The deadline imposed by Hamas for the Israeli release of 1,500 incarcerated terrorists in exchange for information on Israeli hostage Corporal Gilad Shalit came and went, with the Israelis still refusing to cave in to pressure from the Palestinians and other interested parties like the UN .
Notice I said information only , not Corporal Shalit's release, as a number of mainstream media outlets have reported. If you look at the communiques sent by the Palestinians who are holding him, nothing was said about Shalit's release..the only thing offered was information on his condition.
Even more grimly humorous is the statement by a Hamas spokesman that was somehow translated by some of the Main Stream Media, particularly in Europe into headlines that Shalit would not be killed.
"Whether he will be killed or not killed, we will not disclose any information," said Abu al-Mthana, a spokesman for the Islamic Army, one of the groups holding the soldier. He also said: "We do not kill captives. Our Islam requires that we treat captives well and fairly."
Yes...I'm sure we're all familiar with how jihadi Muslims treat their captives. The families of Nicholas Berg, Daniel Pearl and numerous others could testify to that. So could the family of Eliyahu Asheri, murdered after being taken captive by the same people last week.
For the record, no Israeli soldier captured by the Arabs has ever returned alive unless forcibly rescued by Israel.
I'm amazed(though I shouldn't be) at some of the inane Main Stream Media coverage of this and the statements of a number of the usual suspects who, as always, have their knives out for the Jews .
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy is a good example of the latter; yesterday, he urged Israel to show restraint and stop its offensive in the Gaza Strip, because Israel's military action could radicalize the Palestinians!
"I fear that all this will culminate in the radicalization of the Palestinian population and then, unfortunately, to the non-recognition of Israel by the Palestinians," he told the LCI television.
Can you imagine the twisted perspective it takes to have the gall to say something like that? Or to accuse the Israelis of dealing out `collective punishment' as other EU and UN functionaries have? As if the constant terrorist attacks and murderous assaults were somehow not `collective punishment' on the people of Israel? That kind of double standard is a textbook example of anti-Semitism.
For instance, Hamas openly threatened, as I reported here that they would attempt to kill Israeli children by targeting schools..and today, they followed through, hitting a high school in Ashkelon with a Qassam rocket.
Fortunately, no children were present..but can you imagine the outcry if Israel had sent a missile into a Palestinian high school? When the summer's over and the kids return to school, can anyone reasonably expect Israel to `negotiate' with people like that, to leave that kind of a threat to their children in place because the likes of Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Philippe Douste-Blazy think they should?
If the Israelis do that, they have a death wish.
The qassam missile that hit Ashkelon was launched from the former Jewish community of Dugit, outside the area where the IDF has moved into northern Gaza. From there, Hamas can shoot missiles on Ashkelon at will, targeting an urban location more densely populated than Sderot.
The Palestinian Qassam missile squads have been working nine months trying to get the range and calculate the proper angle of fire to the the town center. Thanks to Peretz's and Olmert's vacillation, Israel’s delayed and hesitant response leaves Hamas free to keep on shooting missiles at Ashkelon until there are casualties or massive damage and the city is under seige..just like Sderot, where five Qassam missiles were fired from Gaza earlier today, one of which exploded in the middle of the city.
The Israelis continued air strikes today and into the evening hitting the Palestinian Interior Ministry again and other targets.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Israeli military and tanks pushed furhter into Palestinian terrirrory and isolated their third small pocket of Gaza, the Palestinian side of the Erez border terminal.
They joined the tanks deployed outside Beit Hanoun in the north from Monday, July, 3, and the IDF column which settled around the disused Dahaniya airfield, just inside southern Gaza a week ago when Operation Summer Rain first began.
The Israelis are also using troop movements and air strikes to prevent Hamas from smuggling Shalit out of Gaza. It's obvious that the Palestinians want a reprise of the Ron Arad scenario, if they can manage it.
I imagine that the next step by Israel will be to attempt to use their intel to locate exactly where Shalit is being held. I addition, they now have the problem of directly confronting the Palestinians in a prolonged war of attrition and ending the attacks against Israel.
That can only happen if they destroy Hamas and Fatah and the Palestinian Authority's capacity to make war...something that will involve extensive civilian casualties and perhaps even a re-taking of strategic areas in both Gaza and the West Bank by Israel due to the terrorist forces using the civilian population for what amounts to human shields. Does the Olmert government have the will to do what's necessary to win this war and secure Israel from attacks?
Stay tuned.
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