Operation Cast Lead Day 7 Update And Recap

**7.04am** Here is a succinct video on Israel's rights under International Law:

And here is a new post with two videos on why Israel must fight this evil from Gaza.

I have linked to a few posts that step back and make some observations about this conflict today, and have posted links at the end to all my posts relating to Operation Cast Lead as a recap for those of you who are coming back from vacations and self-imposed exiles from the world.

As usual in these updates on Operation Cast Lead, I direct your attentions to those in Israel for more frequent updates (better coverage and linkage) than I can offer:


The Muqata, today's coverage
Israelly Cool, today's coverage
Elder of Ziyon
Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel Matzav
IDF Spokesperson
Yid with Lid
Israel Politik

In addition, here is my Google Reader shared items page, which I update frequently as I am able. The RSS Feed for it is also on the left sidebar of this blog.

If I have overlooked someone, please feel free to add a link in the comments. I left out several blogs in Hebrew or Arabic because I realize most of my readers probably can't read Hebrew or Arabic.


Well, Hamas has graduated to a missile barrage:

Two Grad-type Katyusha rockets landed in a residential neighborhood, both scoring direct hits on two separate apartment buildings. Two more rockets landed in open areas.

According to Magen David Adom, one woman suffered shrapnel wounds and a number of other people were treated for severe emotional trauma in a two-story building. Several people were also being treated for emotional shock in a four-story building that was hit as well.

Two short-range Kassam rockets struck the western Negev city of Sderot during the same launch. One resident was slightly wounded in the attack. A third Kassam rocket also hit the Netivot area. No casualties were reported in that attack.
In the Sdot Negev region, one short-range rocket scored a direct hit on a greenhouse in an agricultural community. Two other rockets landed in open areas. Firefighters raced to the scene to extinguish any blaze ignited by the explosion.

Source: |Arutz Sheva|, in Missile Barrage Bombards Ashkelon

According to wikipedia, Ashkelon has a population of 108,900 people. You can find more information about the progress of operation cast Lead in Arutz Shevas' Special War Coverage section.

Here is a story about  a Palestinian arrested in the shootings of two Israelis in Denmark:

A 27-year-old Danish Palestinian denies attempting to kill two young Israeli men, but he has been remanded in custody for four weeks. However, the 27-year-old acknowledges that he had a gun.

The violent events in Gaza are probably why the two young Israeli men were shot down in Rosengårdcentret in Odense.

This can be deduced from a preliminary interrogation this evening, where a 27-year-old man held in custody — who was born in Lebanon — was brought in.

Prosecutor Bo Hjeds asked for a closed-door session in consideration of Denmark’s relations with foreign powers — including Israel. And he justified the demand with respect for the victims’ safety, since he believed that a case that was open to the public could hamper police investigative work.

Source: |Gates of Vienna|, in Palestinian Arrested for Odense Shootings


And here is the Egyptian Foreign Minister slamming Hamas for not allowing the wounded to be treated:

Source: |Gateway Pundit|, in Egyptian Foreign Minister Slams Hamas Again... Says Terror Group Won't Allow Wounded Out of Gaza (Video)


Here is a well-thought post by Donald Sensing of Sense of Events on proportionality in war and the objectives of Operation cast Lead:

There is a difference in Just War theory between proportionality and discrimination. The latter means that a belligerent must identify enemy locations, personnel or facilities that are valid military-related targets and which are not. A command headquarters is valid. A schoolhouse is not. Yet a combatant does not gain immunity from attack of its headquarters by locating it inside a schoolhouse. The Geneva Conventions specifically forbid the militarization of protected facilities and also state that once they are militarized they are no longer protected.
That's discrimination - taking the necessary steps to minimize (not eliminate) noncombatant casualties. Proportionality means using the violence necessary to achieve the just end of the campaign, but not more violence than necessary. It does not mean trying to make a calculus of violence where Israel cannot use more than Hamas.

As I pointed out in "Intentional Lethality," Israel's attacks are intended to do four main things:


1. Kill as many high-level Hamas figures as possible. 2. Reduce the ranks of Hamas rank and file by causing casualties among them.
3. Provide disincentives for Gazans' support of Hamas' control of their political future and hence,
4. Delegitimize Hamas' authority.


This is to say, Israel's objective is not simply to stop the rocket attacks for now, but permanently. Is that objective a just aim of its warfare against Hamas? Most certainly. Hence, Israel's obligation to the principle of proportionality is twofold: One, not to use more violence than necessary to achieve that end, but second - and this is critically overlooked by critics - to employ the level of violence necessary to attain the end. In other words, Just War theory says that if the aim of the war is just, then it is waging unjust war to stop short of attaining the just end or to fail to use the measures necessary to attain it.

Source: |Donald Sensing|, in OTHER THOUGHTS ON PROPORTIONALITY


The American Thinker has an excellent article on the cost of provocation:

Thursday marked the sixth day of Israel's Cast Lead Operation against Hamas. The IAF aimed to hit twenty Hamas targets the night prior, after Israeli civilian areas were attacked on Wednesday night with five rockets from Gaza. Three of the rockets landed as far at Batsheeba (30 miles from Gaza) and two landed in Netivott. Batsheeba's alarm system was malfunctioning, but no deaths resulted from either attack.

In the meantime, thousands in the US took to the streets to protest on both sides of the conflict. In some cities like Dearborn, Michigan, a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, the protests were staunchly pro-Palestinian. In other major cities like NY, Boston, and LA there were more pro-Israel rallies.

Since Saturday, Israel has hit hundreds of Hamas-affiliated sites from the air as well as navy vessels. She is targeting Hamas' military facilities, administrative buildings (where they plan terrorist operations), tunnels created for weapons-smuggling, and the homes of Hamas terrorists. The number of estimated deaths is 369 Palestinians, around 300 of whom were Hamas-affiliated, and 4 Israelis. Amongst those who died is Sheik Niza Rayyan, who was considered a possible successor of the Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. Two of his four wives, and four of his twelve children were also killed. Prior to the attack, his family was warned to leave the building, but they refused. Still, most of the Hamas leaders remain alive, hiding in underground bunkers. Approximately 20,000 Hamas fighters also remain unscathed and likely possess anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft guns.

Source: |Deborah Weiss|, in The Cost of Provocation

And one of my heroes, Bibi Netanyahu, has started tweeting.


The Elder of Ziyon has mined an important nugget of information from the Hamas Message Boards, an excerpt from an interview with one of the Hamas leaders, Sheikh Rayyan, recently killed by Israeli forces:

What struck my eye was a posting in the English section of the site. It contains an interview with Hamas' English-language spokesman, Abu Obaida, from a year ago. Here's one Q&A:


What is the justification behind the martyrdom operations against the " Israeli" civilians?

There is no justification for targeting civilians. It is against Islam to deliberately kill unarmed civilians during jihad. In addition, our doctrine is to target the enemies army, security services, and support apparatus. But it is known that Zionist society is a militarized society. Service in the army is mandatory; and reserve duty continues past the age of 40. Our determined stance is that unarmed persons on both sides of the conflict should be left out of the fighting. However, we will not accept giving the enemy a free hand against our civilians.

Source: |The Elder of Ziyon|, in Hamas' pretend policy on attacking civilians

Here are a couple of videos:


The IDF take out a mosque which is being used as a weapons cache. I should note that using a school or religious building for storing weapons is against the Geneva Conventions, yet lefties and Ron Paul types still support Hamas.


And here is a video of CAIR's statements regarding Gaza:

This criminal organization is traitorous. Pamella Geller has more.

Here is a chance to listen to an update on the situation in Gaza and Israel from Doug Hagmann:

2 January 2009: Doug Hagmann will be a guest on The Pat Campbell Show today at 7:35 AM ET, 6:35 AM CT, on AM 1170 KFAQ in Tulsa, OK for discussion about the events taking place in Gaza as outlined in an exclusive interview with a high-randking U.S. Intelligence official.

Pat Campbell, hard-hitting, no-nonsense host of The Pat Campbell Show can be heard on AM 1170 KFAQ in Tulsa, OK, Monday through Friday from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM CT. The program is also available on Pat's PODCAST Page if you miss it live.

Pat is a frequent guest on Fox News and his BLOG is a must read every day.

Source: |Northeast Intelligence Network|, in Hagmann on KFAQ AM 1170 (Tulsa) Today


Robert Spencer has what is a most disquieting story on the revelation that the Dimona nuclear reactor is now within range of Hamas rockets purchased from Iran:

Things are heating up. "Gaza rockets put Israel’s nuclear plant in battle zone," by James Hider in the Times, January 2 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona.
Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group’s arsenal.

In Beersheba, until a few days ago a sleepy desert town in southern Israel, there is little sign of the 186,000 inhabitants. Schools are closed and the streets of shuttered shops echo with the howl of sirens warning of incoming rockets....

Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

Source: |Jihad Watch|, in Gaza rockets put Israel’s nuclear plant in battle zone

I am glad that i did not hit the publish button before scouting out the local blogs.

The denziens of the local progressive group blog, Scrutiny Hooligans, have awakened from their slumber to notice that there is a war on, and as to be expected...they side with the terrorists. Here are excerpts from the post and commentary:

That is why Gaza exists: because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don’t come from Gaza.

But watching the news shows, you’d think that history began yesterday, that a bunch of bearded anti-Semitic Islamist lunatics suddenly popped up in the slums of Gaza – a rubbish dump of destitute people of no origin – and began firing missiles into peace-loving, democratic Israel, only to meet with the righteous vengeance of the Israeli air force. The fact that the five sisters killed in Jabalya camp had grandparents who came from the very land whose more recent owners have now bombed them to death simply does not appear in the story.”

And from the comments come these gems of stupidity...

fighting fire with fire hasn’t worked yet…but maybe this time!…What’s the definition of insanity again?

and

The problem with this approach is that American Exceptionalism has left us barely able to imagine being in other people’s shoes. So we explain the world to ourselves through ridiculous platitudes like we’re good and they’re evil, that actually explain nothing and leave us as confused as when we started. We just don’t do empathy very well.

Source: |Scrutiny Hooligans|, in Israel Rings in New Year by Killing 42 Children since Last Saturday



I have had my commenting privileges revoked over there since I have been unable to comment for a while (even from multiple computers)...so I'll just respond over here. What follows is the text of my commentary I attempted to post over there:

Uptown:

The third paragraph states a lie about Ashkelon. From Wikipedia:

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Arab village of Majdal in the Ashkelon region was the forward position of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force based in Gaza. The village was occupied by Israeli forces on November 5, 1948 and the Arab population fled to Gaza together with retreating Egyptian Army.

My response is here.

In addition, all the previous material in this post (indeed, all my material on Operation Cast Lead) could be taken as a response, because it does answer very well the charges laid by the progressives.

Uptown, Gordon, Shadmarsh and Gianna...why do lefties always seem to take the side that favors the enemies of mankind? Why do they always seem to support the slaughter of Israeli civilians?

Here are my previous posts on Operation Cast Lead so you can be sure to be cognizant of the details of this necessary military action...

Previously:

IAF Takes Out Hamas Rocket

Gaza Grad Rockets Made in China

Operation Cast Lead Update for New Year's Eve

Communist Party USA Condemns Israel

Moonbat McKinney's Yacht Turned Back

Israeli Consulate to Hold Twitter Press Conference Today

Day Four of Operation Cast Lead

Photo of the Year: "Death to all Juice"

A Prayer for the IDF

President-elect Obama Stands with Israel

Living in the Shadow of Qassams

Report of IDF Troops About To Enter Gaza

Hamas Weapons R&D Center Hit By IDF

15 Seconds

Into the Bowels of Jew-Hatred

IDF Calls to Warn Gazans of Airstrikes

Day Two of Operation Cast Lead Begins

Live Blogging Operation Cast Lead

Operation Cast Lead Begins in Gaza