By Stan Goodenough
The Israel Defense Forces have been ordered to prepare for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip as terrorism from the "Palestinians" there continues unabated.
So said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday as anger boiled over in the Negev town of Sderot following a week of intensive Kassam rocket attacks which left a number of residents wounded, some seriously.
"The residents of Sderot and the Gaza periphery are in the midst of a severe trial," Barak said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"The cry and the pain are difficult and understandable, and it is the duty of our government - in conjunction with the military and defensive effort - to assist them in every way."
Cynics wondered whether the minister's threat of a Gaza invasion was made simply to pacify citizens' anger.
Israelis have been calling with increasing stridency for effective action to defend the south. While the IDF has upped its targeted killings of Hamas and other "Palestinian" terrorists, however, the attacks have only increased in intensity and efficiency.
Some commentators questioned the wisdom of sending the IDF into the Gaza Strip on the ground.
In its editorial Monday, The Jerusalem Post said the terrorists would in fact welcome such a move.
"Hamas would be happy if many Palestinians and Israelis were killed in such an operation, which as things stand now, would not permanently weaken the organization unless Israel reoccupied Gaza or shut down the weapons flow into Gaza," wrote the paper.
More effective would be a decision to stop treating Hamas’ so-called political leaders as immune from targeted attack.
"It is Hamas' 'political' leaders, not the terrorists in the field, who decide whether to continue shelling Sderot. ... For all their talk of 'martyrdom,' the record shows that Hamas leaders are not interested in losing their own lives and will stop attacking Israel to save themselves. This is what happened after their leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi were successfully targeted by Israel," the Post continued.
While those assassinations had been "roundly criticized internationally," they had proved effective.
Clearly what little patience is left is rapidly running out.
Reacting to the wounding by rocket fire of two Sderot boys Saturday evening, Interior Minister Chaim Sheetrit told journalists the IDF should pick out a single neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, warn the Arabs there to get out, and then "wipe it off the map."
Even the far left daily Ha'aretz opined that restraint was no longer possible.
"If the limited military actions Israel is undertaking ... will not bring an end to the shooting; if the moderate states, and first and foremost Egypt and Jordan fail to contain Hamas - Israel will have no option but to embark on a broad military operation. The Israel Defense Forces raison d’être is to protect the country's citizens from attack. Even if the success of a military operation is not guaranteed, that concern must not prevent the government from doing what is necessary in order to protect the lives of its citizens and the state's border."
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