What Is This World Coming To?

Israel bombed a mosque used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives Friday.

There was no letup in violence Friday, with Israel attacking new targets and Palestinians firing at least 30 rockets into southern Israel. But Israel opened its border with Gaza to allow nearly 300 Palestinians with foreign passports to flee.

Before the airstrikes Friday, Israel’s military called some of the houses being targeted to warn residents to flee.  In other cases, Israel fired a ’sound bomb’ first to warn civilians away from a target.   Contrast that with Hamas’ suicide bombers and you find an object lesson in the difference between the two sides. Read the rest of this entry »

Sixty plus rockets flew from the Gaza Strip into civilian areas of Israel as Israeli warplanes continue to pound at Hamas targets inside Gaza.   Five Israelis were wounded today - one critically, one seriously and three lightly - when a rocket fired by Gaza terrorists hit an Ashdod bus stop. 

Hamas took responsibility for firing the missile and reported that a “Zionist” was killed in the attack. 

“If Hamas doesn’t immediately stop the criminal and intentional firing of rockets, Israel will use all the legal resources and courses of action at its disposal to force the enemy to stop its aggressive and illegal action against its citizens,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday following a security assessment at the Defense Ministry.

UN Secretary General Condemns Israel’s Disproportionate Use of Force

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned Israel’s “excessive use of force” in the Gaza Strip and said that international powers were not doing enough to force a ceasefire on the two sides.

Ban made the statements at a press conference held at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

 “I am deeply alarmed by the current escalation of violence in and around Gaza. This is unacceptable. I have been repeatedly condemning the rocket attacks by Hamas militants against Israel. While recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself, I have also condemned the excessive use of force by Israel in Gaza.

No similar concern was expressed for the practice by Hamas of hiding among civilians, or using them as human shields in direct violation of UN conventions and international law.  

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The Jerusalem Post is reporting, under the curiously-worded headline, “Palestinian factions in Gaza agree in principle to cease-fire” that about a dozen small Palestinian factions ‘agreed in principle’ to a ceasefire with Israel.

What made the headline ‘curiously-worded’ was that the report later explained that it wasn’t really a ‘cease-fire’ at all, but rather, a ‘hudna’. What is a hudna? Read the rest of this entry »