Dissention within Israel on Hamas Attack
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048368.html
Excerpts....
Last update - 09:04 21/12/2008 Talk with Hamas By Gideon Levy
Tags: truce, Hamas, Israel News
The situation in the south is depressing. Qassam rockets are being fired out of a territory beset by boycott, siege and intolerable conditions at Israeli communities whose situation is no more tolerable, and the Israeli defense establishment admits it has no real response. With the exception of a few loud-mouthed politicians including Kadima head Tzipi Livni who have elections in mind, most level-headed politicians know the truth: There is no military solution. No wide-scale or small operation; no targeted killing or bombing will help, nor is there a military solution for the situation of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit.
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Even outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who in the twilight of his political career has excelled by making some blunt and courageous remarks, has done nothing. If any debate is held over what course of action to pursue it is either for or against a "wide-scale operation." Meanwhile, analysts sit in news studios and dispatch advice, all of it belligerent and militaristic. Politicians, generals and the public all know that any substantial incursion into the Gaza Strip will be a catastrophe. Still, no one dares ask why, for heaven's sake, not try to talk directly with Hamas?
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The two-year siege and boycott that included starvation, blackouts and bombardments have produced no sign that Hamas is weaker. On the contrary: The ceasefire was violated first by Israel with its unnecessary operation of blowing up a tunnel.
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What does Israel have to lose besides its much-anticipated wide-scale operation that it can carry out anytime? Why not try the diplomatic option before the military one, and not the other way around like we're used to?
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Israel is negotiating with Hamas through Egyptian channels anyway. Is it not more reasonable to try holding direct talks?
(opinion piece)
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Re: Dissention within Israel on Hamas Attack
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/ne...int__Roundup__
Israeli attack on Gaza sparks protest, calls for restraint (Roundup)
Middle East News
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'Egypt condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded,' an Egyptian presidential statement read. President Hosny Mubarak also made provisions for Egyptian hospitals to offer medical treatment to Gaza Strip residents caught in the bombardment.
Egypt had brokered the previous ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and had been seeking its renewal.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visited Egypt three days before the airstrikes.
Re: Dissention within Israel on Hamas Attack
well as long as we're checking out info from 'biased' middle eastern sources ... try these on for size ...
(snip)"Lebanon reports intense Israeli air activity
December 28, 2008, 6:33 PM (GMT+02:00)
A Lebanese security official reported that five Israeli aircraft overflew Bin Jbeil in South Lebanon and then headed for the Mediterranean port town of Tyre further north. He also reported a reconnaissance aircraft cruised over the South all night. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to speak later Sunday, Dec. 28, about the air operation Israel launched Saturday against Hamas military and missile sites and resources.
On the night of Dec. 25, Lebanese sappers defused 13 rockets shortly before their timing devices would have sent them hurtling towards the northern Israeli cities of Nahariya and Maalot. They were loaded on eight new Iranian-made rocket launchers located in a wadi 5 km from the Israeli border, the site used by the Hizballah to pummel northern Israel in the 2006 Lebanon War. Three were primed to fire 107mm RAAD rockets and five loaded with 122mm Grad Katyushas.
DEBKAfile's military sources were certain that Hizballah handed the rockets to Hamas terrorists at the Ain Hilwa camp in south Lebanon and guided them to the exact launching site for hitting the two Israeli towns. Their point was to demonstrate that Hamas could hit Israel with rockets not just from Gaza but also from a second front in Lebanon in the event of an Israeli military operation against Hamas."(snip)
from , and
(snip)"Israel air force pummels Hamas forces, blows up 40 Philadelphi tunnels
December 28, 2008, 9:35 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Hamas kept a reserve fighting force in and around the smuggling tunnels they dug under the Philadelphi border strip between the Gaza Strip and Egyptian Sinai. Sunday, Dec. 28, the Israeli air force struck 40 tunnels between 3 and 15 meters deep – some packed with explosives or fuel stocks - on Day 2 of the Israeli air offensive against Gaza. The heavy bombs triggered secondary blasts and fires in a chain reaction, severing Hamas' pipeline for smuggled arms from Iran and Sinai through Egyptian Sinai.
This was the second major Israeli air force operation after bombers, helicopters and drones blasted hundreds of Hamas military sites Saturday. Palestinian losses stand now at over 280 dead, most of them Hamas fighting men.
A crowd of Palestinians trying to flee the Gaza Strip were stopped by heavy machine gun fire from Egyptian forces.
To the north of the embattled enclave, a Palestinian Qassam missile exploded near the Israeli armored units and Merkava tanks massing outside the Gaza Strip border fence, awaiting an order to cross in. No one was hurt. In the last two days, Israel has called up 6,500 reservists for the Gaza operation.
Sunday, too, 20 Qassam missiles and Grad rockets were fired from Gaza. Their radius has been extended to nearly 40 km by the new Iran-made Grad Katyushas which reached the big port-city of Ashdod and Yavne for the first time. Two civilians were injured by one of the four projectiles which hit Ashkelon.
Chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi reported to the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that the first wave of air strikes in Gaza Saturday destroyed 50 percent of the "missile pits" which Hamas had scattered around the territory, some containing missiles operated by remote control. This would partly explain the trickle of missiles fired from Gaza compared with the massive expected in the wake of Israel's Gaza operation. The presence of Israeli bombers and reconnaissance drones aloft in Gaza's skies most of the time is another deterrent. But Israeli war planners do not yet rule this out. Hamas still has plenty of fight."(snip)
from , and most importantly
(snip)"Iran drastically modifies its nuclear weaponization strategy
December 25, 2008, 10:32 PM (GMT+02:00)
In the coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly, you can read for the first time about a new decision by Islamic republic rulers to rethink the tempo of their nuclear armament program in the light of the Obama administration's promised engagement policy. Tehran homed in on the Obama-Clinton plan to appoint a senior Iranian outreach coordinator."(snip)
from which is actually referring to ...
(snip)"
Obama Planning First Step towards Talks with Iran
TEHRAN (FNA)- US President-elect Barack Obama and his team are planning to create a new position to coordinate outreach to Iran and is considering a number of senior career diplomats.
The measure is deemed as the first step by Obama toward beginning diplomatic negotiations with the Islamic Republic.
The Washington Times Friday quoted a State Department official who said Obama's team discussed naming a senior Iranian outreach coordinator in early meetings with Hillary Clinton, Obama's pick for secretary of state.
"The idea is the position should build on the existing diplomatic framework," the unidentified official was quoted as saying.
Iranian specialists also said the position was in the works. Obama's team has made no official announcement on the creation of such a post.
"There is every indication that they are seriously considering going this way," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a group that has warned of the dangers of Iranian proliferation.
Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, an organization that supports US-Iran dialogue, said that a special envoy position for Iran is planned.
For now, spokesmen for Obama's team have declined to comment on the reports.
The deputy director for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Patrick Clawson, says US-Iran negotiations may well be in the offing as "there is every indication that they (Obama and members of his team) are seriously considering going this way."
Obama drew criticism from his GOP rival John McCain during the presidential campaign for saying he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Obama promised during his presidential campaign to seek dialogue with Iran without preconditions in an effort to persuade Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment program. The outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has refused to negotiate with Iran unless Tehran first suspends its uranium enrichment program. "(snip)
from
Re: Dissention within Israel on Hamas Attack
Mel, you don't post anything here that is not biased. Haaretz.com is not as biased as Debka.com and Haaretz has been around a lot longer.
Besides that's the only one that carried such an opinion I've found so far.