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War In Gaza: Why Now?
Election Politics?
It was widely reported that Israel agreed to delay any war against Iran until after U.S. elections.
A little over a week after the election, Israel launched a "targeted assassination" against the leader of Hamas (who Haaretz called Israel's subcontractor in Gaza). That is what started the current round of fighting. Rabbi Arthur Waskow agrees that Israel started the fighting.
Professor Michel Chossudovsky notes:
On November 14, Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari was murdered in a Israeli missile attack. In a bitter irony, barely a few hours before the attack, Hamas received the draft proposal of a permanent truce agreement with Israel.
“Hours before Hamas strongman Ahmed Jabari was assassinated, he received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip.”(Haaretz, November 15, 2012)
The targeted assassination of Ahmed Jabari was followed by an extensive bombing campaign under Operation Pillar of Cloud. The latter consists of a carefully planned military endeavor.
F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters and unmanned drones were deployed. Israeli naval forces deployed along the Gaza shoreline were involved in extensive shelling of civilian targets.
Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barack has confirmed a scenario of military escalation, blaming Palestine for having committed acts of aggression: .
“[t]he provocations we have suffered and the firing of rockets to the southern settlements within Israel have forced us to take this action. I want to make clear that Israeli citizens will not suffer such actions. The targets are to hit the rockets and to harm the organization of Hamas.”
The Israeli attacks were followed by the firing of dozens of rockets by Hamas against Israel.
Palestine’s response was known to Israeli war planners. The resulting Israeli civilian casualties are now being used to justify military escalation on humanitarian grounds.
What we are dealing with is a carefully planned operation, a clear act of provocation. The deaths of Israeli civilians (envisaged and foreseen by IDF military planners) are being used to muster the support of the Israeli public.
Meanwhile, the Israeli attack is casually portrayed by the Western media as part of a legitimate counter-terrorism agenda.
(Glenn Greenwald notes that America’s targeted assassination policy is identical to that of Israel. This could escalate quickly. Not only are Israel and Hamas exchanging rocket fire – with casualties of children on both sides - but Israel is calling up calling up 30,000 reserve soldiers ahead of a possible ground invasion of Gaza.)
Israel is holding its own elections in January. Many commentators say that the attacks on Gaza are a cynical ploy by the Israeli Prime Minister to win re-election:
Netanyahu was accused by left-wing opposition Hadash party MP Mohammed Baraka [the leader of the Israeli Hadash opposition party] of “making another round in a circle of blood for cynical political interests” and “speculating in the blood of the Palestinian people.”
***
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn denounced the regime, saying that “once again Israel has wantonly attacked the people of Gaza, bombing and killing.
“This is effectively a first world state attacking a poor and largely defenceless population. It looks like a rerun of Operation Cast Lead,” he said.
“The timing is interesting and it looks like Netanyahu is creating a crisis to ensure his re-election”, the MP added.
Leading German newspaper Spiegel reports:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping the offensive in the Gaza Strip wins his Likud party more votes in January’s election.
***
“When the cannons roar, we see only Netanyahu and Barak on the screen, and all the other politicians have to applaud them,” wrote the daily Haaretz in a commentary published Thursday. “The assassination of (Hamas’ top military commander Ahmed) Jabari will go down in history as another showy military action initiated by an outgoing government on the eve of an election.”
Indeed, one can conclude that the most recent offensive against militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip– which started Wednesday with the killing of Jabari — has been conceived as more of a show fight for the Israeli public than the beginning of a decisive battle.
And Asia times writes:
So why snuff out al-Jabari? Simple. Israel goes to the polls in January. Thus emerges Bibi's political campaigning in full-action mode. Campaign motto: Let's kill Palestinians. With such thrills on offer, any other Israeli political voice - even slightly dissenting - is drowned.
Precursor to War with Iran?
The top British Rabbi – when asked by the BBC on his thoughts on what’s really going on in Gaza right now – replied:
I think it has got to do with Iran, actually.
Why Iran?
Anti War lays out one theory:
This escalation occurs just days after widespread reports about newly reelected Obama mulling a grand bargain with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Barbara Slavin and Laura Rozen at Al-Monitor reported on Monday that US officials told them Washington was considering offering a “more for more” deal with Iran, based on the fuel swap deal from Obama’s first term.
So what does Israel’s impending war on defenseless Gaza have to do with Iran diplomacy? Here’s a tweet from the Tehran bureau chief for the New York Times, Thomas Erdbrink:
Forget ANY #Iran-US talks if conflict in Gaza escalates
— Thomas Erdbrink (@ThomasErdbrink) November 14, 2012
And here:
#Iran leaders can never be seen as talking to US, while its “eternal” ally Israel assassinates Iran’s ideological allies
— Thomas Erdbrink (@ThomasErdbrink) November 14, 2012
I suspect this point was not lost on the Israeli leadership, either. So, is Netanyahu knowingly escalating military tensions in order to avoid a successful diplomatic overture? I’m speculating, but it isn’t far fetched. We know from extensive reporting, mainly in Israeli media, that in 2010 – just as President Obama requested a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank with the aim of resuming peace talks – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to provoke Iran into a war with Israel that would eventually drag in the United States.
It reminds me of what former CIA Middle East analyst Paul Pillar referred to this week as “Netanyahu’s tension-stoking brinksmanship: to divert attention from continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and inaction on the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” “[T]he Iran issue,” Pillar has previously written, provides a “distraction” from international “attention to the Palestinians’ lack of popular sovereignty.” Now the situation seems reversed: Israel is escalating war with Gaza to maintain deadlock with their favorite scapegoat, Iran.
Israel, lest we forget, instigated this resumption of missile exchanges last week when two Palestinian civilians were shot and killed and
Israeli tanks intruded into Gaza, prompting Gaza militants to respond by targeting Israeli soldiers, which then gave Israel an excuse to unleash successive airstrikes. And Israel had numerous chances to pacify the situation, considering Hamas publicly offered to establish a total ceasefire and Egypt appeared about to broker a truce between the two. Israel has intentionally inched towards escalation from the beginning. Are we to believe this isn’t strategic?
A second theory is that this is a prelude to an Israeli attack on Iran. Specifically, some theorize that Israeli is trying to assassinate top Hamas militants before hitting Iran … so that Iran’s proxy Hamas cannot retaliate.
A third theory is that Israel is trying to drag Iran into a war. Given that Israeli treatment of Palestinians is perhaps the key source of hostility towards the current Israeli administration in the Arab world, starting a war in Gaza may be an attempt by Israeli to drag Iran into war.
After all, Iran backs Hamas, and Israel just assassinated a top Hamas leader after making an overture of peace to him. So some believe that Israel is attempting to poke the hornet’s nest in an attempt to justify wider war.
By provoking Hamas into attacking, Israel might point to Hamas-backer Iran. Specifically, Israel may claim that pre-emptive strikes on Iran are "necessary" to undermine Hamas and make sure it doesn't obtain "weapons of mass destruction".
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I believe that me and God can figure that out ourselves...
classic!
:D !
“”Given that Israeli treatment of Palestinians is perhaps the key source of hostility towards the current Israeli administration in the Arab world””
WRONG
The Key source of hostility is Muslim on Jew and Jew on Muslim. The problem is that neither can totally destroy all of the other. It will continue no matter what the outcome is, of this time around. Or the next and the next.
Stratfor explains what the Gaza offensive is all about here
http://app.response.stratfor.com/e/es?s=1483&e=609609&elq=b466a2bc074e45...
malevolent psychopaths who torment, rape, pillage and murder innocents-just like their tribesmen on Wall street. May God deliver us from their evil.
Are you referring to Jihadist armies throughout history?
...by the way...your burqa is ready..
Francis de Marais: Why don't you Americans learn from us - from our mistakes? Mon Dieux! With your Army, your strength, your power, you could win if you want to! You can win!
Hubert de Marais: The Vietnamese... we worked with them, made something - something out of nothing... We want to stay here because it's ours - it belongs to us. It keeps our family together. I mean, we fought for that. While you Americans... you are fighting for the biggest nothing in history!
(Biden 2016 Jungle Boogie)
Anybody watch Presstv today? It was a bit sureal at one point. Max Keiser and Rick Ackerman, two Ashkenazis, were discussing economics while being inteterrupted by announcements of slaughter in Palenstine..
For what it is worth, which is not much, Max Keiser is neither Jewish by creed or ethnic background. Get your facts straight.
How can someone be Jewish by ethinicity when it is a religion? Huh? You are the one that needs to examine the facts. Keiser is Askenazi,. You are the one that brought up Judaism fool and the rest of you idiot down voters.
How can someone be Jewish by ethinicity when it is a religion?
Jew was the name originally applied to those from the Tribe of Judah - one of the 12 Tribes of Israel. Hence, someone can be Jewish by ethnicity if they can trace their roots back to someone from the Tribe of Judah (traced through the mothers, not fathers). Later, the term Jew came to be applied to others and so lost its original, strictly ethnic, meaning. Even today, Israel is struggling with the question who is a Jew?
Which means that some Jews are Jews ethnically, while some are not. Point is, the Torah and Talmud apply to all 12 Tribes of Israel, even if we do not know who 10 of those tribes are, ethnically, today. There is argument in the New Testament that the Law and Prophets (Torah; Talmud) were given to the Children of Israel only, and to no one else (Gentiles are governed by the Noahide laws or a derivative of them). It is on this basis that the Children of Israel (not just the "Jews") were considered the chosen ones (plus the fact that Jesus would be descended from one of the 12 Tribes of Israel) - even if we don't know today who 10 of those 12 Tribes of chosen ones are.
What I just presented is not religious stuff that can be dismissed as such. It is the oral and textual history of a specific group of people. Only some of that oral and textual history is in the Bible. The rest of it is not. All of it is as valid and trustworthy as any other nation or peoples' oral and textual history.
I would only like to correct one thing:
In the OT, lineage was patrilineal, NOT maternal.
It is rabbinical, Talmudic Judaism that is matrilineal.
Max reminds of a very lovable French Bulldog I used to have. His expressions are startlingly similar. Max is great. Stacy too.
Love the show, hate his bs belief in global warming, though.
el Gallinazo
You mean his Mother wasn't a Jew?
(Biden 2016 Shakin allover)
Anyone that thinks Israel is not in control and dictating events is out of their mind. Israel is not reactionary. LMAO. If you do not know ''why now'', yer an idiot. LMAO.
Oh Mr. Down Arrows, please tell us how counterintelligence works. Love to hear this one. Let's hear your Richard Pearl Harbor wisdsom.
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No, no, Garristotle, say it isn't so. Not the banning of my steel-toe boots (assault boots) and the “wearing of more than two rings!” …Not after the loss of my Big Gulp!
JR
OPIE! Weren't you beaten to death in prison by Negros?
(Biden 2016 Great Balls of Fire)
Thas racis
George nailed when he relayed the message that Netanyahu's primary motive in attacking Gaza is the upcoming election. Killing Palestinians is always good for a few votes.
Secondly Obama was making diplomatic overtures to Iran. These overtures will be terminated if war is waged by Israel against the civilians of Gaza.
The unintended consequence which might not bode well for Israel is Eqypt's response. Eqypt would like to broker calmness in the region but will not stand by silently while the Israeli army slaughters Palestinians who are like shooting fish in a bowl as they can not flee but are stuck in the Israeli concentration camp.
War In Gaza: Why Not?
There's money to be made from manufacturing goodies to blow stuff up. That's the basis of the US economy.
Why would they NOT have a war? Somebody has to keep the military subcontractors working in every congressional district or the few remaining US manufacturing jobs suffer the same fate as world peace.
They will always have a war every few years. The Palestinians want to fight. With the extraordinary high Palestinian rate of reproduction, they cannot do otherwise. Two peoples claim the same land in its entirety, and the Palestinains have 10 children per woman vs Israel's 2-3. Whenever the Palestinians amass enough rockets and weapons, they always provoke Israel. When Israel smashes them, they agree to a truce that lasts at most a year or two. After a few truces, they go to war again. The number of Palestinian births in a few weeks more than compensates for all the losses in the last war. Eventually, the Palestinians will win by virtue of sheer numbers, unless the Jews do a much better job of killing them than Israel has demonstrated in all the time they fought the Palestinian Vermin.
andrewp111, you are such an asshole. You are a racist!!
he loves children, not their mad mothers. So he is jealous of Palestinians.
Racist = Jew and their Christian puppets
You support mozzies just because you hate God ,that's all...
Think about it..
You see mozzies as a force that will destroy Jews and christians and you applaud..
...but you'll be next ..
Unless you put the burqa on
Think I'kk dust off the Director's Cut of "Kingdon of Heaven" and watch it this weekend.
Hmmm,
Not a single mention of the over 125 rocket attacks in the days BEFORE Jabari gets whacked.
Curious.
Apparently those are Peace Rockets from Gaza.
Kinda like a Hallmark 'Thinking of You' card.
You conveniently left out the IDF shooting of two innocent civilians in the days before the assassination. And then there is the daily stealing, destroying, and oppressing that Israel is so adept at....bulldozed houses, destroyed olive orchards, children shot, cisterns destroyed....and the list goes on.
Your positions disgust me and make me sad that humanity is so depraved as to turn a blind eye to such continual atrocities that CANNOT BE DENIED.
Really. Let me know when the Palestinians start running over activists with bulldozers.
Why do you hate the U.S. and Isreal so much? Are you on Ovomit's payroll?
The Israelis are certainly not innocent, but the MSM never gives USA citizens the real facts on Islamic terror against the state of Israel.
The agenda is pro-arab, pro-marxist, anti-American.
I'm 56 and have been watching the MSM all my life. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I never heard anything favorable about any Arab country --- or negative about Isreal--- until I started reading non-mainstream sources.
Yes, at 54 it was quite a shock to realize almost 90% of what your government has taught you has been one great big JEWISH LIE. All for the greater good of America or as it should be known since 9/11 Israelica.
What is MSM? If you meant MSN then what is MSN? I think I saw one or the other on a clients computer a few years back. I know what FaceBook is but only from references to it and all the money people lost on its IPO.
I have a fobia, so to speak, about media attempting to use my brain against me. That is why I know very much what Zero Hedge is. It is one of a number of websites that I trust.
We speak riddle on hat, citizenses!
The MSM never gives USA citizens the real facts on Israeli weapons purchases from the USA.
The agenda is pro-fit.
Theory#4...not an exclusive theory. A mess like that never happens for just one or two reasons.
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/2012-11-15/7-weeks-austerity-programs-usw...
awaiting the 12th mahdi. you can't talk about the mideast and not talk about religion, or else be stupid, like Sweet Chicken.
"Religions" are merely the old-fashioned organized crime gangs.
They took mysticism, and perverted that into being its opposite.
Religions are mostly based on attempts to privatize God.
That is quite amusing, if you have a macrabre sense of humor.
What is really going on is that our monetary system IS our state religion.
That religion's plutocrat priests are atempting to wipe out all competition.
I remember when I got married (to a devout Catholic who wanted a church wedding) I had to sit through a "talk" by the priest about religion as a condition to officiate.
So, he has a blackboard, he draws a diagram and he says "here is God, here are you - in between is the Holy Catholic church - in order to get to God, you must go through us" LOL
The last place to look for God is inside a church... besides, everybody knows our true Lord and Saviour is Ganeesha, the Blue Elephant God.
I believe in God. I believe that I can communicate directly with God - to the extent possible by a human - through prayer, or praise or meditation or whatever.
I don't believe that I need some authority figure of some organized religion to act - for a price - as the intermiediary between me and God, and to tell me what God wants me to do or how to pray to God. I believe that me and God can figure that out ourselves...
I don't need a nanny state - or a nanny religion - to tell me what to do or how to do it. It is between me and my God, thank you very much!
I know, I know ... I must be a heretic
you be a Cathar perfectus; you have been warned...the Pope Innocent III sang : Onward christian soldiers...when he launched the Cathar Crusade in 1208.
That song became the song of crusaders all thru the ages. He invented it!
I believe that me and God can figure that out ourselves...
classic!
True!
:D !
I believe that me and God can figure that out ourselves...
The problem with that logic is that the God we are figuring things out with is usually a God of our own making. Made in our image. If the God of the Bible is real, and if he wants you, he will get you - and in a way that makes it clear that you are not buddies. You will be made to understand that you were made to serve him - he was not made to serve you.
Other than that - yeah, you don't need an intermediary.
Well, George Washington:
I amuse myself with attempts to hybrize postmodernizing sciences with ancient mysticism. I regard the word "God" as a delightful paradox, pure transcenental poetry, that denotes an inconceivable concept! In my view, the best approach towards "God" is along the path of the principles of the conservation of energy and momentum, and the preservation of energy. Energy is Spirit. Entropy is Satan, and so on, bla, bla, bla, yadda, yadda, yadda! I have been amusing myself inventing my own philosophy and religion for several decades.
I do not share your basic "protestant" attitude. I am sure that it is impossible for anyone to know the infinite, although they ARE that. I am sure that there are NO authorities that do. Anybody who says they know what God says is just another big bully, spouting bullshit. I figure that many people use that word God to rationalize and justify them being dishonest and violent, because "God" says so. I mostly regard religions as being psychotic bullshit pumped out by people who have lost contact with the mystical enlightenment, that was the inspirational original source for those attitudes. However, I accept the existential dilemma that we are forced to make bets, and those must be based on pretending to ourselves that we "know" something, up to and including "infinity" which is obviously IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW, although we may well BE THAT. I kind of believe in God, like I kind of believe that I exist.
''kind of believe that I exist''. LMAO. What, you will not really know until yer dead huh? LMAO. You are funny man. Thanks for the vids and the laugh.
Without some kind of transcendental guidance, or faith, how do you know which (G)god to pray to?
Just Blame the Victim:
"IDF can raise hell and wreak havoc with total impunity and negligible "collateral damage"; the under-siege, illegally blockaded, collectively punished-to-death inhabitants of the open-air prison known as Gaza.
You won't find this reading in the Murdoch press or CNN. Nor will you get any detailed explanation on the real timeline leading to what could be another war."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NK17Ak04.html
Then why doesn't the IDF simply bring out the monster bulldozers and plow Gaza under to flat and level sand during the next war? Maybe the Jews are just a bunch of liberal, hand-wringing Kvetchers who are unwilling to do more than the minimum to keep their enemies in check.