Note al-Reuters use of the word militant in the headline. They are not militants. They are TROOPS, SOLDIERS. Gaza is not "occupied territory." Gaza is theirs. They have an elected government (of terrorists) now. It's not Gaza militants, its Palestinians troops.
Palestinian troops allegedly fire a chemical tipped missile into Israel and still the Israelis conduct the most civilized operation the world has ever known.
The Israelis have taken out the power grid leaving two thirds of the Palestinians and their elected terror government in the dark. They knocked out their water. The Israelis have taken out three bridges, arrested the Hamas labor (labor? what labor?) cabinet minister, and six Hamas lawyers (what law school?), and rounded up Hamas senior leadership.
The Israelis have killed no one. Not one savage dead.
Their self control is frightening -- and frankly beyond my comprehension. The Palis are kidnapping Jews and killing them -
Gaza militants say fired chemical-tipped warhead
GAZA (Reuters) - A spokesman for gunmen in the Gaza Strip said they had fired a rocket tipped with a chemical warhead at Israel early on Thursday.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the claim by the spokesman from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.
The group had recently claimed to possess about 20 biological warheads for the makeshift rockets commonly fired from Gaza at Israeli towns. This was the first time the group had claimed firing such a rocket.
"The al-Aqsa Brigades have fired one rocket with a chemical warhead" at southern Israel, Abu Qusai, a spokesman for the group, said in Gaza.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army had not detected that any such rocket was fired, nor was there any report of such a weapon hitting Israel.
(hat tip ab)









A 'spokesman for Crusader18 said today "If the Palis wanted to tussle, they picked a bad fight with the wrong country." He futher stated..."They would have been better off going after Syria." According to sources close to Jersey.
Seriously, if it's true, and this is what we can expect from the Pali's Army, there is no reason why Israel should'nt call an end to this experiment and send the Palis along their way to Hell. I think even France might agree. (Shalit holds dual citizenship.)
Posted by: WIDEAWAKE | Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 12:56 AM
As you note, these are Palestianian troops, or militias. In either case, their actions are the responsibility of the government.
This does cause a problem with the arrest of the various government officials. You can't just shoot them and, really, the problem is they are too accessible and easily arrested without them resisting. This is particularly the case in the West Bank because it is still occupied by Israel.
And what is to happen if Shalit is murdered? What, then, will they do with the Palestinians officials? Can they put them all on trial for something? I don't know but an approach like that could get out of hand, the next thing you know it could become the Palestinian strategy to accomplish their "precious right of return". Wouldn't that be a hoot -- 7.2 million (or whatever they are claiming nowadays) Palestinians in Israeli jails.
The Palestinians don't care much for their personal well being. And they don't much care about the well being of their children. At least both take a back seat to only one thing -- Palestinians lands. They haven't cared at all for the suffering and death of their fellow Palestinians just so they could call the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza a triumph for their cause.
So, if I were heading the Israeli government, I'd annouce that from now on, in addition to the normal tit for tat, attacks on Israelis will be compensated for with Gaza land at the nearest border location to the attack. Move the Pali's to another location (after all it's just one big refugee camp anyway) and adjust the fence. Same thing goes for the West Bank. And I'd note that these annexations will not be negotiated as a part of the final borders.
Then we can see how long they want to continue.
Posted by: Dusty | Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 02:07 AM
Trial? Please. You can't shoot them? OK, just hang them one by one until the hostage soldier is returned. What would we do if Mexico was firing alleged (by them) "chemical warhead" missiles from Tijuana into San Diego and then kidnapped a US Soldier? There would be a cruise missile - or 1000 - in the presidential palace in Mexico City in, oh, 45 seconds. The Mexicans know this. This is why they aren't firing missiles, but smuggling aliens.
Posted by: Robert Speirs | Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 10:20 AM
A country the Crusaders say doesn't exist attacks (with claimed chemical weapons) a country (with unclaimed nuclear weapons) the Mohamaddans say doesn't exist.
It's an amazing time in which to live.
Posted by: Indigo Red | Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 10:40 AM
Dusty,
You just said what I've been thinking for a long time. Yes, slice off terrirory in Gaza (or in Judea and Samaria, where there are more Jewish holy sites. Oh, by the way, when or if the Palis come to their collective senses, they do NOT get that land back!
Pamela,
You run an amazing blog. Thanks.
Posted by: Ron | Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 11:11 AM
Robert Speirs, I understand your frustration. I feel it too and words such as yours sometimes pass my lips. But suggesting those things uttered without thinking in lieu thoughts more rationale and defensible is not a good course. Except for ranting, of course, which I do at times. But it is not a substitute.
One does not shoot prisoners, you don't hang them as an alternative. You put them on trial for some crime(s). And Israel doesn't have capital punishment.
The difference in your hypothetical example with Mexico is that we could not reasonably arrest and detain a president of Mexico if his citizens were lobbing rockets into San Diego. That's why we would use cruise missles. It's not the case in the West Bank; it's under Israeli occupation. Furthermore, the actions, to now, of Isael in Gaza have been met with no resistance, a fact which would not happen if we were to do the same in your hypothetical.
But annexation is a time-tested, well worn, and, I'd reservedly offer, legitimate action as a result of war though I should have made clear in my earlier comment that Israel would compensate the Palestinians monetarily for the land annexed. In fact the Palestinians recognize this act, too. They are fighting to take Israeli land on the military side of things and on the political side accept that the annexation between 1948 and 1967 are legitimate.
Posted by: | Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 11:50 AM