Barak: Either The Palestinians Or The IDF Will Stop The Palestinian Bombing Of Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Is Olmert Actually Trying To Lose The Next Election)
Honestly, we'd be kind of surprised if he did it.The peacemakers are coming tot he region, and that can only mean one thing: a month or two for the Palestinians to attack Israeli civilians with absolute impunity. Israel's hands are tied whenever even the most mundane State Department delegation show up, because to retaliate for indiscriminate attacks would "endanger the dialogue." Now maybe the fact that it's Hamas doing the shelling changes the dynamic - but if Hamas speaks for the majority of the Palestinian people (and they do) then Israel wouldn't want to do anything to upset the poor dears.
Also:
The decision to set up the committee, the officials said, was a compromise between Olmert and cabinet members such as Vice Premier Haim Ramon who favor a cutoff. Ramon's idea, discussed at the meeting, is to set a "price tag" for each Kassam, meaning that the Palestinians would know in advance that if rockets were fired, their utilities would be cut off for specific periods of time. The logic behind this idea is that it would give the Gazan population incentive to pressure Hamas to stop the attacks. Olmert's position, however, is that this policy would be unlikely to effectively stop the rockets, and would bring in its wake a huge international outcry. The international community... has already been urging Israel not to cut off electric and water supplies to the Gaza Strip.
If Barak isn't paying Olmert to boost Barak's public stature then Olmert is getting ripped off. The sad thing is that Olmert is basically correct about how cutting off electricity to Gaza would play out. There would be a huge international outcry if Israel did what every other country on the planet would already have done - cut off supplies to people who are raining down missiles on schools and hospitals. But Olmert needs to realize what Sharon knew - the world will scream about imagined Israeli atrocities no matter what, and in the meantime there are Israeli civilians to be protected.
References:
* Barak: IDF nearing large Gaza operation [JPost]
* Wow, The World Really Is Just Totally And Pathologically Obsessed With Jews Huh? [MR]
Previously:
* Update: Hamas Soldiers Still Firing Rockets At Israeli Schools and Hospitals, 1.5 Tons Of Explosives Seized
* Amidst Non-Civil War, Palestinians Find Time To Bomb Israeli School House
* Palestinians Still Firing Missiles at Israel
