Israel should launch a large-scale and prolonged ground offensive into Gaza with the aim of uprooting the terrorist infrastructure once and for all. The longer we wait, the greater the chances are that a stray Palestinian rocket will kill untold numbers of Israelis.
For the second time in the past year, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have fired a longer-range missile into Israel. And for the second time in the past year, Israel's government failed to respond.

In today's incident, a group called the Popular Resistance Committee fired a Russian-made Grad missile from Gaza toward the southern Israeli town of Netivot, which is located some 11 kilometers away. Last year, a Grad missile struck the marina at Ashkelon.

Just four months ago, it was reported in the media that IDF intelligence believes that Hamas and its terrorist cohorts have 50-odd such Grad rockets in Gaza, which have a range of up to 22 kilometers. This of course is in addition to the Qassam rockets, mortar shells and other projectiles that the terrorists have been firing at the Jewish state on a near-daily basis.

Today's attack marks a serious escalation, and it can not be allowed to pass without a response. The government's failure to react not only undermines Israel's deterrence posture (or the little that remains of it...), but it also invites the terrorists to continue with their assaults, secure in the knowledge that they can act with virtual impunity.

Israel should launch a large-scale and prolonged ground offensive into Gaza with the aim of uprooting the terrorist infrastructure once and for all. The longer we wait, the greater the chances are that a stray Palestinian rocket will kill untold numbers of Israelis.

Sadly, the people suffering the most are the tens of thousands of Israelis living in the south of the country. Their daily life has become infused with terror and trauma. It is time to change all that, and to turn the tables on our foes. If anyone should be living in fear, it is the terrorists who fire the projectiles, rather than those who are their targets.

It should be obvious by now that the only difference between "moderate" and "extreme" Palestinians is one of style, not substance
It seems the celebration in the media was premature.

Over the weekend, the Left rejoiced after reports that the political platform of the new Palestinian government did not include the word "resistance" - which was code for terrorism against Israel.

This development, it was asserted, demonstrates once and for all that the "moderate" government of Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayad is a partner Israel can work with.

But those claims were quickly deflated by none other than Fayad himself.

Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Fayad reaffirmed that Palestinians have the right to use violence against Israel. "Resistance is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people," he said. Plain, simple and clear.

It should be obvious by now that the only difference between "moderate" and "extreme" Palestinians is one of style, not substance. Their goals are the same, as are their tactics, and we do ourselves and our future a great disservice when we delude ourselves into thinking otherwise.

 

Unlike the softies in the US State Department, Cheney understands the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions
The media hate him, the Left loves to demonize him, but I say: thank G-d for US Vice President Dick Cheney.

Unlike the softies in the US State Department, Cheney understands the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions, and he appreciates the need for stronger measures to confront them.

Diplomacy has thus far failed to slow down Iran's drive to get The Bomb, but that hasn't stopped Condi Rice and her team from pressing for more talks, more empty UN resolutions, and more toothless sanctions against Teheran.

But if this article from yesterday's Guardian proves accurate, then it could very well be that Cheney has now prevailed over Rice in the internal White House debate - meaning that military action against Iran may become a reality.

According to the Guardian, "The vice-president, Dick Cheney, has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. He is being resisted by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates. Last year Mr Bush came down in favour of Ms Rice, who along with Britain, France and Germany has been putting a diplomatic squeeze on Iran. But at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month, Mr Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Mr Bush sided with him."

It should be clear by now that force is the only way to stop the would-be Hitler of Persia from achieving his dastardly aims.

Thank G-d that Cheney is pushing this line, and let's hope it truly does become US policy, and soon.......

 

the core of the Middle East conflict is not the Israeli "occupation" of territory, but the Palestinian "preoccupation" with destroying the Jewish state
It has been 40 years since the 1967 Six-Day War, and the media and the Jewish state's critics would like us to believe that nothing good came from the war.
But as I argue in the column below, that is far from being the case - in nearly every field, the war yielded tremendous benefits for Israel.
And while the critics harp on the "occupation" because they want to pressure Israel into making more concessions - they ignore one fundamental truth: the core of the Middle East conflict is not the Israeli "occupation" of territory, but the Palestinian "preoccupation" with destroying the Jewish state.

Hogwash History
By Michael Freund

It's that time of year again. Summer is here, the temperature outside is rising, and Israel's irresponsible critics are busy turning up the heat.
Deploying a potent mix of selective amnesia combined with some good ol' fashioned obfuscation, these "amnesiacs," as I call them, would have us all believe that nothing good ever came from the 1967 Six Day War.
Seizing upon this summer's 40th anniversary of that heroic triumph, they are trying to rewrite the historical narrative, injecting as much gloom and doom as possible in order to push Israel into making still more concessions to the Arabs.
Occupation, occupation, occupation - that is all the "amnesiacs" seem capable of talking about. How bad it is, how damaging it has been, and how we must bring it all to an end.
What a bunch of hogwash.
Harping on Israel's myriad alleged sins, and repeating them ad nauseam, does not make them so, and we cannot allow those who distort history, or who choose to forget it, to cloud our perspective any longer.
The truth of the matter is that the core of the Middle East conflict is not the Israeli "occupation" of territory, but the Palestinian "preoccupation" with destroying the Jewish state.
It is that, and that alone, which has fueled this conflict since the start.
As the late Golda Meir once put it, "When Arab statesmen insist that Israel withdraw to the pre-June 1967 lines, one can only ask: if those lines are so sacred to the Arabs, why was the Six Day War launched to destroy them?"
Israel's survival was a miracle, and the Six Day War was a blessing from Heaven. Its outcome made this country safer, stronger and more secure, and we should be celebrating it effusively with each passing year.
Al Gore may disagree, but I am convinced that if there is global warming in the world today, it is because of all the hot air being released into the atmosphere by the media pundits and left-wing activists who bash the Jewish state with unrelenting ferocity.
Take, for example, Uri Avnery of the far-Left Gush Shalom organization: "40 bad years" is how he summed up in a recent article the intervening period since Israel was saved from annihilation.
With a seemingly endless supply of vitriol at his disposal, Avnery denounces the "rot" that has set in, blaming "the occupation" that resulted from the war for everything from "destroying the Israeli Army" to poisoning the Jewish religion.
Then there is the BBC's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, who posted an article last week on the broadcaster's Web site that could easily have been ghost-written by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas himself. Entitled "How 1967 Defined the Middle East," Bowen's screed asserts the legacy of the war to have been one thing, and one thing only: "Israel became an occupier."
Such third-grade level analysis, of course, ignores the various fruits of the 1967 conflict, many of which Israel continues to enjoy until today. It is not only bad history, but bad journalism, too, to provide such a biased and single-minded interpretation of such a momentous and noteworthy historical event.
Indeed, in just about every field imaginable, from economics to immigration to a national sense of purpose, the Six Day War yielded tremendous benefits for the Jewish state.
In the five years following the conflict, Israel's per capita GDP soared by more than 50 percent, exports nearly tripled, unemployment fell and the economy emerged from the painful recession of the mid-1960s. We surged past our neighbors, and Israel now finds itself on a par economically with various European countries.
The 1967 war also sparked a renewed wave of aliya from both East and West, igniting the Soviet Jewry movement and bringing a massive influx of Russian Jews to Israel.
As former refusenik Natan Sharansky wrote in his autobiography, Fear No Evil, "the Six Day War had made an indelible impression on me as it did on most Soviet Jews, for, in addition to fighting for her life, Israel was defending our dignity." This, he said, sparked Russian Jewry to embrace the "basic, eternal truth" that personal freedom "wasn't something you could achieve through assimilation. It was available only by reclaiming your historical roots."
As a result, over 1 million Jews from the former Soviet Union have moved to Israel in the past four decades since the war, jump-starting the economy and fueling unprecedented growth in areas such as computer science and biotechnology.
The war inspired many thousands of Western Jews to make aliya too, with the number of North American migrants soaring from just 739 in 1967 to more than 8,000 in 1971.
Israel's defeat of its foes also brought a renewed sense of pride to Jews everywhere, as they watched the tiny, vulnerable state emerge triumphant against its enemies.
And for the first time in 1,900 years, thanks to the Six Day War, we were once again able to caress the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and bathe them in our tears, as a free and sovereign people in our own land.
If that's not something to celebrate, then what is?
So to those who continue to carp on incessantly about the "disastrous results of the war" and the need to "end the occupation," all I can say is: Spare us your faulty hindsight.
If you really want to end the dispute with our neighbors, then tackle the Palestinian preoccupation with destroying Israel, and peace may just eventually come to pass.
---- from the June 13 Jerusalem Post

there is a simple reason why the world press has chosen largely to ignore this outbreak of violence: both the perpetrators as well as the victims are Palestinian, and hence they can not blame Israel (at least directly) for the bloodshed
With great care, the media has thus far studiously avoided calling the internecine Palestinian warfare exactly what it is: a civil war.

But as the violence has reached new heights over the past few days, with running gun-battles taking place in Gaza hospitals between Hamas and Fatah thugs and mutual assassination attempts directed against the leaders of the two groups, it will become increasingly difficult for the media to continue to downplay and minimize this crucial story.

Of course, there is a simple reason why the world press has chosen largely to ignore this outbreak of violence: both the perpetrators as well as the victims are Palestinian, and hence they can not blame Israel (at least directly) for the bloodshed.

Moreover, ever since BBC reporter Alan Johnson was kidnapped by Palestinians in Gaza, the media has been cowed into silence, undoubtedly for fear of offending one terrorist gang or another.

But don't let the media's non-coverage fool you - what are we witnessing now is the meltdown of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as armed warlords battle each other for control and kill their own people.

This only underlines once again just how absurd it would be for Israel to enter into negotiations with the PA or turn over additional territory to their control. The Palestinians can not even keep their own house in order, and use unspeakable acts of violence to settle their home-grown rivalries.

But of course you won't be hearing much about that on CNN......