Posted on 08/24/2003 8:22:09 PM PDT by yonif
"The only chance for the future of the political process is dependent on Israel's ability to wipe out Hamas and Islamic Jihad," Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert, who is also deputy prime minister, told The Jerusalem Post Sunday.
Olmert said that such a goal "will not be easy, but is not impossible," and will require intense efforts in the months ahead.
"If we succeed in critically wounding them [the terror organizations], perhaps the conditions will be created which will allow Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas] and [PA Security Minister Muhammad] Dahlan to fulfill their obligations and crack down on terror," he said.
Israel suspended its policy of targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders at the end of June, as part of an accord between Israel and the PA, but reinstated it last week following the Hamas bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 21 people. Olmert stressed that Israel is still committed to the internationally backed peace plan known as the road map, which also stipulates a complete settlement freeze and a Palestinian state within two years. But, he added, Israel must adapt to the new situation at hand, with the three major terror groups declaring an end to their unilateral cease-fire.
"The hudna did not die; it was never born, and from its inception was only followed on a virtual level," Olmert concluded.
The cabinet did not meet for its weekly meeting Sunday because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is on a one-week vacation, resting on his Negev ranch. A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said Sharon is being kept abreast of the situation on the ground, and monitoring the situation from his ranch.
At the same time, he said, the IDF acting on intelligence information is continuing its preventive actions against terror. While saying that Israel is not now carrying out Operation Defensive Shield II, the official said the IDF is inside Nablus and Kalkilya, and has forces poised just outside the Gaza Strip. The official said Israel wants to see what effect the pressure of the last few days from the Americans, Europeans, and even Arab states like Egypt have had on the PA before launching a new offensive.
The US, the official said, is pressuring the Europeans hard to place Hamas on their list of terror organizations, a move that would make it more difficult for the group to reorganize during the cease-fire.
"Most Hamas money comes from European sources," the official said, saying that blocking the flow of money would be highly important. "A terrorist organization that has no cash flow will find it much more difficult to buy new weapons and reorganize," he said.
Gideon Meir, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general for public affairs, dismissed PA action to close four tunnels in Rafah as "a show meant for the television cameras." Had the PA really intended to dismantle the tunnels, he said, they would have blown them up, as the IDF does, not just invite television cameras to watch them fill in the tunnels.
In the meantime, security officials released figures Sunday indicating the IDF has foiled some 54 terror attacks and arrested more than 100 terror suspects since the hudna was declared on June 29.
According to these figures, the number of alerts which stood at between 50 to 60 a day before the hudna, is now at about 30 a day, up by 10 from about two weeks ago. Since the hudna, there have been about 280 different attacks, of which 192 were shooting incidents. During this period, 27 Israelis and a foreign worker were killed, and 152 people were wounded.
The security officials said that since the beginning of the hudna Israel passed on to the PA the names of 22 men in the West Bank allegedly involved in planning terror attacks. Only five of them are currently in PA jails. In Gaza, the official said, Israel passed the names of 15 terror suspects on to the PA, of which only two are now in jail.
Israeli civilian and military officials use the term "liquidation" to describe the targeted killing of terrorist leaders, such as by helicopter-launched rocket attacks.
The use of the word "liquidated" by Ehud Olmert is not coincidental. It is a direct reference to targeted killings, and this most certainly is not lost on the terrorist leaders, who are probably making a point of avoiding private transportation for the foreseeable future.
It seems only fair that Israel fight terror with terror. And it looks like they're just now starting to get warmed up.
Here's hoping they finish the job, once and for all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.