Posted on 04/18/2006 5:50:17 PM PDT by blam
Israel resists revenge attack against Hamas
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
(Filed: 19/04/2006)
Israel has held back from authorising military strikes against the Hamas-led Palestinian government, despite holding it responsible for Monday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Defence officials are believed to have drawn up a list of Hamas targets that could be attacked, although Ehud Olmert, Israel's interim prime minister, is staying his hand.
Ismail Haniyeh has blamed Israel for the bombing in Tel Aviv
Military strikes on Hamas would end the ceasefire agreed 15 months ago after negotiations brokered by Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian leader, to end the second intifada.
Hamas was not behind Monday's bombing, but its spokesmen said the attack was justified as retaliation for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
America had been swift to condemn the attack on Monday but yesterday President George W Bush added his own voice to the criticism.
"I strongly deplore the loss of innocent lives and the attack on the folks in Israel yesterday," he said. "Our goal is to have two states living side-by-side in peace."
But any hopes of a swift change of heart by Hamas in response to the international pressure were dashed when Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was recently made Palestinian prime minister, again blamed Israel for the bombing.
"The reason behind this cycle is the continuation of the occupation and the continued Israeli assaults against the Palestinian people," he said before chairing a meeting of his new cabinet.
The Israeli cabinet discussed the possibility of military attacks on Hamas-run components of the Palestinian government.
"Mr Olmert heard the defence establishment's ideas for possible strikes against the Palestinian Authority, and though their government is responsible for the bombing, the decision was that there should be more limited action for now," a senior government source said.
One punitive measure that was passed was the revocation of Jerusalem residency rights of three senior Hamas officials living in East Jerusalem, downgrading them to the status of West Bank resident. The cabinet also agreed to tighten the system of Israel checkpoints dividing component parts of the West Bank, in an attempt to stop the movement of terrorists or their supporters.
Hamas yesterday announced that its government was £730 million in the red. Hamas also lost a potential channel of diplomatic relief when it was roundly denounced by Paris.
Hamas had hoped France might be persuaded to drop the strict ban on contact with the Palestinian government demanded by the European Union as punishment for Hamas being a terrorist group.
But shortly after confirming that two of the nine Tel Aviv bombing victims held joint Israeli-French nationality, the foreign ministry in Paris issued a strongly-worded condemnation. Hamas was criticised for failing to follow the lead of Mr Abbas when he condemned the bombing within hours.
"We welcome the clear condemnation voiced by the president Abbas and regret that the Palestinian government did not follow his example," said Denis Simonneau, the French foreign ministry spokesman.
Revenge will be sweeter when served cold.
No, attacks across the line into Israel break the ceasefire.
The only effective answer to attacks across the line, is for Israel to move the line. Every mortar shell, every rocket, every suicide attacker must be answered by moving the line, forward obviously, a hundred meters or even 500 meters.
And land taken as a penalty for breaches of the cease-fire must be taken permanently.
This will have the obvious effect of increasing the buffer zone, but much more importantly it is the only penalty the arabs will understand. Killing the attackers, while necessary, is ultimately pointless. They have an endless supply of cannon fodder, in the end they don't care about human losses while Israel's human losses are very precious, each and every one.
It is only the loss of land that registers with them. So that is how breaches of the ceasefire have to be answered. Move the line. Any building which is affected by moving the line must be bulldozed (unless it was formerly Israeli property).
This is the only peace plan that will work. Negotiations with your murderers is, in the end, undignified, and gets you no where.
Olmert is american's version of a rino.
I haven't trusted him since a few years ago where he wsnted to concede everything to the palestinians for nothing in return.
Israel is really going to miss sharon at this critical time. Olmert would fit in quite well with some of our rinos in congress.
What I don't understand is how israel can let islamic jihad leaders plot attacks against israeli women and children from damascus.
The leader of islamic jihad is in damascus.
How in the world can israeli leaders let this atrocity go on.
Isreal knows where this guy is. He has offices in syria.
Syria's air force is a joke. Israel needs to send some aircraft over damascus and light those offices up.
After the attack yesterday the leader was gloating how great it was.
How in the world can these israel leaders allow this to happen and let the killers relax and get away with it.
How do they look themselves in the mirror.
I hope so. It would be nice if the Israelis werejust gathering their forces and coordinating their strategy.
However, I suspect that nothing is going to happen and that the Muslims are going to see this as weakness and an encouragement to increase their attacks. Color me cynical.
I'm sorry Tit- For- Tat
No, rather the Jihadies kill one Israeli, the Israelis kill 10, or 100, jihadies. Sort of a Kosher Version of the Chicago Way.
"The reason behind this cycle is the continuation of the occupation and the continued Israeli assaults against the Palestinian people," he said before chairing a meeting of his new cabinet.
I'd say the next target for the biggest smart bomb the Israelis have just ID'd himself.
Could it be an indication that something even bigger is in the works...like 'popping' Iran?
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