Posted on 09/04/2007 3:22:08 PM PDT by Esther Ruth
Defense minister puts Sderot under emergency status
Hanan Greenberg
Published: / Israel News
The increase in Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot and the neighboring communities prompted Defense Minister Ehud Barak to declare a 'special situation on the home front' in the Gaza vicinity area on Tuesday.
The emergency status – which had only just been lifted in early August, was reinstated following the resurgence of heavy rocket fire from Gaza.
The current decree has a 48-hour lifespan but Barak has said he intends to bring the matter before the government and ask for its extension.
The "special situation" status is a legal term that allows the security establishment to wield a wider jurisdiction over civilian matters such as opening or closing schools and factories.
This way a single unifying administration would be formed to concentrate all civilian affairs, but elected officials would be included in any decision-making.
Meanwhile Barak ordered the defense establishment to examine the legal ramifications of cutting electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza in an effort to impair Hamas's ability to govern.
The possibility of a military operation is also being considered, its scope may range from a limited incursion to deal solely with the rocket-launching zones to a broad operation designed to stop Hamas' growth.
However sources within the security establishment have said that there is no intention to target civilians in
Gaza.
Barak also ordered his deputy Matan Vilna'i and Defense Ministry director-general Pinchas Buchris to expedite the manufacturing of a rocket defense system for the Gaza vicinity region.
If it were my choice, all utilities to Gaza and the West Bank would be permanently cut.
Artillery units would be posted along the borders, and each rocket or mortar round would be answered 1000 to 1, every time.
I wonder how long the pali population would support the terrorists when their towns and buildings were reduced to rubble every time the hotheads got frisky? No one knows since it's never been tried.
I wonder the very same thing.
So instead of asking for authority to eliminate the threat, they are asking for authority to run and hide when attacked.
Great.
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