Posted on 07/08/2006 3:27:13 PM PDT by blam
Israel withdraws troops from northern Gaza
(Filed: 08/07/2006)
Israel has withdrawn its forces from most of the northern Gaza Strip, where fighting has left nearly 30 Palestinians dead.
Column of Israeli tanks
The Israeli army, which launched its offensive 11 days ago to free an abducted soldier, pulled out today from the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the Erez industrial zone, and three former Israeli settlements.
Troops had seized the area earlier this week, creating a "buffer zone" aimed at deterring militants from firing rockets into the coastal city of Ashkelon. However, rocket fire has continued.
An army spokesman said: "We are acting at our own discretion and we do not rule out a return to these areas. The operation is not over."
Naval vessels fired shells at suspected rocket launching sites soon after ground forces withdrew.
Troops remain in southern Gaza, at the disused international airport, as well as near the Karni commercial crossing east of Gaza City.
There were clashes near Karni early today after Israeli troops and tanks moved into the area. They were said to be looking for tunnels that could be used by militants.
Israel has been under international pressure to scale back its military operations, which have so far killed more than 40 Palestinians. One Israeli soldier has also been killed.
The Gaza offensive was launched in an effort to free Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured by militants in a cross-border raid on an army post on June 25.
The Palestinians' Hamas government has called for a cease-fire to end the stand-off.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said Hamas had to release Cpl Shalit and halt rocket attacks as a first step towards solving the crisis.
Bowing to international pressure is par for the course. This whole situation is from a playbook that araRATfink wrote. Real soon we'll see someone from a "neutral" country step in and negotiate a cease-fire with all the usual pali islamic rhetoric. Israel will kow-tow to the negotiation and back off and release all those jailed pali terrorists and along with the US give monies (under the auspices of "humanitarian aid") to jumpstart the pali terrorists to give them legitimacy to run the country. It's time a different playbook was written.
Israel needs to seize territory, to create a buffer zone, but needs to do it as a permanent measure. Until now it has been the practice for Israel to cede territory in exchange for peace. No one is ever surprised when "peace" never materializes. On the contrary, the pressure mounts for Israel to cede more territory in exchange for peace, all the while everyone involved in the dance knowing that there is no peace to be had, no matter how much territory is given up.
The problem is simply that the formula is inverted. It is Israel that should be demanding territory in exchange for peace. Every rocket that makes it past the fence should trigger, automatically, the cession of a strip of land, half a kilometer at a time. Every time the fence is violated by the arabs, the fence must move deeper into formerly arab territory. Every building that ends up on the wrong side of the new line should be bulldozed, its owners compensated, and pushed across the line.
That is the only formula for peace that will ever work. Everything else is just a con game that fools no one.
Where is the end of a circle?
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