Liveblogging the Conflict: Monday, March 3rd

IDF troops completed their activity in the northern Gaza Strip last night, and the armed forces that had been operating inside the Gaza territory returned to Israel. Such operations are expected to continue.

In yesterday’s operations, the IDF began searching buildings in the “Qassam perimeter,” the eastern perimeter from which many Qassam cells have operated in recent months. And while terrorists continued to pound Israel with Qassams (yesterday’s tally was 38), there were less of the larger Grad missiles fired. Those Grad missiles that were fired (the 2 that struck Ashkelon) were fired from farther inside heavily populated areas of the Gaza Strip.

All in all, 4 IDF soldiers were lightly injured in fighting yesterday, as well as 3 Israeli civilians from the 40 rockets fired against Israel. About 12 palestinians died, some while fighting Israel, and some from injuries sustained on Saturday. It is unclear how many were terrorists and how many were non-combatants.

During their operations, IDF soldiers reported seeing a wide range of weapons, including improvised explosive devices, anti-tank missiles and – in further proof of either the terrorist use of civilians as human shields or civilian complicity with terrorists – booby-traps in some of the houses, and in at least one case, a weapons storehouse inside a mosque.

In other news, Hamas is cracking, not to mention at least one Israeli minister.

Updates (Israel time)

6:55AM: The IAF has struck targets in the Gaza Strip, killing 2 terrorists.

Meanwhile, Hamas officials claim 4 of their “workshops” and an office were blasted overnight.

8:35AM: I have long contended that Hamas and the other terrorist groups see Israeli withdrawals as victories. In a stark (and bizarre) illustration of this, Hamas has declared “victory” after the IDF wound down the first phase of its operation in Gaza and withdrew its troops.

8:53AM: Yet another example of the phenomenom described in the last update:

A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees told Ynet on Monday that “the army’s withdrawal is an Israeli admission of the failure of its operation. We defeated the Israeli army which has already been defeated in all the other wars in Lebanon and in the Strip territories.”

This is why nothing short of the absolute defeat of the terrorists will bring peace to this region.

9:07AM: A Grad rocket has struck a house in Ashkelon, with casualties being reported.

9:15AM: The IDF just struck another Qassam cell.

9:16AM: 2 more Grad rockets have landed in Ashkelon.

9:25AM: A few people have been treated for shock as a result of the Ashkelon missile attacks.

9:50AM: Would you believe Hamas Death DonkeyTM?

Few would think twice about an old Arab man driving his wagon through a copse of trees while clashes between IDF soldiers and Palestinian Authority terrorists rage in the streets of Gaza.

But the idyllic scene near the northern Gaza community of Jabalya belies an ominous reality.

The elderly Arab “civilian” and the cart pulled by his plodding donkey were carrying a cargo of death to be delivered to southern Israel. Concealed beneath the innocent load of produced piled high was a Grad missile, later used by terrorists in an attack on the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

And had we taken out the missile launcher and elderly terrorist, we would have been condemned for killing a civilian.

11:55AM: What’s the bet you will all be seeing this story played repetitively today:

Settler kills Palestinian teen near Ramallah

A 17-year-old Palestinian was shot to death by an Israeli citizen Monday morning near the West Bank settlement of Talmon.

The incident took place as Palestinians rioted and hurled stones near the community. Palestinians protesting the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip have been rioting in the area in recent days.

Leave it there, and I am sure many people will sympathize with the palestinian youth, murdered in cold blood by a “settler.” After all, he was just throwing stones.

Now look at the Ha’aretz version of the story, which is (amazingly) more accurate.

An Israeli civilian on Monday opened fire and killed a Palestinian hurling rocks at a public bus traveling near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Army Radio reported.

The Israeli passenger killed the Palestinian using his personal weapon, according to the radio.

Other passengers said that the bus had come under rock attack by some 200 Palestinian protesters and they feared they would be lynched.

None of this “settler” garbage, and more context as to the imminent danger involved.

In any event, I personally know of a lady who was hit in the head by one of these stones thrown by palestinians. She lost half her skull, and was lucky she survived. The palestinians throw these stones to kill, and these stones are more than capable of accomplishing the task.

12:10PM: Israel reportedly removed her troops from northern Gaza because of the impending visit by American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

12:43PM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has reportedly told Opposition Chairman Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu “There is nothing you are better at than distorting things.”

I wonder what Bibi’s comeback was, because there’s a lot he could say.

12:53PM: Surprise, surprise: The Grad rockets have been produced in Iran.

1:05PM: An initial police investigation indicates that the man who killed a rock-throwing palestinian acted in self-defense. According to the report:

He was riding in a vehicle near the community of Telmon when Arabs ambushed the vehicle, placing him a life-threatening situation.

The resident fired in the air to scare off the rock throwers and then aimed at their legs when they continued to attack the vehicle. Rock thrower attack Israel cars with the intention of hitting the driver and forcing him to lose control of the vehicle and causing a fatal accident.

3:46PM: Something fishy is going on in Gaza:

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat commented Monday on the end of the Israeli operation in Gaza Strip, saying that the “peace talks with Israel are suspended for now.”

“We are working towards a clam in the Gaza Strip. We want to make sure that such a thing will not happen again.”

6:30PM: Now it is the turn of the man wanting a repeat of the holocaust against the Jews to accuse Israel of the same things against the palestinians.

6:35PM: Joke of the day: PA President Mahmoud Abbas has offered to negotiate an “all-inclusive ceasefire” between Hamas and Israel. Which is funny, considering he isn’t even talking to Hamas since they demolished his forces and took over Gaza.

6:45PM: Naomi Campbell’s boyfriend rebel angel Hugo “to hell” Chavez has called the Colombian government “the Israel of Latin America.” What, people are applying double standards to Columbia as well?

6:50PM: From the Department of Irony: The Grad rocket that landed next to the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon on Saturday narrowly missed killing two premature palestinian babies from Gaza who were admitted to the facility. In other news, Israeli hospitals are treating palestinians.

8:50PM: Since my last update, a Qassam was fired into Israel, and the IAF struck a Fatah terrorist (i.e. belonging to Mahmoud Abbas) and wounded three others.

8:55PM: The White House has blamed Hamas for causing the fighting. And the signs are promising, with an absence of calling for Israeli restraint:

Johndroe would not say whether the United States thought Israel was using excessive force. “We obviously don’t want innocent civilians to lose their life,” he said. “But I think that started with these rockets that have been fired from Gaza into Israel recently killing and injuring Israeli citizens in some of their bigger cities.”

9:27PM: Via Reuters:

veiled-woman.jpg

A veiled Egyptian woman cries during a protest at the Lawyers Syndicate in Cairo, March 3, 2008, against the upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Israel’s recent military offensive on the Gaza strip. Rice will be in Egypt on Tuesday for talks on the Middle East peace process and recent developments in Gaza. REUTERS/Amr Dalsh (EGYPT)

I empathize. I am also brought to tears every time Condoleeza Rice visits.

9:35PM: Ha’aretz reports that Egyptian police have arrested 13 Africans trying to cross illegally into Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has been much kinder to the Egyptian who did cross illegally into Israel.

9:58PM: Here’s a particularly vile example of media bias from news.com.au:

tolerance.jpg

Yep. There goes the peace process now that Israel has reacted to having missiles fired in to her cities.

And the article corresponding to this photo and caption is just as bad.

Israel has vowed to keep hitting Gaza even as troops pulled out of the Hamas-run territory after clashes that killed almost 120 Palestinians and dealt a major blow to Middle East peace talks.

“We are not prepared to show any tolerance, period. And we will respond. Our reaction is not limited to a specific operation or day,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a meeting of his Kadima party in Jerusalem.

“The operation will not end before we achieve our goals and our first goal is a significant reduction of Qassam and Grad rocket fire against Israeli civilians,” he said, referring to two types of rockets used by Gaza militants.

In northern Gaza, residents ventured from their homes to pick through the rubble after the deadliest Israeli military blitz on the territory in years.

“My whole life I have never seen massacres like this,” cried Aisha Abid Rabah, 82, raising her hands to the sky as she sat on a demolished door in the northern town of Jabaliya that bore the brunt of the Israeli strikes.

The bloody assault earned Israel international condemnation for excessive use of force and caused moderate Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to cut contacts with the Israelis shortly before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to arrive in the region to boost the peace effort.

10:15PM: Do you remember the rock-throwing palestinians who attacked passing vehicles (1:05PM update)? Well this is how the palestinians reported their antics.

Palestinian student was killed on Monday morning after Israeli forces opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in the West Bank against the Israeli mass killings in the Gaza Strip

19-year-old Muhammad Shreitih was killed at the student rally in the village of Al-Mazra’a Al-Qibliya, near the city of Ramallah.

Palestinians across the West Bank took to the streets for a second day on Monday, confronting Israeli troops and expressing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Relatives of the deceased told Ma’an that students marched to the Israeli settlements near the village. Clashes erupted between the students and Israeli soldiers near the Talmon settlement. Shretih, a student in his third year of secondary school, was shot in the head and died on the way to Khalid Hospital in Ramallah.

A funeral procession for Shreitih is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Israeli media reported that an Israeli settler named Moshe Benbenishti, a student in a Jewish school in the settlement opened fire at the Palestinians.

Notice how Ma’an News suggest the demonstration was peaceful and that clashes just happened to “errupt.” Although they allude to their own lies by reporting that palestinians were “confronting Israeli troops.”

And if you are still not sure which version to believe, have a look at the plethora of wire service photographs showing palestinians throwing stones. When was the last time they staged a “peaceful demonstration”?

28 thoughts on “Liveblogging the Conflict: Monday, March 3rd”

  1. Dave – as usual, your blog is the first place I go to each day to catch up on the news and of course for your “separated from birth” blogs and more. Your liveblogging through these difficult times is amazing – it is my main news source. This time I am even more dependent on the news as my youngest daughter is a student in a school in Southern Ashkelon. Yesterday I kept her home from school, but today, with much apprehension, I sent her back. I can’t just keep her home every day – it’s quite a dilemna! How do you make a decision like this? I don’t think that I’ll function normally until I hear that she arrived home safely. I would like all of your readers to know that this is the first time that I am going through this, but my good friends in Sderot are going through these feelings on a daily basis for the last 5-7 years. It never gets easier. This is not something you get used to – the idea that your child may not come home from school one day, or that they will, but you will no longer be there for them. This is what the last week’s been about – too little, too late – but at least it’s something.

  2. So rockets are still landing and the IDF is pulling back. You need a new leadership! Israel is only secure through iron resolve. Gaza should be ripped through like Fallujah.

  3. I have shut off the radio, after listening over the last 2 hours to leftist radio broadcasters asking all the wrong questions to politicians who are promising a concrete dome over the south’s head sometime during the next decade.

    Scenes of Springfield under a dome run across my mind.

    I am not the only one who would be happy to see a military coupe take place in the IDF, which would through our politicians over the Gaza wall and then flatten Gaza to the ground. Two birds with one stone.

  4. I don’t get what this whole disproportionately thing is all about. You don’t win wars by acting proportionally.

    You win wars by crushing your enemy. They pull a knife, you pull a gun. They put one of your men in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue.

    You must fight on their level. With trickery, brutality, finality. You must match their evil.

    Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the earth unharmed, cloaked only in the words ‘Civis Romanis’ I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally understood as certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens?

    Tit for tat does lead to more violence. And isn’t that what proportionality really means?

    If you aren’t fighting with disproportionately then you aren’t fighting to win, And if you aren’t fighting to win then you are just continuing the cycle of violence. Don’t get me wrong. I am not one of those who say that violence never solved anything. Ask what the city fathers of Hiroshima what they say about it and you know what they would say? NOTHING, Hiroshima was destroyed. Violence has resolved more conflicts than anything else. The contrary opinion that violence doesn’t solve anything is merely wishful thinking at its worst.

    No, I am not a pacifist. But the truth is that when you fight you fight in order to totally destroy your enemy’s will and capacity to fight. You totally overwhelm them.

    Anything less than that is just unnecessary cruelty.

  5. Israel acted very well within proportion. The only difference is that Hamas let a few rockets being launched daily, and Israel retaliated in two days with not even about the same amount of ammunition.

    Israel should however act disproportional. The Allies in WWII acted also disproportionally, hence they won the war and Europe got liberated.

  6. “….None of this “settler” garbage….”

    Besides Ynet, such garbage reporting is the level the Jerusalem Post has sunk to over the past several years.

    If you’re reading this and are a paying JPost subscriber, consider unsubscribing and giving your money to a worthy cause. There are no lack of them.

  7. “I have long contended that Hamas and the other terrorist groups see Israeli withdrawals as victories. In a stark (and bizarre) illustration of this, Hamas has declared “victory” after the IDF wound down the first phase of its operation in Gaza and withdrew its troops.”

    I really appreciate your blog and am a strong American supporter of Israel. I hate to tell you this, but it is not just “Hamas and other terrorist groups” that see this kind of tepid response as a victory for Hamas. Israel pulls back while Hamas is still actively firing missiles at Israeli citizens. What does that look like other than a victory for Hamas? The IDF didn’t even stop the active firing of missiles before retreating.

    This kind of timidity makes Israel look incredibily weak. Lebanon deja vu. I understand the situation is complex and it is easy to be a cheerleader from across the ocean, but at least consider that Israel is projecting weakness and vacillation to the rest of the world. Why no dead Hamas leadership for example? For that matter, why no strong leadership emerging in Israel?

  8. Woke up, got online, checked Dave’s blog. Thanks, as usual.

    If there’s any buzz in Israel about something heating up in the north, the Lebanon situation, I’d be interested in hearing that, too.

  9. I’m only able to add one thought.

    The IDF won’t be allowed to crush Gaza until rockets begin to fall on Tel Aviv.

  10. “….None of this “settler” garbage….”

    Besides Ynet, such garbage reporting is the level the Jerusalem Post has sunk to over the past several years.

    The JPost has since changed the headline from “Settler kills Palestinian student” to “Settler kills Palestinian rioter”.

    How thoughtful.

  11. Steve, you are absolutely correct. It seems that our modern warfighters have forgotten the lessons of Sun Tzu.

  12. you are right Hugh, after the first rocket fallen in Tel Aviv, suddenly all those ashkenazi snobs will forget their “pacifism”

    and yes Colombian people is admirable too

  13. I would like to quote Einstein (1951):

    “My share in the production of the atom bomb consisted in a single act. I signed a letter to President Roosevelt in which I stressed the necessity of making experiments on a large scale to check the possibility of making an atom bomb. I was fully aware of the dreadful risk which the success of these undertakings implied for humanity. But the likelihood that the Germans might be working on the same problem with a prospect of success compelled me to this step. There was no other way for me, although I have always been a convinced pacifist.”

    In other words:
    sometimes its unfortunatelly necessary to use the fist instead of the mouth if you know the other part who is out there for destroying you use the fist first.

  14. Jeffrey Nihart

    Some earlier had asked about Obama.
    Let me share:

    Barack Obama has made it clear that if elected president he will promptly attempt to “organize a summit in the Muslim world, with all the heads of state, to have an honest discussion about ways to bridge the gap that grows every day between Muslims and the West.” Obama insists that, at this summit, the U.S. “must also listen to the concerns” of these Muslim heads of states.

    Naturally, the concerns expressed will vary. As Abe Greenwald observes, the Iraqi head of state will be concerned that Obama is in the process of withdrawing the troops needed to protect his country from chaos and destruction. But Obama has left little doubt that he has no sympathy for that concern.

    The more common concern will be the one Middle Eastern Arab leaders have been expressing for decades – the State of Israel. Here, they are likely to find a more sympathetic ear inasmuch as Obama’s advisers, especially key adviser Samatha Power, also have a history of unhappiness with Israel.

    There are two possibilities here. First, Obama might turn a deaf ear to key Arab leaders when they urge him to undercut Israeli interests. In that event, the summit almost certainly will be a failure, perhaps a spectacular one. Obama will come away with nothing. Our nation’s standing (as Obama sees it) as an arrogant power unwilling to listen to others will be reinforced. The great agent of change will have changed nothing, except that, by enhancing the status of the dictators of Syria and Iran, he will have undermined the standing of the domestic opponents of those dictators.

    The second possibility is that Obama’s interest in avoiding the above consequences, coupled with his inclination and that of his main advisers, will cause him to appease Israel’s opponents by tilting significantly away from Israel.

    I won’t speculate as to which of these two possibilities is more likely. Those who care about Israel’s security, and ours, should be loath to support a candidate who would put himself in that box.

  15. Man, are you on something? The IDF “completed” nothing. Your pussyfied leadership soiled themselves, again, and pull them off. You have to destroy gazans and throw them our of Israel and take the opportunity to throw ALL arabs out of Israel. Otherwise we’ll soon be talking about the “late, failed, State of Israel”. The arabs and the rest of the world are loughing at Israel. Do you think that’s wise? I think you lost it, already.

  16. ‘Obama insists that, at this summit, the U.S. “must also listen to the concerns” of these Muslim heads of states.’

    So a dozen plus despots around a table with nasty human rights records telling the new President (hope not) how the West must appease them so we don’t suffer terrorism. Sounds like a recipe for success indeed.

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