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Last update - 10:20 15/03/2007
A happy evacuation
By Israel Harel

In the western Negev, according to Channel 2 television, Israel is feverishly implementing the lessons of Lebanon. When the Qassam fire resumes - and no one doubts this will happen - residents will be evacuated to beyond the rockets' range. Each community already knows where its residents will be evacuated - not far from their homes, but outside rocket range - and even which household will host each family.

These evacuees, say the planners, will not need Arcadi Gaydamak's tent city, and their evacuation will not produce the scenes we witnessed in Sderot, when residents fought over places on the buses that brought them to Eilat - another Gaydamak initiative. In the well-organized regional councils, which mainly comprise kibbutzim, there will be no panicked flight by the healthy and wealthy as occurred in Safed, Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona. Here, community leaders say, there will be an organized evacuation. No one will be abandoned to his fate.

Two days after this plan was revealed, Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin, an eternal pessimist, informed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that over the last year, the year of the cease-fire in Gaza, more than 30 tons of explosives were smuggled into the Strip, and improved rockets, among other things, are now being built with this material. Kiryat Gat and other nearby towns, and not just Sderot and Ashkelon, will now be in Qassam range. The evacuation planners are worried: Most of the communities that are supposed to house the evacuees now in rocket range will themselves be in range of the new rockets.
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But they, and residents of the Kiryat Gat region as well, would be well-advised not to go into a panic. The Shin Bet, as is its wont, likes to exaggerate. For instance, the public remembers its warning - which, of course, proved false - about the results of the disengagement. The same is true of its false prophecies on the eve of the historic withdrawal from Lebanon, which brought Israel, at the price of a few kidnapped and killed Israelis, years of quiet and growth in the Galilee. The organization reached its peak of exaggeration when it classified the recent declarations by Israeli Arab leaders, who represent only a negligible minority, as a strategic threat. Declarations, even if they are unpleasant, do not kill. Qassams do.

Therefore, there is no need to alter the doctrine which holds that comprehensive evacuations are the winning answer to the Qassam terror. It is necessary, of course, to change the names of the host kibbutzim, as the existing ones will now also be in rocket range. We must also not forget to include these in the evacuation plan. But there are communities east, north and south of Kiryat Gat that have been suffering from population loss for years, and they would be happy to host the evacuees - even permanently.

And what will happen when the Palestinians increase the range beyond Kiryat Gat? Israel will not be orphaned. As it says in the holy scriptures, we have a broad and expansive land. And the Jewish people, for whom welcoming guests was a foundational commandment, will be happy to observe this commandment in Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi and Yavneh. And when the range increases still further, in Nes Tziona and Rehovot as well.

I therefore propose that the line at which the rocket fire becomes a casus belli - the "here and no farther" line - be drawn, as it was in the last war, at Tel Aviv. (And congratulations to the defense minister on the committee he has set up to find a name that will reflect his achievements and those of the Israel Defense Forces in this eventful war.) Because if tens of thousands of refugees were to flood its streets, that might make life difficult for the residents and disrupt the normal routine of life in the only city that manages to maintain its sanity without interruption.

This city also houses the stock exchange and the state's principal cultural treasures. And nearby, along that same horizontal line, sits Israel's only international airport. Just as long as the rockets do not reach there, God forbid. If they do, how will we be able to evacuate the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have equipped themselves with foreign passports in recent years, precisely for this purpose?
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  1.   Rockets toTel Aviv 10:46  |  Gabe 15/03/07
  2.   LESS TALK AND MORE ACTION PREEMPT PREEMPT 10:48  |  paul harris 15/03/07
  3.   if and when rocket fire starts then a united israel 11:17  |  gadalyah 15/03/07
  4.   subduing gaza 11:22  |  gadalyah 15/03/07
  5.   Israel Harrel is talking about leaving the country as refugees 11:23  |  Jabadini 15/03/07
  6.   the thinking behind the palestinian actions 11:26  |  gadalyah 15/03/07
  7.   The here and no further line includes the whole country 11:29  |  Tzfonit 15/03/07
  8.   a professional army 11:30  |  gadalyah 15/03/07
  9.   Little people pay the price for biggest fools. 11:46  |  Yacov 15/03/07
  10.   Hit Back Hard! 11:46  |  ATLAS 15/03/07
  11.   THE Arabs can`t afford to rocket Tel Aviv,not enough virgins to 12:05  |  PETER SM 15/03/07
  12.   MISSILE TECHNOLOGY 12:06  |  Neutered Observer 15/03/07
  13.   Rockets on Tel Aviv? What`s new? 12:15  |  S 15/03/07
  14.   Israel`s suicide mission 12:17  |  Chaim Gorenstein 15/03/07
  15.   AND THEY EXPECT TO BE GIVEN THE WEST BANK AND E.JLEM??? 12:32  |  alonitzafoni 15/03/07
  16.   The Here and no further Line runs from Metullah to Eilat 12:38  |  Tzfonit 15/03/07
  17.   moral turpitude 12:42  |  ron 15/03/07
  18.   Israel can not afford the carnage on its roads 12:48  |  Albert Edelson 15/03/07
  19.   A simple solution 12:51  |  Absolute Sweden 15/03/07
  20.   Israel can`t affort to let rockets hit S`derot 12:54  |  Steven 15/03/07
  21.   Zero Tolerence 13:04  |  ATLAS 15/03/07
  22.   How far wil we let this go.? 13:06  |  Jakoba 15/03/07
  23.   Are the Arabs mad enough to try it? Sadaam tried it 13:11  |  PETER SM 15/03/07
  24.   Are the Arabs mad enough to try it? Sadaam tried it 13:12  |  PETER SM 15/03/07
  25.   TURN OFF the WATER and ELECTRICITY in GAZA and WEST BANK 13:13  |  The ONLY Solution 15/03/07
  26.   # 14 Absolute Sweeden and the left 13:27  |  Tzfonit 15/03/07
  27.   #25 13:29  |  T 15/03/07
  28.   Clear Skys? 13:36  |  Dr David I. Gross 15/03/07
  29.   Harel does not mention a solution 13:39  |  SLAVO 15/03/07
  30.   solution to stopping the rockets 13:46  |  jacob fine 15/03/07
  31.   When someone "peaces" in your face, call it rain 13:49  |  Ilan 15/03/07
  32.   #30 Jacob: Arabs occupying LIBERATED Jewish homelands 13:59  |  Yacov 15/03/07
  33.   #25 The Only Solution 14:04  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/03/07
  34.   You mean they will do to Tel Aviv... 14:05  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/03/07
  35.   Apart from Evacuation 14:06  |  Ronnie Wolman 15/03/07
  36.   #25 ONLY: Israel`s hack politicos aren`t that smart. 14:11  |  Yacov 15/03/07
  37.   Fliers should go out now and let them know result of rocket 14:16  |  The Equalizer 15/03/07
  38.   Retreat, No - Attack, Yes 14:28  |  J of Hollywood 15/03/07
  39.   Tzfonit`s attempt at Leftie prop and lies 14:35  |  Absolute Sweden 15/03/07
  40.   ROCKETS TO TA MIGHT BE BEST FOR ISRAEL 14:41  |  B 15/03/07
  41.   Funny... 14:48  |  tom s 15/03/07
  42.   "Yaakov"#34 14:58  |  Danite 15/03/07
  43.   Israel Harel and His Readership 14:58  |  Klaudia 15/03/07
  44.   Can Syria allow rockets to reach ? 14:59  |  mehmet 15/03/07
  45.   KILLING YOUR SELFS 15:14  |  Bigmac 15/03/07
  46.   As long as Kfar Shmaryahu is safe, I will continue in my leftism 15:20  |  Shulamit Aloni 15/03/07
  47.   As long as Kfar Shmaryahu is safe, I will continue in my leftism 15:20  |  Shulamit Aloni 15/03/07
  48.   Harel is right - Tel Aviv is the red line 15:21  |  Neville Chamberlain 15/03/07
  49.   Kochav Yair is my Red Line 15:22  |  Ehud Barak 15/03/07
  50.   Sullivans misguided problem with Hebron 15:23  |  SHIMON 15/03/07
  51.   Returning to Poland will be my solution in worst case scenario! 15:25  |  Amira Hass 15/03/07
  52.   Peter SM`s unhealthy obsession with the 72 virgins myth # 11 15:30  |  Clickfool 15/03/07
  53.   34#SALIVANATORS IDIOCY KNOWS NO BOUNDS!! 15:42  |  alonitzafoni 15/03/07
  54.   Yaakov Sullivan 15:43  |  ODP 15/03/07
  55.   Chris Linthwaite 15:50  |  ODP 15/03/07
  56.   Chris Linthwaite #2 15:59  |  ODP 15/03/07
  57.   Snivelling hypocrites 16:06  |  Marilyn 15/03/07
  58.   don`t be ridiculous 16:19  |  margaret 15/03/07
  59.   The Jews of Hebron #47 16:23  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/03/07
  60.   Ehud Barak 16:27  |  ChanahS 15/03/07
  61.   Snivelling Marylin @ 55 16:29  |  ChanahS 15/03/07
  62.   #56 ODP 16:42  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/03/07
  63.   Yaakov Sullivan....lashon hara is all you have to counter?? 16:48  |  SHIMON 15/03/07
  64.   Yaakov Sullivan....lashon hara is all you have to counter?? 16:48  |  SHIMON 15/03/07
  65.   No Chanah you stupid woman 16:48  |  Marilyn 15/03/07
  66.   yaakov...it would be an honor to live next to people with morals 16:50  |  SHIMON 15/03/07
  67.   #61 THE INCREDIBLE MARYLIN AND THE VICTIMS 16:56  |  paul harris 15/03/07
  68.   # 57 Marilyn the pinhead and his Pali friends 17:01  |  The Equalizer 15/03/07
  69.   Olmert knows what he is doing he has a ceacefire 17:04  |  zionist forever 15/03/07
  70.   Palestinian rockets 17:05  |  Isaac A Olayinka 15/03/07
  71.   To Marilyn #57 A cordial invitation 17:16  |  Tzfonit 15/03/07
  72.