Israel to Create Anti-Rocket Buffer in Gaza

From the New York Times --reg required

December 24, 2005

JERUSALEM, Dec. 23 - Frustrated by continuing rocket fire from Gaza, the territory Israel evacuated over the summer, Israel is trying to enforce a buffer zone in northern Gaza through air and artillery strikes, a deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, said Friday.

The intention is to prevent Palestinian militants from using former northern Gaza settlements like Dugit and Nissanit, now piles of rubble, to fire rockets into Israel. In the last few days, rockets have hit the outskirts of Ashkelon, raising concerns about a big power plant there, and in Sederot, a regular target of rocket fire. On Thursday, a rocket landed in an Israeli Army
base on the border, slightly wounding five soldiers, and Israeli shelling in response killed a Palestinian in Jabaliya.

Israel, in the midst of an election campaign, is threatening a temporary reinvasion of northern Gaza with ground troops, though the preference is to discourage the rocket firing through shelling and airstrikes - mostly on open fields where rockets are sometimes fired.

But Mr. Boim on Friday suggested that Israel might fire artillery toward populated areas as well. "We need to tell the residents of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the suburbs of Jabaliya: 'In 12 hours, artillery will land in the area; evacuate these areas,' " he told Israeli Army radio. "I think one operation of this sort can solve the problem."

Palestinian security forces who are patrolling northern Gaza and say they are trying to stop the rocket fire also say they will not evacuate the area, which they now consider sovereign and liberated Palestinian land. So Israelis are imagining other ways to create popular pressure on the militants to stop firing, with suggestions that Israel cut off all electrical power to Gaza, a move of dubious legality. Human Rights Watch, for instance, says that such a cutoff would constitute collective punishment of a civilian population under international law.



Yes, shame on Israel for even thinking such things. Better to get shelled and rocketed on a daily basis. I really liked this comment about the article from JIHAD WATCH's Nariz:

Screw Islamic Hegemony Watch, and Islamic Internationale (their real names), there is not an honest bone in their corporate body..
The current deplorable state of Gaza is a paramount and prime example of the infantilism and failure of the Arab/Islamic mind. They turn into garbage overnight, that which was handed to them as gold. And yet Bush pumps millions into Gaza, as did (surprisingly and disappointingly) Wolfensohn.

Money given to Muslims is a waste, they only know one thing and that is living off the labor of others, a legacy of ghazi raiders, booty, slavery and Insha'allah fatalism.

Every muslim country on earth is a failure and can't even feed it's own people without foreign aid, Jizyah, assistance.

It's bad enough the west is financing it's own suicide by buying their oil, but if they had no oil be sure that they would be the recipients of charity and foreign aid..even from Christian charities. BTW, time for America to emulate Brazil. Brazil has switched, almot totally , to ethanol and GM has developed and manufactured a car (the Corsa) that seamlessly uses ethanol, gas or any combination thereof.
There is no justification for our dependency on oil, except that oil money is what drives American politics and policies, and it is the oil men that run the RNC and DNC.

OUCH! I am not sure ethanol is the answer, but I am sure there is an answer, borax, electricity, solar, hydrogen, drilling in Alaska. We should do something besides whoring for the oil producing nations. When will we ever learn??