Israel Prepping For New Gaza Offensive?

Well, some reports are suggesting as much. I predicted as much a couple of days ago, given the murder of two Israelis in rocket attacks this past week, and that was before the rocket attack on Ashkelon that injured 15 people when an Iranian-made Grad rocket slammed into a health clinic at a shopping center.

President Bush, in his speech before the Knesset today, spoke of a Middle East free of oppression. Fine words, but unless you're willing to fight for it and stave off the likes of Hizbullah with more than rhetoric, it simply will not happen. That article, courtesy of the AP's Jennifer Loven, couldn't help but show its disgust with Israel's very existence at every turn - throwing heaping scorn on the fact that President Bush chose not to speak about the Palestinians at length and instead focused on Israel and its achievements.

Considering that the Palestinians have been hellbent on war with Israel, and have been carrying out a rocket war against Israel since 2005, that they refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, seek to carve up Jerusalem, and whose end game is to destroy Israel, President Bush was more than justified to ignore the Palestinians in his speech - especially in light of yesterday's terror attack that injured 15 Israelis at a health clinic.

Where's the outrage over the incessant rocket attacks? Where's the daily count of rockets slamming into Israel, along with the running tally of Israelis injured or killed by those kassams, mortars, and now Iranian grad missiles?

You want scorn? I'll give you scorn. When you openly shill for terrorists, you get nothing but. The Palestinians have repeatedly passed up chances for peace, and have engaged in war thereafter. Today is no different. It's time that Israel and the US respond in kind, instead of offering up still more concessions that are seen as nothing but weakness.

Even as President Bush was speaking at the Knesset, more rockets slammed into Israel. No matter how much Israeli leaders say that they strive for peace, they simply lack a partner in peace who sees the same goal - the Palestinians say they want peace, but not with Israel's existence at the end of the day. Abbas and Hamas both reaffirmed their unending desire to overwhelm Israel with the demand for a right of return.

Meanwhile, US presidential candidate Barack Obama complains that Bush suggested that Obama's policies would be nothing more than appeasement. The truth hurts, and Obama's policies are nothing more than appeasement. When you have no problem taking endorsements from Hamas, have no problem sitting down to talk with genocidal thugs who seek Armageddon and the destruction of Israel, and while offering up platitudes about bonds with Israel put staffers on the payroll who are openly hostile to Israel, I'd say that President Bush characterized your position just right.

UPDATE:
To press home the fact that concessions by Israel, including the unilateral disengagement from Gaza have real world consequences, the Grad rocket that slammed into Ashkelon was fired from the abandoned Israeli settlement of Dugit in Gaza.

The Iranian-supplied Grad-type rocket fired at an Ashkelon mall Wednesday was launched from the former Gaza Jewish fishing village of Dugit, which was evacuated and destroyed by Israel in the 2005 Disengagement for the stated purpose of strengthening Israel's security.

Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Muhammad Abdel-Al told World Net Daily Wednesday that the attack, which wounded dozens, including children, was launched from Dugit, located along the coast in northern Gaza.

Dugit’s residents, mostly secular Jews who made a living fishing in the Mediterranean, left reluctantly, but without a struggle in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his diplomatic plan to unilaterally withdraw the IDF from Gaza and destroy all the Jewish towns there. More than 9,000 residents were evicted from their homes in the operation.

Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and it has been used as a terrorist launching pad ever since. Israel has not had a day of peace since 2005's withdrawal. You cannot claim that Israel occupies Gaza - there are no Israelis living there. It is completely free of any Jews. Hamas operates in Gaza with impunity. They are the controlling faction, and nothing goes on there without Hamas approval.

It also highlights the nonsensical ravings about how settlements are the obstacle to peace. Israel withdrew from Gaza, and it wasn't enough; and the Palestinians aren't using the settlement housing for themselves, but rather as terrorist bases of operation. It will never be enough for the Palestinians until Israel is destroyed.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin suggests that Obama should calm down, but if the shoe fits... Bob Owens notes that it would be a whole lot more believable if Obama's political career wasn't launched in the homes of Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Ed Morrissey also weighs in.