One killed, several hurt as Qassam rockets hit Sderot (Haaretz)

[Liberal Classic]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444558.html

Two people were killed and six were injured on Monday morning, when two Qassam rockets landed on the southern town of Sderot.

The fatilities were a man in his fifties and a three-year-old child, whose mother was seriously wounded in the attack.

...

Sderot has regularly been targeted by Palestinian militants. In the vast majority of cases, the crude home-made missiles land in open land, and this is the first time a Qassam has led directly to an Israeli fatality.

Who was it around here was pooh-poohing these homeade rockets?

[Aidoneus]

1. Probably me, but I don't recognize you..

Seeing as how these are some of the first people ever hit by the Qassams, let alone killed.. It seems that Sharon's private ranch in the area was a likely target, but the phrase 'aim' just doesn't apply to these things:--this was b.a.l. at best. It's a mental & moral assault more than anything, and usually with a far less toll. I look at the missiles flying in the other direction, the Shuhada Cemetaries filling up, and see a slightly bigger story.. :shrug:

The recent Gush Katif operation is interesting. I assume Khan Younis is about to be smashed up again soon.

[Liberal Classic]

2. Less toll perhaps

Though not from lack of trying.

[Aidoneus]

3. all things considered, I'd think of that as commendable in a way..

considering the lack of such minimal effect when they're heading the other direction. Making a point (these are usually fired soon after a murderous aggression against some part of Gaza) while not giving the shovels much use would be, within the context, the preferable path. :shrug:

[Gimel]

4. Usually fired

Constantly. Some say they are ineffective and harm no one. Today two people were killed and another critically injured. So do you have to wait for deaths to know they are lethal?

The Gaza incursion was to stop the attacks, as well as the suicide attacks from that area.

[newyorican]

6. "The Gaza incursion was to stop the attacks..."

...worked like a charm, eh?

[Liberal Classic]

7. There's no magical solution obviously

I don't think the question is whether military strikes stop all terrorist acts. The question may be are military strikes worth the effort if they reduce terrorist groups' capacity to fight.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=65719&mesg_id=65719

[newyorican]

8. "There's no magical solution obviously"

...or military, unless the military is used to kill every Palestinian.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[The Magistrate]

11. That Is Going A Little Far, Sir

The intent on both sides is to raise sufficient question in the other whether the game is worth the candle, and force the conclusion it is not. The problem is that the leading actors, particularly among the Arab Palestinian militant bodies, are not accustomed to making rational calculation in their commitment to violence, at least in terms of whether the damage done the foe is worth the damage the foe inflicts on their people. There is also the problem that they are animated by the idea that the harm done by the foe to their people strengthens their own standing among them; again, not a particularly rational reaction by those people who do react in this manner, but one that demonstrably occurs nonetheless.

[newyorican]

12. Not very far at all...

to state that there is no military solution (short of the final one) to a political problem. I also would not single out one side or the other in condemning the leading actors. There is not, and hasn't been, adult supervision in quite some time on either side. Both sides willingly engage in activities that insure retribution is rained down regularly upon innocents.

On Edit: Grammar

[Liberal Classic]

13. Indeed it does

Not very far at all to state that there is no military solution (short of the final one) to a political problem.

So the only military solution is the "final solution." We're heard those words before.

There is an implication that the Israelis are genocidal.

I do think this goes a bit too far.

[newyorican]

14. implication, shlimplication...

To anyone not overly sensitive, the statement is a two-edged sword.

If I wanted to say genocidal, I would have said it outright...

[The Magistrate]

15. As A Point Of Historical Fact, Sir

It has not proved necessary to kill everyone in order to pacify, or even subjugate, a troublesome populace. Humans, as a general matter, are not much inclined to fight to the last man, let alone to the last woman and child. Such a willingness generally exists only in the hyperbolic rhetoric of jingoes, or in situations where it is clear that extermination is the intent of the enemy. These latter are extraordinarily rare in history, though not unheard of. There is no question that extermination is not the intent of Israel towards the people of Arab Palestine today, though it serves the political urges of some to pretend that it is.

[newyorican]

16. That has been the mantra..

for decades of occupation, and has yet to provide a measure of success. There is a clinical analysis for doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results every time. As of yet, in this specific case, the military solution has not solved the political problem, quite the contrary actually.

[The Magistrate]

17. We Are In Agreement, Sir

Certainly under modern political conditions, a purely military effort is unlikely to bring a real solution to this particular situation. Your invocation of a common popular definition of madness, of course, applies in great degree to the political leadership on both sides, although with this difference: while the Arab Nationalist leadership of Arab Palestine has continued on its course of violence for more than eight decades, it has done so on progressively smaller tracts of land, while the Israeli perseverance in its course has brought it appreciable territorial aggrandizement. As land is, at bottom, the root of the thing, it seems clear to me which leadership ought to have the greatest incentive to alter its stance.

An unfortunate fact of the situation as it stands today is that it is within the power of the current government of Israel, by a combination of strategic retreat and formidable fortification, to secure its population against signifigant attack by the Arab Palestinian militants, which is sufficient for its domestic political purposes, and even to tuck a healthy slice of ground away behind its fortified belt while doing so. The Arab Palestinian leadership or people cannot prevent it; there is no one else who will prevent it for them. It could only be prevented by political developments in Israel, which the actions of Arab Palestinian militant bodies work conclusively against.

[Lithos]

5. *sigh*

n/t