Israel continues its air assault on Gaza.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel destroyed the office of the Palestinian interior minister in a series of airstrikes Friday, increasing the pressure on the Hamas government to release a kidnapped soldier a day after it delayed a broad ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.
Also Friday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza was part of a premeditated plan to bring down the Hamas-led government.
Israel’s air force has struck more than 30 targets in Gaza — including the Palestinian Interior Ministry — in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants on Sunday.
Haniyeh said the military offensive was not only about rescuing the soldier, but also crippling Hamas, which has refused to renounce violence since being swept to power in January parliamentary elections.
Hamas needs to be permanently crippled.
And get this chutzpah: Iran requested that the UN Security Council meet to condemn Israel’s response to Hamas’ terrorism.
The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to convene on Friday night (Israel time) to discuss the recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the ongoing IDF incursion into the Gaza Strip and the massive arrests of 64 senior Hamas officials on Thursday.
Iran and Algeria requested the meeting, for the purpose of issuing a condemnation against Israel.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials were working with the United Nations delegation in order to prevent such a condemnation.
On Thursday night, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, to discuss recent events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
She related Israel’s position on the continuing incursion into Gaza and the widespread arrests of 64 Hamas officials on Thursday morning. Livni emphasized Israel’s right to self defense.
Earlier in the day, the G-8 foreign ministers’ summit of developed countries that convened in St. Petersburg, expressed grave concern at the deterioration of the conflict. The diplomats meeting in Russia condemned the arrests and called upon Israel to show restraint.
Where’s the condemnation of Hamas for its kidnapping and murdering of innocent Eliyahu Asheri?
Where is the condemnation for the murder of Eliyahu? Nowhere. Holding Israel to a higher or different standard than the Muslim opppressor or any other entity is the classic definition of antisemitism.
Israel v Palestine? No contest. Israel in 7 hours (not days).
7 hours is even maybe a bit generous lol :p
About the standards comment, to be honest you would be hard pushed to find a country with no double standards… infact I’d bet you $1000 you can’t. Israel is in a position of more responsibility because they are militarily, financially and politically stronger than the Palestinians. I am not saying that it is anywhere near black and white, both sides have done wrong.
I get particularly pissed off when I read some arab twit calling America or Israel terrorists. Terrorism is defined as an indicriminate, intentional and brutal aggressive act against innocent civilians. Blowing yourself up in a crowd of people going to work is terrorism. Killing someone who perpetrates such things is not. Attacking an American or Israeli military object/person is not. Unintentional collatoral damage/death is not. People should understand what terrorism actually means dammit, and it starts with the reporters. I realise that there is no way in hell reporters are going to be able to restrain themselves from using as much of a buzz-word as possible, but when politicians don’t understand the difference between targetting aggressors and civilians – then I get worried. Yes, the militants that the Americans and Israelis kill have friends and families just like the rest of us who will feel pained by their loss, but for crying out loud they are clearly not innocent. If you are niave and retarded you could argue that the citizens of New York who died in 9/11 were not innocent because they elected their leaders who then enraged foreigners against their country, but that assumes that not only is America actually a real democracy which it isn’t, but that all those ordinary people living their lives voted for the leader messing things up AND that they knew that by voting for him that he would end up where he is now! There is absolutely no excuse for randomly murdering people going about their harmless lives, and there is every excuse to try to kill those who do.
If you are niave and retarded you could argue that the citizens of New York who died in 9/11 were not innocent because they elected their leaders who then enraged foreigners…
You wouldn’t be talking about Ward Churchill, by any chance … would you?
No I wasn’t, but I’ve now read up a little bit on who he is and he sounds like an American who has gotten so riled up about his government that he has lost sight of reality. I can completely understand any American who hates their government, but it is absolutely vital that they are able to control their rationality and seperate the government from the people. One word to describe that man – unpatriotic. Patriotism has nothing to do with the goverment, it is all about loving your own nation(people), and he clearly doesn’t.
I actually said that so anyone from an area of the world where it is difficult to stand back and look at America’s current conflict objectively and completely could understand how John Smith working as a debtor analyst in the world trade center is not the same human as Muhammod Al-Whatever who makes suicide bomber vests.
Ed-
…as if the Isr/Pal conflict were some isolated issue not related to the global jihad, except that the Arabs are just trying to finish what Hitler rev’d up after almost 2000 years of virulent European antisemitism —
If anything a double standard is that Israel has become a wussified secular state despite its status as a Jewish state. The arrest of Hamas gov’t is a police action, not a war action, yet she is decried as a Nazi state by all the leftard terror sympathizers.
It is written in the bible that these things are to occure. It will most certainly get worse before it will get better.
No other nation in the world would put up with a gang of terrorist thugs next door. Hamas is openly bent on Israel’s destruction, and actively launches rocket attacks and military assaults against Israel. Israel’s response has been mind-numbingly slow by comparison to what any other nation would have done, and Israel is 100% justified to remove these criminals from power. Hamas is openly engaging in military hostilities with a vastly more powerful neighbor: And now they throw up their arms and ask the world for sympathy? They must be kidding.
What REALLY happens when the UN condemns anybody for anything? Nothing. Condemning Israel would be just another wasted day in the halls of the UN – as they all are. Who gives a f#@k what the UN does…
More reasons to drop the joke ‘Geneva Convention’. Only two countries, the U.S. and the U.K. have or will ever comply with the joke. Drop the Geneva Convention and stop funding the biggest criminal enterprize in the world, The United Nations.
They better build a bigger prison in the Hague. Isn’t it funny how histories most oppressed peoples eventally become the worst oppressors. Like most people in this world, I have absolutely no sympath for Israel – you reap what you sow.