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Relax the trigger finger By Haaretz Editorial Tags: israel news The Egyptian-mediated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas faced one of its most serious challenges this week: Would it fall apart after the operation by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip, or would it be strong enough to endure despite the operation? It is a tough test, one we could have done without. The dilemma before the operation was clear: According to precise intelligence, Hamas had finished digging a tunnel intended to cross into Israel for abducting Israeli soldiers. However, blowing the tunnel up, which killed six Hamas men, could result in a show of force by Hamas, as indeed happened. That means the firing of dozens of missiles at communities in the western Negev. Even worse, such an action could set the Negev communities back five months. What would have happened if it had been Israeli soldiers killed in the operation, or if civilians had been hurt in the Qassam attack that followed? The end of the cease-fire. Advertisement Ostensibly, it can be argued that Hamas is the side that broke the cease-fire by digging the tunnel and intending to abduct soldiers. But was there a clear and immediate danger here? Was digging the tunnel more dangerous than the continued arming of Hamas with weapons smuggled through the tunnels from the border with Egypt? Could the threat posed by the tunnel not have been neutralized by protecting the soldiers better, or by transmitting a message to Egypt, with a demand to dismantle the tunnel, at least as a first response? If the standard for action in Gaza is the extent of the threat and the growing danger in Gaza's streets and tunnels, then we should not have agreed to a cease-fire in the first place. Gaza is a stockpile of weapons, explosives and, particularly, of motivation to carry out attacks against Israel. These dangers have been at the forefront of the IDF's and government's deliberations on whether to carry out a comprehensive operation in Gaza. The final decision, to go for the cease-fire, did not ignore the risks. But after weighing the risks and benefits, and after the government understood that it could not abandon the people of the western Negev to the Qassam rockets and do nothing to combat them, it decided to take the obvious step and put Hamas, too, to the test of its commitment to the cease-fire. Nothing new happened in Gaza that required changing this decision. But if the IDF and government believe the situation is intolerable and the time has come for comprehensive action in Gaza, we must take care that the people of the western Negev will not be the ones to pay the heavy price. First and foremost, the government must ask the toughest question: What is the intolerable risk for whose removal the government is prepared to endanger thousands of people? The cease-fire is an essential Israeli interest, no less than for Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Continuing it has its price and is not without risks, but at the moment there is no practical alternative. Periodic attacks are not a solution to the risks, certainly not for the long term. Our trigger finger should relax. It endangers the people of Sderot. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Expecting change Hamas leader Meshal says Obama has no choice but to talk to group. Kosher Kiwi New Zealand elects a Jewish and conservative Prime Minister.

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