Talk Is Cheap

We're hearing plenty of news reports these days about talks between Hamas and Israel and Hizbullah and Israel. The talks revolve around all of the same contentions from two years ago, and resolution still remains wholly in the hands of the terrorists since they are the ones holding Israeli soldiers after capturing them in infiltration operations designed to force Israel to release hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails.

First, there's the talk of Hizbullah releasing Regev and Goldwasser. Regev's father has been told that a prisoner swap is receiving serious consideration. Why would Israel do such a thing considering that Hizbullah will see this as nothing more than an opportunity to attempt yet another infiltration operation to capture still more Israelis with the intent of emptying Israeli jails of the terrorists that it has previously captured. In this instance, the talk is that Regev and Goldwasser would be released in exchange for the traitor Samir Kuntar.

Then, there's the ongoing talk about Gilad Shalit. While Hamas says that ceasefire talks and the talks about Gilad Shalit are separate, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that they are clearly connected. Shalit will not be released unless Israel releases Hamas terrorists from its jails.

None of this is really news, and yet the Israeli media is dutifully reporting what Hamas and Hizbullah are saying.

All of this is taking place even as the rockets continue slamming into Israel.

One man was lightly-to-moderately wounded after an upgraded Qassam rocket landed in the Old Muslim Cemetery near Ashkelon’s city market on Monday. The wounded man evacuated himself independently to the Barzilai Hostpial for treatment. MDA paramedics treated several people at the scene for shock.

Other Israeli communities came under fire as well. The most dovish of Israeli politicians, Yossi Beilin, who helped orchestrate the Oslo Accords, continues pushing a ceasefire, despite the fact that it would put Israeli security on the backburner. He thinks that not engaging in a ceasefire would give Hamas the advantage.

That's a wholly misguided position given the facts on the ground. Hamas took advantage of a ceasefire in 2007 when it took over Gaza after Israel's unilateral disengagement in 2005. They took over Gaza and have used it ever since to fire thousands of rockets at Israel. Any ceasefire will only enable Hamas to regroup and rearm for the next round as they have no interest in peace at all.

The one tact that has not even been attempted is to defeat Hamas and destroy it once and for all. Half measures have enabled the group to limp along and regroup over time, claiming victory for surviving. Israel's leadership continues to be paralyzed into inaction and half measures.

UPDATE:
The upheaval in the Israeli Knesset is reaching the level of absurdity. It's taking the Arab members of the Knesset to save Olmert from being tossed on the ash heap of history. They know that a no confidence vote would mean the ascendancy of Likud, and they'd lose their sway over the premiership.

And the Arab MKs are sounding a bit like Democrats who were busy protecting the likes of William "Cold Cash" Jefferson:

"The fact that the prime minister is under investigation shouldn't necessarily mean he must resign," MK Talab El-Sana (United Arab List – Ta'al) told Ynet on Monday.