By Stan Goodenough
Dec 22, 2006
Likud chairman and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday night the IDF should be freed to act against the incessant Kassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
A number of Israelis were injured when at least two missiles slammed into the town of Sderot Thursday evening.
Another landed near the town Friday morning.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has refused to respond to the attacks, saying Israel needs to maintain a policy of "restraint" so that a climate can be created for pushing forward the diplomatic process.
Netanyahu denounced this failure to respond to the terrorism, saying it had put the country in an "absurd situation in which we are trapping ourselves."
"Stop the restraint� Free the IDF's hands. Let it operate against the rocket fire," he said.
The former prime minister, who is riding high in public opinion polls, and whose party is preparing to take back the reins of power from the present leftist government, charged that Olmert has lost his faith in the ability of the Israeli people to deal with Arab terror.
"Olmert said long ago that we are 'tired of curbing the attacks.'
"It's not the nation that's tired - Olmert is tired. There is only one thing worse than a nation that has lost faith in its leaders, and that is leaders who have lost faith in their nation."
"Bibi," as Netanyahu is popularly known, and who effectively clamped down on terrorism during his tenure as prime minister, said "a leader needs to be an active force, not a passive one," as Olmert was being.
He called on the Kadima Party leader to vacate the prime minister�s position and make way "for a responsible leadership."