
"...Who says the hospital received a warning call ahead of the assault. "
So say rockets and other weapons are stored in the hospital (which Hamas tends to do, along with schools, mosques and other "civilian buildings), what is Israel supposed to do? THIS IS HAMAS' TACTIC. If Israel always took the moral position, a lot more rockets would be shot into Israel. Israel does and always have tried to minimize civilian casualties, but it's not their fault that Hamas uses the civilians as pawns. That's also part of the reason why Israel decided to invade by ground.
I have hard time imagining The IDF would shell this place without reason. Interesting that no one was hurt, despite the extensive damage to the building, and despite that it was full of patients who ignored 11 days worth of Israeli warnings that it would be targeted.
Yathink maybe Hamas does some business from their basement?
Israel awoke this morning to the 13th day of the Gaza War. In the distance,
the explosions of the ongoing battle can be heard. And on the TV screens,
pictures of the terrible cost of this war that has been forced upon us are
broadcast continually.
The expected sacrifice has begun. Five young men have died. Each with a life
and a future. Each with
families and loved ones. Each with a destiny that could have blessed many.
And each with a part to play in the building of this nation. Today, their
loved ones are mourning, those destinies have been cut off and the part that
each might have played in building this nation is forever gone.
In a few hours, the funerals will begin as Israel honors those who have
fallen in battle. Sadly, this has always been a part of our nation's
history. Each Passover we recite; "In every generation there have been those
who have risen up against us." Today it is Hamas, yesterday it was Hezbollah
in Lebanon, a few generations ago, it was Germany. We have never initiated
these battles. We have never done anything to deserve them. And yet, even
while we bury our dead, we continue to pray that the God of peace would
bring peace to all Israel.
Front Line Reports
Tunnel Destruction
Over the years, Hamas has built a large number of tunnels, many of them
originating from under private homes and exiting into Israel. The purpose of
these tunnels is to give Hamas terrorists access into Israel so that they
can carry out terrorist attacks and kidnap soldiers and civilians. The
destruction of these tunnels is the first goal of the ground action in Gaza.
As of this morning, fifteen of them have been destroyed. Yesterday 2
soldiers were killed when terrorists exited one of these hidden tunnels
within Israel and fired on an army vehicle patrolling the area.
Last night the government authorized a broadening of the offensive, as the
IDF looks towards the cities of Gaza, where most of Hamas' weapons are
hidden. The placement of these weapons under hospitals
, schools and other civilian locations in the midst of crowded neighborhoods
is not only a flagrant violation of international law but a sinister part of
the enemy's strategy to ensure that there will be many civilian casualties.
Hamas willingly sacrifices its innocent people to ensure that world opinion
turns against Israel.
It would be far safer and easier for Israel to destroy these weapons from
the air but this nation's commitment to minimize civilian casualties
necessitates the entry of Israeli troops into these incredibly crowded
locations. In contrast to Hamas, Israel will put its soldiers in harm's way
to save Palestinian lives. How strange modern warfare is!
During the night, large numbers of additional infantry and tanks have
entered into Gaza in preparation for this next phase of the battle.
To date, fifteen soldiers have been wounded with two in serious condition.
Attacks Against Israel's Population Centers
The number of rocket attacks against Israel decreased by 30% yesterday, a
measure of progress against Hamas.
Yesterday, a Hamas missile fell on a Bedouin family killing the father and
seriously wounding a young child. This casualty highlights the obvious truth
that every missile that is fired into Israel is aimed at civilians.
Numerous homes and apartments have been damaged by the ongoing barrage of
rockets on Israel's population centers but miraculously the cost in human
life has been remarkably low. Israel has called up over 50,000 reservists to
active duty. That is the equilavent of the US calling up 3,000,000
reservists to serve in the army!
World Opinion
London, Paris, Holland, Chile, Turkey, Egypt and the United States is a
short list of the nations that are being shaken by demonstrations against
Israel's actions in this current war. And even more ominous is the
overwhelming hatred of Jews that is being expressed in many of these
demonstrations. In Paris, the cry rang out in the night air: "Kill the
Jews". From Turkey comes the accusation that "Israel is worse than Hitler".
In London, a Jewish man fled for his life as an angry mob chased him because
he is a Jew. (Click on picture to see video of riots in Paris.)
Yeshua said that in the Last Days men would call evil good and good evil.
One of the hallmarks of these
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A158A2A612>
demonstrations is the inability of people to rightly discern truth. Israel
did not commit aggression in the current war. It started when Hamas began to
indiscriminately fire missiles into Israel's cities. Hamas is the aggressor.
Israel is the victim. Hamas is openly and publicly committed to the
destruction of Israel. Israel has repeatedly called for peace and
coexistence. If the world loved truth, then demonstrations would be against
Hamas, not Israel. The willingness of people to gather against Israel and
ignore the incomprehensible evil that is being lived out on the global stage
today, only highlights that the spirit of antisemitism is alive and thriving
in today's world.
The violent demonstrations in Europe's democracies are particularly
frightening as these were the very nations that fought and sacrificed so
much against the forces of evil in the Second World War. The popularity of
hating Jews and Israel in these nations and the complete absence of any
demonstration of support for Israel is symptomatic of the Islamization of
many of these nations. Their populations will soon discover that human
rights, democracy and Islam do not coexist.
As Israel commits its soldiers to the battle, the determination of this
nation is only increasing. We understand that the struggle will be hard, the
cost high. Already Israel's important tourist industry has taken a
significant turn downward. (If you are one of those who is considering
canceling your soon trip to Israel, I encourage you to please come. Your
presence is a great encouragement to the people) The financial cost of this
war is huge and the price that we are paying in human life and suffering is
immeasurable. As difficult as it is, there is no choice. May God have mercy.
We are deeply grateful for your love and support. Together we will see the
goodness of God victorious on the earth.
Prayer Points
This is a critical moment and we ask you to please join us
in prayer.
* Thousands of Israeli men are in danger as they do battle in the Gaza
Strip. Pray for God's protection on each one of them.
* Pray for the familes of those who lost loved ones in the current
battle
* Pray that God would raise up voices of truth to counter the
anti-Israel dialogue that is so prevalent.
* Pray for wisdom for Israel's leaders.
* Pray that the Palestinian people would begin to see how they are
being exploited by their leaders.
* Pray for the knowledge of Yeshua to be manifest in the hearts of
many, both Jews and Palestinians during this war.
We send you our love from Zion,