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Terrorism

Reports indicate Israel stalemated by Gaza terrorists


By Stan Goodenough
June 15, 2008

The Israel Defense Forces are universally respected as one of the most capable militaries in the world. They are certainly the most battle-tested, having been called on to fight almost one war per decade since the 1948 rebirth of the Jewish state.

Nonetheless, Israel's government under the leadership of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday appeared increasingly inclined to sign a ceasefire with Hamas, the terrorist thugs who so viciously seized control of the Israel-abandoned Gaza Strip last year, and who have inflicted terror, pain and death on Israeli civilians ever since.

Olmert, whose premiership was stained by the debacle of the Second Lebanon War - which he launched but failed to win against Hamas' Lebanese brothers-in-crime, the Hizb'allah - is reportedly scared to go head-to-head with the Gazan killers.

He "opted for talking with Hamas instead of ordering a full-scale counterterrorist offensive in Gaza because of fear of heavy casualties and a long-term operation, TIME magazine reported Sunday," according to Israel National News (INN).

The prime minister's military advisors had reportedly also persuaded him that even a large offensive would not necessarily put an end to the rocket fire from Gaza.

This sentiment was echoed in a column published on Ynetnews Sunday by Eitan Haber, formerly bureau chief to assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Haber, a dyed-in-the-wool dove who among other things boasts having been the writer of most of Rabin's speeches, reiterated the politically-correct mantra that there is no military solution to the Gaza problem.

"Indeed, there is no arguing that the situation in Sderot and the Gaza region [where rockets fall daily on Israeli population centers] is intolerable, impossible, and cannot continue. It is also true that there isn’t, never was, and never will be another country in the world that would allow for even one day its sovereignty and its people to be targeted like that. It is also true that the IDF is capable of wiping Gaza off the face of this earth," writes Haber.

But, "we can occupy and flatten Gaza, and then what? ... Hundreds and maybe thousands of Palestinians will be killed, and then what?"

The Arabs will simply rebuild, he contends, and then "we'll again face the storm."

Israelis like Haber - similarly to liberals elsewhere in the West - simply refuse to countenance the right-thinking argument that the Arab side respects force. A massive, CONCLUSIVE and irrefutable military crushing of Hamas and of the Hizb'allah would win Israel far more than a breather.

And yet many believe that this way - which is so unacceptable to the left - holds the key to the breakthrough that will bring true peace to come to the Middle East.

An eruption of violence may well be inevitable, despite the "truce talks."

While negotiations toward a ceasefire continue, said INN, "both sides are preparing for war."

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