Gazans cower under fire, anger at Israel mounts

[bemildred]

GAZA (Reuters) - Under the most intense Israeli bombardment in years, the people of Gaza took cover on Saturday, some comforting children caught in the firing line, many saying the onslaught may bolster support for Israel's Hamas enemies.

"We are living in the middle of the battle zone. We wanted to flee the house but we've been trapped since last night," 21-year-old Rami Mohammed Ali said by telephone from his home in Jabalya town as explosions and gunfire thundered outside.

"Rockets and missiles are whistling by all the time and the building has been shaken by mines the Palestinians are setting off against the Israeli soldiers who are invading," he said.

"My little nephews have been crying the whole time."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSMAC15113620080301

[fascisthunter]

1. Absolutely Idiotic

same stupid fanatics that are in power here, are in power in Israel.

[subsuelo]

6. This is beyond idiotic

It's a massacre driven by hatred

[madrchsod]

2. i read this morning it was 40-1

at that rate there will be no one left in the gaza prison...collective punishment

[azurnoir]

3. What is Israel trying to acomplish here?

I know the standard line-to "convince" the people of Gaza to give Hamas the boot, but it holds less water than a sieve. Anything else the Gazan's already know and have known.

[bemildred]

5. I think it's more like desperate stupidity than any coherent plan.

When you have slack-witted political weasels running things, the situation can get out of control. It's interesting to compare current events with the Second Lebanon War. I think you may see a similar dynamic of loss of "deterrence" and legitimacy. What happens if, as in Lebanon, Gaza gets the "shock and awe" treatment and through it all the rockets just keep on coming? That may not be realistic, I have a certain skepticism about it myself, but nobody out here in TV land thought Hizbullah would give such a good account of itself back then either. It does seem clear that whomever is shooting the rockets has no qualms about the course of events so far, they are all for escalation. One could as easily ask what they are trying to accomplish? Are they nuts, or are they intentionally provoking an Israeli response? If it's the latter, then what is the plan? Damn if I know. Maybe they just don't have much to lose. The Israelis are pretty predictable about these things, so I assume the rocketeers have something in mind, and I expect we are going to find out what as time goes on.

[azurnoir]

7. My fear is that it is indeed nothing left to lose n/t

[bemildred]

8. Apparently the citizens of Ashkelon are not happy either:

The perspective from Ashkelon: Don't test our patience

Early Saturday morning a rocket crashed into Silvio and Alba Geenberg's living room, on Har Canaan Steet in Ashkelon, leaving a gaping hole in the roof. The couple, retirees in their 60s, are originally from Argentina.

"We came to Israel when everyone was talking about the dangers from Iraq," Silvio said. "At that time Ashkelon was the safest place in the country. Now a war is starting here and no one knows how it will end. My wife is afraid to return to the apartment. She can hardly speak," he added.

Solino Saban, 58, was woken early Saturday morning by the sound of the rocket. At 5 A.M. he left his wife and children in the reinforced room and went out to look for where it landed. Saban says he believes the new warning system in the city will cause panic. "Some people are frightened and they don't want to be scared all the time. I think it allows us to anticipate the danger - not to be complacent and then run around trying to find shelter." Saban also believes the local population will not meekly accept the rocket attacks: "I don't think anyone should put the residents of Ashkelon to the test for too long," Saban said. Sure enough, by 7:30 P.M. demonstrators had blocked the entrance to the city. They marched from Ashkelon Junction down the highway to the Kfar Silver intersection, burning tires and blocking traffic.

"The government must take into account that Ashkelon's people will not sit quietly like the people in Sderot, even if we have to get our message across with violence," Maxim Atias, one of the organizers of the protest, said. "We will start legally and in an organized fashion, but if that doesn't work, we will raise the bar. In Sderot people are traumatized, a kind of paralysis. We know that you have to act and rally the government in the first days, otherwise we'll be shell-shocked," Atias said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959835.html

[bemildred]

9. Delete. nt

[bemildred]

10. Or maybe this is the plan:

On Arab TV, the images from Gaza are of dead women and children

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x342109

[azurnoir]

11. Both sides playing for the hearts and minds?

Better than or at least more hopeful than my feelings

[bemildred]

13. I dunno if "hearts and minds" is the word I would use, but ...

It's a propaganda war, so it makes "sense" to provoke your opponent to do something that looks bad, something you can use for propaganda. And both sides seem to be doing that.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. No! That's not supposed to be how it works!

Anger at Israel mounting? Quick! Someone send them all a link to this forum, where they will be able to read posts from Americans earnestly explaining that they're supposed to be angry at Hamas, not Israel! See, all they have to do is stop trying to hide and keep their children safe, and get out there in the street and kick out Hamas! And then the benevolent IDF will stop killing them. It's all so simple. How come they don't get it??

[subsuelo]

12. Hey Israel is sacrosanct -- Didn't you get the memo?

[Igel]

14. Would the US be the target audience? n/t