The Conundrum, Part 34

Palestinians swarmed to surround two homes in Gaza, preventing Israeli airstrikes against terrorists. The Palestinians have quickly adapted the technique of human shields to prevent the Israelis from going after high value targets unless the Israelis are willing to inflict casualties against unarmed people.

Instead, the Israelis struck at two cars carrying terrorists, but 10 were wounded, including a kassam rocket maker.

This isn't the first time. Only two weeks ago, Hamas issued a call for women to come to a mosque where its terrorists were holed up, and Israeli forces were made to contend with terrorists who were not only surrounded by unarmed women, but the terrorists themselves who were disguised as women to slip away.

Sderot, which receives daily kassam rocket attacks, should get advanced defensive systems according to Peretz. That's all well and good, but the only way to eliminate the rocket attacks is to go after the terrorists before they can fire them. That's what the latest Israeli airstrikes were designed to accomplish - to eliminate those who were building and firing them.

The Israelis are also fortifying Sderot schools to better protect them against kassam rocket fire. This is what it has come to. Israel doesn't have a partner for peace and is forced to fortify its schools and other buildings against rocket attacks because the Palestinians might get lucky and hit them with their unguided terror rocket attacks. Nary a word from the UN about that though, since they're too busy issuing yet another condemnation of Israel's actions.

Israeli Foreign Minister Livni says that the UN censure of Israeli actions was harmful and wrong. Sorry, but that's understatement by several levels of magnitude. PM Olmert says that the UN should censure the Palestinian terrorists, not the Israelis. Wishful thinking. When you've got a solid Arab/Islamic bloc voting on anti-Israel resolutions daily, that's simply not going to happen. This is the same organization that could not even decide on the definition of the word terrorism - because the Arab/Islamic bloc tried to extend the definition to include Israeli actions against the Palestinians.

Mashaal of Hamas warns that a unity government is close to coming to fruition but that the continuing block on aid because Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist will lead to the US and Israel suffering. Yet another threat posed by Hamas against the US. Haniyeh conditions the unity government on the lifting of sanctions. That's a neat trick; Hamas is hoping to trick the West into believing that the unity government will only come about if they lift their restrictions on aid and not bother with the fact that Hamas seeks Israel's destruction and hasn't budged from that position one iota.

And they don't even bother with hiding the fact that they're behind the rocket attacks on Israel either.

Yet, this supposed plan to bolster Abbas and Fatah against Hamas is just plain nuts. Why would or should the US or anyone else want to arm one or the other side in the Palestinian conflict over their government. Let them duke it out with whatever weapons they already have. We know that Hamas wants to destroy Israel, and so does Fatah - the only difference is Fatah is willing to destroy Israel diplomatically and through thousands of paper cuts.

Here's a novel idea that the Quartet and the US should examine. Hands off. Let the Palestinians stand on their own and realize that if they continue down this path, it will lead only to their ruin and destruction. Support of Israel without supporting Palestinians is completely acceptable given that the Palestinians engage in terrorism, harbor terrorist groups, and do not abide by the laws of war, use human shields, and promote suicide bombings, using children as bombers, and purposefully target civilians.

Meanwhile, up in Lebanon, Nasrallah is trying to destroy the Lebanese government, agitating and calling for mass demonstrations that would not only derail the Harari tribunal, but could take down the government. As Michael Totten notes, Iran wants Lebanon for itself via its Hizbullah proxy. The UN only sits back and watches all this going on, despite the requirement by UN Security Council resolutions to disarm Hizbullah.

The French contingent in Lebanon pursuant to the UNIFIL obligation seems to have no problem warning Israel that it was mere moments from firing on Israeli aircraft checking up on Hizbullah's actions in South Lebanon, but the French wont lift a finger to disarm Hizbullah pursuant to UN SCR 1701, 1559, 425 and 426.

UPDATE:
Via Dave at Israel at Level Ground, here's quite a bit more information about the kassam war against Sderot and the Israeli leadership's reluctance to wage war against the terrorists. Half measures and warning civilian populations has had the opposite effect as intended. Instead of acting more humanely, the warnings give the terrorists a tool to prepare for attacks, including the use of human shields - men, women, and children, who swarm to buildings containing terrorists and equipment the terror groups rely upon for their war against Israel.

The warnings are counterproductive and do not improve Israel's security posture, let alone improve Israel's standing among those who claim to judge Israel's actions as being criminal (ie the UN and the anti-Israel bloc).

Technorati: terrorism, nasrallah, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.