Total closure on Strip after female bomber kills four

[Gimel]

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is due to meet Thursday afternoon with senior officials in the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service for a status report following a suicide bombing at the Erez checkpoint which killed four Israelis and wounded 12 others.

Mofaz decided late Wednesday to impose a total closure on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians can enter Israel only in humanitarian cases, though goods will be allowed in and out of the Strip.

The IDF Southern Command would only make a decision on when to lift the closure on Saturday evening, Army Radio reported.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/383467.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[GabysPoppy]

2. Sorry for the bad humor

When I saw "strip" and "female" in the same sentence, I couldn't help think of Arafat getting a lap dance. Suja has been going over budget lately and I thought Arafat wanted revenge.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[bluesoul]

4. Not more

of the Cox&Forkum filth...

[Blitz]

7. You disagree with something in that cartoon?

n/t

[bluesoul]

8. Yes, with the insulting generalization

about "Islamic family values". Gee, wonder why it was deleted...

[Blitz]

9. Islamist

I'm sorry that you can't see the BIG difference between "Islamic" and "Islamist."

On edit, this reminds me of the asinine vilification, in 1999, of David Howard for using the word "niggardly." He lost his job due to willful ignorance and political cowardice. Specific words have specific meanings. Just because one word sounds like another does not make them the same.

[bluesoul]

10. To Muslims it is the same

Is Islamic supposed to be completely different and worth demonizing as such? So zionist is insulting and shouldn't be used here, yet Islamic can be a slander?

[Blitz]

11. ANYBODY

Muslim or Jewish or Christian or Buddhist or atheist or anybody else who thinks Islamist = Islamic is ignorant. Anybody who, once informed of their ignorance, insists on it rather than attempting to remedy it is something worse.

Islamic does NOT equal Islamist any more than niggardly equals nigger. Islamic refers to the whole of the Muslim faith. Islamist or Islamism specifically refers to "the political and religious philosophies of fundamentalist, puritanical Islamic revival movements." The leading example of Islamism is Wahhabism. Here are two statements. Alert at your leisure:

Islamism is bad.

Wahhabism is bad.

[bluesoul]

22. So all Muslim wahhabists worldwide

are evil people? This is getting interesting...

[Blitz]

25. Wahhabism is evil

Naziism is evil. Whether or not all individual Nazis were evil is debatable, but they were no worse, as a group, than Wahhabiists, as a group.

The sooner the ideology espoused by Wahhabism is wiped from the earth the better. The sooner the Islamic world turns its back on Wahhabism and stops its spread, the better.

I find it "interesting" that, in 2004, you find this to be "interesting" or some kind of revelation.

On edit, I find your modification a bit superfluous. I'm not aware of any Christian or Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist Wahhabists. That particular death cult seems to be comprised solely of Muslims.

[Blitz]

12. Zionist is insulting?

News to me. I'm a zionist and proud of it.

[Muddleoftheroad]

14. Zionism

I too am proud to take that term as mine.

[bluesoul]

15. Hmmm

"the political and religious philosophies of fundamentalist, puritanical revival movements."

A very similar thing could be said about Zionism, and this board has rules of not calling others Zionists.

What you are saying is applying double standards. One kind is good, the other is evil. Even though they both have much in common, only from two different perspectives... (like the one about being a Jewish state = Islamic state or the one about purity)

[Blitz]

16. "A very similar thing could be said about Zionism"

A very similar thing could only be said by someone who has no idea whatsoever of what the word "zionism" means. It's like saying "a very similar thing could be said about chocolate ice cream."

As for the board rules, read them again. There is no prohibition about calling someone a zionist. Similarly, there is no prohibition against calling some whacked-out, murderous religious fundamentalist POS an Islamist if, in fact, that person is an Islamist POS rather than some other kind of POS.

What I say is applying DEFINITIONS, not "double standards." Islamism is evil. So is Naziism. Not all political philosophies, social ideologies or religious beliefs are equal.

[GabysPoppy]

20. FYI

It is against the rules to MISUSE it. It is not against the rules to use it correctly

[Blitz]

13. One more point

Saying that Muslims do not or cannot differentiate between Islam and Islamism is the worst slur against Muslims that I have seen in some time.

[Forkboy]

17. You're not looking hard enough

[Blitz]

18. I don't generally look for slurs against Muslims

In any case, I expected better on DU.

[bluesoul]

19. I wasn't slurring anyone

you were with your "Islamic family values". Don't pull me now into your own mess...

[Blitz]

21. ISLAMIST

Jesus H. Christ. They're different words. IslamIC IslamIST. Can you see a difference at all?

[bluesoul]

23. My point

still stands...

[Blitz]

24. What's your point again?

Because it seems to me that the general point involves reading comprehension.

ISLAMISM is bad. Islamists are bad.

The sooner the ideology espoused by Islamists id wiped off of the face of the earth, the better.

Now, if I had said "Islam" instead of "Islamism" and "Muslims" instead of "Islamists," that would have been against DU rules. But I didn't and it's not.

[bluesoul]

26. I still have a problem with that

Your definition of Islamism as evil and bad would make other "incarnations" of either Christianity or Judaism evil as well. There is fundamentalism in Christianity and Judaism and a lot of people follow it, does that make them all bad and evil? If not, why would this be valid then for Muslims who you consider Islamists. Some may be militant some may not be...

[Blitz]

27. Moral relativism run amuck

Just as all religions are not equal, all ideologies are not equal, all cultures are not equal, all political philosophies are not equal, etc., all fundamentalist versions of various religions are not equal.

Fundamentalist characterizes the degree to which a practitioner of a faith adheres to the letter of that faith's teachings. It does not define or characterize the teachings themselves. Modern fundamentalist Islamism is an expansionist, murderous, morally bankrupt philosophy. It is evil. It KILLS PEOPLE. It denies women, homosexuals and Jews basic humanity, advocates the murder of non-believers (and especially Jews), emphasizes death over life, glorifies murderers and is generally EVIL. There is no other fundamentalist version of any other major faith that even approaches the harm that Islamism advocates and, in fact, does. Islamism is, in its essence, militant. If you're not militant or support militancy, you don't follow Islamism, which has Fundamentalist Muslim Militancy as one of its base tenets.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

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[Darranar]

36. So which particular religions do you view as inferior?

[meti57b]

28. Clearly, the terrorists of hamas do not want to see peaceful coexistence

between Palestinians and Israelis. If Israel were to pull back the IDF, dismantle the peace fence and recognize a Palestinian state, ... that is not going to stop this bombing.

Before there can be a Palestinian state, there has to be an end to the terrorist activities of these organizations. The terrorist organizations want nothing short of wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
.........................................................

Israel seals off industrial zone after bomb attack
By Joshua Mitnick, Globe Correspondent, 1/16/2004

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/01/16/israel_seals_off_industrial_zone_after_bomb_attack/

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip -- Beyond the toll of dead and wounded from the latest Palestinian suicide bombing, the attack in this industrial park on the edge of the Gaza Strip also struck at one of the few remaining examples of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

snip

The tens of thousands of Gazans who are employed inside Israel have frequently been turned back by the Israeli military after incidents of violence during the last three years. In contrast, apart from a one-day lockout last summer, the Palestinians with jobs at the nearly 200 Israeli and Palestinian businesses in the Erez complex were not barred from the workplace -- until now.

Here, Palestinians and Israelis had made a tacit agreement to leave their political convictions at the door, and to labor in quiet alliance to earn a decent wage for their families. The industrial area, formally within Gaza, has a separate entrance for Palestinian employees -- an entrance now ravaged by the bombing.

snip

Yesterday, Adib Zarouq didn't bother with his regular predawn wake-up. With the Palestinian entrance to the heavily guarded border industrial park in ruins, the metal laborer knew that until further notice, there would be no admittance. That left the father of seven sitting on a couch in pajamas in his home in Gaza City, with nothing better to do than puff on a water pipe and ponder why Palestinian militants would target the livelihood of so many countrymen.

[GabysPoppy]

31. Thank you for posting that article

So we see the results of a "legitimate" act of resistance. I'm sure Adib Zarouq will take solace in that fact. (NOT)

If you have to look under the rubble for anything positive, maybe this will cause the % of Palestinians against the support of violence to rise.

[brainshrub]

29. Random thoughts:

The Palestinians must be getting desperate. Using women & children as bombs means that the occupation must be putting tremendous psycological & physical pressure on the local population.

Over the last few weeks I've been viewing the I/P conflict as if I was watching my neighbor discipline a bad dog. At what point do you call the police?
To take this analogy a step further: Imagine the dog was being beaten to a bloody pulp & I called 911...when the operator hears my complaint would she say: "But Mr. Marconi is from Italy! You must be objecting about his abuse because you hate Italians. Besides, that dog used to be dangerous when it was younger."

I don't think the Palestinians are animals, it's just that they are beaten and beaten and beaten...and every time they try and retaliate their condition gets worse. If they don't retaliate, land gets stolen by settlers. It's a lose-lose situation for them.

I sometimes try to imagine what would have to happen to make me want to strap a bomb to myself and take out a few soldiers. I supposed if I lived in an insane situation, I might do insane things.

[Muddleoftheroad]

30. Or you might try peace

Just a thought.

[brainshrub]

32. Ketchup. (nt)

[GabysPoppy]

33. Heinz?

Are you a Kerry supporter?

[brainshrub]

34. I prefer the brand "X" ketchups

Although I like Kerry, and think he will make a wonderful president, I'm backing Dean this year.