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Israel mulls response to Gaza rocket fire
Israel’s influential security cabinet was meeting on Sunday to review possible responses to near daily Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip that violate a six-month-old truce. Although several ministers have called for a resumption of targeted killings of suspected militants, the meeting was not expected to approve a full-scale ground operation in the densely populated and violent territory. “We should not launch a deep operation but a surgical and pinpointed operation. Going into Gaza for a year is completely useless,” Trade Minister Eli Yishai, a member of the security cabinet, told AFP on Sunday.
I'm glad to see somebody's wearing his thinking cap. A ground incursion into Gaza when the Paleos are busily self-destructing would have the effect of giving them a common enemy. Targeted killings probably would, too. Precisely proportionate responses -- one round in Israel, one round fired back at Paleostine -- makes a lot more sense, especially since the Israelis can aim better than Hamas or IJ. Limiting the response that way would make the Paleos look stoopid, complaining about receiving what they've just given. But I doubt if Olmert's smart enough to think up something like that.
“We should concentrate on bringing order through targeted killings, the destruction of infrastructure and of military headquarters,” he said.
See what I mean? Forget the targeted killings for now -- they're the wrong weapon. Don't use helis or F15s. Use artillery, preferably MLRS, and pound the launch sites if they're fixed by counterbattery radar, otherwise whatever military thing is convenient and within range.
Environment Minister Gideon Ezra, from Olmert’s centrist Kadima party, also called for “several better alternatives” to a large-scale operation “if and when we decide to launch an operation.”
Probably didn't bother presenting any better alternatives, but that's okay. There's no reason on earth for the Minister of Environment to be present a a military policy meeting.
Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Boim said that while Israel should take action he did not counsel taking over the entire territory. “We should weigh expanding the operation. We should change our policy of restraint, but I don’t suggest taking over the entire Gaza Strip. That would be a honey trap. There’s a lot (to do) between restraint and that,” he said.
No reason for the immigration minister to be there, either, though he seems to have the right idea: the purpose of the rocketry is to cause an overreaction, which gains the Paleos support, to include financial support, in the Arab world, at the cost of a few corpses. It has the side benefit of presenting a common enemy, but we already knew that.
The Israeli army said Palestinian militants fired five rockets from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, but reported only one impact inside Israel.
Gaza should have received five salvoes of well-aimed MLRS in return. Barring that, five battery-sized (i.e., 6-gun) salvoes of artillery.
Last week Israel’s top public watchdog, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, blasted the army for failing to tackle Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The army says that about 300 rockets have been fired into Israel since a November ceasefire, under which Israeli troops withdrew from the territory and Palestinians agreed to halt rocket fire. Most of the projectiles land in open ground, causing neither casualties nor damage.
Posted by: Fred 2007-05-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=188282