[Igor Antunov]

The United Nations in Gaza has issued an urgent appeal for the return of thousands of kilograms of unexploded bombs and shells which have disappeared from a warehouse guarded by Hamas.

The munitions, including aerial bombs and phosphorous shells, were fired by Israeli forces during their recent offensive but failed to explode.

UN experts have been liaising with the Hamas authorities in Gaza to arrange for their safe disposal.

The UN staff had also been waiting for the Israeli army to allow them to bring in specialist equipment to destroy the explosives.

But two days ago, when UN officials returned to the warehouse, they found most of the explosives had gone missing.

An Israeli army spokesman says the bombs had been commandeered by Hamas militants.

A UN official said his staff were urgently trying to establish where the explosives had gone, and called for their safe return.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 494267.htm



Ooops.

[Fasces]

True visionaries, Hamas desires only peace with Israel, as evidenced by these events. They clearly did not want to trouble Israel with the expense of disposal of these explosives, and instead took it upon themselves to do so. It was supposed to be a surprise for Passover, but naturally, the UN interfered.

[Igor Antunov]

Well Hamas needs weapons with which to defend itself. And Israel needs a perpetual enemy it can attack when elections come around. Win win.

[Falx]

True visionaries, Hamas desires only peace with Israel, as evidenced by these events.

Israel dropping enough bombs on Palestine that thousands of kilograms of explosives failed to detonate. Yeah, master evil plan by Hamas there, with so much foresight too. Fist get Israel to blockade Gaza so that every militant group that had fireworks left over from Ramadam would shoot them into Israel, then get Israel to lead one of it poorest military campaigns to date, then make Israel continue the blockade of Gaza so that the bomb detonation equipment couldn't get across the border when it was needed. Maybe Palestinians really control the world?

[Sapper]

It would be stupid if they didn't take them.

[Dempsey]

Can someone explain what does Peter Preston mean?


Bismarckian board games

The partition of Cyprus resulted from the lazy certainty that, time and again, separation works

Peter Preston
The Guardian, Monday 16 February 2009

Can Palestinians and Israelis coexist? Pass the cement mixer. The fundamental assumption, time and again, is that separation works. Keep two sides apart by building a wall - and you've taken the hard work out of the problem. Now we can let the diplomats loose ...

But that's self-deluding. Distance and isolation equal indifference. The people of Gaza didn't have to live in southern Israel through the years of rocket attacks. The people of Israel clearly lacked all empathy for the retribution their army heaped on Gaza. Take a loyalty oath to despair. Once you assume that coexistence is impossible, life settles back into fearful enclaves - and fleeting hope arrives only from Washington.

Terrorism delivers beleaguerment. But let's be clear-headed. Israel, left to ineffectual chancelleries and retributive devices, makes no progress.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... key-cyprus

[Abood]

Umm, yeh, like Israel actually trusted Hamas with weapons. Right.

[Fasces]

Of course not. Israel knew this would happen, giving them a propaganda victory. The Zionists are certainly shrewd, in that regard.

Hamas was too stupid to let the weapons stay, which would have dealt a huge blow to Israeli public relations, and their image in the West. In any case, they have demonstrated that they are ready and willing to continue the violence, no matter the peaceful overtures offered by the UN. They have proven themselves part of the problem, rather than taking the opportunity to undermine Israel's credibility. In this way, Hamas is quite short-sighted and stupid.

[Oxymoron]

It would be stupid if they didn't take them.

How so? I mean these small supply of weapons wont win them any future conflict, and it wont make them look like victims to the world and they lose any sort of trust from the UN in the future. Its a PR victory for Israel no matter how you cut it.

[Fasces]

If they hadn't taken them it would have been a very powerful and symbolic show of their desire for peace. The fact they took indicates a desire to arm themselves for future conflict. While a realistic thing to do, it robs them of a huge propaganda victory that would have ultimately been much more valuable.

[NYYS]

Can't wait until these bombs are "dropped" by "Israel" on schools and residential houses...

They kind of deserve it though, what a stupid move by them.

[Muslim]

But two days ago, when UN officials returned to the warehouse, they found most of the explosives had gone missing.

Well done. They should have "cleaned" the warehouse.

It is not enough, however. Hamas should start developing Qassam 3. The so-called rockets that they fire are just toys.

[Oxymoron]

Well done. They have "cleaned" the warehouse.

It is not enough, however. Hamas should start developing Qassam 3. The so-called rockets that they fire are just toys

So your ok with tens of thousands of dead Palestinians as a result of future Hamas aggression?

[Muslim]

Hamas needs weapons to defend Gaza.

And regarding the last war, they didn't start. Enough discussing this point.

[Oxymoron]

Hamas needs weapons to defend Gaza.

And regarding the last war, they didn't start. Enough discussing this point.

Hamas needs brains to defend Gaza, something which the leaders safely in Syria they trully lack.

And regarding the last war, they did start it. Enough discussing this point.

[Muslim]

Israel dreams of a day its planes make an air raid on Gaza, bomb a couple of sites then get back while being sure that no response will be there. Hamas will never let that happen. It is a war of wills

What Hamas really needs is to make the response as harmful as possible, this way they will convince Israel to stop.

[Oxymoron]

Israel dreams of a day its planes make an air raid on Gaza, bomb a couple of sites then get back while being sure that no response will be there. Hamas will never let that happen. It is a war of wills.

It is Israels dream of a day when they wont have to fly air raids into Gaza. It is a war of wills on one side Hamas wants to demonstrate how many Palestinians it can sacrifice for the cause, on the other Israel wants to figure out how to protect as many of its citizens as possible. Its a difference of culture between the culture of Life and the Culture of Death.

[Muslim]

It is Israels dream of a day when they wont have to fly air raids into Gaza.

So why did they breach the last truce?

[Oxymoron]

So why did they breach the last truce?

Hamas broke the truce, please lets leave it as agree to disagree I dont want another 100 page thread.

[Cheesecake_Marmalade]

I don't even see the point of this. It's like a fifth grader who takes a couple of taekwondo classes to fight the big, bulky eighth grader. He knows taekwondo, maybe, but he's still a chickenshit. He's still gonna lose. Now it just looks like he had a chance.