Sit Idly By?
Israel has decided there is nothing to be gained by continuing to sit on its hands. So the Israeli Defence Forces sent armour and aircraft into Gaza, along with sufficient troops to attempt to dissuade disaffected terror groups from continuing to rocket Israel. Israelis are, understandably, growing tired of the constant bombardments, the interruptions in their daily lives, the uncertainty of where the next Kassam will be lobbed.There was a relatively brief and to-the-point incursion inside southern Gaza, close by the border with Egypt. Which is precisely where industrious jihad-bent Palestinians have been busy creating tunnels to enable them to convey munitions undetected by the ever-alert Egyptian border guards - into the eager arms of terror groups.
Palestinians responded with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and missiles. Predictably.
The Israeli military considers this to be a routine clean-up operation. In response to ongoing attacks from Gaza. Terrorists representing Islamic Jihad, PA Popular Resistance Committees among other Palestinian Authority terror groups, along with Hamas were well represented in resistance.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the incursion warning it would undermine peace negotiations. Predictably. As though constant barrages of rockets are innocent past-times for bored Palestinian youth.
Recent Kassam rocket attacks destroyed a toy factory in the city of Sderot, one of only 2,000 rockets aimed at Jewish communities in the Negev since the start of the year. The mayor of Sderot has resigned his post in nervous protest, visioning a rocket landing on a nursery or a school, imagining the loss of countless children.
These are no idle incidental irritations; they are compellingly violent and very real and ongoing attacks against human beings who have a right to peace and security. Whose government is prepared to bargain in good faith with a traditional antagonist whose control over its militias has not been exerted in a goodwill gesture for the future, despite demanding that the government of Israel release countless numbers of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists as a goodwill gesture.
The very basic, simple idea that a halt to violence and hostilities should engage both sides appears to have completely eluded the consciousness of the Palestinian Authority.
Predictably.
Labels: Israel, Justice, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 12, 2007
<< Home