Israel bombards Gaza Strip, shoots down rocket
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with about 300 airstrikes Saturday and shot down a Palestinian rocket fired at Tel Aviv, the military said, widening a blistering assault to include the Hamas prime minister's headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels.
The intensified airstrikes came as Egyptian-led attempts to broker a cease-fire and end Israel's four-day-old Gaza offensive gained momentum. The leaders of Hamas and two key allies, Qatar and Turkey, were in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials, and the Arab League was holding an emergency meeting.
The White House said President Barack Obama was also in touch with the Egyptian and Turkish leaders. The U.S. has solidly backed Israel so far.
Speaking on Air Force One, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said that the White House believes Israel "has the right to defend itself" against attack and that the Israelis will make their own decisions about their "military tactics and operations."
The Israeli attacks, which Gaza officials say left 12 dead, came as Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets toward Israel, including two aimed at the commercial and cultural center of Tel Aviv. Rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this week mark the first time Gaza militants have managed to fire rockets toward the cities, raising the stakes in the confrontation.
The widened scope of targets brings the scale of fighting closer to that of the war the two groups waged four years ago. Hamas was badly bruised during that conflict, but has since restocked its arsenal with more and better weapons, and has been under pressure from smaller, more militant groups to prove its commitment to fighting Israel.
In a psychological boost for the Israelis, a sophisticated Israeli rocket-defense system known as "Iron Dome" knocked down one of the rockets headed toward Tel Aviv, eliciting cheers from relieved residents huddled in fear after air raid sirens sounded in the city.
Associated Press video showed a plume of smoke rising from a rocket-defense battery deployed near the city, followed by a burst of light overhead. The smoke trailed the intercepting missile.
Police said a second rocket also targeted Tel Aviv. It was not clear where it landed or whether it was shot down. No injuries were reported. It was the third straight day the city was targeted.
Israel says the Iron Dome system has shot down some 250 incoming rockets, most of them in southern Israel near Gaza.
Saturday's interception was the first time Iron Dome has been deployed in Tel Aviv. The battery was a new upgraded version that was only activated on Saturday, two months ahead of schedule, officials said.
Israel opened the offensive on Wednesday with a surprising airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief, then attacked dozens of rocket launchers and storage sites. It says the offensive is meant to halt months of rocket fire on southern Israel.
While Israel claims to be inflicting heavy damage on Gaza's Hamas rulers, it has failed to slow the rocket fire. In all, 42 Palestinians, including 13 civilians, have been killed, while three Israeli civilians have died.
Maj. Gen. Tal Russo, Israel's southern commander, said Saturday that Hamas had suffered a tough blow.
"Most of their capabilities have been destroyed," he told reporters. Asked whether Israel is ready to send ground troops into Gaza, he said: "Absolutely."
Israel has authorized the call-up of as many as 75,000 reservists ahead of a possible ground operation. Dozens of armored vehicles have massed along the border with Gaza in recent days.
Israeli officials say they have not yet decided whether to send in ground troops, a decision that would almost certainly lead to heavy casualties on both sides.
In Saturday's fighting, Israeli aircraft pounded militants' weapons storage facilities and underground rocket launching sites, and went after rocket squads more aggressively.
Militants, undaunted, have unleashed some 500 rockets against the Jewish state.
Hamas claims that Israeli intelligence is based on a network of collaborators in Gaza. Officials said two Palestinians have been executed by Hamas' military wing for allegedly providing Israel with sensitive information. One man was shot twice in the head. Another body was tossed into a garbage bin with a gunshot wound to the head.
The violence has threatened the Mideast with a new war. At the same time, revolts against entrenched regional regimes have opened up new possibilities for Hamas. Islamists across the Mideast have been strengthened, bringing newfound recognition to Hamas, which had previously been shunned by the international community because of its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
A high-level Tunisian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, drove that point home with a visit to Gaza on Saturday. The foreign minister's first stop was the still-smoldering ruins of the three-story office building of Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
"Israel has to understand that there is an international law and it has to respect the international law to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people," Abdessalem told the AP during a tour of Gaza's main hospital. He said his country was doing whatever it can to promote a cease-fire, but did not elaborate.
It was the first official Tunisian visit since Hamas's violent 2007 takeover of the territory. The West Bank is governed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Egypt's prime minister visited Gaza on Friday and a Moroccan delegation was due on Sunday, following a landmark visit by Qatar's leader last month.
Israel had been incrementally expanding its operation beyond military targets but before dawn on Saturday it ramped that up dramatically, hitting Hamas symbols of power.
Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential decisions, said military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz personally ordered the scope of the airstrikes to be increased.
Haniyeh's three-story office building was flattened by an airstrike that blew out windows in neighboring homes. He was not inside the building at the time.
Another airstrike brought down the three-story home of a Hamas commander in the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, critically wounding him and injuring other residents of the building, medics said.
Missiles smashed into two small security facilities and the massive Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City, setting off a huge blaze that engulfed nearby houses and civilian cars parked outside, the Interior Ministry reported. No one was inside the buildings.
The Interior Ministry said a government compound was also hit while devout Muslims streamed to the area for early morning prayers, although no casualties were reported.
Air attacks knocked out five electricity transformers, cutting off power to more than 400,000 people in southern Gaza, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company. People switched on backup generators for limited electrical supplies.
In southern Gaza, aircraft went after underground tunnels militants use to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt, residents reported. A huge explosion in the area sent buildings shuddering in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, 45 kilometers (30 miles) away, an Associated Press correspondent there reported.
The Israeli military said more than 950 targets have been struck since the operation began.
On Saturday, more than 120 rockets slammed into Israel, causing damage to houses. About 10 Israelis were injured lightly, among dozens of others wounded since the start of the operation.
Despite the violence, Egyptian-led diplomacy was underway to bring an end to the fighting.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was meeting the leaders of Turkey and Qatar Saturday as well as Hamas leader Khaled Meshal to discuss details of a proposed cease-fire.
The Arab League also met Saturday to consider sending its chief Nabil Elaraby and a team of foreign ministers to Gaza in the coming two days to assess the situation and respond to humanitarian needs there, according to a draft memorandum obtained by the AP.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Saturday that during discussions with Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin late Friday, he suggested that Turkey, Egypt, the United States and Russia help broker a simultaneous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
"It would be good if we could work on it rapidly to solve the matter within 24 hours, because the death toll is mounting," he said.
___
Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Gaza City, Matthew Daly in Washington and Aya Batrawy in Cairo contributed reporting.
The intensified airstrikes came as Egyptian-led attempts to broker a cease-fire and end Israel's four-day-old Gaza offensive gained momentum. The leaders of Hamas and two key allies, Qatar and Turkey, were in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials, and the Arab League was holding an emergency meeting.
The White House said President Barack Obama was also in touch with the Egyptian and Turkish leaders. The U.S. has solidly backed Israel so far.
Speaking on Air Force One, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said that the White House believes Israel "has the right to defend itself" against attack and that the Israelis will make their own decisions about their "military tactics and operations."
The Israeli attacks, which Gaza officials say left 12 dead, came as Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets toward Israel, including two aimed at the commercial and cultural center of Tel Aviv. Rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this week mark the first time Gaza militants have managed to fire rockets toward the cities, raising the stakes in the confrontation.
The widened scope of targets brings the scale of fighting closer to that of the war the two groups waged four years ago. Hamas was badly bruised during that conflict, but has since restocked its arsenal with more and better weapons, and has been under pressure from smaller, more militant groups to prove its commitment to fighting Israel.
In a psychological boost for the Israelis, a sophisticated Israeli rocket-defense system known as "Iron Dome" knocked down one of the rockets headed toward Tel Aviv, eliciting cheers from relieved residents huddled in fear after air raid sirens sounded in the city.
Associated Press video showed a plume of smoke rising from a rocket-defense battery deployed near the city, followed by a burst of light overhead. The smoke trailed the intercepting missile.
Police said a second rocket also targeted Tel Aviv. It was not clear where it landed or whether it was shot down. No injuries were reported. It was the third straight day the city was targeted.
Israel says the Iron Dome system has shot down some 250 incoming rockets, most of them in southern Israel near Gaza.
Saturday's interception was the first time Iron Dome has been deployed in Tel Aviv. The battery was a new upgraded version that was only activated on Saturday, two months ahead of schedule, officials said.
Israel opened the offensive on Wednesday with a surprising airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief, then attacked dozens of rocket launchers and storage sites. It says the offensive is meant to halt months of rocket fire on southern Israel.
While Israel claims to be inflicting heavy damage on Gaza's Hamas rulers, it has failed to slow the rocket fire. In all, 42 Palestinians, including 13 civilians, have been killed, while three Israeli civilians have died.
Maj. Gen. Tal Russo, Israel's southern commander, said Saturday that Hamas had suffered a tough blow.
"Most of their capabilities have been destroyed," he told reporters. Asked whether Israel is ready to send ground troops into Gaza, he said: "Absolutely."
Israel has authorized the call-up of as many as 75,000 reservists ahead of a possible ground operation. Dozens of armored vehicles have massed along the border with Gaza in recent days.
Israeli officials say they have not yet decided whether to send in ground troops, a decision that would almost certainly lead to heavy casualties on both sides.
In Saturday's fighting, Israeli aircraft pounded militants' weapons storage facilities and underground rocket launching sites, and went after rocket squads more aggressively.
Militants, undaunted, have unleashed some 500 rockets against the Jewish state.
Hamas claims that Israeli intelligence is based on a network of collaborators in Gaza. Officials said two Palestinians have been executed by Hamas' military wing for allegedly providing Israel with sensitive information. One man was shot twice in the head. Another body was tossed into a garbage bin with a gunshot wound to the head.
The violence has threatened the Mideast with a new war. At the same time, revolts against entrenched regional regimes have opened up new possibilities for Hamas. Islamists across the Mideast have been strengthened, bringing newfound recognition to Hamas, which had previously been shunned by the international community because of its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
A high-level Tunisian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, drove that point home with a visit to Gaza on Saturday. The foreign minister's first stop was the still-smoldering ruins of the three-story office building of Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
"Israel has to understand that there is an international law and it has to respect the international law to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people," Abdessalem told the AP during a tour of Gaza's main hospital. He said his country was doing whatever it can to promote a cease-fire, but did not elaborate.
It was the first official Tunisian visit since Hamas's violent 2007 takeover of the territory. The West Bank is governed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Egypt's prime minister visited Gaza on Friday and a Moroccan delegation was due on Sunday, following a landmark visit by Qatar's leader last month.
Israel had been incrementally expanding its operation beyond military targets but before dawn on Saturday it ramped that up dramatically, hitting Hamas symbols of power.
Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential decisions, said military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz personally ordered the scope of the airstrikes to be increased.
Haniyeh's three-story office building was flattened by an airstrike that blew out windows in neighboring homes. He was not inside the building at the time.
Another airstrike brought down the three-story home of a Hamas commander in the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, critically wounding him and injuring other residents of the building, medics said.
Missiles smashed into two small security facilities and the massive Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City, setting off a huge blaze that engulfed nearby houses and civilian cars parked outside, the Interior Ministry reported. No one was inside the buildings.
The Interior Ministry said a government compound was also hit while devout Muslims streamed to the area for early morning prayers, although no casualties were reported.
Air attacks knocked out five electricity transformers, cutting off power to more than 400,000 people in southern Gaza, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company. People switched on backup generators for limited electrical supplies.
In southern Gaza, aircraft went after underground tunnels militants use to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt, residents reported. A huge explosion in the area sent buildings shuddering in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, 45 kilometers (30 miles) away, an Associated Press correspondent there reported.
The Israeli military said more than 950 targets have been struck since the operation began.
On Saturday, more than 120 rockets slammed into Israel, causing damage to houses. About 10 Israelis were injured lightly, among dozens of others wounded since the start of the operation.
Despite the violence, Egyptian-led diplomacy was underway to bring an end to the fighting.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was meeting the leaders of Turkey and Qatar Saturday as well as Hamas leader Khaled Meshal to discuss details of a proposed cease-fire.
The Arab League also met Saturday to consider sending its chief Nabil Elaraby and a team of foreign ministers to Gaza in the coming two days to assess the situation and respond to humanitarian needs there, according to a draft memorandum obtained by the AP.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Saturday that during discussions with Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin late Friday, he suggested that Turkey, Egypt, the United States and Russia help broker a simultaneous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
"It would be good if we could work on it rapidly to solve the matter within 24 hours, because the death toll is mounting," he said.
___
Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Gaza City, Matthew Daly in Washington and Aya Batrawy in Cairo contributed reporting.
If  you lie with dogs you get fleas. Israel is why your children are busted broke.  They deserve to be broke because of your insanity. No amount of Jewish liberalism from the past 45 years has stopped mass amounts of land being stolen from the Arabs or stopped the Palestinians from being battered and imprisoned in a corrupt  police state.
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 Both  the liberal and conservative supporters of Israel brought the same misery the Palestinians had to you here.
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All supporters of Israel as it currently exists are enemies of freedom wherever they are and regardless of what politics they ascribe to. Soon all Americans will  be Palestinians.
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Hamas missile fire control and guidance courtesy of Iranian specialists.
I read something somewhere that the Israelites were told they needed to do something before they could occupy their "promised land" but they refused. They will never occupy their "promised land" on their own terms and will be plagued with attacks.
 @johnbe Of course anyone in most of the world that isn't a Muslim will be plagued with attacks. But hey, they're all about peace, as long as, well...
That reminds me of another group of intolerants that currently occupy the left bank, I mean the left coast, err west coast.
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It's a liberal day in the neigh - bor -hood,
A liberal day to be a neigh- bor
I think everybody should be...
progressive and think just like ME!
Because if you don't,
you're a racist you see?!?!
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Nice toon, but I'm just making an observation, not telling anybody how to think. And here I was, thinking that racism is about race, instead it's a political mindset? Yeah right.
Israel and Nuttyahooo just mad that Obama got reelected!Â
Israel and Nuttyayhoooo hates the U.S. and Obama just like a lot of the people that post on this site!
because the death toll is mounting,"The world has seen nor heard nothing yet compared to what is about to happen. All through history Israel has murdered innocents in the name of god. If you believe the bible is some form of history then the Israelis have been murdering bastards through out time. In god we trust nuke the bastards and it continues
 @Cindertang Shut up & sit down.
 @William H. Bonney  @Cindertang Is that what you tell your wife?
 @William H. Bonney  @Cindertang Nice.
Anyone that believes Hamas is all rainbows and butterflies is more than welcome to go over there, stand in the middle of a combat zone and get run over by a D-10 because you don't have enough brains to know how stupid that is, or you think you're just so "progressive" they will quake in fear of you're awesomeness.
Then you'll be famous and your parents can try to sue Caterpillar inc where they will be laughed out of court.
 @William H. BonneyÂ
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Any American who thinks Hamas or Iran is the threat to them is clearly out of their mind and belongs in an insane asylum.The Iraq war was about protecting Israel and those who made that war and served in the Iraq war know it  from Bush to every E-1.
 @William H. Bonney same goes for anyone who believes Israel is all rainbow and butterflies
 @Larry*X*K Know anyone that lives there?
I'm sure your progressiveness allows you to think the suicide bombers are somehow justified too.
 @William H. Bonney No, I don't think either side is justified murdering one another but that's just me, I don't have to take sides you know
It's simple..if Hamas doesn't fire rockets at Israel then Israel doesn't bomb them back. Maybe Israel will shove the whole lot of them into Egypt and be done with it this time.
 @I Like Meat I guess ethnic cleansing is one option. )-: ...and will bring the Israelis full circle.
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Or perhaps they can stop treating the Palestinians like animals... what do they expect to emerge from a whole group of people treated like crap for generations.
 @albion Last I heard Hamas IS a TERRORIST organization.
I'm pretty sure that puts them in the criminal category.
I wasn't using progressive logic, I was using scientific logic, you compare the likelihood of offspring of a species growing up to an adult of another species to offspring of a species growing up to the adult of the same species and that was illogical.
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I also wasn't painting rainbows on anything, Hamas is a terrorist organization that kills innocent victims and should be punished for doing so. However, I don't think that the killing of innocent victims is the right way to go about defusing the situation. It does on the other hand provide plenty of justification for the terrorists to continue their campaign and makes it easier for them to recruit for their cause.
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Being polite isn't about being PC, politeness existed long before the term PC existed. In fact I would say that generally people are considerably more PC these days and also considerably less polite, especially when they can express their opinions anonymously on the internet It is unfortunate that you are either unable or unwilling to express your opinion without applying personal attacks.
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Two ways to look at things -
1)Treat others as you want to be treated
2)Treat others as they have treated you
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I guess we all have to decide which approach is going to improve the situations we are in. I'll chose option 1 and it appears that you are choosing option 2, if that makes me progressive so be it.
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 @JustaguyYou can use whatever progressive logic that makes you feel better, but the truth remains and always will,
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"I mean really what kind of person would think that the actions of the parents automatically dictate the behaviors of the child?"
Anyone that lives in reality.
Just trot right over to S. Seattle if you need an example closer to home.
Being polite is over, PC is dead. reality is reality and it ain't always pretty.
You can paint progressive rainbows on it, shove your fingers in your ears and pretend it isn't so and watch it get worse.
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Well ok I will pretend that I have a brain for a few minutes.....Are rats the same species as adorable doggies? I guess that answer is no so will rats ever grow up to be adorable doggies, I have to guess no.
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On the other hand are the children of terrorist the same species as children of US citizens? I guess that answer is yes so can both types of parents produce the same species of offspring, I have to think the answer is yes.
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I mean really what kind of person would think that the actions of the parents automatically dictate the behaviors of the child?
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Perhaps there are lots of little tidbits that we both struggle to grasp. Being polite in a debt appears to be one you could start on.
@Justaguy
Absolutely. Lets pretend for a few minutes that you have a brain and can actually think for yourself.Do baby rats grow up to be fuzzy little adorable doggies? No, that's right they don't.
And guess what, Surprise! Little terrorist grow up to be big terrorist if they don't walk into a market some nice sunny day and blow the thing to kingdom come.A NON-progressive little side note, they're often infected with HIV first. There's lots of little titbits the real world has you just can't grasp.
Does that make it ok to kill children?
Cool, a new picture for my desktop background. Fire and minarets. How appropriate!
The history of Israel and Palestine is the single biggest proof that war is terrorism and terrorism is war.
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Violence begets violence... there are no innocents here amongst the aggressors on either side. Whether tomorrow, in 5 years or 50 years, demographics dictate this will not end well for either side of this conflict until angry Palestinians can learn to forgive their treatment by Israel (and vice versa), and both sides can learn to coexist. There is no future for Israeli apartheid... clearly after all these years, the Palestinians will not allow themselves to be ethnically cleansed.
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Time for America stop funding Israel's security, and stop taking sides in the conflict. Israel is grownup now and can defend themselves.
 @albionÂ
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Israel cannot defend itself. It is a criminal state. It is only now striking the Arabs after  the USA ethnically cleansed Iraq and gave weapons to drug- addicted terrorists (like the kind in Beslam Russia who murdered 300 school children) in Syria.
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Israel is run by old ghouls while the Arabs they hate are young and vibrant. The biological clock is ticking against Israel's leaders. The effete progeny of it leaders cannot handle the young rising Arab states.
They need to relocate as far as possible from each other. Having a bunch of people who hate each other to death in such proximity is not a good idea.
 @Larry*X*K I'm sure they also agree with you........the problem is they both believe the other should be the one to call it quits. With this one I'm certainly no expert, I'm not even sure I buy half the stuff reported on first shots, why, when, how....... But it seems that nothing has worked so far to take the edge off the hatred. The ones that really suffer are the ones that always have in such things, the citizens.Â
@Larry*X*K Unfortunalty the Muslim world hates Israel no matter where it would be, another planet would not be far enough away to make them stop trying to kill them.
 @NitroxmanÂ
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Americans would see that the Arabs are not unreasonable if they were ever given media time. Who owns the media in the West? It is not Arabs who restrict the flow of information and truth.
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Was it Arabs who told these buffoons there were WMD in Iraq or psychopaths here in the USA?
Payback is a b*tch. After 60,000 + rockets being fired into Israel the last decade they're done being patient. It's too bad this is the only effective solution to deal with people that only want to see Israel destroyed.
 @Lbaba Patient? I hope you're being ironic. Look at the Palestinian death toll, how many homes have been razed, and how many bombs were dropped on Gaza over the past decade.
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To suggest Israel stood by and let their people get suicide bombed and shelled without retaliating or going on the offensive is ludicrous.
 @Dredd57  @Lbaba Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself?  They didn't start this.
 @belsnickles  @Lbaba You misinterpret the point of my post. The OP was insinuating Israel hasn't done anything to Gaza or the West Bank until now and been a peaceful neighbor the past decade. I was pointing out they have responded and retaliated to nearly every incident, and gone on the offensive many times.
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My post didn't have anything to do with Israel's right to defend itself or whether the offensive they have launched is right or wrong.Â
Retaliate and escalate... Only one course of action for Israel to take now. It looks like Palestine will get thumped hard now because of allowing Hamas to exist in their country. I guess Palestinians haven't learned harboring "terrorists" such as Hamas will have dire consequences. How long do you think America would put up with rocket attacks in our country? Israel has shown great restraint.
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Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
 @Funky-MunkyÂ
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Hamas and its policies did not bankrupt every American. Americans have not learned anything from harboring and aiding the true terrorists who hate freedom. It is not Arabs dragging Christians through piles of filth, muck  and excrement so why are people who call themselves Christians telling  someone else's  progeny to become  a cripple in these Mid East wars to protect Israel?
 @Funky-Munky i just hope the Israel now knows the difference between friendly ships and ships of the enemy, USS Liberty.