International Reporting On Israel, Gaza
This is from the Hindustan Times
Israel rejected mounting international pressure to suspend its devastating air offensive against Palestinian militants whose rocket barrages are striking ominously close to the Israeli heartland, sending warplanes on Wednesday to demolish smuggling tunnels that are the lifeline of Gaza’s Islamic Hamas rulers. audio Podcast
The diplomatic action has been set in motion by the scale of destruction in Gaza since Israel unleashed its campaign on Saturday, and a casualty toll that Gaza officials now put at 390 dead and some 1,600 wounded. Hamas says some 200 uniformed members of Hamas security forces have been killed, and the UN says at least 60 Palestinian civilians have died. Four Israelis have been killed by militant rocket fire, including three civilians.
The chief of Israel’s internal security services, Yuval Diskin, told Cabinet ministers on Wednesday that Hamas’ ability to rule had been “badly impaired.” Weapons development facilities have been “completely wiped out,” and the network of smuggling tunnels has been badly damaged, a participant in the meeting quoted Diskin as saying.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed to the media.
Overnight, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed a 48-hour truce proposal floated by France with his foreign and defense ministers. The meeting ended with a decision to pursue the punishing aerial campaign.
“Giving Hamas a respite just to regroup, rearm is a mistake,” Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said. “The pressure on the Hamas military machine must continue.”
Calls for an immediate cease-fire have also come from the US, the European Union, the UN and Russia. President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice personally called leaders in the Middle East on Tuesday to press for a durable solution. Underlying the Israeli decision to keep fighting are the mightier weapons that Hamas has smuggled into Gaza through underground tunnels along the border with Egypt. If previously militants had relied on crude homemade rockets that could fly just 12 miles (18 kilometers) to terrorize Israeli border communities, they are now firing industrial-grade weapons that have dramatically expanded their range and put more than one-tenth of Israel’s population in their sights.
I thought this was quite even-handed. I suppose that the constant terror attacks in India provide context.
- Aggie
Count to 10 said,
December 31, 2008 @ 11:01 am
You know, before the West went had civilized the world, the normal response to behavior like Hamas’s would be for the stronger power to kill off most of the population and enslave the rest.
Not that I would advocate returning to the 7th century or anything.