Share this if you agree that Israel has the right to self defense

[zahrasalem 114]

Gooooo Israel!!

Yeah, they need to GO......somewhere else and stop being the bully that they are

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Think about it. What if Mexico or Canada was to start lobbing rockets at the US day in and day out. What would be the reaction then? Yet a few posters on here want to pretend that the rest of us had a recent frontal lobe lobotomy.

Well if they did I hate to say it, we would probably blame it on a video and say it was just a few teenagers shooting bottle rockets. Then we would find out Eric Holder gave the Mexicans the rockets.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Well if they did I hate to say it, we would probably blame it on a video and say it was just a few teenagers shooting bottle rockets. Then we would find out Eric Holder gave the Mexicans the rockets.

This!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

If the Arabs had done it right they would have signed the original mandate agreeing to the right of the State of Israel. Hindsight is 20/20. All the UN resolutions and mandates mean nothing now. It's the end of Gaza as we know it. The map of Israel is about to change once again right after Israel is finished dealing with Hamas.

What mandate ? There was a UN proposal for partition of Palestine which was presented to the General Assembly, then it was forwarded to the Security Council for final determination, which declined to implement it. Then the British Mandate expired and the Zionists unilaterally declared Israel an independent state, based on the borders presented in the UN proposal.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

One state with equal rights for all

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/current-gaza-fighting-reflects-battleground-210344157.html

Current Gaza fighting reflects new battleground

By ARON HELLER | Associated Press – 2 hrs 24 mins ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — With pinpoint airstrikes on militant targets in the Gaza Strip and Iranian-made rockets flying deep into Israel, the current conflagration between Israel and Hamas reflects the vast changes that have taken place on the battlefield in just four years.

Israel, armed with precise intelligence and newly developed munitions, has carried out hundreds of surgical airstrikes in a campaign meant to hit militants hard while avoiding the civilian casualties that have marred previous offensives.

Hamas, meanwhile, has not been stopped from firing its new longer-range rockets that shocked Israelis by reaching the areas around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time, and has revealed a variety of new weapons.

This battle zone is the result of meticulous efforts by both sides to beef up their abilities since a three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza that ended in January 2009.

At that time, Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hamas. But the operation caused widespread damage to the civilian infrastructure and killed hundreds of civilians. The heavy toll drew heavy international criticism and war crimes accusations, despite Israeli protestations that the Islamic militant group was responsible by using schools and residential areas for cover. Thirteen Israelis also were killed in the fighting.

In four days of fighting, Israel has sought to hit clear militant targets — relying on painstaking intelligence gathered through a network of informers, aerial surveillance and other high-tech measures.

Israeli military officials say greater coordination between military intelligence and the Shin Bet security service has allowed deeper infiltration into Hamas ranks and quick decision-making on airstrikes.

An arsenal of high-flying drones constantly hovering above Gaza provides a live picture of movements on the ground.

Other technological means used to avoid collateral damage include specially designed munitions with smaller blowback, a system of sending text messages and automated phone calls to warn residents to vacate areas ahead of strikes and stun explosives that are deployed to create large explosive sounds — to scare off civilians before the real payload is deployed against militants. The officials described the tactics on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

However, the room for error is small. Of the 46 Palestinians killed in the current offensive, 15 have been civilians, according to Palestinian medical officials. In addition, more than 400 civilians have been wounded, the officials say. Israel knows that a single misfire resulting in high numbers of civilian deaths could quickly turn international opinion against it.

The results of the new Israeli tactics were illustrated at the outset of the offensive, when Israel assassinated Hamas' military chief, Ahmed Jabari, in an airstrike in Gaza City.

In a black and white video released by the military, a car carrying Jabari moves slowly along a narrow road before exploding into flames, sending a large chunk of the vehicle flying skyward without injuring bystanders.

Since then, the Israelis have carried out hundreds of surgical airstrikes against weapon depots, launching pads and other targets. On Saturday morning, for instance, a massive airstrike flattened the headquarters of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh but caused little damage to buildings directly adjacent to it. Curious children quickly arrived to inspect the aftermath.

"Many of the targets that we targeted from the air were in very densely populated areas, sometimes they were even near U.N. facilities or schools or recreation centers," said Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman. "This leads us to develop and use very precise ammunitions in order to minimize casualties ... they know Israel has a soft spot for civilian casualties. We have improved significantly in the area."

Uzi Dayan, a former general and national security adviser, said Israeli intelligence has been tracking Hamas individuals and locations for years, waiting patiently for the opportune moment to attack.

"When you discover a place, you don't strike it immediately. You track it, observe it and wait," he said. "Over time, these targets add up."

Another tool is recruiting informers. The task has become harder since Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and lost the immediate interaction with its assets. But the Shin Bet is still prolific in recruiting Palestinians imprisoned in Israel or those who travel to Israel for medical procedures.

Palestinians claim the Shin Bet often blackmails Palestinians into cooperating by threatening to expose details that would shame them or even get them killed at home.

Hamas' military wing killed two Palestinians this week for allegedly providing Israel with sensitive information. One man was shot twice in the head. Another body was found tossed into a garbage bin with a gunshot wound to the head.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said thanks to its intelligence Israel immediately destroyed most of the long-range missile threat against it. Still, Israel has been hit by more than 400 rockets in four days of fighting, including attacks against the Tel Aviv heartland and Jerusalem, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

In several attacks, Hamas said it had unleashed for the first time the most powerful weapons in their arsenal — Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets.

Israel's inability to halt the rocket attacks, after days of intense aerial bombardments, reflects its limitations. Just as Israel has raced to improve its military tactics, Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza have built up their arsenals with large numbers of powerful weapons.

Once limited to crude projectiles manufactured in Gaza, Hamas has used smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt to bring in sophisticated, longer-range rockets from Iran and Libya, which has been flush with weapons since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted last year.

Israel appeared stunned by the attack on Jerusalem, though a day later officials insisted they were aware of the weapon. Hamas said the M-75 missile was made in Gaza, with Iranian assistance.

Hamas officials rejected the Israeli intelligence bravado as propaganda, calling it psychological warfare.

The militants have also done a better job of evading the Israeli military by refraining from using mobile phones or two-way radios and moving frequently from one underground location to another.

In turn, Israel's "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system has provided the country a defensive boost. The military says the system has intercepted nearly 250 rockets, including one heading toward Tel Aviv on Saturday.

The only Israeli deaths in the fighting so far were three civilians who officials said had ignored well publicized security precautions.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/look-israels-iron-dome-missile-defense-194159548.html

A look at Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense

By The Associated Press | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — In four days of fighting against Gaza-based militants, Israel has used a missile-defense system called "Iron Dome" to intercept rockets fired at populated civilian areas. It says the new home-grown system has been a tremendous success. As of Saturday evening, the military said it had shot down some 240 incoming rockets, more than half the number of projectiles launched into Israel since Wednesday.

Here's a quick look at the system:

—Produced by Israeli-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Iron Dome is meant to shoot down rockets and artillery shells with ranges of up to 70 kilometers, or 45 miles. It has been operational since 2011. Officials say it has a roughly 80 percent success rate.

—How it works: The system detects launches of rockets and quickly determines their flight path. If it is headed toward populated areas or sensitive targets, it fires an interceptor with a special warhead that strikes the incoming rocket within seconds. Rockets headed toward open areas area allowed to land.

—Currently, five Iron Dome batteries are deployed in Israel. Most are located in the south near Gaza. A fifth battery was deployed outside Tel Aviv on Saturday, two months ahead of schedule. Hours later, it shot down a rocket headed toward Tel Aviv.

—Missiles cost around $40,000 a piece. In 2010, the U.S. provided $200 million to expand development. Additional funding is currently being considered, with $70 million already allocated for the 2012 fiscal year.

—The system is part of what Israel calls its "multilayer missile defense". It is meant to protect against the tens of thousands of short-range rockets possessed by militants in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Israel has also deployed its "Arrow" missile defense systems for long-range threats from Iran. The military says its new "David's Sling" system, being developed by Rafael to stop medium-range missiles, will be activated by 2014.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-authorizes-more-reservists-rockets-target-cities-042850877.html

Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller | Reuters – 1 hr 28 mins ago

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the "Iron Dome" defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia's foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.

In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh's office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister's office and pledged: "We will declare victory from here."

Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday's rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

"Well that wasn't such a big deal," said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

RESERVIST CALL-UP

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely."

"We have a plan ... it will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two," he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

"Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel's manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

"DE-ESCALATION"

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

"(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries," the statement added.

The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran's nuclear program.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington "wants the same thing as the Israelis want", an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and "de-escalation".

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt's Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes - some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets - and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Casualties, Attacks in Israel-Hamas Conflict

Casualties and attacks in the Israel-Hamas conflict:

— The Israeli military has killed 19 Palestinians, both militants and civilians, in Gaza.

— A rocket fired from Gaza killed three Israeli civilians on Thursday.

— Three rockets targeted Tel Aviv, Israel's population center, for the first time. None caused casualties or damage.

— Gaza militants have fired around 450 rockets at Israel since the start of the operation.

— Israel says its Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted about 130 rockets.

— The Israeli military says it has hit more than 340 targets.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/casualties-attacks-israel-hamas-conflict-17727742#.UKgoJ4f_pck

No reason for Israel to stop now, with a 6:1 kill ratio.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

No reason for Israel to stop now, with a 6:1 kill ratio.

"Don't take a knife to a gunfight."

"Hamas rolled the dice and now they are paying the price."

Gaza is going to look worse than it did right after Operation Lead when it's all said and done and the people there have Hamas to blame for it. Hard to feel too sorry for them seeing how they keep reelecting Hamas when they know what the consequences will be. Hamas actions is getting the people of Gaza killed as it has done several times in the past. Hamas is good for shooting rockets and then running and hiding behind women and children. They are cowards with blood on their hands.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Casualties, Attacks in Israel-Hamas Conflict

Casualties and attacks in the Israel-Hamas conflict:

— The Israeli military has killed 19 Palestinians, both militants and civilians, in Gaza.

— A rocket fired from Gaza killed three Israeli civilians on Thursday.

— Three rockets targeted Tel Aviv, Israel's population center, for the first time. None caused casualties or damage.

— Gaza militants have fired around 450 rockets at Israel since the start of the operation.

— Israel says its Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted about 130 rockets.

— The Israeli military says it has hit more than 340 targets.

http://abcnews.go.co...42#.UKgoJ4f_pck

No reason for Israel to stop now, with a 6:1 kill ratio.

Iron Sieve stopping fewer than 30% of the rockets....

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

They are cowards with blood on their hands.

The Israelis? I agree. If Israel was all that, they would let Palestine arm up, and meet them on the battlefield, man for man, rifle for rifle, tank for tank.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Iron Sieve stopping fewer than 30% of the rockets....

You should have read up on the Iron Dome. The Hamas rockets that are headed towards the desert aren't fired upon. The Hamas rockets that are headed towards civilian targets are fired upon. If Hamas fires 10 rockets and only three look like they will hit a target then only those three rockets are fired on. Makes sense seeing how it cost $40,000 per rocket.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

You should have read up on the Iron Dome. The Hamas rockets that are headed towards the desert aren't fired upon. The Hamas rockets that are headed towards civilian targets are fired upon. If Hamas fires 10 rockets and only three look like they will hit a target then only those three rockets are fired on. Makes sense seeing how it cost $40,000 per rocket.

It's about $50,000 per rocket; U.S. taxpayer money. And its incredible precision is why 3 people got killed in Kiryat Malachi.