Responding to Terrorist Rocket Attacks, Israel Strikes at Gaza

How about this; Hamas has repeatedly offered a ceasefire. They have observed the prior ceasefires, at least one of which was unilateral and was observed (approx. 14 months or so) despite continuous Israeli provocation.

Israel, of course, has demurred. Its concerns for the citizens of Sderot must be understood in this context.

Here's how it goes: when your enemy offers a ceasefire, when you vastly outgun your enemy, when you weep crocodile tears over the danger your people face-in short, when you hold most of the cards and the power to cease the violence lies in your simply agreeing to a ceasefire your opponent has already shown he respects, then the resulting blood is on your hands.

Oh, and forget lecturing me about your certainty that Hamas will use the ceasefire to industriously re-arm itself. Do you imagine that the I"D"F will spend the time weaving macrame and having tea parties? 

This should have been accomplished after the first missile hit the Negev.  No tears for the Pals and Hamas, the Arab states are loudly silent.  They could have had ten states by now if they weren't so corruptly and stupidly mislead.  Oh well, now they get what they've been asking for and nobody really cares. 

There's clearly a cultural disconnect. You are understanding the concepts of "ceasefire" and "provocation" in terms that are utterly meaningless to Israelis - or to anyone else with a brain whose basic right to exist is not accepted by those defining such terms. Don't assume that anyone here is dumb enough to miss the pithy consequences of engaging in dialogue based on such language, when the ultimate goal guiding that dialogue and behaviors - that being the goal of Israel's political obliteration - has never changed.

Keep expecting Israel to "hold most of the cards".  And keep expecting them to play those cards more wisely than you-know-who.  And keep expecting that Hamas will find excuses similar to those which they found for not taking responsibility for restraining "others'" attacks (you know, from over approx. the past 14 months or so). They will continue to fall on ears that are rightly made deaf by anyone of consequence in the matter. Your wild, blame-the-less-angry-one attitude, which has kept the Middle East a backward bastion of authoritarian illiberalism and retributive violence for centuries before it could blame such baggage and the baggage that grew from it onto others, is one that the West is getting as sick of hearing as your own leaders are becoming sick of playing to.  

Unless of course he is from one of the lost tribes, making him soul at the deepest level, Jewish.  So I can't truly give up.  But I can certainly back up a few steps until a certain person can tell that shooting 8500 rockets into Israel is not really respecting a ceasefire. 

If I have to back up any farther I'll be explaining simple shapes.  4 corners, square or rectangle.  Round--circle.  Three sides?........Triangle.   

They're tried to reason with these loonies in Gaza and its just no use. The Israelis now need to put their feet to the necks of these lowlifes!

Naftali-

How nice to know that you haven't given up on me. I will extend to you the same courtesy, and simply point out that I did not state that Hamas was currently observing a ceasefire, only that it had done so honorably in the past and is offering to do so again.

How sad for you that your snide and supercilious comments were based upon your own reluctance to read what I had to say with care. 

Has the shape of an Oval.  I'd explain parallelogram, but it has, I fear, too many syllables.

Well done mastering your shapes. Now you'll need to work on your history, logic and attention span. 

Let me know when you're ready. 

the same time you can count by ones.  Launching 8500 rockets into Israel is not respecting a ceasefire.  I think that would fall into the categories of history, logic, and arithmetic.

So, a five sided figure is called a pentagon.  I hope you're taking notes.  Oh my--does this means that learning your shapes is too advanced for you?  We're down to counting by ones?

Sad case, this one.  I'll bet you were promoted in school because you could play sports.  It happens.  Sorry.

As I said, there was and is no ceasefire now or anytime during the current Sderot shelling. When Hamas did declare a unilateral ceasefire, it observed same while Israel....well, Israel did what Israel does.

If this simple assertion is still not clear, return to the sandbox and make way for the more educable. You are either an idiot or willfully untruthful; in either case, I don't care to continue a dialogue with you.

Many thanks for the Telos reference (I think that was you), which proves some good may come from even the most otherwise useless correspondent, and goodbye. 

Don't leave your hallucinogens on the coffee table. There was never a single day since the evacuation of Gaza that the Gazan residents were not engaged in some manner of attempting to murder Israeli citizens, no matter what sex or age.

And until this weekend, what Israel does--is allow 8500 rockets to attack their citizens without serious reprisal. But that's what peace-loving people do, sometimes, many times to their own detriment.

These are what we call 'facts'. These 'facts' are what honest people use when discussing things. I will look forward to you not responding to what I write. I also will not respond to what you write, although I might be compelled to tell the truth when a certain someone who I am not responding to starts telling lies.

And I'm not giving you an 8500 lie head start.

Thing that always bugs me about those bringing up Hamas and how they've observed a ceasefire is the smokescreen that gets left. As if Israel is expected to just remain idle when one of the other groups (Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committee) located in the Gaza Strip start taking over the firing of rockets. Even better, as if we're supposed to just ignore how much of a relationship Hamas has had in the past with these other groups.

In addition, Hamas have killed any trust in their ability to stick to a ceasefire between both the Gaza Strip ceasefire (In which Hamas is responsible for launching a majority of the rockets, in addition to infiltrating a suicide bomber that caused the Eilat bombing) that occured between late December 2006 and March 2007 (IIRC) and their numerous ceasefire breaks during the period of Palestinian infighting with Fatah.

Ismail, you never fail to show up and spread false propaganda. There has been so many rocket attacks on Israel and they were ignored in some vain hope that Olmert and Kadima could talk away into peace. Yet as the attacks grow and more people are hurt and killed, Israel decides that it is time to swat the gnat that is growing into a full menace. Knowing that they have again crossed a line, Hamas wants a ceasefire. They are COWARDS and so is anyone that defends them. It takes no courage to shoot rockets behind civilians into a city miles down the road. These people are murdering cowards and it is time for Israel to rid the world of these vermin.

"....these vermin."

Himmler called. He wants his filthy racist metaphor back. 

Himmler has you on speed-dial.