The Gaza Crisis Rolls On

We're beginning week 2 of the crisis with no end in sight. There were multiple kassam launches today. Seven Israelis were injured in a kassam rocket attack in Sderot. IDF forces eliminated a senior Fatah operative, Tamr Kandil, in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus. Also, the IDF is investigating whether the death of Yehuda Bassel was due to friendly fire.

And the most infuriating story has to be this one. Israel may swap prisoners for Shalit, if necessary.

Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said on Friday that if Palestinian prisoners need to be released in exchange for kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit, than Israel would do so.

Speaking at a meeting of the commercial-industrial club in Tel Aviv, Dichter noted that Israel had exchanged prisoners before.

And he isn't alone. Israel, and indeed the world, should know by now that negotiating with terrorists is counterproductive and will only spur them to take other similar actions in the future. That Israel did so in the past shows the folly - it sets precedents from which Israel will be forced to make ever more dangerous concessions.

This is a real bad sign, if the story pans out. Or the fact that prisoners may be exchanged for a cessation of kassam rocket fire into Israel. There's no way Israel should ever consider prisoner swaps such as this. The Palestinians have engaged in open war with Israel, and Israel has to release Palestinians to get their soldier back? Or to stop rocket fire into Israel? Sorry, I'm not buying this.

The Palestinians can resume firing into Israel at any time, can take hostages on a whim, and Israel has to release prisoners - some of whom have killed Israelis in terrorist attacks, plot Israel's destruction, or otherwise exhort others to violence against Israel? Does this sound like a fair deal to anyone with a functioning neuron? I don't think so.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians have made absolutely no concessions on returning Shalit, despite the fact that the IDF operations in Gaza would end with his prompt release.

Iran continues to push and prod - claiming that the Israelis will provoke an Islamic explosion if they don't stop defending themselves in Gaza. The Russians note that the Palestinian terrorists are hurting their own cause by the continued holding of Shalit. If this were the Russians facing such a threat, the Russians would have already sent in the Spetznaz (special forces) and followed up with razing the entire city of Gaza to rubble.

UPDATE:
Jay Tea makes a number of points I've made over the past two weeks about the Gaza Crisis in his takedown of a Boston Globe editorial that slams Israel's actions to defend itself from the ongoing terrorist threat/acts of war by Palestinians.

Technorati: terrorism, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Rains, Summer, cavaliers, wrath, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel