A few headlines from the Year 2008

Follow up:

• A suicide bombing occurs in Zayouna, Baghdad, killing over 25 people during a funeral over the deaths from the preceding attack.

• A car bomb detonates, killing at least 4 and injuring 68, in Diyarbakýr, Turkey. Police blame Kurdish rebels.

• Russia stages the largest naval exercise since the fall of the Soviet Union in the Bay of Biscay. The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, along with 11 support vessels and 47 long-range bomber aircraft, practises strike tactics off the coast of France and Spain, and test-launches nuclear-capable missiles in foreign waters.

• Thousands of "Palestinian" Arabs cross into Egypt after gunmen in the Gaza Strip set off an explosion near the Rafah Border Crossing, destroying part of the former Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. Israeli police went on an increased alert due to fears that militants would acquire weapons in Egypt.

• A "Palestinian" Arab suicide bomber kills 1 and wounds 13 in a Dimona, Israel shopping center.

• Eight Israeli civilian teenage boys are killed and 9 wounded when a Palestinian attacker opens fire at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Terrorist Alaa Abu Dhein, an east Jerusalem Arab, was shot on the scene by a part-time student and an IDF officer and died.

• A car bomb explodes outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 5. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.

• A suicide-bomber drives an explosives-laden automobile into the front gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 58 and injuring over 150. Indian and Afghan agencies believe that the Pakistani Army's 324 Military Intelligence Battalion based in Peshawar had planned the attack on the Indian embassy and executed it in collaboration with either the Taliban or al-Qaida.

• A series of 7 bomb blasts rocked Bangalore, India, killing 2 and injuring 20; the next day, a series of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, killed 56 and injured over 200 people. The Union Home Ministry of India named the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and Students Islamic Movement of India, as the suspects

• At least 17 were killed and over 154 wounded in 2 blasts in Istanbul.

• The 2008 South Ossetia war begins, as Georgia and Russia launch a major offensive inside the separatist region of South Ossetia after days of border skirmishes between the 2 sides

• A suicide bomber rams a car into an Algerian military academy, killing 43 and injuring 45.

• A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 60 and injuring 266

• A series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks across Mumbai, India's financial capital was carried out by a Pakistan-based terrorist group using automatic weapons and grenades.
  Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish Chabad Nariman House where the residents were tortured and murdered, the Metro Cinema, and a lane behind the Times of India building behind St. Xavier's College. There was also an explosion at the Mazagaon docks in Mumbai's port area, and a taxi blast at Vile Parle. The death toll was 195, and at least 250 people were injured.

• Operation Cast Lead : Israel initiates a series of airstrikes followed by an invasion in Gaza Strip, killing at least 460 (including at least 75 civilians) and wounding over 2,700 in response to more than 8,000 rockets being fired on Israeli communities by Hamas.
  Not surprisingly missing from most of the online news services I used to compile this survey was a list of Hamas (Arab) rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians. Here's the 2008 summary:

  Rockets and Mortars Launched from Gaza 2008

  Type	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June 1-18	June 18-30	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total Hits Inside Israel
  Rockets	136	228	103	373	206	153	5	4	8	1	1	125	361	1665
  Mortar	241	257	196	145	149	84	3	8	3	3	1	68	241	1497

• List of Arab Terrorist Rocket Attacks on Israel.

Before condemning Israel, answer this: How would your your country react to 3,162 rockets and mortar bombs being fired on your civilians during a one year period? How about 8,088 over a 7-year period during which your country has negotiated with the terrorists and given in to many of their demands at the detriment of your country in the interest of establishing long-term peace (and under international pressure)?