Israel on the offensive

[Dagobahn Eagle]

BBC Headlines:

Clashes break out on Gaza Strip

Palestinian Prime Minister condemns raid

Air Strike on Palestinian Prime Minister's Headquarters

 

Israel has attacked the Palestinian prime minister's Gaza City office as it ratchets up the pressure over its captured soldier.

 

The HQ was left in flames by the latest in a string of air raids and incursions carried out by Israel since Wednesday.

 

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was meeting his cabinet on Sunday to decide what steps to take next in the crisis.

 

Israel says the military action will go on until Cpl Gilad Shalit, captured by militants a week ago, is freed.

 

"We will strike and will continue to strike at [Hamas's] institutions," said Interior Minister Roni Bar-On.

 

"They have to understand that we will not continue to let them run amok."

 

Other strikes overnight on Saturday hit a school in Gaza City and Hamas bases in northern Gaza, killing a 34-year-old militant.

 

And, inevitably: HAMAS threatens attacks on Israel

 

The military wing of the governing Palestinian party, Hamas, has said it will attack targets inside Israel if Israel does not end its Gaza offensive.

 

Is HAMAS right in launching a cross-border raid, capturing the said tank gunner? I need more details on the raid itself to answer that one, but I'm leaning towards a "no".

 

But is Israel (or any other army) right in bombing universities and schools for their captured tank gunner? Never. Another violation of international law by a government occupying a sovereign country. Israel seems to consider itself above everything called rules.

[Point Man]

I freely admit to being biased in this case because I am a soldier, but I would hope that my country would go after the guys that kidnapped me. IMO, Israel is completely justified in entering Gaza to get their soldier back.

 

If Israel did intentionally attack schools and universities, that is a violation of the Law of Land Warfare and they should answer for it. All bets are off, though, if the enemy was using those places as a shelter and counting on human shields to protect them. Then, the deaths are on them because they violated the Law of Land Warfare in the first place.

 

I know Israel does not have a pristine history, but they (and the coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan) are being held to a higher standard than the people they are fighting against. The terrorists are very good at manipulating the press to show every violation by the governments they stand against while saying nothing about how their bombs are killing innocent civilians.

[Tyrion]

The part that strikes me the most about the incursion is how Isreal is arresting a bunch of palestinian officials within the Gaza Strip, and striking at gas stations/power plants. While they have it within their right to rescue their kidnapped soldier, it seems like they have alterior motives for the operation considering the excess(and it is excess) destruction they're unleashing.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Isreal gets itself into deep waters.

[Dagobahn Eagle]

As Tyrion said. Israel is pretty good at attacking civilian structures and people as "retaliatory action".

 

What I fear is that Israel won't "get itself into deep waters". The US is her ally, and it seems Uncle Sam is pretty good at protecting his more shady allies from punishment by International Law.

[TK-8252]

Sweet. Any number of innocent Palestinian lives and any amount of Palestinian property is worth just one god damn Israeli soldier. Apparently that's what Israel thinks. When two U.S. soldiers were abducted in Iraq, we didn't bomb all of Baghdad did we? WTF?

 

It's pretty clear that Israel has no intent on making peace and all they do is add fuel to the fire. I was against the Palestinian election of HAMAS, because of situations like this that would arise. But Israel isn't looking any better than HAMAS when they do **** like this.

[Samnmax221]

HAMAS needs to reign in their people, you can't be a legitamite political group and a terrorist organization at the same time.

[toms]

True. But the transition from the later to the former can't happen overnight.

 

Look at Sein Fein and the IRA... they have been attempting to move fromo being a terrorist organisation to a political one for at least ten years, and they still aren't totally there yet.

 

And that is with the British and Irish governments bending over backwards to give them the benefit of the doubt and a lot of second chances.... something that Israel sure won't do.

 

The problem is that if Israel (over?)reacts to every incident then that gives the power to the terrorists. Israel is simply allowing itself to be pushed along by events.

 

At some point the british government had to accept that they couldn't halt peace talks every time some fringe extremist blew things up.. or they were giving power over the whole process to one nutter with a bomb and they would never get anywhere.

 

Israel hasn't reached that stage yet. they have a new PM and he has to go through his "prove he is tuff on terrorists" ritual, even if it hurts everyone in the long term. Thats just part of the israeli political process.. at least until they grow up and become a proper democracy.

 

As for the kidnapped soldier... if the palestinian extremists are going to spend their efforts kidnapping soldiers and demanding that children be released from jail for their safe return, then I personally think that is a big step forward from bombing buses... and reasonably legitimate action on their part.