Israel: Rockets Fall, Olmert Turns to UN for Help

http://thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=4226.2412.0.0

The Israeli government comes to terms with terrorist rocket attacks against its citizens and lets them go by. By Robert Morley


Daily life in the small Israeli town of Sderot is fraught with fear and terror. For the past several years, Hamas rockets have regularly, indiscriminately dropped on the town, damaging buildings and infrastructure, injuring and killing men, women and children. Some 2,000 rockets have fallen just since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August of 2005. Residents have a jarring 15 seconds to take cover once the alarm sounds of another Qassam attack.

On Monday morning, a rocket exploded adjacent to a children’s day-care center, sending 12 young Sderot children to hospital for shock treatment. This was just one of seven rockets fired at Sderot that morning.

As with the other hundreds of rocket attacks that have slammed Sderot almost daily over the past year, Israel responded with ground and air strikes aimed only at destroying the rocket-launching squads, which are highly mobile and often shielded by civilians. It did nothing to destroy the terrorists’ actual capability to launch rockets into Israel; this appears to be something the Israeli administration is prepared to let go by.

In addition to Israel’s routine military response to the rockets, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert saw fit to remind Palestinian citizens that they have paid a heavy price in the past due to this particular form of terrorism, and warned that they would again in the future.

“[W]e will not come to terms with [the continuing rocket attacks], and we will not let it go by,” he said.

Olmert further stated that the government “will do everything possible to provide better security” for the people of Sderot. However, for all his bluster, he did not mention how Israel would achieve that goal.

In fact, the same day, in two separate statements, Israeli officials said Israel would not escalate its military response to the attacks. Olmert said Israel’s current policy of restricting the Israeli armed forces to largely ineffective retaliatory strikes—a policy that is clearly effecting little deterrence—would not change.

The statements essentially doomed Sderot to its hellish status quo. Residents will just have to accept the idea that missiles could blast apart their homes, the corner market, or the basketball court down the street at any time.

In the meantime, Israeli leaders will take the bold step of asking someone else to come and fight their battles for them. In what will surely prove to be a fruitless request, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said he will ask for the UN to intervene.

“Israel plans to file an official complaint with the United Nations over the frequent terrorist rocket attacks on the western Negev,” Voice of Israel Radio reported (IsraelNN.com, September 3).

This appears to be the Israeli government’s best hope for Sderot.

Besides having repeatedly proven itself corrupt and largely incompetent, the United Nations is comprised of many Islamic nations that vehemently oppose Israel’s right to exist. For these and other reasons, the UN has done a poor job of preventing violence against Israel in the past. It is not clear how petitioning the organization might be more effective this time.

For the working-class residents of Sderot, any help from the UN will probably be too little, too late. The town is more likely to become rubble than the UN is to take meaningful action.

For Israel, Olmert’s empty promises and deadly inaction, along with pleas to the UN, clearly demonstrate his lack of will to defend not only the rule of law, but also his own people. •

Hello

The problem it is that the poor country which is called Israel does not have only Palestinian which represents an enemy and a danger but all the A&M are stupid enemies and carries a great danger towards Israel.

If Israel were in Morocco, I am certain that the Morrocans will make the same things that make the Palestinian terrorists towards Israel. The problem is that the A&M are as stones do not change any more and never understand that they are unbearable some is their gesture and remain always minors.

I do not know anything more in the military, but the Kassam missiles are too small and sail with a relatively small height, I believe that it is impossible to attack them by systems anti missiles like S.A.M., the solution east would be to destroy the terrorists definitively would be to use a system of laser defense anti missile which targets with a high degree of accuracy these Kassam missiles and destroy them before they arrive at the Israeli territories like ABL system . I do not know if this system exists or not but with the case or there exists why Israel does not use it?

The A&M are very malicious and hardly finish their silly things and their terrorist attacks and especially are too racist towards Israel. I cannot say more owing to the fact that I do not know too the policy and that there does not post much interest for me but good Israel has all the right to use armed to beat the A&M.


Terrorist and A&M hunter

For Olmert to rely on the United Nations for the security of Israel would be plainly stupid to the point of suicidal. The U.N. track record as a force is very incompetent at best. On the other hand Israel military is one of the best in the world. Unfortunately the Israeli military is slowly becoming a toothless tiger. Unlike its ancestors, today's Israeli military does not have the will power, perseverance, & killer instinct to win a long & bloody war against terrorism. Unfortunately Hamas, Hizbulah, & Iran are willing to sacrifice everything including there very own women & children to destroy not only Israel but ultimately the rest of the free world.