Israel Defies Restraint Plea With New Strike On Hamas

Independent (UK) ^ | 6-14-2003 | Justin Huggler

[blam]

Israel defies restraint plea with new strike on Hamas

By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem
14 June 2003

An Israeli helicopter again fired missiles into a crowded area of the Gaza Strip last night in an assassination of a Palestinian militant. Children were among the 23 wounded by the missile strike.

The killing came despite an opinion poll published yesterday which found that 67 per cent of Israelis want the assassinations to stop, at least temporarily, to give the peace process a chance.

But the Israeli government pressed on. The deputy defence minister, Zeev Boim, vowed that the government would "wage a war to the bitter end" against the Hamas militant group. Hamas leaders have threatened to bomb Israel "to rubble". Yesterday's was the fourth assassination attempt by the Israeli army in Gaza this week.

The United States called once again for restraint from Israel, its previous calls having apparently fallen on deaf ears. "We are all anxious to see restraint and we understand that it's important to get the terror down," said Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, adding a plea to Hamas to stop its attacks: "If the terror goes down, then the response to terror will no longer be required."

The victim of yesterday's assassination, 26-year-old Fuad al-Lidawi, was not a senior Hamas militant. The Israeli army claimed that he and the others travelling in the car in which he was hit were members of a Hamas squad on its way to fire rockets across the fence into Israel.

But it appears the Israeli military may have made a mistake. Mr Lidawi was a bodyguard for a senior leader in Hamas's armed wing, Ahmed al-Ghandour. It is possible Mr Ghandour was the intended target, but he was not travelling in the car when it was hit.

Assassinations are becoming so frequent in the Gaza Strip that Gazans flee their cars when they hear a helicopter coming. The past week has seen hopes for the road-map peace plan sponsored by President George Bush dashed in a welter of violence.

A week of assassination attempts began when the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, ordered the assassination of the most prominent leader in Hamas' political wing, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi. That attempt failed, but it earned Mr Sharon a sharp rebuke from the White House.

Before the attempt on Mr Rantisi's life, Hamas leaders were considering resuming talks with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Mazen, about a possible ceasefire.

After the assassination attempt, Hamas promised an "earthquake" of revenge. A day later, 16 people were killed in a suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem.

The Israeli government claimed Mr Rantisi's assassination had been ordered because an opportunity presented itself. But yesterday's poll for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper found that 40 per cent of Israelis believe Mr Sharon ordered the assassination in a deliberate attempt to sabotage the road-map and wreck the peace process.

Many innocent bystanders, including children, have been killed in this week's assassinations, in which Israeli helicopters have fired into civilian areas with abandon. Scores of civilians have been wounded.

In one assassination earlier this week, Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli helicopter had fired a second time into a crowd of civilians who gathered to help the wounded.

[blam]

"Many innocent bystanders, including children, have been killed in this week's assassinations, in which Israeli helicopters have fired into civilian areas with abandon. "

Many innocent bystanders, men, women and children were killed when the Hamas blew up a bus too. (you idiots)

[jacquej]

Blam, do you think there ever will come a tipping point here in the US?

By that I mean a time when JQ Public gets so sick of Israelis getting blown up while going about their business that he rises up and demands that the US government quit telling Israel to be "patient"?

When will the US government publicly admit that Islam is not a religion of peace?

[LarryM]

The Independent makes Josepth Goebbels look honest.

[blam]

"By that I mean a time when JQ Public gets so sick of Israelis getting blown up while going about their business that he rises up and demands that the US government quit telling Israel to be "patient"? "

We may be approaching the threshold on this one

"When will the US government publicly admit that Islam is not a religion of peace?"

Not until a minimum of 100,000 Americans are killed in a single terrorist incident.

[JudgemAll]

I will always be amazed by the media's hardline against Israel, and its envious wish to take the Temple Mount away from the Jews.

[J Jay]

What do you think we would be doing if we had one of our towers wrecked about every week of ten days??

[tet68]

Not until a minimum of 100,000 Americans are killed in a single terrorist incident.

We know that day is coming as surely as we knew that something like 911 was coming. The how and the when are
unknown but the will and intent of the terrorists has only
been whetted and honed by their past success.
Perhaps THEN a sleeping giant will declare,"ENOUGH!".

[JSteff]

"Perhaps THEN a sleeping giant will declare,"ENOUGH!"."

That has sort of been our history. When there are world "situations" we try to get as minimally involved as possible. Our leaders are worried about the electorate, the electorate is worried about every day life, so we dance around the situation.

We try to support our allies with supplies... lend-lease our way through the situation....send advisors, money, and material, poerofrm a plice action. Then somebody does something stupid - gives us a Lusitania, a Pearl Harbor, Boston Massacre, a Fort Sumter to wake us up. Then they have had it, and regret it.

As horrible and sad as WTC was, it was not enough. Our world view is larger, our definition of outrageous is larger. Just think of the block buster movies of the last 10 years to see how large a disaster is needed to amaze.

As shocked as we were, I still don't think it was enough. Afghanistan and Iraq, as involved as they were, were not to the scale of amaze yet. The TV coverage alone left many with an "oh, another moon landing" type attitude, "Oh another one of those things.."

Sadly you are exactly right, it will take something on the magnitude of 100,000 casualties to REALLY wake us up. Then they are going to find out, as others before, it was really stupid to push us that far. I really hope that day doesn't come like that... but neither did the people at the time of our other awakenings.