To all those who criticized Israel for protecting itself against Hamas rockets, the fact that you are not speaking up against Iran and Hamas about the following just proves that you are anti-Semites and not peaceniks.
Palestinian long-range Grad rocket hits Ashkelon center
DEBKAfile Special Report
February 3, 2009, 10:39 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel's low-key reprisals Saturday night and Sunday, Feb. 1-2, had little effect on the Palestinian missile and mortar fire from Gaza ongoing for the sixth straight day in violation of the ceasefire Hamas declared Jan. 19. Hamas is taking its line from Tehran where its leader Khaled Meshaal urged Iranian students to join the Palestinian Islamist movement in helping "to liberate" Jerusalem and "all of Palestine" so they can "pray together" in the holy city.
The Grad rocket from Gaza Tuesday, Feb. 3, hit vehicles in central Ashkelon leaving three people in shock. A busload of passengers escaped to safety with seconds to spare.
Of the two Qassam missiles fired Sunday, one was aimed at Sderot, triggered a Red Color alert but exploded on the Gaza side of the fence. A second landed on open ground in the Eshkol farming district. Three mortar rounds earlier drew an Israeli air attack which killed one of the three members of the firing team and injured two others in Rafah. Saturday night, after 14 missiles and mortar rounds targeted Israel, the Israeli force hit a Hamas base and six of the estimated 300 smuggling tunnels running under the Gazan-Egyptian border.
Defense minister Ehud Barak, who as Labor leader is campaigning hard against rivals Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu and Kadima's Tzipi Livni Israeli's general election in 6 days time, has been on the defensive against rising demands for a much harsher retaliation to the ongoing attacks from Gaza. Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu is way ahead in all the polls, followed by foreign minister Tzipi Livni. Labor and right-wing Israel Beitenu are vying for the third spot.
Barak is not helped in his claim that a long-term ceasefire under negotiation in Cairo by Egyptian officials and Hamas is round the corner, when they are shouted down by Hamas leaders in Tehran, and all the signals point to further Palestinian aggression.
The defense minister is castigated not only by the opposition but by leaders of the government party Kadima, including prime minister Ehud Olmert. Another Kadima member, chairman of the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Tzahi Hanegbi commented Sunday: "We stopped our Gaza operation prematurely. The IDF will have to go back sooner rather than later."
Regarding Egypt's deployment of cameras and sensors to monitor Hamas' arms smuggling tunnels, Hanegbi remarked that Israel will have to do the job itself, physically.