Israel Can Bombard Palestinians, But Don’t Shoot Back
Military Expert Blames Politics for Israel's Response to Rocket Attacks
June 20, 2006
Julie Stahl
Jerusalem Bureau Chief
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The only way to stop Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities is to re-enter the Gaza Strip, but do so would force politicians to admit that they made a mistake when Israel withdrew last year, a military expert here said on Monday.
Israel ended its 38-year presence in the Gaza Strip last summer, when it uprooted 21 Jewish communities and withdrew its troops. Since the beginning of this year, the number of rockets launched at Israel has soared.
Many of the rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip neighborhood of Beit Hanoun, one of the Jewish settlements evacuated last summer.
Israel's Defense Minister warned on Wednesday that Israel would use more force in dealing with the Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip if the rocket fire does not stop.
The mayor of Sderot, the Israeli town hardest hit by Palestinian rocket fire, said the Israeli government should quit if it can't stop the attacks on his town, Israel radio reported.
Two Kassams hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Sunday. One landed near the library and a second near an electricity pylon, setting it on fire and blacking out the town.
Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said that government ministers did not care about his town, even though Defense Minister Amir Peretz is a longtime resident.
"If the government cannot provide the city residents with security, it should resign or say [it cannot provide security] outright. The residents are exhausted and they cannot continue living like this without the government doing something," Moyal was quoted as saying.
Peretz said that Israel had every intention of targeting the terrorist groups that are firing rockets at Israel.
Last week, Israeli media reports said Israel had threatened to target Hamas leaders in the Palestinian government if the rocket fire didn't stop.
Knesset Member Effi Eitam, a member of the right-wing National Union party and a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said if the verbal threats are not backed up by action, Israel would erode its own deterrent capabilities.
But reserve Maj. Gen. Jacob Amidror said that Israeli politicians are not willing to take the necessary steps to stop the firing of rockets.
Amridor said questions about why the army is not stopping the rocket fire have more to do with politics than with military capability. Re-taking part of the Gaza Strip that Israel evacuated last summer would be admitting that it was a mistake to withdraw, he said.
No one has found a way to control an urban area without being there on the ground, Amidror added. There is no way militarily to stop the firing of rockets without going back, he said. Israel lost control on the ground by retreating, he said.
"Politically now to admit they made a mistake would be to commit suicide. They will not do it now," he said.
(Amidror is the former commander of the Israeli army military college and former head of the army's research and assessment division, which prepares the national intelligence assessment.)
But Dr. Ra'anan Gissin, advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, argued that Israel is responding to the rocket attacks and said that the number of rockets fired has already decreased. He said that nothing would stop the rocket fire entirely.
'War situation'
Moyal said on Sunday that his town was in a "war situation." He warned that Sderot was not a local but a "national problem" because cities like Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast and Kfar Saba, near the West Bank, would be next.
Amidror went a step further. "If Israel will make the same mistake in the West Bank, the Kassams and Katyshuas will not only [fall] on Sderot but also on Tel Aviv," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's has pledged to set Israel's borders either by pull out of the West Bank with or without an agreement with the Palestinians.
On Sunday, Sderot's municipal council decided that the town would go on strike for a day -- blocking all exits and entrances to protest the ongoing rocket fire. But the strike was postponed for a day to allow Israeli President Moshe Katsav to visit.
The council also decided to end the school year early on Monday, out of fears for the children's safety.
Sderot residents set up a protest tent in a small park near the home of Defense Minister Peretz and started a hunger strike last week.
Hava Gad, a mother of three, told Cybercast News Service and other reporters visiting the town last week that everyone in Sderot is just waiting to see whose house will be next.
"We want security so the children can go outside in peace like everywhere else in the world," said another resident, Batya Katar.
More than 600 rockets have crashed into the town and surrounding areas in the last two years. The homemade rockets, which are highly inaccurate, have nevertheless killed five Sderot residents, including at least two children, over the last two years.
Last week, Israel fired a missile at a vehicle carrying Palestinian militants on their way to launch Katyusha rockets on Israel. The attack left a number of Palestinian civilians dead, sparking international criticism.
But Peretz has warned that the Israeli military would not restrain itself when dealing with the squads that fire the rockets.
Some critics of government polices have said that the only way to halt the rocket fire is to militarily re-take parts of the Gaza Strip.
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Palestinian president Abbas demands halt to rocket fire after Israeli threat
June 20,2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFX) - Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas called for an immediate halt to militant rocket fire against Israel, warning that the Gaza Strip might otherwise come under ground assault from the Israeli military.
Abbas "calls on all armed groups to cease firing rockets immediately and to fully respect the truce" agreed by the main militant groups early last year, an official statement said.
"Any faction that does not respect the truce will bear the entire responsibility for the destruction and casualties that will result from an Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip", it said.
Amid a spike in violence after eight Palestinian picnickers were killed by Israeli shelling on a Gaza beach on June 9, according to eyewitnesses, Palestinian militants have fired over 130 rockets at Israel, of which 18 fell inside the Israeli border town of Sderot.
Israel threatened today a tougher response to the Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
"The prime minister (Ehud Olmert), the defence minister, others and myself have reached the conclusion no one will be protected if the ... (rocket) terrorism continues," the chairman of Israel's parliamentary defence and foreign affairs committee, Tsahi Hanegbi, told public radio.
June 20, 2006
Julie Stahl
Jerusalem Bureau Chief
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The only way to stop Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities is to re-enter the Gaza Strip, but do so would force politicians to admit that they made a mistake when Israel withdrew last year, a military expert here said on Monday.
Israel ended its 38-year presence in the Gaza Strip last summer, when it uprooted 21 Jewish communities and withdrew its troops. Since the beginning of this year, the number of rockets launched at Israel has soared.
Many of the rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip neighborhood of Beit Hanoun, one of the Jewish settlements evacuated last summer.
Israel's Defense Minister warned on Wednesday that Israel would use more force in dealing with the Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip if the rocket fire does not stop.
The mayor of Sderot, the Israeli town hardest hit by Palestinian rocket fire, said the Israeli government should quit if it can't stop the attacks on his town, Israel radio reported.
Two Kassams hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Sunday. One landed near the library and a second near an electricity pylon, setting it on fire and blacking out the town.
Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said that government ministers did not care about his town, even though Defense Minister Amir Peretz is a longtime resident.
"If the government cannot provide the city residents with security, it should resign or say [it cannot provide security] outright. The residents are exhausted and they cannot continue living like this without the government doing something," Moyal was quoted as saying.
Peretz said that Israel had every intention of targeting the terrorist groups that are firing rockets at Israel.
Last week, Israeli media reports said Israel had threatened to target Hamas leaders in the Palestinian government if the rocket fire didn't stop.
Knesset Member Effi Eitam, a member of the right-wing National Union party and a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said if the verbal threats are not backed up by action, Israel would erode its own deterrent capabilities.
But reserve Maj. Gen. Jacob Amidror said that Israeli politicians are not willing to take the necessary steps to stop the firing of rockets.
Amridor said questions about why the army is not stopping the rocket fire have more to do with politics than with military capability. Re-taking part of the Gaza Strip that Israel evacuated last summer would be admitting that it was a mistake to withdraw, he said.
No one has found a way to control an urban area without being there on the ground, Amidror added. There is no way militarily to stop the firing of rockets without going back, he said. Israel lost control on the ground by retreating, he said.
"Politically now to admit they made a mistake would be to commit suicide. They will not do it now," he said.
(Amidror is the former commander of the Israeli army military college and former head of the army's research and assessment division, which prepares the national intelligence assessment.)
But Dr. Ra'anan Gissin, advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, argued that Israel is responding to the rocket attacks and said that the number of rockets fired has already decreased. He said that nothing would stop the rocket fire entirely.
'War situation'
Moyal said on Sunday that his town was in a "war situation." He warned that Sderot was not a local but a "national problem" because cities like Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast and Kfar Saba, near the West Bank, would be next.
Amidror went a step further. "If Israel will make the same mistake in the West Bank, the Kassams and Katyshuas will not only [fall] on Sderot but also on Tel Aviv," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's has pledged to set Israel's borders either by pull out of the West Bank with or without an agreement with the Palestinians.
On Sunday, Sderot's municipal council decided that the town would go on strike for a day -- blocking all exits and entrances to protest the ongoing rocket fire. But the strike was postponed for a day to allow Israeli President Moshe Katsav to visit.
The council also decided to end the school year early on Monday, out of fears for the children's safety.
Sderot residents set up a protest tent in a small park near the home of Defense Minister Peretz and started a hunger strike last week.
Hava Gad, a mother of three, told Cybercast News Service and other reporters visiting the town last week that everyone in Sderot is just waiting to see whose house will be next.
"We want security so the children can go outside in peace like everywhere else in the world," said another resident, Batya Katar.
More than 600 rockets have crashed into the town and surrounding areas in the last two years. The homemade rockets, which are highly inaccurate, have nevertheless killed five Sderot residents, including at least two children, over the last two years.
Last week, Israel fired a missile at a vehicle carrying Palestinian militants on their way to launch Katyusha rockets on Israel. The attack left a number of Palestinian civilians dead, sparking international criticism.
But Peretz has warned that the Israeli military would not restrain itself when dealing with the squads that fire the rockets.
Some critics of government polices have said that the only way to halt the rocket fire is to militarily re-take parts of the Gaza Strip.
*************
Palestinian president Abbas demands halt to rocket fire after Israeli threat
June 20,2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFX) - Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas called for an immediate halt to militant rocket fire against Israel, warning that the Gaza Strip might otherwise come under ground assault from the Israeli military.
Abbas "calls on all armed groups to cease firing rockets immediately and to fully respect the truce" agreed by the main militant groups early last year, an official statement said.
"Any faction that does not respect the truce will bear the entire responsibility for the destruction and casualties that will result from an Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip", it said.
Amid a spike in violence after eight Palestinian picnickers were killed by Israeli shelling on a Gaza beach on June 9, according to eyewitnesses, Palestinian militants have fired over 130 rockets at Israel, of which 18 fell inside the Israeli border town of Sderot.
Israel threatened today a tougher response to the Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
"The prime minister (Ehud Olmert), the defence minister, others and myself have reached the conclusion no one will be protected if the ... (rocket) terrorism continues," the chairman of Israel's parliamentary defence and foreign affairs committee, Tsahi Hanegbi, told public radio.
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 3:41 PM
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