By Stan Goodenough
May 22, 2007
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday there was nothing his government could do to stop Gaza’s Arabs from firing the rockets that are killing, wounding and terrorizing his people.
His defeatist statement came hours after a woman was threshed and killed by Kassam shrapnel as she drove her car in downtown Sderot, the Negev town that has been under rocket attack for months.
Olmert believes he has his hands tied by the US and the UK which, while purportedly supporting Israel’s “right to defend its people,” have “cautioned” him against using “disproportionate force” and instructed him to consider the detrimental effect military action might have on the “peace” process.
Angry residents denounced Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her guest, the European Union’s would be peace maker, Javier Solana, when they visited the town Monday.
Some protestors tried to storm a car they believed Livni to be traveling in.
Hundreds of townspeople have fled their homes since the daily dose of rockets suddenly surged last week.
Gaza’s Arabs have read the impotence of the Israeli government to put an end to this violence, and the inability of Israelis to continue living under the bombardment, as spelling yet another victory for the Arab side.