PrintJanuary 22, 2009
It Didn't Take Long -- Won't Israel Ever Learn?
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire just a few days ago, and its troops -- nor no apparent good reason -- began hightailing it out of Gazan territory in time to complete their withdrawal before the Obama inauguration. And to what purpose? Supposedly, because the major goals of stopping the rocket, missile and mortar fire and smuggling through tunnels from Egypt had been accomplished.
We'll wait and see about the ordnance, but it didn't take the Gazans long to resume the smuggling -- nor the Egyptians long to turn their backs on it once again. The Jerusalem Post reports that some tunnels are already back in use while others are being repaired or rebuilt:
AP Television News footage showed Palestinian smugglers Wednesday filling a fuel truck with petrol that came through a cross-border tunnel from Egypt. The footage also shows workers busy clearing blocked tunnels and bulldozers carrying out other repairs.
Did Israel make a gross error in stopping its assault before accomplishing what it needed to do? What will (should) it take to get the Israeli troops, ships, and airforce back on the attack? How many more times must Israel repeat the same mistakes before it understands that only the total destruction of the tunnels and terrorists will have any significant positive effect?
Do the Arabs wear those long robes in order to have capacious sleeves at hand for laughing up into?
