Hamas Goal: Hit Tel Aviv

A chilling Hamas video, revealing their desire to hit Tel Aviv

America, Israel, Gaza, the World -Walter Russell Mead

• For some, Zionism itself is an illegitimate idea and a state that has no right to exist has no right to defend itself. Anything it does to defend itself is a crime. This is how Hamas and many others think and it is why people in this camp are able to work themselves up into such a froth of indignation and rage when Israel responds to their fire.
• Certainly if a terrorist organization were to set up missile factories across the frontier in Canada and Mexico and start attacking targets in the U.S., the American people would demand that their President use all necessary force without stint or limit until the resistance had been completely, utterly and pitilessly crushed. Americans might feel sorrow at the loss of innocent children and non-combatants killed when overwhelming American power was used to take the terrorists out, but they would feel no moral guilt. The guilt would be on the shoulders of those who started the whole thing by launching the missiles.
• [T]hey admire Israel's strength and its resolve for dealing with the appalling blood lust of the unhinged loons who start a war they can't win, and then cower behind the corpses of the children their foolishness has killed.
• The whole situation strengthens the widespread American belief that Palestinian hate rather than Israeli intransigence is the fundamental reason for the Middle East impasse, and the television pictures that drive much of the world away from Israel often have the effect of strengthening the bonds between Americans and the Jewish state.
• Far from seeing Israel's use of overwhelming force against limited provocation as harsh or immoral, many Americans see it as courageous and wise. It strengthens the sense that in a wacky world where a lot of foreigners are hard to understand, the Israelis are honest, competent and reliable friends - good people to have on your side in a tight spot.

(American Interest)


Gaza Boy Killed by Palestinian Rocket -Phoebe Greenwood

The highly publicized death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel.
(Telegraph-UK)

98 Hamas Rockets Have Landed Inside Gaza

One source of civilian injuries in Gaza is the many Palestinian rockets that have fallen short and landed inside the Strip. These 98 rockets (so far) have most certainly caused casualties.
(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)


Syrian Massacre Photos Recycled as Gaza Tragedy -Anav Silverman   

The Arab news site Alarab Net released a photo on Nov. 18 which depicts three bloodied children and their mother lying on a floor, who were allegedly "massacred" in Gaza.
     
Tazpit News Agency found that the photo originally had been published on the Dubai-based Moheet news site on Oct. 19 with a story about Syria.
    
Last week, Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades uploaded a photo of a dead child in his weeping father's arms, which was alleged to be the result of an IDF strike in Gaza. The American news site Breitbart found that the photo had originally appeared in a slideshow about the Syrian conflict in October in the UK Guardian.   
(Algemeiner)


Israel Demands 15-Year Lull, Morsi Guarantee
-Elior Levy

According to reports in Cairo, Israel's conditions for a ceasefire include:

1. A lull for a period of more than 15 years.
2. An immediate cessation of arms smuggling and the transfer of weapons to Gaza.
3. Cessation of rocket fire on the part of all armed Palestinian factions and an end to attacks on soldiers near the Gaza border.
4. Israel has the right to hunt down terrorists in the event of an attack or if it obtains information on an imminent attack.
5. The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain open, but the crossings on the Gaza-Israel border will remain closed.
6. Egypt's politicians, headed by President Mohammed Morsi, will be the guarantors of any ceasefire agreement; meaning, the agreement will be backed by Egypt's political echelon rather than by its security establishment.
(Ynet News)


Hamas Weighing Israel's Ceasefire Terms -Elior Levy

Hamas deputy politburo chief Mousa Abu Marzook said that the group rejected Israel's terms for a ceasefire, while Hamas spokesman Razi Hamed told Al-Jazeera that Israel and Hamas had agreed on 90% of an outline for a truce. Abu Marzook told Al-Arabiya that Israel has presented two preconditions that were not acceptable to Hamas: a demilitarized zone near the border and a cessation of weapons smuggling via tunnels.
(Ynet News)


Gaza Rocket Hits School in Ashkelon -Yaakov Lappin & Ben Hartman

A rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza hit a school parking lot in Ashkelon. No injuries were reported as all Israeli schools are closed within a 40-km. radius of Gaza.  
(Jerusalem Post)


Can Terrorists Be Deterred? -Moshe Arens

If the terrorists cannot be deterred, and the population in the southern half of Israel is not to face recurrent rocket attacks, each time increasing in intensity, the terrorists have to be disarmed, their rockets destroyed and rocket supply lines blocked. That has to be the ultimate aim of a military operation or diplomatic initiative.

Preventing the recurrence of rocket attacks on Israel in the coming months requires the cooperation of the Egyptian government. It must reestablish control over Sinai and block all attempts to supply weapons to Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza from Sinai. [O]nly American diplomacy can bring this about.
The writer served as Israel's minister of defense three times, as minister of foreign affairs, and as Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
(Ha'aretz)
*