Posted on 07/04/2006 5:15:48 PM PDT by SmithL
The firing of a rocket from the Gaza Strip to Ashkelon's center on Tuesday constitutes an unequivocal invitation by Hamas to war. The Palestinians who launched the rocket apparently are members of the Hamas military wing, but it's quite possible that either an Iranian or Syrian element interested in intensifying the military conflict with Israel spurred the move.
The firing is the longest-range rocket attack to have taken place from Palestinian territory. Rockets previously have hit Ashkelon's outskirts, and were generally aimed at the area's power station, but Israel refrained from cutting off electricity to Gaza. It's quite possible that the rocket that hit Ashkelon is a Russian-made Grad, which has a longer range than the Qassam. Such rockets were smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, probably through border crossings near the Philadelphi line. Tuesday's rocket hit a parking lot of an empty school, but it could have landed anywhere in Ashkelon at any time of day.
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In firing a rocket into Ashkelon, the Palestinians circumvented the Israel Defense Forces armored column that has entered the northern Gaza Strip. The move is an attempt to create a new balance given the IDF's activity in their territory. If Israel strikes a power station in Gaza and if the offices of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh are destroyed, then the Palestinians will use their rockets to show they have the military power to provide a counterbalance.
The significance of Tuesday's rocket attack for Israel is that the current round of war - in which Hamas maintains control of the street, especially in the Gaza Strip - will be a tough one, because over time, the Palestinians have armed themselves with many weapons and rockets.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Well .. I hope the people of Damascus have read Isaiah 17:1.
israel ping.
DING! DING! DING!We have a new category of obviousness: So Obvious That Even Ha'aretz Gets It.
you are correct...
but it took...lets see ovre a decade of incessant murder, bombings, genocidal proclamations...and may be just maybe the left is begining to understand.
is anyone else frustrated with the left's insanity as much as us?
I'll let you know as soon as I have my teeth surgically unclenched.
Don't get excited.
Somehow, someway, somewhere and in some fashion Haaretz will rationalize a way for Israel to refrain from contributing to the "cycle of violence".
Don't harsh my buzz, dude.
ML/NJ
As a nice background for the runup to the U.S. elections in November. Get a real shooting war going in Israel, ramp up the fighting in Iraq, give the Dems some more anti-war ammunition to run on and cross your fingers and hope and pray to Allah for a Democrat victory. In fact, this probably is the best possible strategy for the terrorists. After all, you can't win a war by just blowing up civilians.
Does it?
The whole material implies that since Hamas invites the war, Israel should not accommodate their wishes and should continue to make a laughing stock of herself and "to gather masses of armoured vehicles and tanks on the Northern Gazan border" without actually going in and beat the sh!t out of the inhabitants of that cess pool.
And I deliberately don't specify "terrorists", or even less "militants" - the decontamination should be complete.
This war was always inevitable, and the war of absolute stakes to that - all or nothing. So why not now?
Dems lost the last two elections - and the US, not Israel, was then in war.
Anyway, when a country's cities are under rocket barrage, the outcome of elections in other nation, even a close ally, can't be the main consideration.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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