Obama again talks with Netanyahu on Gaza attacks
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama spoke separately to Israeli and Egyptian leaders Friday night as violence escalated in Gaza, and Israel signaled a possible ground invasion.
Palestinian militants took aim at Jerusalem for the first time Friday, launching a rocket attack on the holy city as Israel pressed forward with a relentless campaign of airstrikes against Gaza.
The White House says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Obama Friday to provide an update on the situation. Netanyahu expressed appreciation to Obama and the American people for U.S. investment in the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defense system, which has been used to defend Israel against rocket attacks from Gaza, saving many Israeli lives, the White House said.
Obama reiterated U.S. support for Israel's right to self-defense and discussed possible ways to scale back the conflict, the White House said. It did not offer specifics.
Separately, Obama called Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Friday and praised Egypt's efforts to ease tensions in the region, the White House said. Obama expressed hope that Egypt's efforts would be successful, officials said.
In both calls, Obama expressed regret for the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives and underscored the importance of resolving the situation as quickly as possible.
Obama also spoke with the Israeli and Egyptian leaders on Wednesday.
Militant groups have staged rocket attacks against Israel, which has responded by assassinating the military chief of the ruling Hamas militant group and conducting dozens of airstrikes on suspected rocket-launching sites and other Hamas targets in Gaza.
In all, 27 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed.
About 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered Friday night outside the White House, where they chanted slogans denouncing Netanyahu and the Israeli army. Many carried signs that said, "Let Gaza Live" and called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.
Nadrat Siddique of Annapolis, Md., said she joined the protest in solidarity with fellow Muslims who have been killed in Gaza. "We feel like an attack on Palestinians is an attack on all Muslims," said Siddique, who was born in Pakistan. She and other protesters said Israel would not conduct air strikes without U.S. support and called on Obama to end "bloodthirsty attacks" by Israel.
The protest was organized by the ANSWER Coalition, a left-leaning group that has worked with Palestinian activists.
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President Obama - you can't talk any sense to Netanyahu - the man has the "Dick Cheney-John McCain war gene" in him. Totally impossible to reason with people like him - God help us from extremist leaders like Netanyahu.
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What you, Souterbridge, and many of the other posters who castigate israel for its military actions seem to forget is this. It is the stated goal, indeed the statement is in the founding documents of hamas (the organization now "governing" the gaza strip), to destroy israel. Period. You rail against "extremist leaders like Netanyahu" but you fail to tell us what is "extremist" about not letting your nation be destroyed. And yes, Israel could reach a "settlement" with hamas. All it would have to do is disincorporate, disand its military, and submit its citizens to the governance of hamas. True, the rockets and airstrikes would start, but the pogram would begin.
The problem is that no one in power in Israel or of the Palestinians have any longterm vision or impetus for a peace-able solution.
That is the 2-State solution has few promoters or believers with any clout.
We are so comfortable retreating to the usual positions and nose tweeks ( It'sIsraels fault/It's Palestinians fault because - fill inthebalcnk)
So this conflictwill get ugly for a while, the superior military might will take the short term gains......then they will do something abhorrent, retreat and back to the nose tweeking.
Arafat isn't around to be the boogyman anymore. Hamas is the new boogeyman. Bibi is emboldened by Adelson forcing all other newspapers out of business that might have a non-Bibi view...and frankly he has never had any impetus for a permanent solution anyway.
The US is stuck in the political mindset to support Isreal no matter what they do - even genocide. The rest of the world is less tolerant of that view.
So here we are.......it is simply a reset button. I can only hope that Bib dies of a heart attack or something for attitudes to change on Israei's side. On the Palestinian's: who knows. There are no moderate parties to back at present.
It is always the same thing that people for their own personal talking points love to twist the facts of these stories. Now the fact that this 13 yrs. old boy was shot death is no more to be read in any main stream media as the course of this escalation. Why should that 13 yrs old boy be shot death in the first place?
Israel has not even issue any apology in this respect.
What about settlement constructions in West Bank. Israel really need to prove to the people of the world, people like me that she is serious about peace. The continuation of occupying and building more settlement in the west Bank is completely telling people like me that Israel is lying to the world about her peace intention.
It is always the same thing that people for their own personal talking points love to twist the facts of these stories. Now the fact that this 13 yrs. old boy was shot death is no more to be read in any main stream media as the course of this escalation. Why should that 13 yrs old boy be shot death in the first place?
Israel has not even issue any apology in this respect.
What about settlement constructions in West Bank. Israel really need to prove to the people of the world, people like me that she is serious about peace. The continuation of occupying and building more settlement in the west Bank is completely telling people like me that Israel is lying to the world about her peace intention.