Operation Cast Dirt

Another little Israeli 'pacification' exercise  has come to a sudden stop. After  7 days of bombing , shelling and retaliatory rocketing, Bibi Netanyahu has, for some strange reason, opted for  a 'ceasefire' and negotiations. The ceasefire part is obvious, but other than the Egyptians, Turks, Americans or somebody else pulling strings, he's still in the same position he was last week -  having to not negotiate with terrorists.

This is all very strange,  for the Israelis, by a sizable majority, are in favour of much more hurt for  HAMAS. At least the 75 000 reservists 'called up' to do the ground operation are going to be disappointed about not 'getting any'.  These lads a case in point.

Their body language spells out, "Bibi Loser"

The Gazans are treating this as a 'win', or at least they were until this morning. A group of the inmates made the mistake of taking that 'freedom of movement' part of the ceasefire seriously enough to enter the no-go zone and approach the Gaza fence. That got one of them killed and 17 wounded by the ensuing 'warning' fire from Israeli military on the 'green' side of the wire.

It was widely thought by the 'world' media that the gunfire would 'have no effect' on the ceasefire, while the same media blatted that calls for jihad from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were jeopardizing the whole deal. Somebody has completely forgotten that until Israel 'whacked' a HAMAS 'military chief' - the one who was tasked to keep other groups from firing rockets into Israel - the rocket-firing had almost stopped. I guess, as the Israelis will tell you, being a target all the time takes some getting-used to - in Gaza too, do you think?

Israelis, even some of the dumb ones, have the ability to understand where the Gazans and other Arabs are 'coming from', they know what life is like for them. But, and this makes them different from the Germans  who could always claim they 'didn't know' -  they still don't give a sh*t, or, worse still, think the Arabs 'deserve it'. An Israeli group put up this interesting little piece - done by the 'targets'  in Sderot.
Palestinian video

The ceasefire touts a 'new' freedom of movement for people in Gaza, but I'm inclined to think that, unless they guarantee the future existence of the Jewish state and give up any right to reparations for stolen property, they're going to have exactly the same 'freedom' they had in Gaza last week - the 'freedom' to be surveilled while not leaving the zone except under rigorous scrutiny, and the freedom to stay out of the IDF's self-defence 'free fire zone'. The goldfish bowl might have some new rubble in it, but it's still just as restricted, visible and vulnerable.

The Israeli media is weeping. tears of sadness, in keeping with President Shimon Peres 'weeping' over the deaths of Palestinian babies - an 'accident' that the Palestinians 'made' happen ( "You made us kill you, we didn't want to do it,  etc") . And tears of joy to match a crocodile grin that goes with the boast that Israel is 'no longer alone'. The 'seamless support' for Israel's "right to defense" is claimed, not only due to Obama's non-presence, but also in every 'right-thinking' nation on earth. That's why, if the Palestinians ask for UN observer status next week, they're probably going to get it. Because of some weird blowback 'conscience thing' about rootin' Israel on to vic'try this week. Get it?