A Prediction (Gloomy)

It is being reported today in Israel's papers that the captive soldier, Gilad Shalit, has been injured in an IDF air strike.

Of course, no one has seen Gilad since his capture since Hamas, in total contravention of the Geneva Conventions, has never allowed the Red Cross to visit him.

I have thought for some time that he is already dead, and the letter his parents got was a forgery.

Just yesterday I said to Husband that Hamas would use the situation to declare that he had been killed by an Israeli bomb, thus making themselves look virtuous. Especially since they don't have world public opinion on their side.

I hope I'm wrong, and that Gilad is being kept in a safe place.

Update

Husband returned last night from Ashkelon at about 11 p.m. The trip normally takes about an hour each way, but the IDF wouldn't let traffic into Ashkelon for a while; a Kassam had landed (no damage or casualties; Kassams have no steering ability) not far away from where his client's relatives lived and the army wasn't letting anyone in until the area was declared safe.

Woke up this morning to an international press which is fairer than it usually is. Ehud Yaari, an Israeli expert on Arab affairs, said last night that the Arab world was pretty disgusted with Hamas right now: Egypt had actually warned Hamas that this was not the moment to provoke either Israel or the US. My guess is that the Hamas leaders were under increasing pressure from their own lower-level people to show their "strength", and the top leadership acquiesced lest they be thought weak and therefore lose the allegiance of their supporters.

Of course there are the usual condemnations about "excessive force". We should obviously just retaliate with Kassams, too. How ludicrous. Isn't it obvious, that by using precision bombing, we are being very restrained? We could very easily simply flatten Gaza, in a matter of a few hours, and we wouldn't have this continuing problem. It is our very restraint that has exacerbated the situation. The Gazans don't think we have enough guts to really teach them a lesson; in Arab thinking, if a single enemy remains, you haven't done your job thoroughly enough.

Gaza Op Update 19:45 Israel Time

While I'm waiting for Husband to return from Ashkelon, and Son-in-Law to be stood down (he was called to Shuafat, an Arab neighborhood in the northeast of Jerusalem because of disturbances there), here are a couple of links worth checking out. It seems that the government is taking some of my advice

Haaretz

Jerusalem Post

The Political Analyst Returns

About two hours ago my husband said "Listen: there's going to be a Gaza operation". We heard planes going over for about 10 minutes. Israel is so small that an F-16 jet needs just about all the east-west width of the country just to turn around in. Our son-in-law, who belongs to an elite police unit similar to a SWAT team had been told last night to be ready to be on call; the formal "on call" notice arrived about the same time as we heard the sound of aircraft.

Tim Marshall, on Sky News, not particularly fond of Israel or Israelis, said a little while ago that he'd counted the number of rockets Hamas had fired from Gaza since announcing the "end" of the truce they'd never kept, and "I couldn't see how Israel wouldn't respond within a week". He also said he hadn't thought the Israeli response would be as severe as it is. The real problem, of course, is that it isn't severe enough. As I write this, three more rockets have fallen in Israel.

If you're watching TV now, Israel has taken out, with pinpoint accuracy, ALL the Hamas police [read: "army"] stations in Gaza. Since they have been deliberately sited in civilian areas, to provoke the greatest world sympathy, there are civilian casualties. The bodies of the unwilling Palestinian women and children are their greatest defense in the public opinion game; it is a completely callous decision on the part of Hamas.

What OUR government should do, RIGHT NOW, is get on TV with a news conference. Olmert, Livni, it doesn't matter. Both speak good English. That would pre-empt the Palestinian spokespersons who are already moaning on about the poor innocent women and children "slaughtered" by the inhuman Israelis. And what our government should say is this: this has been just a warning. One more rocket, at any time, anywhere, within Israel's borders, and we ratchet up the bombing. 2 rockets, and we will begin to target more and more civil facilities: power stations, water pumping facilities, everything short of hospitals. And NO more food, NO more fuel, NO more electricity, NO more water [Gaza is dependent on Israel for all these]. Nothing will be allowed in by sea, either. You cannot continue to bite the hand that feeds you. Total, and we mean total, cessation of hostilities against Israel is the only response we will accept. And our diplomats in Egypt should make it clear that supporting the Palestinians is regarded as a hostile act, not in accordance with the peace treaty Egypt signed with Israel.

It won't happen of course. Israel will be castigated for being nasty to the Palestinians [their nastiness to us is of course understandable, we being dirty Jews and all] and urged to relent, to allow ourselves to be bombed [Jews traditionally run and hide anyway, why not now?] and make yet more concessions to appease the poor, downtrodden Palestinian "victims" of "occupation" [in Gaza?]

It's happening now for several reasons. One is that Obama is perceived in the Arab world as being more favorable to them than to the Israelis, or at least, because he wants to "talk"[talk is for women; men act], as being weaker than Bush. And Bush is on his way out, what can he do? Another is that Hamas now claims it can hit Beersheva and the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and wants to see if it can. It has been using the so-called truce [during which rockets were fired continually into Israel anyway] to stockpile and increase the power of its weapons, a good deal of which came through Egypt, by the way, via tunnels from the Sinai into Gaza.

Husband and I will be travelling to Ashkelon later this evening, to pick up a client of Husband's, a mentally disabled veteran of the Yom Kippur War who stays in a Jerusalem institution during the week but with his relatives on the Sabbath. I'll try to update the situation later.

The Laws of Christmas, by the Kringler Rav

This has been sitting in my computer for literally years, but it's well worth review at this season [actually should have put it up several months ago, but better late than never]

Enjoy!

The "Wish It Wasn't True, But It Probably Is" Department

From today's Jerusalem Post, two articles of note about our Palestinian "Peace Partners" for this Christmas ("Peace on Earth, Good Will to All Men") Eve and Hanukah season:

Palestinian terrorists bombard Ashkelon with Grad rockets
Dec. 24, 2008JPost.com staff, yaakov katz and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST
Palestinian terrorists on Wednesday morning fired over 60 rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip at Ashkelon and the western Negev, prompting Israel to hold up a shipment of aid scheduled to pass through to the Strip later Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Security Cabinet scrambled Defense Minister Ehud Barak to a special discussion on the massive rocket fire against western Negev Israeli communities.
A number of Grad-type rockets were fired at Ashkelon throughout the morning. One of them struck outside the home of Benny Gueta, sending several people into shock.
"We heard the alarm and the whistling as it approached, and then we heard a big explosion," which destroyed a storage shed and shattered some of the house's windows, Gueta said.
"We can't live this way," Gueta told Israel Radio. "It's no way to live."
A house in the Sdot Negev region sustained a direct hit from a rocket just before noon on Wednesday. No one was wounded in the attack but the rocket caused extensive damage.
Earlier, two people were treated for shock when a volley of rockets was fired at Netivot, landing in an industrial zone. Several rockets landed in the agricultural areas outlying the town.
Early Wednesday morning, two rockets landed in an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev region and another Grad-type rocket hit the coastal area south of Ashkelon. A fourth rocket failed to clear the border and landed within Hamas territory. Gaza health officials said that two Palestinian civilians were lightly hurt when the rocket landed on a house in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
The Security Cabinet convened on Wednesday morning for a meeting that was scheduled in advance, but in view of the hike in rocket attacks over the last 24 hours, Barak was called in and the meeting focused on the Gaza Strip.
Most ministers voiced strong opposition to extending the truce with Hamas and demanded that Barak order the IDF to react forcefully. Kadima leader and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Vice Premier Haim Ramon and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai advocated a strong military response.
Responding to the incessant Kassam fire, Barak announced earlier Wednesday that Israel would hold up a shipment of food and humanitarian supplies that was due to be delivered to residents of the Gaza Strip during the day.
Barak had made an initial decision to allow the shipment following calls from the international community regarding the humanitarian situation in the Strip.
Basic food, medicine, gasoline and cooking gas were to be transferred to Gaza through the Karni and Kerem Shalom crossings.
Five Egyptian trucks containing humanitarian supplies were also to be allowed passage into the Strip, an initiative of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's wife, Suzanne Mubarak.
Meanwhile, Hamas announced Wednesday that two of its operatives were killed in a blast in the southern Gaza Strip. The terror group said that the men were killed on a "holy mission." That's the euphemism Hamas uses when gunmen are killed by explosives that go off inadvertently.
Eight mortar shells and two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel overnight Tuesday. One of the shells hit a house in a western Negev kibbutz. There were no casualties but the house sustained damage.
On Tuesday night, IDF troops killed three Palestinian terrorists near Netiv Ha'asara, just north of Gaza.
The terrorists were spotted during an attempt to plant an explosive device near the Gaza perimeter fence, and were shot and killed in the ensuing exchange of fire.
A grenade was thrown at IDF troops by the terrorists, but no soldiers were wounded.

Watch Hamas accuse Israel of breaking the "truce" (they have been breaking from day one, but you see, firing rockets at civilian centers isn't in their view a violation. If Israel takes out a rocket launcher which has been deliberately sited in an urban area, that is a violation. Them dirty Jews is always up to tricks, doncha know?)

Hamas pushes for Sharia punishments
Dec. 24, 2008JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
The Hamas parliament in the Gaza Strip voted in favor of a law allowing courts to mete out sentences in the spirit of Islam, the London-based Arab daily Al Hayat reported Wednesday.
According to the bill, approved in its second reading and awaiting a third reading before the signature of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as the Palestinian constitution demands, courts will be able to condemn offenders to a plethora of violent punitive measures.
Such punishments include whipping, severing hands, crucifixion and hanging. The bill reserves death sentences to people who negotiate with a foreign government "against Palestinian interests" and engage in any activity that can "hurt Palestinian morale."
According to the report, any Palestinian caught drinking or selling wine would suffer 40 lashes at the whipping post if the bill passes. Thieves caught red-handed would lose their right hand.
The Jerusalem Post could not verify the veracity of the Al Hayat report.

In other words, life as usual. Want an Alka-Seltzer? I've got heartburn, and not from too many latkes.