Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Operation Cast Lead: Day 5

Is the Gaza war really that difficult to understand. Hamas broke the ceasefire. Hamas calls for Israel's destruction, and then takes actions in furtherance of that goal. The actions include breaking the hudna six months ago and firing incessantly ever since, with Israel finally responding when Hamas launches a hissy fit after Israel takes out terrorists attempting still more attacks.

Israel responds.

And yet, the media seems to want to find fault with Israel's response. How typical.

Israel is refusing to consider a truce
, even though there were reports yesterday citing unnamed individuals in the "defense establishment" that were suggesting a 48-hour truce. That came even as Prime Minister Olmert said that there was to be no discussion of a truce, reduction in level of Israeli operations, etc. There's no discussion of truce at this time.

Of course, the media puts the onus of a truce on Israel, even when Hamas has never accepted any ceasefire, even the one six months ago. They refuse to accept one now, but the headlines state that it is Israel that is standing in the way of a ceasefire. The New York Times shouts that the Israelis are likely to reject a 48-hour ceasefire. No mention that Hamas has no interest in a ceasefire either.

Again, typical.

Israel is going after the Hamas smuggling tunnels to prevent Hamas from quickly resupplying via Sinai.

Hamas continues firing rockets against Israel, and more Israelis have been injured in Ashkelon.

Meanwhile, the Israelis continue to treat Palestinian wounded, including a Palestinian boy. That's even as Hamas continues firing rockets at Israel and Israel has been forced to reinforce hospitals against rocket barrages.

So, what is Hamas doing with their medical facilities? They're using them to hide out from Israeli airstrikes. The terrorists are once again hiding behind civilians and hoping to take advantage of Israel's sense of human rights and decency.

On the diplomatic front, Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas is looking to get the UN to force a ceasefire. That's not all that much different than what happened with the Hizbullah war, where the UN finally put the fighting to an end when Israel decided to call a time out. Israel has not been served by the UN, as Hizbullah has essentially taken over Lebanon and coopted the government all while continuing to operate openly in Southern Lebanon despite UNIFIL and UN SCR 1701.

Israel would face a similar situation in Gaza should the UN take action, which is why Israel cannot let up now as it has Hamas on the ropes. When Hamas starts talking about a hudna, that's the time to hammer home that there will be no ceasefires - only Hamas' unconditional surrender. That's the only way to peace in Gaza.

UPDATE:
Aussie Dave and Carl in Jerusalem continue providing regular updates. Hamas admits that they're purposefully hiding in civilian areas, no doubt to increase the civilian body count, which is amazingly low as compared to the general demographics of Gaza. Hamas is taking a fearsome pounding, but it's not nearly enough to break the group. This will have to be a sustained effort.

Soccer Dad at Meryl Yourish is also keeping tabs on the situation.

Carl in Jerusalem has video of the IDF strikes against the smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi corridor. Israel will likely have to retake the corridor if they want to put the smuggling of weapons to an end.

UPDATE:
Israel has apparently destroyed 120 of an estimated 200 tunnels that Hamas uses to resupply its terror operations. (HT: Loveguru at LGF)

Haaretz notes that the air campaign will continue as Israel readies itself to carry out a ground campaign. Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants more reservists to be called up.

UPDATE:
Joe at The Muqata is live blogging the conflict, and reports that the longer range rockets fired by Hamas are Chinese made weapons smuggled into Gaza courtesy of those smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border. He previously noted that the IDF brought in concrete pipes as a temporary measure to provide shelter against kassam and mortar attacks until more permanent measures could be implemented.

UPDATE:
This is a slightly different take on justifying Israel's actions to defend itself from Hamas. It's the Road Map, stupid.

For all the people who are busy complaining about Israel's action, engaging in moral equivalency or siding with the Islamic terrorist group Hamas over Israel's undeniable right to defend itself from terrorism, Israel is simply pursuing the Road Map that everyone supposedly agreed upon.

What does the road map say?
...sustained, targeted and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.
From the look of it, Israel is doing precisely that.

Meanwhile, the nonsensical term of proportionality keeps cropping up in op-ed pieces and agitprop designed to undermine Israel's efforts. What does proportionality look like? Does it mean that Israel gets to launch thousands of airstrikes against Hamas in retaliation for the thousands of kassams and mortars fired into Israel? To the terror sympathizers and Palestinian supporters, the answer is no. Michael Totten fleshes this out further (and here).

UPDATE:
For those who think that there's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, here's some food for thought. Hamas builds kassams using sugar and fertilizer as its prime components (HT: peacekeeper at LGF). Hamas can and will steal humanitarian aid from the mouth of babies, so that they can feed their terror apparatus with the materials needed to build weapons of death and destruction.

This is yet another reason why humanitarian aid to Gaza is enabling Hamas to continue in power.

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