Part A

Title: Gov’t Under Intense Pressure to respond
Source: The Jerusalem Post
Date: February 29, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1204127194920


I. Summary
This Article was about the Hamas firing dozens of Kassam Rockets on the western Negev. The government and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are now under extreme pressure to stop the attacks. Israel’s reaction to this seems different then how it would’ve been in the past because of the government’s inability to stop the attacks. According to a thought of how Barak would take this situation, it seems he is looking at the Defense Ministry for a place to “prove himself” and position himself to win the next election. In order to do this though, he has to stop these attacks. Also, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice became involved because he didn’t want things to “get out of hand”. His visit was supposed to stabilize and control the situation on the Egyptian-Gaza border. Meanwhile the Foreign Ministry, issued a statement saying Israel would “continue to defend itself against itself against terror attacks from the Gaza Strip.” The firing of these rockets harmed both Palestinians and Israelis and by them doing this, it’s committing “war crimes”. The Israeli Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor said the steady buildup of weapons the Hama’s owned was encouraging Israel to consider taking “action”.

II. Reaction
A. I think this article fits the theme of State building, expansion, and conflict because the Hamma’s are attacking the Israelis and Palestinians and its making them believe that it is “war crime”. These countries could be doing so much for themselves if they stopped trying to fight with one another.
B. This conflict has been going on for awhile. It’s a fight over who has the land. It’s the Palestinians who are fighting with the Israeli’s over the land of Israel.
C. The writer of this article was Herb Keinon. He is probably from Israel and he is most likely Jewish.
D. The way the author writes seems like this whole ordeal is silly. He uses quotations a lot when talking about how other people saw this problem. An example is, “The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice didn’t want things to “get out of hand””.
E. A point of view that is missing could be a Hama’s point of view to explain why their country did the attacks or an Israeli’s point of view to explain why they think this happened.
F. I’m not surprised this is happening because these contries have been fighting over the land for a really long time and I think it is time that they are trying to stop these attacks. I think they should just create a compromise and stick with it.