NationStates Jolt Archive

Palestinian gunmen blow up UN club in Gaza City (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060101/wl_nm/mideast_dc)

GAZA (Reuters) - Masked gunmen stormed into a club for United Nations workers in Gaza City on Sunday and blew up the drinking hall in a new sign of spiraling unrest ahead of a Palestinian election.

...Gunmen burst into the UN club, one of the few places that alcohol is served in conservative Muslim Gaza. It had been closed for the day. The attackers tied up the security guard and struck him with gun butts.

Then they set explosives in front of the bar, unrolled a detonator cable and blew up the charges, ripping up the roof and shattering the windows.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

It appears to be a religion motivated attack rather than a political one. What can I say, welcome to Hamastan.

Booooooh!!!

All the more reason to support Hamas' opponents with everything we (that is Israel, the UN, the US, everyone else interested in peace) have got.

So why the shelling of the "security zone" so close to the election? Why make the Authority and Abbas look bad, and drive people to vote Hamas?

Sure, there may be a reasonable justification for taking the action - but does it have to be now?

noooooo all that poor alcohol :(

I wonder if theres a rush to post a similar thread when the Israelis decide to pick off a school girl or two.......

I wonder if theres a rush to post a similar thread when the Israelis decide to pick off a school girl or two.......
Haven't been here long enough, have you buddy?:rolleyes:

Touche, Sir.

Booooooh!!!

All the more reason to support Hamas' opponents with everything we (that is Israel, the UN, the US, everyone else interested in peace) have got.

So why the shelling of the "security zone" so close to the election? Why make the Authority and Abbas look bad, and drive people to vote Hamas?

Sure, there may be a reasonable justification for taking the action - but does it have to be now?
You have got to be kidding me.

First, there has been a sharp rise in Kassam launches on Israeli cities, and a qualitative difference as well- several rockets reached as far as Ashkelon, and there has been a launch from the West Bank as well (which means that the know-how for rocket making is no longer confined to Gaza and most Israeli cities, including the densely populated Tel-Aviv, will soon be potential targets). This has to be met with a firm response.

Second, I doubt very much that it will "drive people to vote Hamas" anymore than they would be willing to vote Hamas before. There is no reason why Abbas would be to blame.

Third, Abbas and the Fatah are in desperate need of excuses to delay elections, because the Fatah election lists have been splitting ad infinitum and the party is in a total disarray. This just might be such an excuse.

Well a "firm" response might also include stopping doing things like this, which undoubtedly increase support for more militant action against Israeli targets.

News story about land seizures (http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1072.shtml)

Well a "firm" response might also include stopping doing things like this, which undoubtedly increase support for more militant action against Israeli targets.

News story about land seizures (http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1072.shtml)
News story? You call a dispatch from the Stop The Wall campaign a news story?

Man, you need higher standards.

I won't even debate that thing on its merits until I see it confirmed by a source more decent. Stop The Wall are such notorious liars that they cannot be trusted to get even the most basic things about the story right.

No doubt if I produced another source that would be "tainted" too...however as the construction of the wall and Israeli only roads has led to land seizures, as indeed has the construction of illegal settlements, I can't imagine why they would go and make up an incident, when they've some three and half decades full of real ones to go on.

No doubt if I produced another source that would be "tainted" too...
Depends on the source. If your alternative would be an ISM dispatch, you bet it would be "tainted".

however as the construction of the wall and Israeli only roads has led to land seizures, as indeed has the construction of illegal settlements, I can't imagine why they would go and make up an incident, when they've some three and half decades full of real ones to go on.
They always make things up, to an absurd point. They claim that the security barrier will annex almost 50% of the West Bank to Israel, for example. And they are so inept in their lies that I've once done an extensive rebuttal of all their claims based on the map provided by Stop The Wall themselves in their "fact sheet".

While I would agree that figure, should your statement be correct, is far too high a percentage, it is nevertheless safe to say that the wall is not there for the "security of Israel" or the good of the Palestinians health. Else why not follow the 1967 borders?

While I would agree that figure, should your statement be correct, is far too high a percentage, it is nevertheless safe to say that the wall is not there for the "security of Israel" or the good of the Palestinians health. Else why not follow the 1967 borders?
Because the 1967 borders are nonsense, a randomly created line that doesn't reflect neither Palestinian nor Israeli needs.

Besides, you get it exactly the other way round. The barrier does not follow the Green line precisely BECAUSE it is motivated by the present day security needs only. It is built in the way that blocks maximum security threats, not in the way that follows political lines on the map. Now, if the barrier WAS following the 1967 borders, THEN it would have indeed been politically motivated.

P.S. Off to sleep now.

Killing U.N. on Religeous grounds is just dumb even if it is against Alcohol.

I don't seem to remember "Palestinian needs" and "Ariel Sharon" being in the same realm of possibilities.

As regards the 1967 borders, you could say that about most borders in the middle east. However attempted annexing of your neighbours land is still generally frowned on. Generally.

And you are right there Harlesburg.