Quick Hits From Middle East

Hundreds of Sderot residents are protesting the Israeli government's inaction on dealing with the persistent kassam rocket threat. This includes the seeming indifference on the part of the Israeli government following a rocket barrage that landed at an Israeli day care center, which caused more than a dozen people to suffer shock.

The Israelis have refused to take more aggressive action in dealing with Hamas and the other terrorists in Gaza who continue to fire kassams and mortars into Israel on a near daily basis. I'm sure that a suggestion to cut electricity will cause the usual suspects to whine and seethe, even as silence surrounds what the Lebanese military has done in its fight with the Islamist terrorist group Fatah al Islam. Lebanon continues to obliterate Nahr al Bared after fighting with Fatah al Islam for the past four months and killing hundreds in the process.

Carl in Jerusalem located video showing Hamas thugs tossing a Fatah thug off a 15-story building in Gaza. I suspect that Hamas was having a metaphysical discussion with that Fatah over the condition of man and whether someone in an enlightened state can overcome the zionist conspiracy known as gravity. Fatah lost the argument.

Hamas is weighing the possibility of allowing the ICRC to visit Gilad Shalit who has been held by the Islamic terrorists for more than a year. I suspect that this has something to do with the need to curry favor with international donors who have been withholding funds for Hamas. If they can get the ICRC to sign off on Shalit's health, they figure that has to be worth something to Israel and/or strengthens their hands for a prisoner swap.

Hamas will not simply release Shalit because he is too valuable as a pawn in the terrorist group's war with Israel. Knowing that Fatah was able to secure the release of 250+ terrorists and sympathizers from Israeli jails in exchange for an empty promise to not engage in terrorism with Israel emboldened Hamas' hand.

Olmert keeps negotiating away Israel's security in the hopes of a peace that will not come until Israel's enemies have utterly dismembered Israel.

This has the makings of a target-rich environment.

UPDATE:
Since this morning, 11 kassam launchers have been found by Israeli forces operating inside Gaza.