Shimshon 9

Now we know what kind of Jews the Arabs like… Other than dead ones, of course….

“Say No More,” a pulsating trance music track by up-and-coming Israeli female singer Aderet and DJ Dvir Halevi, has been at the top of the playlist this month on the “Beirut Nights” Internet radio station devoted to dance music (www.beirutnights.com). (JP)

The Tunnel Business is booming so following some facts:

• Rafah straddles the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It is divided by an 18ft metal wall that stretches more than 2km (1.2 miles)

• An estimated 40,000 people live on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and 150,000 on the Gaza side

• Tunnels have been used to smuggle goods, weapons and people across the border at Rafah since the early 1990s

• As deep as 20 metres, most have ventilation shafts every 200 metres or so, and engineers can dig an estimated 15 metres a day, using a compass to set the direction

• They are dug from the basements of homes along a 9km stretch of the border

• Having a person smuggled across costs about £1,000, A sack of items about £150

• Since January 2003, the tunnels have been used to smuggle large amounts of various types of weapons into the Gaza Strip, including dozens of RPG rockets and launchers, hundreds of kilograms of explosives, hundreds of rifles (mainly Kalashnikov AK47s) and tens of thousands of bullets, cartridges and other types of ammunition

Not a single one was free. “Jews but no Muslims at Racism Conference,” from The Jewish Chronicle, June 27:

The first conference to compare antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe was held in London this week — but without any Muslim speakers.

Now, we all now that it’s only the “radical” Muslims who exhibit animosity and intolerance towards Jews; so why did Muslim academics—they who most insist that Islam teaches “coexistence” and “dialogue”—eschew this opportunity? Perhaps they didn’t want to discuss the “differences,” the main one being well represented by the Greek words “anti” (-Semitism) and (Islamo-) “phobia”: the former denoting general opposition to something, the latter, fear of something.

The aim of the conference, held at University College, was to explore the “connections, commonalities and differences between” antisemitism and Islamophobia from both geographical and historical perspectives.

A worthy and objective endeavor—the latter element perhaps being behind Muslim reticence to participate?

But the organisers failed to find any Muslim academics who were free to participate.

Key word: “free.” To be sure, many a Muslim, academic or otherwise, is not “free to participate” in any number of things.

Co-organiser James Renton, senior lecturer at Edge Hill and honorary research fellow in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL, said: “It surprised me, as we put things together, how really tough it was to find people working in this area doing academic research. There were Muslims who wanted to come on board but they couldn’t, for one reason or another.

Brother words to “couldn’t”—“wouldn’t” and “shouldn’t”—would have probably better captured the meaning here. (From: Dhimmi Watch)

96% of those detained had been beaten, and 94% of them were subjected to sleep deprivation, and 89% were subjected to the spectre of sleep deprivation and food and drink together, and 70% were subjected to extreme cold or heat. (Aljazeera.net)

This happens in Palestinian Prisons in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank. Human rights organizations confirmed that Palestinian prisons are turned into centres of torture (hrw.org). I wonder if the UN and all those Human Right organizations  are going to take action…

(IsraelNN.com) Mujahedeen Muslim terrorists may be behind the sinking American dollar as part of a campaign to cripple the American economy, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported. The media watch group, which also tracks Arabic language websites, said that postings on websites the past two years reflects a move towards waging an economic war against the United States.
Mujahedeen terrorist groups that operate in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries “have come to the conclusion that it is financial, rather than military, losses that will prompt the U.S. to change its policies in the Middle East and elsewhere,” according to MEMRI.
An article recently posted in Sada Al-Jihad (Echo of Jihad) magazine and posted on several Muslim websites, discusses the September 11 attacks on the U.S. as having influenced the decline in the dollar. It also cited the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as draining the American economy.
Another recent posting stated, “The dollar can expect two additional blows that will break its back… [namely] the announcement of the return of the [religious rule of the] Caliphate…” and the reinstatement of the gold standard in international monetary trade. It urged Mujahedeen “to get rid of American dollars” before an “imminent” terrorist attack that “will put an end to the so-called United States of America and destroy its economy completely.”
MEMRI concluded, “Given that it is highly atypical for Al-Qaeda to give prior of its attacks, the message is probably an attempt to pressure Muslims to sell dollars, in order to generate pessimism in the dollar market and thus accelerate the drop in its value.”

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

www.IsraelNationalNews.com

The government has admitted that it is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be transferred to Hamas in Gaza, the watchdog organization Shurat Hadin charged on Thursday. (JP)

In the Middle Ages and other dark periods of Jewish history, scattered Jewish communities  sometimes had to buy their security by taxes or by other payments to the masters of the place. One of the main aims of Zionism was to leave the Jews resident status of a “provider” to make then free and independent, so they didn’t need to curb to its enemies.

Paying money to the Hamas shows that the Israeli leaders are not yet out of the condition of the Jewish Diaspora.

• Virtual Israel, as represented by Google Earth, is littered with orange dots, many of which claim to represent “Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.” Thus, Israel is depicted as a state born out of colonial conquest rather than the return of a people from exile. Each dot links to the “Palestine Remembered” site, where further information advancing this narrative can be obtained.

• Many of the claims staked out in Google Earth present misinformation, and sites known to be ruins in 1946 are claimed to be villages destroyed in 1948. Arab villages which still exist today are listed as sites of destruction. The Google Earth initiative is not only creating a virtual Palestine, it is creating a falsification of history.

• The concept of “replacement geography” replaces the historical connection of one people to the land with a connection between another people and the land. The inclusion of virtual Palestine, superimposed on Israel in the core layer of Google Earth, is an example of replacement geography advanced by technology.

• Those wishing to explore Israel in Google Earth are immediately taken to a politically motivated narrative unrelated to their quest. Google should remove the narrative and treat Israel as it treats every other country on the globe. The core layer of Google Earth should be ideology free and not serve as a platform for indoctrination or a campaign to wipe Israel off the virtual map.

Google Earth

Virtual Reality

Politically-Loaded Geography

Main Implications

Oil prices jump on report of Israeli drill in preparation for strike on Iran; IAEA Chief: I’ll quit if Iran attacked. Read more…

Israel is deliberately leaking reports that it plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to shape Iranian behavior. An actual attack would not be announced and would face significant obstacles.

“Zionism is racism.”

• ADDRESS: This is simply untrue. Zionism is the Jewish national movement. Jews share a common history, language, culture and religion, just like many other nations.

• REFRAME: We should apply the same standards to all nations. If the Syrians, Egyptians, and Brazilians are entitled to have their own states that bestow certain privileges to their own people, then why are the Jews condemned when they do the same? Where is the criticism of Jordanian nationalism that forbids Jews from becoming citizens? Saudi Arabia does not allow churches to be built nor does it permit the practice of other religions. Those are forms of discrimination that are rarely criticized. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism.”

• MESSAGE: Zionism, having succeeded in re-establishing the Jewish state as a vibrant democracy, inspires freedom not only in Jews but in other minorities seeking self-determination.

“The Israel lobby has a harmful impact on U.S. policy.”

• ADDRESS: This claim is misleading and inaccurate. Israel is a strategic asset to the United States. The two countries share similar economic, political, and security concerns.

• REFRAME: Numerous ethnic, religious and special interest groups exercise their right to lobby government officials. With regard to the Middle East, pro-Arab and “Big Oil” lobbies continue to exert strong pressure over American foreign policy. While the Israel lobby seeks to advance the cause of Israel it does not speak for all pro-Israel groups which have differing views on foreign policy and often disagree on key issues. Similarly, the Taiwan lobby has been successful at influencing Asian policy. All foreign lobbies should be held to the same standards of scrutiny. Singling out the pro-Israel groups and accusing them of acting against American interests is unjust and unreasonable.

• MESSAGE: The United States and Israel share similar values and concerns, and supporting the only democracy in the Middle East is in America’s best interest.

“Israeli presence in the disputed territories is responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians.”

• ADDRESS: This statement distorts the facts. Israel does not want to keep a military presence in the West Bank; however, each time the IDF retreats, violence against Israelis escalates. This pattern can be seen clearly with the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and subsequent increase in rocket attacks.

• REFRAME: The real cause of Palestinian suffering stems from the Arab leadership, which since 1948 has used the Palestinian refugees as political pawns against Israel. While Israel resettled over 700,000 Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries, every attempt by Israel, the U.N., or the U.S. to resettle the Palestinian refugees and provide them a decent life was thwarted by the Arab regimes. Additionally, vast amounts of international aid given to the Palestinian Authority has been lost to corruption or used to finance terrorist activities, instead of being used to improve the lives of Palestinians.

• MESSAGE: Palestinians will continue to suffer as long as Arab leaders focus on destroying the Jewish state rather than on creating better lives for their people.

“Israeli occupation is the root cause of the conflict.”

• ADDRESS: This is simply untrue. Israel’s presence in the disputed territories is the result, not the cause, of ongoing Arab aggression against the Jewish people. Israel gained control of these territories through a defensive war fought in 1967.

• REFRAME: Before the 1967 Six-Day War, there were no Israeli soldiers or citizens living in the West Bank or Gaza. These territories were occupied by Jordan and Egypt, respectively. Yet, there was terrorism against Israel. One example is the Egged bus massacre in March 1954, where eleven Israeli passengers were murdered and mutilated. Moreover, terrorism against Jews pre-dates the independence of Israel in 1948, with one example being the slaughter of 67 Jews in Hebron in 1929. Those who ignore the history of Arab terrorism and incitement fail to understand the complexities of the conflict.

• MESSAGE: The root cause of this conflict is Arab rejection of Jewish sovereignty and freedom, and the ongoing incitement to hate which leads to terrorism against Israelis. Palestinians need to choose between peace and terrorism.

“Israel stops Palestinian ambulances at checkpoints.”

• ADDRESS: It is unfortunate when any human being cannot get ample medical care in a timely manner.

• REFRAME: However, you need to understand why these checkpoints exist in the first place. The Palestinian leadership has encouraged its young people to wage jihad against the Jewish state, and one tactic they employ to infiltrate Israel is to smuggle suicide bombers in seemingly innocuous vehicles like ambulances. In March 2002, Israeli forces found a 20-pound explosive belt hidden under a gurney in an ambulance that was carrying a teenager. This gruesome discovery saved the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis.

• MESSAGE: The constant threat of war and the celebrated strategy of terrorism created the need for the checkpoints. When the violence ends the checkpoints will come down but, the murdered Israelis cannot be brought back to life.

“Israel is in violation of U.N. Res. 242 that calls on the state to return to its 1967 borders”

• ADDRESS: This is not true. Israel is in fact in compliance with the 1967 U.N. resolution passed after the Six-Day War that calls for the “Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” The drafters of the resolution specifically refrained from using “all” or “the” before “territories,” thereby not requiring Israel to relinquish every inch of land it acquired in this defensive war. By leaving the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, Israel has in fact withdrawn from more than 90% of the territories it acquired.

• REFRAME: It is the Arab regimes which are in clear violation of U.N. Resolution 242. This resolution calls for, “termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force.” Except for Jordan and Egypt, Arab states refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and continue to provide material support to terrorist groups that threaten Israel and launch attacks against civilians.

• MESSAGE: This conflict is not a border dispute and can only end when Arab regimes adhere to their obligations in Resolution 242 and accept Jewish self-determination and freedom in the Middle East.

“Israel is guilty of murdering innocent civilians in Lebanon.”

• ADDRESS: It is tragic when civilians die in war, but this accusation twists the truth. While it is true that some civilians were accidentally killed during the war, as in any other war, the IDF is guided by a strict policy to protect civilian life whenever possible, regardless of nationality.

• REFRAME: We must understand that Hezbollah ultimately bears responsibility for civilian deaths in Lebanon, especially during the 2006 conflict. This terrorist group utilized a ruthless strategy of attacking civilians with rocket fire in hundreds of Israeli towns and then cowardly hid behind Lebanese citizens. This tactic was in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions and led to unnecessary casualties during the war. U.N. officials also took note of this breach of international law and rightly condemned the terrorist group for their actions that put U.N. workers in serious danger.

• MESSAGE: Israel has the right and the responsibility to protect its civilians, as all countries do. It’s absurd and contradictory to blame Israel for defending itself against the provocations of a terrorist organization that routinely tries to maximize civilian casualties on both sides.

“Israel is an apartheid state.”

• ADDRESS: This accusation is simply untrue. All Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, regardless of age, gender, religion, or ethnicity, enjoy the same fundamental democratic freedoms, such as the freedom of speech, the freedom of association, the freedom of religion and the right to participate in the political process.

• REFRAME: To understand true apartheid policies in the Middle East, we must look at the Muslim world where 150 million women are persecuted because of their gender. A rape victim in Saudi Arabia was recently sentenced to 200 lashes and imprisonment for being in the company of unrelated men. Honor killings and female circumcision continue to take place on a daily basis in many Arab and Muslim societies. Where is the outrage over the religious persecution faced by Christians and Jews in the Muslim world, where they are treated as second-class non-citizens through institutionalized discrimination? Condemning Israel, the lone democracy in a region made up of dictatorships that sponsor apartheid-like policies is unjust and hypocritical.

• MESSAGE: While institutionalized racism and sexism are common in virtually every country throughout the Middle East, Israel is a bastion of pluralism and democracy.

“Israel has no right to build the wall.”

• ADDRESS: The Israeli government has the right and the obligation to protect its citizens against terrorism.

• REFRAME: While it is legitimate to disagree with Israel’s policies regarding the fence, it is illegitimate to view those policies in a vacuum, disregarding the fact that Israel built its security barrier only in direct response to relentless Palestinian terror attacks in 2000. It was erected in an attempt to prevent the infiltration of suicide bombers into Israeli towns and cities. Pakistan has a fence on its border with Afghanistan and the U.S. has a fence on its border with Mexico. If it is legitimate for other countries to erect a fence to prevent illegal immigration, it is certainly legitimate for Israel to erect a fence to defend its citizens against murder. Thankfully, the fence and other security measures have saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

• MESSAGE: The Palestinian and Arab regimes have to choose between terrorism or open borders, between ongoing aggression or peaceful coexistence with Israel.

“Israel does not have the right to exit.”

• ADDRESS: The Jewish people, like other nations have the right to self-determination. Israel’s primary right to exist is endorsed by U.N. Resolution 181, which called for a two-state solution in Mandated Palestine: one Jewish, and one Arab.

• REFRAME: If we are going to question the legitimacy of Israel, then all countries in the Middle East must come under scrutiny. Prior to World War I, the majority of the Middle East was under the domain of the Ottoman Empire. Following its defeat, European leaders determined the boundaries of what would become Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. These states were all artificial creations, constructed by foreign, imperial powers. For example, the British allocated land east of the Jordan River to a leader of the Hashemite tribe, who was not indigenous to that region, and helped created Trans-Jordan (later to become the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan). The legitimacy of Jordan and other Middle Eastern states is never questioned. Why then is Isarel singled-out for so much attention?

• MESSAGE: Those who question Israel’s legitimacy are holding the Jewish state to a different standard from all other countries. Israel, like all members of the U.N., has the same right to exist in peace and security, free from the threat of war.

“Both Israelis and Arabs are equally responsible for the conflict.”

• ADDRESS: This is a common misconception.

• REFRAME: There is no equivalent between the IDF and Arab terrorism. The IDF’s practice is to protect all civilian life and to defend the country against foreign aggressors. Arab terrorists stage a relentless campaign of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks, which are deliberately designed to destroy innocent lives. In fact, 57% of Palestinian Arabs support terrorist attacks upon Israeli civilians, according to research conducted at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in September 2006. There is no moral equivalency between the educational system in Israel, where children are taught to love life and hope for peace with their Arab neighbors and the hate-education of the Arab world, where children are indoctrinated to believe that murdering Israelis will bring them to heaven.

• MESSAGE: Israeli leaders have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Responsible Arab leaders are needed to do the same.

“A bi-national state would end the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

• ADDRESS: This may appear to be a reasonable and even-handed solution to some.

• REFRAME: But, we need to understand the real consequences of such a solution. Jews in a bi-national state would likely become a minority and would be vulnerable to persecution and genocide. The precedent for this claim is that for over a thousand years Jews and Christians living under Muslim rule throughout the Middle East were denied basic rights and freedoms, and subject to riots and pogroms in which countless Jews were killed. Furthermore, the Arab nations have never accepted the Jewish historical connections to the land of Israel and incitement against Jews continues in much of the Arab world today. It is clear that a bi-national state would only serve the interests of one side in this conflict.

• MESSAGE: While Israel has yearned for peace throughout its history, those who advocate for a one-state solution are putting both Jewish and Christian lives in jeopardy.

Sphere: Related Content

The US government will tell 7,000 businesses next week that they are considered high-risk terrorist targets because they house large amounts of chemicals.

The sites - which range from major chemical plants to universities, food processing centers and hospitals - will need to complete a vulnerability assessment so the government can decide how to regulate their security measures in the future.

Surprise, surprise (Ynet)

Hamas regards the temporary cease-fire as a tahdiya and not a hudna. A tahdiya - “a period of calm” - is used by Hamas to describe a simple cease-fire. A hudna implies recognition of the other party’s actual existence, without acknowledging its legitimacy.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera (April 26, 2008), Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal clarified that for Hamas, a tahdiya is “a tactic in conflict management.” He added that it “is not unusual for the resistance…to escalate sometimes and to retreat a bit sometimes as the tide does….The tahdiya creates a formulation that will force Israel…to remove the siege…and if it happens it will be a remarkable achievement.”

Official sources in Israel have explained that Hamas’ interest in a lull in the fighting is a result of its “distress.” But the organization did not experience “distress.” Hamas has introduced and maintained law and order in Gaza, strengthened its overall control, suppressed opposition, and achieved
broad popular support for its policies.

(more…)

Proponents of an Israeli-Palestinian accord are praising the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect this morning. Yet even if the agreement suspends violence temporarily — though dozens of Hamas rockets struck Israel yesterday — it represents a historic accomplishment for the jihadist forces most opposed to peace, and defeat for the Palestinians who might still have been Israel’s partners.

The roots of this tragedy go back to the summer of 2005 and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The evacuation, intended to free Israel of Gaza’s political and strategic burden, was hailed as a victory by Palestinian terrorist groups, above all Hamas.

Hamas proceeded to fire some 1,000 rocket and mortar shells into Israel. Six months later Hamas gunmen, taking advantage of an earlier cease-fire, infiltrated into Israel, killed two soldiers, and captured Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Hamas’s audacity spurred Hezbollah to mount a similar ambush against Israelis patrolling the Lebanese border, triggering a war in which Israel was once again humbled. Hamas now felt sufficiently emboldened to overthrow Gaza’s Fatah-led government, and to declare itself regnant in the Strip. Subsequently, Hamas launched thousands more rocket and mortar salvos against Israel, rendering parts of the country nearly uninhabitable.

In response, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) air strikes and limited ground incursions killed hundreds of armed Palestinians in Gaza, and Israel earned international censure for collateral civilian deaths and “disproportionate” tactics. Israel also imposed a land and sea blockade of Gaza, strictly controlling its supply of vital commodities such as a gasoline. But the policy enabled Hamas to hoard the fuel and declare a humanitarian crisis.

Israel never mounted the rolling, multi-month operation that the IDF had planned. Traumatized by his abortive performance in the Lebanon War, hobbled by financial scandals, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert balked at a military engagement liable to result in incalculable casualties and United Nations condemnations, but unlikely to halt Hamas aggression.

Like Hezbollah in 2006, Hamas won because it did not lose. Its leaders still walked Gaza’s streets freely while children in Sderot and other Israeli border towns cowered in bomb shelters. Like Hezbollah, which recently wrested unprecedented powers from the Lebanese parliament, Hamas parlayed its military success into political capital.

The European Parliament demanded the immediate lifting of the Gaza blockade, and France initiated secret contacts with Hamas officials. A minister from the Israeli Labor Party, Ami Ayalon, went a step further by calling for Hamas’s inclusion in peace talks — a recommendation soon echoed by Jimmy Carter and the New York Times.

The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire yields Hamas greater benefits than it might have obtained in direct negotiations. In exchange for giving its word to halt rocket attacks and weapons smuggling, Hamas receives the right to monitor the main border crossings into Gaza and to enforce a truce in the West Bank, where Fatah retains formal control.

If quiet is maintained, then Israel will be required to accept a cease-fire in the West Bank as well. The blockade will be incrementally lifted while Cpl. Shalit remains in captivity. Hamas can regroup and rearm.

The Olmert government will have to go vast lengths to portray this arrangement as anything other than a strategic and moral defeat. Hamas initiated a vicious war against Israel, destroyed and disrupted myriad Israeli lives, and has been rewarded with economic salvation and international prestige.

Tellingly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who once declared Hamas illegal, will soon travel to Gaza for reconciliation talks. Mr. Abbas’s move signifies the degree to which Hamas, with Israel’s help, now dominates Palestinian politics. It testifies, moreover, to another Iranian triumph.

As the primary sponsor of Hamas, Iran is the cease-fire’s ultimate beneficiary. Having already surrounded Israel on three of its borders — Gaza, Lebanon, Syria — Iran is poised to penetrate the West Bank. By activating these fronts, Tehran can divert attention from its nuclear program and block any diplomatic effort.

The advocates of peace between Israelis and Palestinians should recognize that fact when applauding quiet at any price. The cost of this truce may well be war.

Wall Street Journal - June 19, 2008

While Hamas English website blames Israel, Hamas Arabic website admits house exploded by Hamas.

#1 Arabic website Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The “Martyr Brigades, Izz al-Din al-Qassam,” the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas”, to live up to its martyrs who Ela Thursday (12 / 6), in an explosion in a house of Beit Lahia, was martyred as they put the final touches on their way to carry out the task of Jihad in particular.

The asphalt “Qassam”, the military statement issued Friday (13 / 6) martyrs and said they are “field commander Shahid Ashraf Naim desired fruit, and field commander Shahid Hassan Mohammed Abu Hqvh, Shahid field commander Magdi Adel Hammouda, the struggling divisions martyr Abu Mohammad Sabri survived , Shahid Mohammed Hamdan divisions struggling Xu, Shahid divisions struggling Munir Ahmed Sobeih, “adding they were” Knights sections of the unit who witnessed the arenas of jihad partnerships with many heroic, “according clarified.

The statement said the Qassam “on the path of Jihad and resistance; goes Qassam Miami men worshipped Zaki and sacrificed their bodies pure bridge crossing and access road to victory and liberation and empowerment, and on this thorny path goes to the heart convoys of innocent martyrs, who pay tax
Jihad from their blood and lives.”

The “Qassam” may also be termed “the hero martyr Mahmoud Attaya, Hamouda, a martyred girl Noor Magdi Hammouda daughter martyr leader Magdi Hammouda,” Treaty of God “on the path of jihad and martyrdom, and the blood of martyrs will not be lost in vain, and remain loyal to them and Palestine and the Aqsa ”

#2 English website Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Zionist war planes destroyed a house completely,7 civilians were martyred.

Palestinian local sources reported that the Zionist war planes shelled a Palestinian house full of children and women.

Palestinian medical sources reported that seven Palestinians were martyred, at least more 40 wounded in the large explosion in northern Gaza on Thursday afternoon.

The incident occurred in the home of Ahmed Hamouda, a member of the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. Palestinian witnesses confirmed that the explosion was caused by a Zionist airstrike.

The Palestinian medical sources reported that there are women and children among those wounded, five of them are said to be in serious condition.

The explosion resounded throughout the far corners of the city and the house has been completely destroyed. A number of neighboring residential buildings and business establishments were seriously damaged.

The Islamic resistance movement Hamas blamed the Zionist war planes in this attack against the Palestinian civilians.

Polls: Public supports large military operation over ceasefire 44%:33%;
Labor-Likud government 53%:35%

It may not be only Ehud Olmert who is so busy worrying about his legal problems that he does not have enough time to address Israel’s urgent security issues. Many Israeli citizens, except of course residents of the South, are probably also completely engrossed in studying the details of the current investigations and have little time left to worry about what really needs to be worried about - the ongoing war in the South. One can only hope that the Israel Defense Forces and its commander, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, are continuing to take seriously the awesome responsibility with which they are charged - assuring the safety of the people of Israel.