Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Finish the job?

Since the end of Operation Cast Lead over 60 rockets have hit Israel. Over the weekend 16 rockets hit southern Israel from Gaza. Two of them were advanced Grads not seen before, with a longer range of 40 km and more explosive content. One hit a school in Ashkelon on Shabbat, and practically destroyed it, the walls were pockmarked from shrapnel and metal screws and bolts that they put in their rockets to cause human mutilation. Luckily there were no children there, but because the schools in Ashkelon have not been reinforced, as they have been in Sderot, the Ashkelon Parent's Association decided not to send their children to school and have announced a boycott.
Now you might ask, what happened? After Operation Cast Lead the security situation in the south was supposed to have changed significantly, and the damage in Gaza was supposed to have been a deterrent to further Hamas attacks. Of course, Hamas is now claiming that the rockets come from other groups, but noone believes that these could be fired without at least their permission. The Olmert Govt. warned once again of disastrous responses to any attacks, but so far they have only hit empty buildings and tunnels along the Philadelphi corridor.
The Israel Govt. can always find excuses not to attack, here are a few of them: 1. The negative international reaction to Operation Cast Lead was so great that the Govt. is inhibtied from acting again; 2. The Olmert Govt. is a caretaker one and doesn't want to take overt action, but would rather leave this to the next Netanyahu Govt.; 3. There is a donor's meeting being held in Egypt with many countries represented and it would be inappropriate for Israel to be causing more damage while they are falling over each other to donate money to repair the current damage; 5. Secty of State Clinton is due in Israel Tuesday to push for a renewal of the peace process with the PA, and it would be a bad sign for her to arrive while further action is proceeding.
However, consider the following, none in the international community seem particularly concerned about the continuation of rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel, they essentially ignore it, nor is there any funds being proposed for the damage that has been caused in the past 5 years in Israel. Israel cannot afford to lose all deterrent capability and it cannot allow Hamas to get away again with this kind of rocket barrage. The problem once again is that the IDF never finishes the job, they either stop voluntarily at Govt. order or as a result of international pressure. In order to actually stop the rockets, the IDF must destroy Hamas and occupy some areas of Gaza. This is not a popular scenario in Israel, but it must be done. Only a Government with the balls to do this can succeed in stopping the firing of rockets and stopping the range and effectiveness of the rockets from increasing. It seems that the Olmert Govt. is not able to carry this out, a pity since they were more than half-way there before they stopped Operation Cast Lead. Let's hope the Netanyahu Govt. will be able to finish the job.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home