Monday, December 22, 2008

Cease Fire Ends:What's Next?
The so called Cease Fire ended Thursday or Friday of last week. Actually, the Palestinian terrorists, Hamas, never stopped firing rockets at Israel. Now that the Egyptian aided agreement is over, Israel is informing the nations that "they will not hesitate to react militarily if necessary" to protects its citizens.
I say that it is about time that Israel takes this stand. Sderot has been fired upon thousands of times, and Ashkelon has also been hit. Israel is trying to inform the world that the situation in southern Israel is intolerable. Hundreds of thousands of citizens are under rocket fire. The do- nothing approach is now over. If the international community does not intervene, Israel will have to act. Israel is ready for a major offensive against Gaza which has been ruled by the Hamas terrorists since June of last year.
In February Israel will have elections for Prime Minister. Both Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to oust the Islamist terrorists, sworn to destroy the Jewish state of Israel. Livni, a Kadima Party member, has been on the present government's cabinet. Netanyahu is from the Likud party, which is the opposition.
Since Friday, violence has escalated. Hamas announced that it would not renew the six-month truce with Israel which was brought about by months of Egyptian mediation. It never became a truce. Hamas continued to fire upon Israel during the whole time. Israel's cabinet sat back and did little to protect Southern Israel. The only thing they did was to tighten its blockade of Gaza and was able to halt deliveries of supplies.
The problems had worsened in 2006 when Gilat was kidnapped by Hamas after winning in the elections. They committed a deadly cross-border raid when they captured him. Gilat is either now dead or remains a hostage.
This time before elections has been said to be a bad time to launch a major offensive. Politically, there is fear that they might fail in a victory against Hamas. They might also be accused of trying to just get votes. However, the time now is necessary as Hamas is threatening more provocations, like human walking bombs.

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