I really like it when the words “Hamas” and “desperate” appear in the same sentence…

I can’t imagine how hellish it must be in Gaza right now – for the residents and for the soldiers…

A senior IDF officer in the Gaza Strip said, “Many houses in the area are booby-trapped and underground tunnels were built under them meant to enable the kidnapping of soldiers.”

 According to the officer, forces discovered a booby-trapped mosque, and among the weapons, found motorcycles meant to be used for kidnapping soldiers. 

There’s a story on Israeli TV about the kibbutzim that are right on the border, in the center of the military action with Gaza, Nahal Oz and Nir Oz. They are so close to the fighting, they don’t even need binoculars to see what we are all seeing on television. They have a ringside seat.

On Nir Oz, they raise cattle and the herds are freaking out from the booming and banging and bombing. Animal abuse! Somebody call PETA.

Of course, PETA wouldn’t like the kibbutz in the first place because they raise beef cattle. The farmer pointed to them and said that they are supposed to end up as steak, kabobs, and shishlik. And then he joked that if the Hamas had their way, he would end up as steak, kabobs, and shishlik as well.

San Francisco looks lovely this time of year…yikes.

Amazing.  Members of Fatah in the Gaza Strip must be happier than anyone that this ground offensive has begun.

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

“Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing,” a senior Fatah official said. “They have been waging a brutal campaign against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas revealed over the weekend that the movement had “executed” more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel and were being held in various Hamas security installations.

 

A hallmark of almost every single interview I see with an Israeli spokesman or citizen on CNN – an attempt to get them to discuss the anger, fury and hate that Israel is obviously unleashing on Gaza. No matter how many time the Israeli tries to explain that Israel is not exacting any kind of revenge – they are trying once and for all to STOP ROCKET FIRE ON SOUTHERN ISRAEL – they just don’t get it.

If we’re bombing them, we must hate them, right? Wrong. I’ve seen a lot of emotions over the past week, worry, fear, frustration, depression, and yes, maybe some anger directed at Hamas and those who elected them who continue to choose war and conflict instead of peace and prosperity. But hate? None. Not a bit. Not at all. Not even from people in Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva and environs who are getting fired at.

How do we make this point????

UPDATE: Oh, yeah, and bombing Gaza doesn’t make IDF pilots HAPPY, either….

UPDATE: Loved this guy…

Here it is…

I just bullied my good friend Faye Bittker into writing down all the entertaining stuff she’s been telling me on the telephone and turning it into an article on Pajamas Media. Check it out…

I am no scientist, but my first-hand study has shown that when sirens are screaming, particularly if it is the second or third alarm in less than an hour, there is nothing more calming than a bite of fudge-filled chocolate cookie. Particularly when shared with the random gathering of strangers in the nearest bomb shelter.

Maybe it is different for people who are alone with the families in their residential “safe room,” but since I have spent most of the last week at my office at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in the heart of Beersheva, I have had an opportunity to research the dynamics of public shelters. All the more so as my office is on the ground floor, so each new alarm brings in a different collection of random passersby. 

For even the toughest among us (and I am pretty tough), find it hard to maintain the stoic façade when faced with the group dynamics of panic and fear. Be it the child crying loudly in the arms of his panting father who has just done the 100 yard dash to the safe room or the woman hunched in the corner with tears streaming down her face because she “heard the boom”, I have found myself passing out chocolate and cookies, jokes and silly stories. Anything to distract us all from the brutal reality that someone really is trying to kill us.

I bitched at dear Faye for her decision to stay home this weekend and her refusal to come north and stay with me. A lot of the volunteer organizations trying to offer places to stay to people in the South are getting similar responses.

She quoted me a line from the famous book “The Siren’s Song” about the First Gulf War: “Don’t you realize that people would rather face missiles than face staying in a stranger’s house?”

Of course, she has no such justification to refuse to stay with me because I’m not a stranger. I think she just wants an excuse to eat all those cookies.