Ground invasion has begun in Gaza

[The Straight Story]

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/operation-pillar-of-cloud

Live reporting from Gaza, see also #gaza on twitter (lots of live updates from the area)

Harry Fear ?@harryfear
Please share this feed, as we hear Israeli ground invasion has begun (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/QLL5 )

Also see #gaza on twitter

Many areas without power and internet there.

(Don't care if you are pro-israel and kill em all or pro-palestinian just sharing news, take it how you think you should)

Update as typing: Electricity off at Harry's hotel, on generator

[Wait Wut]

1. The only thing I feel...

...is heartbreak. What little belief I have in any God, I use to pray for the citizens of both sides.

[bunnies]

2. Well, this will solve everything.

[The Straight Story]

3. Just heard tanks going into West bank as well

Harry is working on details.

[bunnies]

4. What the excuse for this?!

Rockets coming from Gaza, might as well invade the West Bank too? What the fuck?!

on edit: twitter feed says theyre using F16s to bomb Gaza. American F16s. Makes me sick.

[The Straight Story]

5. In Bethlehem and other areas (waiting on more info) (nt)

[bunnies]

6. And not a word on the news. Unreal. nt

[Warren Stupidity]

7. this is all about the effort to declare statehood.

Abbas will be deposed by force. The UN case will be irrelevant. I can only guess that the motivation for Hamas to start rocket barrages from Gaza was to provide Israel with the needed excuse to move into the west bank. To put this more clearly: Hamas acted in concert with the hard right in Israel to derail the West Bank government's efforts to declare statehood. Only a guess on my part, but if I am right, just how fucked up is that on both sides?

[The Straight Story]

8. Phony truce may have lured Hamas man into open

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/15/us-palestinians-israel-deception-idUSBRE8AE16620121115

Israel's leaders were literally looking in the opposite direction, and making sure everyone knew it, just before catching Hamas's top commander in the Gaza Strip off-guard in an air strike that killed him.

In what now appears to have been a diversionary tactic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak paid a visit to the Syrian frontier in the north, hours before the air offensive began in the south.

The show of concern over errant mortar shells that have landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria was widely reported during the day by Israeli media.

In fact, Israeli experts now say, the visit may have been part of a ploy to deceive Hamas into believing that a truce was in place in Gaza, so that the Israeli army could catch its target, Hamas military mastermind Ahmed Al-Jaabari.

"The sense of complacency that Barak and Netanyahu created ... brought Jaabari and his friends out of his holes and made possible the surprise attack," military affairs analyst Alex Fishman wrote in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

[bunnies]

9. I was kinda thinking the same thing...

but thought I might be crazy. It just all seems too contrived. Israel breaks the cease fire, Hamas gives Israel an excuse to invade... in some ways, both sides get what their crazy asses want (on edit: hate breeding). sigh. How else does invading the West Bank for actions in Gaza make sense?

[oberliner]

13. No one is invading the West Bank

This is not true.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Why are you ignoring the stepped up rocket attacks which injured Israelis?

The cease fire was broken by Hamas

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Yes and why would they do that as Abbas and the West Bank PA were

About to move on statehood? What was the motivation, other than to wreck that effort?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

24. Hamas has always played the role of the violent spoiler

[Warren Stupidity]

26. which is exactly my point.

There are two political groups opposed to progress of any sort: the israeli hard right and the palestinian hard right. They work in concert, not through direct collusion but through shared goals.

[azurnoir]

10. your post is rather nonsensical

Abbas is in the West Bank and is quite unlikely to be deposed as to Israel 'moving' into the West Bank it's already there and has been for 45 years, this could be about the UN bid but if so it will not work to dissuade any country that was going to vote in favor of it, and in fact could generate more sympathy for the Palestinian people despite Israel's media and internet barrage to garner support for this action

[Warren Stupidity]

20. Lieberman is on the record.

Israel threatens to overthrow Abbas over Palestinian statehood bid
Foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman says alternative would be 'raising a white flag' as cabinet considers action after UN vote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/14/israeli-minister-threatens-abbas-un

Hamas has provided the justification for a massive military intervention.

[azurnoir]

22. Lieberman loves his own voice,he is one of a number of rightists in the Israeli government

who shoots his mouth off in fact rightists in most governments shoot their mouths off, but for the most part little ever comes of it, and this is one of those cases

[backwoodsbob]

17. not to argue but

maybe it's about all those rockets?

[Warren Stupidity]

21. Kind of missed the point. Yes of course it is about the rockets.

Now, why exactly did Hamas decide that now would be a good time to push Israel into a military intervention?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

11. Unilateralism.

Netanyahu is the New George W. Bush of Israel.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. No attacks are coming from the West Bank that were harming Israelis

The backbone of the IAF is the F-16I, modified version of the generic FMS F-16. Not the best ground strike aircraft, but given the short distances involved, probably the best choice.

[oberliner]

12. This is BS

Where did you "hear" this exactly?

[The Straight Story]

14. Well, if you saw my OP...

You would see one of the links I got it from.

[oberliner]

18. There is no West Bank invasion

It's simply not true/not happening.

[henank]

23. There is no ground invasion of Gaza as yet

As to the west bank, the IDF has many bases and positions there. What is happening at the moment is the movement of regular troops from the West Bank to the Gaza border for reinforcements, and reserve troops are moving to take their place.

so keep your hair on, don't get your knickers in a twist, calm down.

[SHRED]

25. Isn't this a bit like...

...if San Diego were to invade Tijuana?

I mean seriously.

[holdencaufield]

27. Yes, if Mexico ...

... had been firing thousands of missiles at the US and killing US citizens for the past five years.

In fact, I don't think the US would have put up with it for 5 days, much less five years.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

28. and just how many Mexican's had the US killed those past 5 years? nt