With Blinders On

Israeli double standard time - AP style:

Israeli forces killed seven Palestinian militants in a clash before dawn Wednesday, pressing its war against armed groups in the Gaza Strip days before President Bush arrives to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Bush has no plans to visit Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. But persistent violence in the area could overshadow his visit, his first to the region as president.

The visit is part of Bush's intense efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians to sign a peace agreement by the time he leaves office in January 2009.

Israel is pressing its war against the militants? Are you kidding me? Palestinian terrorists have fired nearly 3,000 rockets and mortars against Israel in the past year in their war on Israel, and it's only in the last few weeks that Israeli officials have taken to realizing that they are indeed fighting the Palestinian war on Israel, with baby steps by not fully going after the terrorists. Limited reprisal airstrikes against the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad and those launching the rockets is not sufficient to deter the terrorists from continuing their war against Israel. Those terrorist groups realize that it shows a lack of conviction on Israel's part to defend itself, so they continue increasing the rocket and mortar fire - disrupting Israeli lives within range of those rockets and mortars. Nowhere is this felt more heavily than in the Israeli city of Sderot, which has come under withering fire since the 2005 handover of Gaza to the Palestinians.

Since 2005, all the Palestinians have done is turn Gaza into a rocket launching pad for their war with Israel, and Hamas has fostered the behavior by calling for jihad against Israel.

You can't sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians if the Palestinian intent is the destruction of Israel, as it has been since they started the PLO, Hamas, and PA. Nothing has changed in Palestinian polity to alter that inalienable fact. The Palestinian media indoctrinates kids into hating Israel and calling for jihad against Israel and the infidels, the maps continue to show Palestinian state occupying what was once Israel, and the terrorists continue to strike at Israel by all means at their disposal.

The AP only takes notice when Israel fires back at Palestinian terrorists, but not so much is made of the rocket attacks that continue to rain down on places like Sderot and Ashkelon.

UPDATE:
Hamas cheers the entry of nearly 1,000 Palestinians into Gaza without having been fully processed and screened, which has Israeli officials complaining bitterly. The IDF continued targeting terrorists - injuring a PRC thug in an airstrike that will result in the inevitable car swarm.

The IDF is also checking reports that terrorists fired kassam rockets into the West Bank. The Fatah aligned al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claims to have fired the rockets at Shaked.