A Tit For A Tat

First the Israelis were :

Israel hit by rockets from Gaza

 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Israeli children react to a Palestinian rocket attack Wednesday in the southern city of Ashkelon, neighboring

Gaza Militants Bombard Israel With Dozens Of Rockets, Mortars

Then ---Why Did Israel Attack Gaza?

Why has Israel launched the deadliest attacks on Palestinian territory since the 1967 Six Day War?
Israel's onslaught is a reprisal for a week-long barrage of rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. Israel says it had to safeguard the lives in towns bordering the strip. Palestinians, and many others, believe the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also ordered the raids to achieve what his government had failed to achieve through other means: the removal from power of Hamas, the Islamist political movement elected to run Gaza in 2006, which it accuses of being controlled by Iran and Syria.

Was the timing a surprise?
The scale and ferocity of the attacks came as a shock to many but tensions had been building after the expiry on 18 December of a ceasefire.
Why did the ceasefire collapse?
Hamas had offered to renew the ceasefire if Israel reopened Gaza's border crossings. The strip had been sealed by Israel in an economic siege aimed at toppling Hamas. The blockade has brought the territory near economic collapse.
Are Israeli domestic politics a factor?
Very much so. Israel is preparing for general elections on 10 February. The prospect of a return to power by the hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, promising tough action against Hamas, has hardened the positions of Israel's more moderate political leaders.
Can Israel achieve its security aims by attacking Hamas so forcefully?
It is difficult to see Israel's action as being anything other than counterproductive, particularly if it escalates and widens the assault. Unless a fresh truce can be negotiated quickly, the hopes raised by the election of Barack Obama to the US Presidency and the possibility of a more engaged US policy seem to have dimmed again.
Read more at The Independent

After The Israeli's Bombarded Gaza

Bodies of Palestinian Policemen killed in the Israeli airstrike

Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008

Bodies of Palestinian Policemen killed in the Israeli airstrike

In this image taken from APTN video, Palestinian men carry two injured children into hospital after Israeli aircraft struck.

Palestinians lift a wounded woman to a vehicle after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008.

Palestinians help a wounded man after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008.

Palestinians transport the body of a Palestinian after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008.

A Palestinian is rushed to hospital after he was wounded in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City.

A wounded Palestinian woman is rushed into hospital in Gaza City December 27, 2008.

Palestinians help a wounded man after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008

Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008.

An explosion from an Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip

Smoke and fire are seen after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip December 27, 2008

Palestinians inspects a destroyed Hamas police compounds following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008.

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in Rafah, a town in the southern Gaza Strip.

The leg of a Hamas policeman is seen between the rubbles following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008

Smoke rises after an Israeli bomb exploded in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip December 27, 2008.

A Palestinian rescue worker inspects damage on a Hamas police compounds following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in the southern town of Rafah.

A Palestinian man cries over the body of his son following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008.

Palestinian medics recover the body of a dead woman from the rubble of a destroyed Hamas police compound following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008

A Hamas policeman asks for help as others try to recover a body from a destroyed Hamas police compounds following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008

A Palestinian Hamas policeman inspects the destroyed former office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008

Palestinians run for cover following an Israeli missile strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.(AP)

A wounded Hamas policeman lies on the ground following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008.

The body of a Hamas police officer is transported to hospital in Gaza City December 27, 2008.

Bodies of Palestinians are seen at Shifa hospital in Gaza December 27, 2008

A Palestinian woman wounded in Israeli missile strikes is helped into the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. (AP)

Palestinians gather at the site of a security compound used by the Islamic group Hamas following an Israeli missile strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.


Bodies of Palestinian Policemen killed in the Israeli airstrike





NOW WHO SUFFERS?

Is it Hamas? Is it Ehud Olmert ? Likud party? Obama? George Bush? The Islamist? Iranians? Syrians? Is it the Egyptians? ....no

IT IS ORDINARY CITIZENS LIKE YOU AND ME....Let's say No to Israeli Violence and Lets Say No to Hamas Violence. LET SAY NO TO VIOLENCE....


VIOLENCE ONLY BEGETS VIOLENCE

Israel Strikes Back

By P. David Hornik

For months now, the Palestinian terror group Hamas has been shelling Israeli cities with little in the way of an assertive response. But this weekend, which capped a week when at least 300 Hamas-fired rockets and mortars pounded southern Israel, the Israeli government has at last decided to retaliate.
“Operation Cast Iron” opened on Saturday with a carefully planned, perfectly coordinated, and devastating air strike against Hamas targets in Gaza. The strike, which involved more than 100 aircraft and occurred in two waves, destroyed dozens of military and police headquarters, training camps, and above-ground and underground weapons facilities. If Hamas estimates are to be believed, approximately 200 Palestinians have been killed. Of these, a great majority appear to have been terrorist combatants. Israel has also bombed the Islamic University in Gaza, and is now threatening a full-scale invasion.

The weekend offensive marks the third time in less than a decade that Israel has opened a war whose proximate cause is terrorist aggression but which was actually fostered by Israel’s own self-delusive policies. For instance, the second intifada, which broke out in September 2000, was made possible by Israel’s Oslo-era policy of inviting terrorist armies, including Hamas, to entrench itself in the West Bank and Gaza. By allowing Hamas to build up its political power base and military capabilities, Israel virtually guaranteed that it would be drawn into a future conflict in Gaza. A similar cycle of cause-and-effect underpinned the second Lebanon War, which broke out in July 2006. That conflict was made possible in large part by Israel’s May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

Likewise, Israel’s latest military campaign is the inevitable result of Israel’s ill-conceived “disengagement” from Gaza in August 2005. The flaw of the earlier withdrawal was starkly revealed this Sunday, when sorties against Hamas targets destroyed no fewer than 40 smuggling tunnels between Gaza and the Sinai. These tunnels were a testament to the terrorist activity that Israel’s withdrawal had made possible.
Seen against the background of Hamas’s resurgence, this weekend's successful strikes are long overdue. So, too, is the chastening that they signal within Israel’s political leadership – the triumvirate of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak, and Foreign Minister and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni – which appears finally to have grasped that Hamas cannot be stopped with economic pressure and temporary ceasefires. As Barak told Fox News this weekend, “For us to be asked to have a ceasefire with Hamas is like asking you to have a ceasefire with al-Qaeda. It's something we cannot really accept.” Meanwhile, Livni reportedly said that Islamists must be drummed out of Gaza’s leadership.

This newfound resoluteness is to be welcomed. But the fact that Israel’s leaders have come to realize the urgency of confronting terrorism does not compensate for the dismal failures of their past performance. Reports indicate that Saturday’s strike relied on lengthy planning and intelligence gathering, but they don’t settle the question of how the government could have waited so long to act – particularly when 250,000 Israeli citizens had been living so long under a relentless barrage of rockets and mortar fire. The new Israeli offensive must also be considered in the context of the Olmert government’s bungled war against Hezbollah in 2006, when the limited success of an initial aerial bombardment was succeeded by a less successful ground offensive and, ultimately, a tenuous ceasefire.

Early evidence suggests that the government has recognized its past mistakes, and is intent on avoiding them. Thus Olmert, Barak, and Livni have defined Operation Cast Iron’s goals narrowly, eschewing the bombastic statements that the Olmert government made when the second Lebanon War erupted. Operation Cast Iron is designed to put an end to Hamas's rocket fire, terrorist activity, and arms smuggling.

However, questions abound. Will Barack and Livni follow through with their rhetoric about toppling Hamas, or will they be content to leave it in power after a temporary show of strength? If the latter, who will stop the weapons smuggling or prevent Hamas from recuperating militarily and preparing to drag Israel into its next confrontation?

Just as pressingly, who will take over if Israel does depose Hamas in a ground invasion? On the one hand, Olmert, Barak, and Livni remain allergic to the idea of Israel’s long-term reoccupation of parts or all of Gaza. But the possible alternatives are troubling. For instance, the experience of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in southern Lebanon, which shields instead of thwarts Hezbollah’s ongoing empowerment, argues against the idea of NATO or other international forces taking over Gaza. Similarly, Israel should avoid replacing Hamas with Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah-run Palestinian Authority. Gaza’s transfer from anti-Israeli Hamas to anti-Israeli Fatah is in fact no solution, because even if Fatah presently lacks Hamas's energy and discipline, it can nevertheless be relied on to instill hatred of Israel in future generations of Palestinians, just as it currently does in the West Bank.

Still another troubling possibility is that, with Israeli elections tentatively scheduled for February 10, a perceived successful outcome to the war would help the current government defeat the Likud party, most of whose current lineup opposed the “disengagement” that created the current crisis in the first place. Given the Likud leadership’s foresight in this regard, it would be unfortunate if the next government did not share its grasp of the threats to Israeli security – especially at a time when, however grave the Gaza threat, the incomparably greater Iranian threat could require critical decision-making by the spring of 2009.
It is hard to trust the very people who got Israel into its mess in Gaza to get the country out of it. A viable solution to Gaza may involve Israel reoccupying its most strategic parts—the Gaza-Sinai border and the northern Strip from which most of the rockets are launched—while putting any Gaza regime on notice that continued aggression will result in further Israeli conquests. While such a solution may seem uncompromising, it is in fact greatly preferable to the successive retreats and empty “ceasefires” that have defined Israeli policy in Gaza to date. Unfortunately, it is a solution that requires the kind of political courage that has not been the hallmark of Israel’s current leadership.

Mullen persuades Pak to address India's concerns on terror

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Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen

  ISLAMABAD:  America's top military official, on a second visit to Islamabad since the Mumbai terror attacks, has persuaded the country to do more to address India's concerns on terrorists operating from its soil in order to defuse tensions between the two nations.
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is believed to have stressed the need for Pakistan to do more to address India's concerns, including action against elements linked to the Mumbai attacks, during his meetings with the country's top military leadership yesterday.
Diplomatic sources said the tensions between India and Pakistan and ensuring Islamabad's cooperation to nab the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks was the focus of Mullen's two day visit.
 Mullen met army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency yesterday. US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said Mullen is visiting for “scheduled meetings with senior Pakistani officials on regional issues”.
Mullen is expected to meet President Asif Ali Zardari today. However, the influential Dawn newspaper reported Mullen was “on a mission to urge Pakistan to arrest elements accused by India of being involved in last month's Mumbai attacks for cooling down the mounting tension between the two countries”.
The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that Mullen “might have sought commitments from the Pakistani leadership on the Indian demands which are also a pre-condition for resuming the peace process” between the two countries.
The role of the ISI was also discussed by Mullen, who is believed to have reiterated the US's demand for bringing the spy agency under civilian control.
During their meetings with Mullen, Pakistani officials said they had taken sufficient action even without evidence being provided by India about the involvement of Pakistani elements in the attacks.
Mullen was also apprised by officials of Pakistan's possible reaction in the event of an attack by India, the Dawn reported. Mullen also reviewed peace deals with the Taliban and discussed the payment of USD 900 million in arrears for logistical support provided to the US by Pakistan, the report said.
India has blamed Pakistan-based elements, including the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, for planning and carrying out the Mumbai attacks that killed over 180 people. It has asked Pakistan to crack down on these elements.
Pakistan, which carried out a limited crackdown on LeT and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah, has been insisting that India has not shared any evidence on the attacks.
The US, on the other hand, is concerned that a further escalation in regional tension could result in Pakistan diverting troops from its border with Afghanistan to the Indian frontier. This would adversely impact the US-led campaign in Afghanistan and make it easier for Taliban elements based in Pakistan's tribal belt to conduct cross-border raids.

Pakistan capable of thwarting 'aggression' from the east: Zardari

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ISLAMABAD: Amid a war of words with India over the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan has said its armed forces were fully capable of “thwarting any aggression from the east” and New Delhi should not underestimate its military might.

India should not underestimate Pakistan's military power because it is “capable of thwarting any aggression from the east”, President Asif Ali Zardari said at a meeting with Gen Tariq Majid, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, here last night.

Majid told the President that the armed forces were fully capable of meeting any eventuality on the eastern front, Dawn News channel said. Separately, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said while the operational preparedness of the armed forces was at an “optimal level,” both Pakistan and India cannot afford tension along their border.

“Nobody wants tensions on the borders and we are moving responsibly and with caution,” Gilani told reporters on the sidelines of an official ceremony here.

The military is fully capable of defending Pakistan's territorial integrity, he said, adding that the operational preparedness of the armed forces is at an “optimal level”.

The nation and the army are united to defend the country and its territorial integrity, he added. “The government is aware of the situation in the region and will act as things move,” Gilani said.

During a meeting with Shahid Malik, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Zardari said Islamabad wants good relations with New Delhi but “on the basis of sovereign equality”.