Israel has mobilized 6,700 reservists in preparation for a ground invasion of Gaza.
Israeli warplanes continue striking at Hamas targets.
40 tunnels Hamas used to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza from Egypt have been destroyed.
Key Hamas security locations have been demolished. Three Hamas leaders have been killed.
Palestinians claim over 270 dead and over 700 wounded.
Military analysts say that Hamas has laid booby-traps along the main routes in Gaza, road-side bombs capable of destroying a tank; foxholes and trenches to be used to fire anti-tank rockets.
Nearly 20,000 fighters await the Israeli invasion, according to press reports. Most of them have been trained by Iranian experts. The same experts who have taught bomb making to Hamas and Hezbollah 'militants.'
But Desmond Tutu said today that Israel's actions bear the hallmark of "war crimes."
The UN has called for a cease-fire of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Russia has called for a cease-fire.
The UN Security Council has called for an immediate halt to the Gaza violence.
Where were these critics when Hamas snuck into Israel and kidnapped Gilad Shalit?
Where were these critics when Hamas fired nearly 3,000 rockets into Israel in 2008?
Where were these critics over the last eight years, when Hamas sent thousands of rockets into Israel?
What did they think, that the rockets bounced off the ground and fell harmlessly into a hole in a game of deadly marbles?
The longer one lives the more one sees the disproportionate criticism of Israel. Absorbing the missile fire from Gaza was okay, but responding isn't.
One longs to put pictures of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip settlements on the news, reminding people that Israel withdrew unilaterally, in response to the world's criticism that Israel was occupying Arab lands. Critics used this as the excuse for the Hamas violence against Israel. The "militants" were simply trying to drive the occupying forces from their lands. What the critics didn't say, and what Hamas did say, was that leaving Gaza was only the first step. Hamas wanted to drive Israel from all the land, from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ashdod, Kfar Saba, Ranana, Haifa, and all the lands in between. What Hamas didn't say was that they wanted to link up with other radical Islamic forces and take over the region, and then the Western world. Israel, the upstart bunch of Jews, who were second class citizens in the Arab world, were in the way.
Where were the critics then? Israel was lauded for pulling out of Gaza, but that pull out didn't stop Hamas from firing into Israel. Now they had no real excuse, just hatred and maniacal behavior.
The world forgets it was Hamas behind the bombings in Israel. Then they claimed it was because of the occupation. Now, missiles fly into Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kryiat Gat, and for what reason? Retaliation for the air strikes? The missiles were flying in long before those air strikes.
If the UN wanted to be fair, just, open-minded, then they'd send troops into Gaza to get the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fanatics to stop firing into Israeli territory.
Since no one has lifted a finger to help Israel, the IDF has decided to take the matter of Israel's security into their own hands. Blame was expected. The pictures pouring out of Gaza all come from the Palestinian sources, so do the numbers of dead and injured.
Cries go out from the Hamas leadership, shut up underground as was Nasrallah during the ceaseless rocket fire by Hezbollah into Israel in 2006. Hamas leader Hanniyah is calling for the Arab world to come to his defense. Riots have broken out in Arab communities around the world. When the Hamas rockets were falling on Israel, the only dissent Jewish supporters of Israel made were in letters to the editor.
Sixty five years ago the Nazis decided to end the Jewish question once and for all. In 1942 the German army was soundly defeated in Stalingrad, due mainly to the orders issued by Adolph Hitler to his generals. A crazy man leading a nation. What more could have been expected than to lose the war and disgrace the country? But people followed him. His skill lay in his rhetorical skills and his monumental ego. He was a super-salesman, selling not cars or soap, but glory and hate.
Hamas in the form of Hanniyah in Gaza and Halid Mashal in Damascus is no better than the Nazi party. They preach glory, dying for Allah and going to heaven, and hatred of the infidel.
When the Jews were dying in the camps, burned and shot and gassed in the millions, no one came in to help. No rail lines were bombed. No concentration camps were bombed. No gas chambers were destroyed. It took the Allies six years to liberate the camps, and then they were not a target but simply something along the way to Berlin or Munich. The Jews died while the world was occupied with other matters.
As Hillel wrote: "If I am not for me, who is? If not now, when?"
Today Israel is for itself.
Some do take a different tack.
The USA has rightly said that Hamas brought on the attacks themselves. Israel is
merely responding. President Elect Barak Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, and hasn't
yet made a statement on the issue. Luckily for him there was a power outage where
he was staying. Lucky or convenient?
Australia has said that Hamas broke the truce and Israel has responded.
Egypt has said that the Hamas attacks brought on this response.
The Palestinian authority has said much the same thing but will have to back track
in the face of Arab pressure. PA President Abbas was conveniently out of the country when the attacks occurred, but he cannot avoid facing his own people sooner or later.
Israel knows the window of opportunity for this response is limited. Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has said the operation might last months, but observers doubt Israel will be allowed by the UN and others to act indefinitely. At best pundits believe Israel will be in a stronger position to ask for favorable terms in the event of a new ceasefire. At worse, the situation could spin out of control, due to some as yet unforeseen element that might arise in the heat of battle, emerge from the fog of war.
Meanwhile, it would be nice if those needed would stand up and say, 'Hey, these guys are terrorists. They deserve nothing short of complete and utter defeat. Drive them out as the IDF did Arafat back in '81. Send them into exile.'
One Arab mother speaking to a Sky News reporter supported Hamas' fight against Israel, but then privately, when the Hamas minder had left, told the reporter in Arabic that she and her friends were sick of Hamas sending everyone's children but their own out to die. Like many others in Gaza, this mother would like to see the 'backs of Hamas.'
Perhaps this Israeli action will be that catalyst.
