All things Middle East related

Less amusing that the story was sat on so as not to negatively impact POTUS. Same with the Seal Team discipline.

Funny how that works....

I clearly don't understand the assassination of a man who just brokered a peace deal with your country 3 hours earlier.

Israel’s Shortsighted Assassination - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/israels-shortsighted-assassination.html?smid=tw-share)



Passing messages between the two sides, I was able to learn firsthand that Mr. Jabari wasn’t just interested in a long-term cease-fire; he was also the person responsible for enforcing previous cease-fire understandings brokered by the Egyptian intelligence agency. Mr. Jabari enforced those cease-fires only after confirming that Israel was prepared to stop its attacks on Gaza. On the morning that he was killed, Mr. Jabari received a draft proposal for an extended cease-fire with Israel, including mechanisms that would verify intentions and ensure compliance. This draft was agreed upon by me and Hamas’s deputy foreign minister, Mr. Hamad, when we met last week in Egypt.

The goal was to move beyond the patterns of the past. For years, it has been the same story: Israeli intelligence discovers information about an impending terrorist attack from Gaza. The Israeli Army takes pre-emptive action with an airstrike against the suspected terror cells, which are often made up of fighters from groups like Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees or Salafi groups not under Hamas’s control but functioning within its territory. These cells launch rockets into Israeli towns near Gaza, and they often miss their targets. The Israeli Air Force responds swiftly. The typical result is between 10 and 25 casualties in Gaza, zero casualties in Israel and huge amounts of property damage on both sides.

Instead, Mr. Jabari is dead — and with him died the possibility of a long-term cease-fire. Israel may have also compromised the ability of Egyptian intelligence officials to mediate a short-term cease-fire and placed Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt at risk.

This was not inevitable, and cooler heads could have prevailed. Mr. Jabari’s assassination removes one of the more practical actors on the Hamas side.


Israel doesn't want peace. They want to take the Palestine land. That much has been clear over the course of the past 50 years.

Palestinian Civilian Toll Climbs In Gaza : NPR (http://www.npr.org/2012/11/19/165453147/palestinian-civilian-toll-climbs-in-gaza)


Guess the UN isn't completely useless.
U.N. chief warns Israel against Gaza incursion | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/20/us-palestinians-israel-un-idUSBRE8AI19720121120)


I agree with this guy.
Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan Blasts Syria, Israel : NPR (http://www.npr.org/2011/09/26/140790657/turkeys-erdogan-blasts-syria-israel)

Israel doesn't want peace. They want to take the Palestine land. That much has been clear over the course of the past 50 years.

While I do not agree with much of Israel's actions, I would strongly disagree with this. What Israel wants is security within its borders. They have vacated the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in exchange for the promise of peace. If the Hamas stop shooting rockets at them, I would suggest that the Israelites would be happy to leave them alone. As it is, they respond with overwhelming force to these attacks. Further, the Hamas is fundamentally a group opposed to the existence of Israel.

It's like your neighbor, who hates you, throwing rocks into your yard when your kids are playing and, with no police to stop him from doing so, you take it upon yourself to throw hand grenades into his yard to make it stop.

Neither party is blameless in this latest round.

I clearly don't understand the assassination of a man who just brokered a peace deal with your country 3 hours earlier.

Israel’s Shortsighted Assassination - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/israels-shortsighted-assassination.html?smid=tw-share)








Israel doesn't want peace. They want to take the Palestine land. That much has been clear over the course of the past 50 years.


You kind of left out this part.

AHMED AL-JABARI — the strongman of Hamas (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hamas/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the head of its military wing, the man responsible for the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit — was assassinated (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/middleeast/israeli-strike-in-gaza-kills-the-military-leader-of-hamas.html) on Wednesday by Israeli missiles.

Gaza/Palestine/Hamas whatever....one continuous batch of little pricks emboldened and funded by Iran and Eygypt, who in a very stupid way continue to poke the tiger with a stick and then scream foul when the tiger bites them. They get whatever Israel gives them and I hope the USA stands behind Israel 100 %.

Palestinian Civilian Toll Climbs In Gaza : NPR (http://www.npr.org/2012/11/19/165453147/palestinian-civilian-toll-climbs-in-gaza)


Guess the UN isn't completely useless.
U.N. chief warns Israel against Gaza incursion | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/20/us-palestinians-israel-un-idUSBRE8AI19720121120)


I agree with this guy.
Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan Blasts Syria, Israel : NPR (http://www.npr.org/2011/09/26/140790657/turkeys-erdogan-blasts-syria-israel)


The UN won't do shit. First the US is pretty much the UN and the US is not going to go in with the UN. So if the UN tried to go up against Israel they would get their ass kicked.

You kind of left out this part.

AHMED AL-JABARI — the strongman of Hamas (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hamas/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the head of its military wing, the man responsible for the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit — was assassinated (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/middleeast/israeli-strike-in-gaza-kills-the-military-leader-of-hamas.html) on Wednesday by Israeli missiles.


NO, I didn't leave that part out.


Since Mr. Jabari took over the military wing of Hamas, the only Israeli who spoke with him directly was Mr. Shalit, who was escorted out of Gaza by Mr. Jabari himself. (It is important to recall that Mr. Jabari not only abducted Mr. Shalit, but he also kept him alive and ensured that he was cared for during his captivity.)

Changes nothing.

Gaza/Palestine/Hamas whatever....one continuous batch of little pricks emboldened and funded by Iran and Eygypt, who in a very stupid way continue to poke the tiger with a stick and then scream foul when the tiger bites them. They get whatever Israel gives them and I hope the USA stands behind Israel 100 %.

Spoken like a person who's 100% clueless on Israel/Palestine history. Our citizens really need to be educated on world matters, that much is for certain.

NO, I didn't leave that part out.




Changes nothing.

Your highlights left that out and I'd say obducting one of their military is the bigger part of why he got hit. He could have also been in the wrong place at the right time.