By Stan Goodenough
Sep 03, 2007
A day after expressing confidence that schools in Sderot were adequately protected against rocket fire from Arab terrorists, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was forced to promise more effective measures, including a harsh response to the ongoing Kassam attacks.
The "Palestinians" will pay a price, he warned, not for the first time.
Olmert's willingness to treat the situation more seriously came after seven rockets rained down on Sderot, leading furious parents to pull their children out of school.
Ynetnews quoted the prime minister as saying Israel “will not put up with this attack.
The IDF has reportedly been instructed to destroy all launchers and target anyone involved.
"Rocket barrages have once again been launched on Sderot," Olmert said. "They threatened the wellbeing of kindergarten children in this rocket-battered town, which has been exposed to the terror groups' brutality for over five years."
In fact, the Kassam attacks from Gaza only intensified two years ago after the government of Olmert's predecessor, Ariel Sharon, uprooted nearly 10,000 Jews from the Strip and surrendered the whole area to the Arabs.
At the time Olmert - a minister in the Sharon government - shot down Jewish protests against the hitnatkut by promising Israel would smash the PLO and Hamas in Gaza should terrorism continue after the withdrawal.
He continues in this pattern of making empty threats after serious terrorist attacks but not following through in a way that effectively stops them.
The last time Olmert promised a harsh response was on May 27 when a Kassam killed an Israeli man in Sderot.
"No-one is immune," the premier warned back then.
Although the IDF has pounded Gaza in the past weeks, killing a number of terrorists and, unavoidably, some civilians, the efforts have been limited by Israel's fear of a backlash of condemnation from the international community.
Sderot's citizens are also paying for Olmert's unwillingness to "endanger" the "peace" process by too firm a response.