Israel acts against continued Qassam attacks
Av Magnus Lindberg • 2006-12-27 • Kategoriserat under: Articles in English, Israel, Judeen, Samarien, Gaza - Palestinska MyndighetenSince the “ceasefire” in Gaza issued a month ago more than 60 Qassam rockets have been fired towards Israel proper. During the past week there have been three casualties. This night, two fourteen year old boys sustained injuries from the heaviest Qassam fire since the beginning of the truce.
Up until now, Israel has shown complete restraint and has neither retaliated nor acted in other ways to prevent the rocket terror. As of today however, Israel will act through pinpointed strikes on the areas from which the Qassams are fired. The pattern here is obvious and the identical chain of events could be seen last year around this time when Israel had disengaged from Gaza.
Now like then, the Palestinian Authority does nothing to prevent the firing of rockets from the Gaza strip into Israel. The Hamas led PA certainly has it in its power to do so but not at all surprising it refuses. Hamas claims commitment to the ceasefire but will not act against other terror groups who defies it. This is of course a well thought out strategy as it leaves Israel no other option but to act, thereby prolonging the conflict. Hamas does not want peace and anyone who claims otherwise is either utterly misinformed or stupid.
The more radical elements within the Palestinian society have never given up on the hope of an Israel free Palestine and these elements are the ones keeping the conflict alive. Israel is forced to play along as long as the international community sits on its hands and refuses to hold the PA responsible for its actions. What could Israel possibly do in this situation but to finally act on its own? The PA Security forces does not act. The international community does not act and the international observers along the Philadelphi route do nothing to prevent the rampant weapons smuggling.
All in all, Israel is left with no choice but to strike back. Even in doing so the orders are to show restraint and only execute pinpointed strikes against the firing sites.
The past few months before the ceasefire have shown that it is impossible to dismantle the terror infrastructure from the outside. Even so, Israel will probably try to do so again should the need grow immediate. This in turn will escalate the violence again, get Israel condemned by the UN again and foster even more terrorists. Again.
There is only one way to improve the situation long term and that is international intervention in the Palestinian territories. If the PA refuses to combat terror the international community must do so.
Magnus Lindberg är Emmanuel Levinas Fellow vid Paideia - The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden. Han sitter i styrelsen för svenska sionistiska federationen - Zionit, och är ordförande för organisationen Israelgruppen.
Alla texter av Magnus Lindberg
Freedom is a must, On Friday where the population of all parts of Palestine meet in al aqsa mosque despite the difficulties they face, but since the receipt of the Sharon government of Israel preventing worshipers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to attend to perform Friday prayers, diminishing numbers of worshipers, and in some days to prevent the congregation who are under the age of forty praying in alqsa mosque and forcing them to pray at the entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem.
On the 15th of December, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque warned that, there are cracks in the southern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque result of the excavations carried out by Israeli authorities under the Aqsa Mosque the building of the Islamic Waqf, despite warning of the danger of these excavations, the Israeli authorities preventing the Islamic Waqf from reconstruction of the southern wall.
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Of course freedom is a must. That is why the pallies should stop the Qassam fire in Gaza and give peace a chance.
The fact that worshippers can’t reach the mosque is a security concern and wouldn’t be a problem at all if there were no terror.
This could be put in perspective by thinking about how the jews were barred from the western wall from 1949 till 1967 for no other reason than the fact that they were jews.
Regarding damages on the Mosque I’ll just doubt until I get what you stated confirmed from other sources. It would be incredibly stupid of Israel to damage the Mosque in any way and it would certainly not serve Israels interests.