Will U.S. "Stand Down" again?

Nov 14, 2012

Will U.S. “Stand Down” again?

"War" in the Middle-East, which side will Obama support?

By Craig Masters
BBC News from the Middle-East reports that the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas, is reporting that the military leader of the group has been killed by Israeli air strikes during early morning hours there in the region. Hamas denies responsibility for the weekend rocket attacks which rained down on Israel for multiple days preceding these latest air strikes.

Israeli spokesperson told BBC radio the military leader of Hamas, Ahmaed Jaabari, was killed during strikes conducted against nearly 20 different specific sites in Gaza. Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, speaking for the the Israeli Defence Forces, said the targeted sites were chosen because they were locations capable of and known to have rocket firing capabilities.

An email sent from a person identified only as Yair indicates that many Israelis are relieved that their government has finally decided to respond to “hundreds of rockets aimed at Israeli citizens in the last two weeks…Where were all the journalists when Israeli citizens were under attack? I don’t see any coverage of that.”

Yair is not wrong in noticing the lack of coverage of two weeks of rocket attacks from Gaza on civilian areas inside Israel.

Hamas has responded to the attacks with a statement that, “Israel has opened the gates of Hell.” While the BBC transcript of coverage of Hamas statements, does not identify the spokesperson, he is quoted as saying, “The Israeli occupation has committed a dangerous crime and exceeded all red lines. This is considered to be a war and they will pay a high price.”

As of 6:30pm, Tel Aviv time, the operation has begun to prepare for land action while Hamas scrambles to replace Jaabari and follow through on their promises to make Israel pay dearly for these attacks and the killing of Jaabari.

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