Operation pillar of cloud. Israeli assault on Gaza

[DownwardDog]

As I posted earlier, the thing about the Fajr 5 is not only that they have a much wider range but that they have a much wider firing ground too. In other words, the Israelis will have to target or search a much wider area in order to find or destroy them. This means that a larger ground invasion than last time is a serious prospect simply because they will have to search a larger area

In some aspects it's easier to find a Fajr-5 launch site. The missile has a much longer flight time and is much bigger making it easier to track, intercept and interpolate the launch location. Also, the Fajr-5 TEL is big, slow and conspicuous. It's a very different game from three raggy lads in a Toyota Hi-Lux with assorted plumbing supplies.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Anonymous targets Israeli websites in response to Gaza conflict

Anonymous
A website said to be that of an Israeli military contractor displays messages from Anonymous hackers.

Hacker collective Anonymous has embarked on a campaign to harass and disable Israeli websites in response to the country's attacks on those tied to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The attacks are not limited to government websites; dozens of ".il" and otherwise Israeli-associated sites can be seen to have been taken down or defaced.
The intentions of Anonymous were announced on the file-sharing site PasteBin, which allows anyone to place and access simple text documents.

The document reads in part:

Anonymous does not support violence by the IDF or by Palestinian Resistance/Hamas. Our concern is for the children of Israel and Palestinian Territories and the rights of the people in Gaza to maintain open lines of communication with the outside world.​

​

A number of Twitter handles claiming to represent various factions of Anonymous have listed sites that hackers have compromised or taken down. Several point to a list at this PasteBin document, which has at least 50 separate sites serving hacker messages from various groups.

Larger sites, such as Israeli government and military sites, are also being targeted, but with less success. Tel Aviv's official government site fails to load, for instance, while the Israeli president's site is still up, though slow to respond.

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/t...eli-websites-response-gaza-conflict-1C7106339

 

[8115]

There is a practical test of this. The PA runs the West Bank with full Israeli permission. It is on the payroll of the US. It has done everything Israel has asked of it to the point of humiliation. It has renounced violent resistance. It has arrested imprisoned and killed resistance fighters. It polices the West Bank and routinely breaks up anti Israeli demonstrations. It runs the West Bank as a puppet state and acts as Israel's enforcer of its occupation.

It is a shining example of a compliant regime that has effectively surrendered to Israel. And what has it got for its trouble? Settlements continue relentlessly. There are now 500.000 settlers in the West Bank and the number is growing all the time. Israel and its western supporters have shot down even the symbolic attempts at UN statehood declarations. Negotiations are a joke that Israel doesn't even pretend to take seriously and act as merely a cover to buy time for more settlements and the military occupation is deeper than ever.

This is the question Israel's supporters have to answer. If Hamas violence is the sole cause of conflict as they claim then why is the West Bank still under military occupation and settlement nearly 20 years after Oslo?

Well, that was me trying to be scrupulously fair. It should be apparent what I think. But thanks for the information anyway.

 

[dylans]

Clashes have broken out between demonstrators and occupation forces in Ramallah. Twitter is reporting live fire used and at least 11 wounded. I think the medic, Isra Hdeib, whose picture was posted earlier on this thread was injured in Ramallah when the IDF reportedly attacked her ambulance. Several other people suffering gunshot wounds.

 

[dylans]

Someone has raised the Palestinian flag on Acre clock tower. The first time it has flown there since 1948

There are also reported clashes between demonstrators and occupation forces in Jerusalem, Nablus, Al-Khader town near Bethlehem and in Hebron. A group of women protestors also occupied a military outpost at the settlement of Beit El

Beit El military camp

 

[Mr.Bishie]

I think the medic, Isra Hdeib, whose picture was posted earlier on this thread was injured in Ramallah when the IDF reportedly attacked her ambulance. Several other people suffering gunshot wounds.

Yeah, that's Isra.

This Ceasefire piece I read earlier, 'The Four Big Lies of Palestine-Israel Media Coverage' makes for interesting reading. It certainly helped me to understand the politics of the situation a little better.

http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/big-lies-told-israels-war-palestinians/

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Photo of a Palestinian medic seriously injured trying to help the injured.

Enjoy your day Sas.

That's a Red Crescent worker, part of the International Red Cross movement.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Yeah, Red Cross medic - Dylan's just posted that the ambulance she was in was attacked.

 

[Balbi]

Having to unfollow people in twitter and fb - their belief that all rockets are hamas rockets is just too infuriating to bother explaining that while Israel is capable of a coordinated campaign, Gaza's a warren of groups and interests some of which will attack Israel regardless. The cries of 'Hamas must stop this' when coupled with Israel's statement that all Hamas members should keep their heads down, is wilful blindness.

 

[Balbi]

What are the chances that total number of Nov & Dec rocket/mortar attacks will be greater than previous 10 months? Effective safety strategy Israel.

 

[dylans]

This IDF propaganda poster is pretty chilling. Are they trying to justify attacking hospitals?

In case anyone thinks Israel would not do such a thing

A World Health Organization (WHO) assessment of 122 health facilities in Gaza revealed that 48% were damaged or destroyed during the (Cast Lead offensive): 15 hospitals and 41 primary health care centres were partially damaged; two primary health care centres were destroyed; and 29 ambulances were partially damaged or destroyed.

 

[Balbi]

This IDF propaganda poster is pretty chilling. Are they trying to justify attacking hospitals?

In case anyone thinks Israel would not do such a thing

That's exactly what they're doing. The fucking cunt. I hope they're deep of faith and that it turns out Allah's the only true god.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Having to unfollow people in twitter and fb - their belief that all rockets are hamas rockets is just too infuriating to bother explaining that while Israel is capable of a coordinated campaign, Gaza's a warren of groups and interests some of which will attack Israel regardless. The cries of 'Hamas must stop this' when coupled with Israel's statement that all Hamas members should keep their heads down, is wilful blindness.

It's not surprising, when you have the likes of Hague & Blair & the BBC spouting the same shite - the sheep believe it.

 

[dylans]

Incidentally, the claim that resistance fighters either hide or store weapons in hospitals is completely untrue as the Goldstone report noted

“On the basis of the investigations it has conducted,” the Goldstone report said, “the Mission did not find any evidence to support the allegations made by the Israeli Government.”

The report found no evidence to support frequent Israeli claims that ambulances were misused, and much evidence to contradict that claim. Israel’s Magen David Adom, its affiliate with the ICRC, even told the UN investigators that “there was no use of PRCS [Palestinian Red Crescent Society] ambulances for the transport of weapons or ammunition … [and] there was no misuse of the emblem by PRCS”

 

[Mr.Bishie]

This IDF propaganda poster is pretty chilling. Are they trying to justify attacking hospitals?

Ambulances & school playgrounds are prime hide outs for Palestinian terror groups. So hospitals go without saying.

Fuck me, it's depressing

 

[Balbi]

We are united in our determination to crush our enemy but to avoid being blamed for it we must portray our enemies as equally united and even more determined to crush us. Even when that's not the case. Therefore every rocket, mortar, missile, drone strike which kills someone other than our proportionally very small number of targets, the blame is theirs for being the same as we are.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

^^ Who the fuck came out with that?

 

[Balbi]

^^ Who the fuck came out with that?

Sorry, how the fuck did that get quotes around it. That was my view of their view.

 

[Balbi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2012

In 400-ish rocket attacks between Jan and Oct - 1 man was killed, a horse and some goats died, and some people were treated for a varying severity of injuries.

 

[Treacle Toes]

RT @Demotix: Israel laying ground for expanded Gaza offensive - @Demotix News http://www.demotix.com/news/1607176/israel-laying-ground-expanded-gaza-offensive …

 

[weltweit]

Israel is bound by its own logic of escalation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/17/israel-escalation-analysis

The jist of this seems to be that Israel will have to go ahead with a ground offensive, driven there by its own rhetoric.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Tweets from Ofir Gendelman (The official account of the Israeli Prime Minister's spokesperson to the Arab media)

PM to German Chancellor Merkel: No country would agree to a situation in which its population lives under a constant missile threat.

Hamas fired 703 rockets at Israel: 60 of them fell inside the Gaza Strip on Palestinian civilians.Only 27 (4%) fell on urban areas in Israel

You couldn't fucking make it up.

 

[SpineyNorman]

I was watching that Reuters live feed last night. It was weird - very uncomfortable watching it - and horrific when you could see and hear the explosions - but for some reason I couldn't take my eye off it for about half an hour. At one point a building (at least I think it was a building, difficult to see tbh) near the camera was hit. There were flames and the camera zoomed in but shortly after there was a second explosion and the flames disappeared - didn't look like a fuel tank or anything like that to me - it was more like an enormous firework going off than anything else I've ever seen. Do any of our military experts have any idea what it might have been?

 

[Mr.Bishie]

@Spiney http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/incendiary.htm

 

[Treacle Toes]

Excellent speech from 2009. Plz listen and share. UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in #Gaza: http://youtu.be/qMGuYjt6CP8 #freepalestine

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Tunisian foreign ministor visits Gaza in solidarity, second of the Arab spring states to side with the Palestinians?

 

[Buckaroo]

Norman Finklestein doesn't think the crisis will escalate.

 

[Grandma Death]

The one thing I find unhelpful about the whole debate around this issue is the insistence by some (on both sides) to somehow argue their attacks are justified-and let me be clear... I understand who the biggest aggressor is and I understand the wider context and the history behind this... Its just in the meantime whilst the arguments about what's right and what's wrong continue innocent lives are being lost. There can be no justification (in my opinion) for indiscriminately bombing civilian areas-regardless of whose bombs are being used and who's doing the firing.

 

[Balbi]

belweather public opinion based on just me being stupid - my sister just went on a rant about Israel being fucking stupid, and that as a nation built after persecution, persecuting people should have been the last thing they wanted to do.

For someone who spends her time in Tory time and beyond, that's pretty impressive.

 

[weltweit]

....
There can be no justification (in my opinion) for indiscriminately bombing civilian areas-regardless of whose bombs are being used and who's doing the firing.

Dresden, Nagasaki, Gaza, Israel.