One really needs to wonder what Hamas had in it's mind when it launched hundreds of rockets into a country that had over 500 warplanes, a very powerful, well equipped army and a navy when Hamas had none of those. One also wonders what Israel had in it's mind when they must have planned this action for months just to coincide with the lame duck period in the USA days before the new President takes over. This is clearly the beginning of irrational behavior from both parties and where it will all end is anybody's guess. Should the action escalate to involve other Muslim countries fighting Israel we could be looking at the start of a very big problem. This page looks at what is happening now. There is a considerable amount of mystery here as to why it happened and how it will all end. Here we look at what is happening. We know one thing for sure and that we are looking at the world's worst neighbors who absolutely hate and despise each other and who would rather fight each other than live in peace.
December 29/2008 Three days into the attack Israel has launched on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A fine example of bullshit on a world scale. We have basically two groups of people who hate each other based on religious and cultural differences. On one hand we have Israel which is nearly all Jewish and on the other the Gaza Strip which is nearly all Muslim and Arab. Both groups have lived in the area since year one. In the latest round in this eternal bad joke of how not to get along with your neighbors we see Hamas shooting rockets into Israel and Israel warning Hamas to stop or they will attack them. They didn't stop and so Israel attacked them. Or so the story goes.
At this point we need to review the military situation. Israel has a very strong armed forces due to the continual threat from it's neighbors and past wars with them. Much of the equipment comes from the USA their strongest ally. They have 520 warplanes and Hamas has none. They have 2400 tanks and Hamas has none.
So, given this absolutely lop sided military situation what does Hamas do? They start shooting rockets into Israel. There can only be three reasons for this:
1. Hamas leaders are incredibly stupid as their tactics will bring certain destruction to their forces and facilities.
2. Hamas leaders are incredibly intelligent as they will use the attack from Israel as a strategy to generate support in the Arab world and possibly precipitate a war with Israel or at the least sink any peace proposal with other Arabs and Israel.
3. Hamas leaders are incredibly desperate and will use what resources they have to attack the stronger enemy knowing full well that they will likely be defeated in battle.
What we see happening at this point in time is that HAMAS has lost approximately 300 killed and several hundred wounded and most of it's infrastructure destroyed. The interesting thing however is that they are able to continue firing rockets and they have managed to enrage the population in Arab states. The question now is - Is this what they had planned in the first place? i.e. is #2 valid?
The media seems to be inferring that #1 is the reality here. We constantly see images of crowds of angry Arabs screaming and chanting and raising fists and burning flags and effigies. It is difficult to watch something like this and not think that they are a bunch of dumbasses with no manners acting out like uncivilized thugs. There are a lot of very powerful people who wish us to think that way. They control the media too.
Israel's decision to apply crushing overwhelming force against Hamas reduces the chances of taking casualties by sending their troops into an urban environment and it sets up a fact in the Arab mind that if you launch a rocket very bad things will happen to you. This may in fact be a good strategy although one wonders what will eventually happen here. A tremendous amount of bad karma is being built up in the Arab lands and that tends to get expressed in terrorist events in the future. It is a non proportional application of force which contravenes the tit for tat eye for an eye approach they normally use. By unleashing this force Israel invites the attention of Arab militants in other Arab countries and possibly even other Arab countries participating in active help to Hamas. Countries such as Eqypt and Jordan may move away from any peace process. Who knows at this point.
This website uncovers bullshit and there most certainly is a lot of it here but we also suggest solutions. So here goes: This is a bit unconventional but it would work.
Plan "B" for Peace in the Middle East - Israel and Palestine (Plan "A" didn't work)
1. Disarmament Both sides need to disarm. If they have guns or other weapons they will use them because basically they hate each other with a vengeance. The UN can broker the disarmament process. During the disarmament process authorized use of force would be limited to the application of exactly the same force. That is if Hamas fires a rocket into Israel then Israel would be allowed to fire one rocket into Hamas territory. This rock throwing bullshit must stop too. A rock can be as dangerous as a bullet and can maim or kill. Violence needs to become a crime. If some yahoo in Canada fired off an AK-47 into the air he would soon be cooling his heals in the big house. If he fired a rocket he would go to jail. It's a system that works. When is the last time anybody here or in the USA did that? Exactly...
2. Religion Both sides are immersed in severe religious dogma which controls their lives and is intertwined with their politics. They need to ease up a lot. They need to change religions and separate religion and politics and become Catholics. Catholics have a more reasonable way of looking at the world and they tend towards helping people rather than hating them. If they were all the same religion it would instantly remove the turmoil caused by clashing religions. Its a no brainer really. Religion has been used by both sides to stoke the fires of hatred against the other group. One only needs to look to two of the worlds's best neighbors -Canada and the USA to realize that both share the same religions so what does that say! There you go then.
3. Women Women needed to be treated equally with the same rights as men. Both after all are human beings. Women should be able to wear what they want to. If they want to and have the bodies for it let them pose for swimsuit calendars. Nobody is going to want somebody draped in a head to toe in a black robe on a calendar. How stupid is that! If they want to go to school or drive a car let them. Most women are smarter then men anyway! In WW2 women in Canada and the USA made the planes, bullets, and war supplies needed at the front, they ran the families and did pretty well.
4. Booze Local pubs should be opened and available for all. Its a hot climate and a cold beer on a hot day is hard to beat. It also puts you in a good mood. Wine with meals makes the meal taste better and puts you into a better mood. In Canada or the USA if you closed the bars there would be riots in about two days.
5. Sports Hockey, baseball and soccer need to be played on a regular basis. The people are naturally competitive and this would be one method of reducing stress without killing each other. Again Canadians and Americans do this. They beat us in baseball and we destroy them in hockey. Its a system that works.
6. Rule of Law It is essential that these societies operate under a rule of law that works. Their legal system has failed. They should adopt the British Rules of law which seems to work reasonably well. With the rule of law they need an efficient Police force and again the British or Canadian Police could be used as a model.
Time Frame - In theory this process could start immediately and might take about a year to fully implement. Point 6 would take several years.
Will this plan be implemented? Absolutely not. Would it work? Yes. Probably. But there it is. One thing is for sure the present plan is not working and will only result in thousands more deaths. Its time for some drastic and basic changes to fix the problem.
Update January 3 2009 460 Deaths claimed by Hamas. Ground offensive starts. Still too early to know what is going on and if the offensive will be deemed successful. A lot will depend on the casualties Israel takes in the ground offensive vs the status of rockets fired at the end of the operation.
Update January 4th 2009 500+ deaths now with over 100 civilian deaths and 2600 injured. Israel approx 4 dead including one soldier and 30+ injured 2 seriously. In other words so far it would appear that Israel has not taken any significant casualties. 3 senior HAMAS leaders killed today. Muslims around the world are demonstrating against Israel. Increasing world leader pressure to call truce.
Update January 8th 2009 680+ deaths, 3000+ injuries- Rockets fired from Lebanon now. Israel still has not taken significant casualties while hamas has and continues to fire rockets seemly oblivious to the negative effect the rockets are having on the Gaza population and infrastructure. Egypt - France brokered talks to secure a cease fire and temporary cease fires for humanitarian purposes. Plan B is looking better all the time. These people hate each other so much peace is never going to happen here unless some very basic changes are made.
Update January 9th 2009 Day 14 800? deaths 3000+ injuries -UN resolution to establish cease fire ignored by Israel and Hamas. Now we are also seeing growing opposition in Muslim areas to Israel. Money is being collected and men are volunteering to help fight. One can only wonder if what is happening was the original plan of Hamas. Numerous reports of civilian deaths and injuries including children and women. The images are played over and over again in the Muslim areas further enraging them. Now the question is will the Muslims allow the contest to go on indefinitely or will they feel they must get involved? To do nothing would be considered cowardly. A quick strike by an Muslim country could inflict significant damage to Israel and cause significant loss of life. And this is all timed to happen just before the US inauguration only ten days away. The timing is really interesting and smacks of previous planning but on who's part - Hamas or Israel? or the USA? or Syria or Iran? Who knows? Israel is burning through a lot of ammunition and bombs. As yet no significant casualties on the Israeli side which is just plain luck and a reflection of their professionalism as soldiers. What a terrible mess. And what are if any the lessons being learned? Is it:
a. don't fire a missile at Israel or bad things will happen to you or
b. fire a missile at Israel and then hope for world condemnation when they hit back or
c. start a war with Israel and hope your friends step up to the plate and help or
d. none of the above.
Update January 12th 2009 Day 17 870 deaths 3400 injuries Israel calls up reserve units and adds thousands of reservists to their active forces. This is the sign that a new phase is starting. Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel. Israel death toll still very low with approx 13 killed including 10 soldiers 4 of which were due to friendly fire. The reserve call up could also reflect intelligence that Israel is getting that another Arab state is preparing to attack. Who knows. It seems strange that they would wish to put many thousands of troops into Gaza. Perhaps they are now out to destroy Hamas? From a military perspective Israel has done a terrific amount of damage to Hamas with very few casualties. At this point even if they withdrew ground troops and Hamas continued to fire rockets they could reply using airpower and still be considered the winner by a wide margin. Note that the Hamas rockets are doing minimal damage to Israel despite the thousands fired.
The thought crossed my mind that some very smart people have likely spent many hours dreaming up this plan that we are seeing unfold and that we might only know what the plan was when it is over.
Links
(It is absolutely amazing to read the completely opposite reports on reality that each source provides...leaving you with the impression that reality is whatever you want it to be ... or whatever..)
Israel Defense Force point of view from Israel very anti Hamas
Ezzedeem Alqassam Brigade point of view from Hamas very anti Israel
Aljazeera.com the Muslim point of view very anti Israel/US