Breaking News: Hamas Leader Killed in Israeli Air Strike

Zionist? That term is usually used by the anti-semitic to impugn Israel. Sharon did not invent modern terrorism and I'm calling you on that falsehood. The "Palestinians" are not a distinct people deserving of a state of their own and they should be shipped back en mass to the Arab states where they belong.

As for Israel trying to avoid civilian deaths, why are they using precision weapons rather than just simply carpet-bombing the "Palestinian" homes of terrorits? Because they are........trying to avoid collateral damage. Duh........

 

Here's just a mild, fact-filled account from CounterPunch. Since they are left-leaning, and you will want to dismiss them, I have edited out their statements of opinion and left only the facts and quotations from other sources.

This is a simple account of one of Sharon's earliest deeds, pre-statehood.

He was born in 1928 and as a young man joined the Haganah, the underground military organization of Israel in its pre-state days. In 1953 he was given command of Unit 101, whose mission is often described as that of retaliation against Arab attacks on Jewish villages. In fact, as can be seen from two terrible onslaughts, one of them very well known, Unit 101's purpose was that of instilling terror by the infliction of discriminate, murderous violence not only on able bodied fighters but on the young, the old, the helpless.

Sharon's first documented sortie in this role was in August of 1953 on the refugee camp of El-Bureig, south of Gaza. An Israeli history of the 101 unit records 50 refugees as having been killed; other sources allege 15 or 20. Major-General Vagn Bennike, the UN commander, reported that "bombs were thrown" by Sharon's men "through the windows of huts in which the refugees were sleeping and, as they fled, they were attacked by small arms and automatic weapons".

In October of 1953 came the attack by Sharon's unit 101 on the Jordanian village of Qibya, whose "stain" Israel's foreign minister at the time, Moshe Sharett, confided to his diary "would stick to us and not be washed away for many years". He was wrong.
...
Israeli historian Avi Shlaim describes the massacre thus: "Sharon's order was to penetrate Qibya, blow up houses and inflict heavy casualties on its inhabitants. His success in carrying out the order surpassed all expectations. The full and macabre story of what happened at Qibya was revealed only during the morning after the attack. The village had been reduced to rubble: forty-five houses had been blown up, and sixty-nine civilians, two thirds of them women and children, had been killed. Sharon and his men claimed that they believed that all the inhabitants had run away and that they had no idea that anyone was hiding inside the houses."

The UN observer on the scene reached a different conclusion: "One story was repeated time after time: the bullet splintered door, the body sprawled across the threshhold, indicating that the inhabitants had been forced by heavy fire to stay inside until their homes were blown up over them." The slaughter in Qibya was described contemporaneously in a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council dated 16 October 1953 (S/3113) from the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Jordan to the United States. On 14 October 1953 at 9:30 at night, he wrote, Israeli troops launched a battalion-scale attack on the village of Qibya in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (at the time the West Bank was annexed to Jordan).

According to the diplomat's account, Israeli forces had entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of houses, using automatic weapons, grenades and incendiaries. On 14 October, the bodies of 42 Arab civilians had been recovered; several more bodies were still under the wreckage. Forty houses, the village school and a reservoir had been destroyed.


This is only one example of his amazing and civilian-loving record. Just because he's not carpet-bombing doesn't make him a saint. He's not stupid; that's why he's survived in positions of power for fifty years. So, if that's not inventing modern terrorism in the middle east, it's damned close. We can argue the semantics, but Sharon was definitely at the ground floor, and his lifetime has overseen far more civilian deaths than any single member of Hamas. But whatever, bama. I know it's more comfortable to append black and white labels. That seems to work well in helping you vent your bottomless fountain of bile.

 

I'll add mental telepathy to an ever growing list of special talents possessed by Yosemite Slammer, which to date includes firearm expertise and an encyclopedic knowledge of Lynyrd Skynyrd song lyrics.

Just out of curiosity, who do you think was living in Palestine in, say, the first half of the 20th century? Was there anyone there, or was it just olive trees and goats?

The Israelis bulldoze Palestinian homes daily. I'm sure even you know that.

Look, I eagerly anticipate the day when both sides are represented by enlightened, peace-seeking leadership. I think wise Israelis know that the current apartheid state is unsustainable and that a murderous thug like Sharon is an inappropriate leader if peace and coexistance is actually the priority.

I also think that wise Palestinians realize that Arafat is at best ineffecual and irresponsible and needs to be replaced as a figurehead immediately. I also think they realize that civilian-targeted terror is counterproductive.

One can only hope that sooner than later we'll see a new generation of leadership on both sides. But as long as Israeli leaders subscribe to your Might Makes Right Loony Tunes school of diplomacy, peace and coexistance won't be so much as a mirage. I mean, continue building settlements in Palestinian occupied territory in the West Bank and elsewhere and what do you think is going to happen?

Nice win for your boys in the tournament, by the way. Beating a #1 is no joke.

 

Originally posted by glynch
Sharon wants some Israelis to be killed as a pretext for something. What is it? Have there been some peace negotiations or a ceasefire or something? ...

Does this seem similar to the bus-bombing that occured the day before Israel was supposed to hand over control of some of the Palestinian areas?


The guy was in a wheelchair and they could have done it any time in the last number of years. Why now?

Are you aware of how many times have they tried?

 

Screwed my bracket, though! I picked Stanford to win it all and.......choke city.

 

Me too. In the words of your favorite President..."I Feel Your Pain"!

 

Ah, me too: I picked Stanford to win it all. At last, the left and right agree, and we're both wrong. We're probably both wrong on a lot of issues.

 

Let's not forget Sheikh Yassin's reaction to the September 11th tragedy in the United States: "no doubt this is a result of injustice the U.S practices against the weak in the world."

I couldn't think of a better quadraplegic to begin his trek to hell yesterday.

 

The guy has been in a wheelchair since he was 12 years old. He wasnt some frail old man. He was the LEADER of hamas.

I don't see why people on here are defending him. Hamas is just as much the enemy of peace to the Palestinians as it is to Israel. It had officially declared that it would never be peaceful with Jews with the region, even if a peace treaty was signed.

 

You sir are biased...Yep, shooting down building with missles is so going far out of the way. Little kids with bullets in their body sure is out of the way. Its just as pathetic both ways, just because one of them is in military clothing doesn't justify it.
THE NAZI's had uniforms and their actions are some of the worst ever. So just because one of them does it as a suicide bomber, and the other with a Military helicopter doesnt make it any different


Maybe that Israeli propoganda is being read a little to seriously by you... Maybe you dont like Muslims...

 

Exactly. I'd say they were anti-semites. No one has satisfactorily on the other side answered my point that if the Israelis did not give a damn about civilian deaths, they'd carpet bomb Arab towns. So why do they go to all that trouble at the cost of lives and treasure? Because they'd like to avoid them. I'm sick and tired of hearing how the Israelis are butchers, etc. when the "Palestinians" are killing Jews by the scores with their COWARDLY bombs. The Israelis gave the stupid "Palestinians" everything they wanted at the peace table and yet, the Arabs rejected it because they do not want or have ever wanted peace. To them, they will not be satisfied until every Jew over there is dead and the land of the Jews is overrun. So bury your head in the sand to that fact at your peril.

 

WHY ISRAEL HAS NOT CARPET BOMBED ARAB TOWNS?

... Coz they know that USA would probably have to stop supporting their cause in the event that they do such a retarted thing ( I'm sure you hope it happens though BAMA)

 

The Assassination of Sheikh Yassin
Worse Than a Crime; It is an Act of Stupidity
By URI AVNERY

The assassination of Shiekh Admed Yassin is worse than a crime, it is an act of stupidity!

This is the beginning of a new chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It moves the conflict from the level of a solvable national conflict to the level of religious conflict, which by its very nature is insoluble.

The fate of the State of Israel is now in the hands of group of persons whose outlook is primitive and whose perceptions are r****ded. They are incapable of understanding the mental, emotional and political dimensions of the conflict. This is a group of bankrupt political and military leaders who have failed in all their actions. They try to cover up their failures by a catastrophic escalation.

This act will not only endanger the personal security of every Israeli, both in the country and around the world, but also the existential security of the State of Israel. It has grievously hurt the chances of putting and end to the Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Muslim conflicts.

In the early 1980s the occupation authorities encouraged the founders of Hamas, hoping that they would create a counter-weight to Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Even after the start of the first intifada, the army and the security services gave preferential treatment of Hamas Sheikh Yassin was arrested only a year after the outbreak.

There seems to be no limit to the stupidity of our political and military leaders. They endanger the future of the State of Israel.



link


Way to go Sharon and his supporters in Israel and the US. Slick move creating a religious martyr. I know you feel it will all be better when you kill all the terrorists and make the Palestinians give up. Then you can have peace.

Problem is that many militant Palestinians feel that they will only have peace when they kill the Jewish terrorists, and make the Israelis give up.

How dare I compare? You feel Sharon and gang are humans, Hamas are subhuman. It is sad. You would think that Jews. or perhaps even their conservative Christian neosupporters in the US would have learned something about the morality of seeing others as less than human.

 

The Palestinians should just push for the one state solution and one man, one vote. Why would anyone have a problem with that?

 

now that's spicing up a job title.

 

Terrorist or not, it was stupid, unethical, and just plain wrong to kill this guy.

If this guy is a terrorist, and you use his tactics to kill him,doesn't that make you a terrorist? Just because you didn't start it changes the definition of terrorism?

If this guy isn't a terrorist, then you're wrong all-together for doing it.



Make no mistake about it though, CIVILIANS were killed in this attack just like civilians are killed in suicide bombings.

It's sad, it really is sad. In my heart, I truly believe that this issue won't be resolved, and all-out world war will be the only solution.

 

Sane.. what are you talking about "this guy might not be a terrorist?"

Was he not the leader of Hamas? Do you consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization?

Regardless of how you feel about the Israeli side (where I know our opinions will differ on pretty much every point) you must admit that Hamas is just as, if not more detrimental as the Israeli gov't to the freedoms that the peaceful Palestinians deserve.

The world is much better off without this b*stard scum of the earth. He has recruited and ordered the suicides of scores of Palestinian teenagers that could have gone to school to be doctors instead of being shrapnel in an Israeli shopping mall.

 

It's sad, it really is sad. In my heart, I truly believe that this issue won't be resolved, and all-out world war will be the only solution.

Sane, don't give up.

If we in the US would just withdraw support for Israel's intransigience it would help a lot. With our unquestioned support Israel feels that they can win a war of attrition with something like 150 million Arabs (note Mango might find the exact figure and make a big deal out of 123 million or 173 million).

Israel isn't dumb. If we just withdrew our support, the game is over and they would have to face reality and follow international law and the worldwide consensus of what they need to do. There might still be time for the two state solution if Israel acts fast. If only they can get past the mind set that any hesitation to fire missiles or invade is weakness and appeasement.

Would this eliminate the last suicide bomber? No. Does the neocon Likud militarism alone solution eliminate the last suicide bomber? Sure doesn't seem to be working. In fact as we see in Iraq Likud-Neocon militarism can lead to more terrorism.

Sanctions and boycotts helped South Africans come to their senses, they would help in Israel-Palestine.

Israel flaunts international law, humaitarian conventins and the will of virtually the whole world and then claims that any criticism is the result of anti-semtism. This might seem like a good tactic, and give psychic satisfaction for some, but preserving the status quo isn't helping anyone.

 

If you believe that, you are beyond help. If world opinion held sway over Israel's fate, there wouldn't be any Jews left. Doubt that and you are a bigger fool than I thought.

 

i cant even belive thats how you think would solve everything. Israel needs the support of the US and taking it away would ruin the state of Israel. I hate living in a liberal world where when Israel kills a terrorist it makes the front page, but when an israeli citizen is blown up by a suicide bomber its not a big deal. I am so happy they blew up the hamas leader and it was about time, there is no doubt in my mind there will be retaliation but there was not a single good thing about that man. how anyone can see he didnt deserves to die obviously doesnt know what HAMAS is responsible for