Security cabinet nixes dramatic steps to counter Qassams from Gaza

There is an obvious reason why Olmert won't do this - he would be announcing to the world that he was about to carry out an act of collective punishment - and that is a war crime. The IDF is not shy of war crimes, but it is not stupid enough to give advance warning of one. You people just do not have common sense or civilised values.

"It was Hamas who destroyed the profitable greenhouses built by Israel and Jews" More hypocrisy! After Hamas was elected, Israel imposed an economic blockade on Gaza. That meant that almost none of their agricultural produce could be exported. Anything that was allowed out was kept at the checkpoint for long enough for it to rot. No profit in greenhouses if you can't sell the produce! As for tourism on these "incredible" beaches - the IDF shelled and murdered a whole family on one of them, for god's sake!

You said: "Dave, people tell me that the rockets only began to fall after disengagement." Well then what you need to do is to follow events for yourself instead of listening to what other people tell you.

Dave, people tell me that the rockets only began to fall after disengagement.

The Israeli government has been told, or got the message anyway, that the US wants calm in the Middle east right now, as it gets ready to try to get its army out of Iraq. Interestingly it seems that even the killing of Gemayel (whoever did it, and for whatever goal) is not going to be allowed to disrupt the calm. Fox News which is basically Bush News has dropped the story way down its web site this morning. After the initial recriminations, looks like teh White House doesn't want to run with it. The US obviously really does need Syria and Iran's help bad.

There may be nothing better to do than the status quo but this is a policy of inertia--limited operations, no permanent footprint, heavy reliance on drones, artillery and rockets--this is continued not because it achieves either a short term goal of suppressing rocket fire or a long term goal of chastening Hamas mobilization in Gaza, but because it is the basket of tactics Israel has ended up with, limited in part by a diplomatic option Olmert vaguely wishes to pursue but is put off, in part because the inertial reactive policy complicates a peace-offensive. The real creative energy at the top seems to go into personal feuds.

1) Israel delivers and sells gasoline to Gazans. Next qassam, stop selling them gasoline. 2) Israel delivers and sells electricity to Gazans. Another qassam, stop selling elecricity. we just deliver gasoline to ambulances and electricity to hospitals. 3) Gazans come and work in Israel. Third qassam, cancell ALL working permits. close the border. 4) Gazans export their vegetables to Israel. Fourth qassam, stop importing vegetables from Gaza. They can eat them instead of getting food from UNWRA. I bet that they will stop their qassam play very very fast !!! To restore gasoline they will have to give back unconditionally our soldier.... we will see for the rest at a later stage.

I cannot BELIEVE (!) that humanity can come up with such stupid comments like some of those I just read here! First and foremost, EVERY human being has a right to live, and that right is being denied in both Israeli, but especially Palestinian case. I have yet to see that people here follow the rules of their religions that they are so desperately clutching to. Breathe people! The Earth is not ours anyway, we're all here only temporarily, so try to like each other more while there is still time!!!

This government lead by olmert is a disaster. Olmert said the other day only 15 people have died from kassams. It will be at least 3 years before another election and I hope and pray voters don't make the same mistake they did last march.

he didn't dare a minute going to see the poor family of sderot because he simply don't care about them !! he only focusing on his own future !! he knows that his days are counted because this is the worth israeli gouvernement we have ever had !!shame on you PM OLMERT you can't even protect the cytizen of Israel the only thing you know his corruption as all your gouvernement !! you should go to hell

If, God forbid, the rockets of the Palestinian criminals inflict massive casualties, nothing will save this shameful government. The bloodletting of Israelis must be prevented by any price. It's time to act NOW. BETH HANOUN AND BETH LAHYA MUST BE DEPOPULATED AND DECLARED CLOSED ZONE. ANYBODY ENTERING THIS AREA IS A LEGITIME TARGET. PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS TERRORIST BODY TO ITS CORE. IT MUST BE DISMANTLED. OSLO AND DISENGAGEMENT WERE MISTAKES. IT'S TIME TO ROLL THEM BACK AND REINSTALL MILITARY OCCUPATION. ISRAEL SHOULD MAKE IT VERY CLEAR THAT ITS OCCUPATION IS OUT OF MILITARY REASONS ALONE. REMOVE UNAUTHORIZED OUTPOSTS NOW. COMPLETE THE SECURITY BARRIER NOW! REMOVE SETTLEMENTS OUTSIDE THE SECURITY BARRIER! All this, of course, after liquidation of regime of criminal organizations Fatah and Hamas and after supression of terror so that it would be on tolerable level -- as before the "peace process"

Israel keeps playing softball and is losing a battle that it could easily win. Israel should simply announce that it is giving 24 hours for an end to the kassam attacks. It states that if after the 24hr deadline any kassams fall in Israel then village xxx will be decimated and it should name the village. The ball (or the kassam) will then be in the terrorists hands and people living in the village will have both the chance to influence the terrorists or to leave. After 24 hours if there is quiet then fine if not the attack should be carried out and the original message repeated but naming a different village. The kassams would stop completely and very very quickly !

Is it symptomatic for the Security Cabinet to postpone its decision how to deal with the Gaza Qassam threat? The divided suggestions how to approach this case by force or all other means was known, maybe that PM Olmert reported some decisions / suggestions from his President Bush / Rice / Los Angeles meeting which were not made public! Or this decision postponement based upon the existing rivalries / party / personal issues? ? ?These slow motion reactions? to a burning problem including the belated decision to secure schools and kindergarten on the 2007 budget already are leaving tooo many questions open! How for instance would steps taken indirectly / directly to motivate the ?adjoining? Egyptians to become active against Qassams etc. They must be afraid of Gaza strips overboiling into their territory with disastrous result for Egyptian government

...that Israeli politicians are taking after their American and European counterparts, i.e taking the coward's approach to the Qassam problem. Olmert's thinking is wait until a rocket actually hits a school and causes a lot of casualties among the children before even thinking about doing anything about them. Disgraceful! Replace Olmert now!

What are these idiots thinking?? DETERRENCE? This is like the guy whose business strategy was to lose money on each sale but eventually make a profit on volume. Its just pathetic. The Olmert regime has made no real effort to end rocket fire from Gaza, apparently thinking it affects relatively few Israeli voters, and only kills a dozen Israelis per 3000 rockets. No other government in the world acts this way -- NO WHERE! The solutions are obvious, they just don't want to bother. What a sorry excuse for a government. If Mexico fired 3000 rockets into El Paso, their entire country would be a smoking hole in the ground by now. Equivalent response if Ireland fired 3000 rockets into Belfast, or Morocco fired 3000 rockets into Gibralter. Imagine the world outcry at the UN if Israel responded by randomly firing 3000 artillery rockets into downtown Gaza City, instead of hitting Hamas terrorists in their cars with smart missiles fired through the window. That would be "proportional response".

The palestinans get little help from arab brothers who likes to use them to pressure Israel and the west. "Ohhh, see how the palestinians suffer" they say, and they blame Israel and the west for it. But the case is that the arabs could easily help their brothers and solve the palestinian refugee problem.IF THEY WANTED TO HELP! But no, better to sacrifice the palestinians, thats what the arabs think. The starving poor palestinians are the best weapon Hamas and the other arab leaders have against Israel and the west, they wont do anything do change that.

since you failed to notice that since Israel's inception, its Jews have been trying to make peace with its Arab neighbors. So far peace has successfully been made with moderate Arab neighbors, but not at all with the extremist Islamofascists. Sadly, your "creative solution" will be played to closed ears on the part of the extremist Islamofascists.

Why did we evacuate last summer?

It's not Israel's fault. For some reason you choose to ignore the real reason why the Gazans don't have jobs. It was Hamas who destroyed the profitable greenhouses built by Israel and Jews; and it is Hamas who won't allow development of tourism on the most incredible beaches I have ever seen. There are other opportunites too but Hamas says "no way Jose" to every one of them. Just the Israelis turned the Tel Aviv area from a swamp into an oasis, so too could the Gazans. In reality Hamas likes to keep Gaza so desperately poor so that Hamas could be the hero who feeds everyone and who pays the families of Suicide Terrorists when the misdeed is done.

Woe is us with Amir Peretz making the critical decisions on our well-being. Are we to remain at the mercy of this cocky,pompous know-nothing?For the first time , I know fear.

Let's see the UN human rights commissioner complain when Israel responds exactly in kind and lobs hundreds of Kassams per day randomly all over Gaza. If they dare complain about civilian deaths it will show their utter hypocracy. There is only one way to stop the Kassams: shell the towns they originate from just as indiscriminately as they shell us. We tried being more human and it got us into more trouble than another else so let's drop the pretense and give them the same thing back.

If Israel wants to control events, they must think of tomorrow and try to get ahead of the events. The rockets will become more deadly and accurate and longer ranged as time goes by. Hamas is in complete control of events now and Israel is only trying to respond to the threat of the hour. The people in Gaza have no future, no jobs, no hope. Every aspect of their lives is controlled by Israel. Their security, economy, travel, etc are all in Israels hands. This makes it easy to hate Israel and this is the reason that Hamas will never run out of recruits. Killing a few Palestinians, making a few arrests are meaningless. It is time to make a serious peace effort for the first time. A note to Israel about peace negotiations: If it doesn't hurt, you are not doing it right.

THIS GOVERMENT OF FOOLS MUST RESIGN

In accordance with Oslo, Israel exited the West Bank, embraced democratic elections by the Palestinians (the first time ever in their entire history), and exited Gaza as a first step toward Palestinian statehood. Next Hamas, the Palestinians elected leadership, rejected Oslo, rejected Israel's right to exist as a country, and declared war against Israel. The Hamas leadership must be crushed and exiled.

Retake parts of Gaza? Here's a much better idea. Accept the truce being offered by Hamas. And then abide by it. No more dead Palestinians. No more dead Jews. Everyone is happy. Peace.

1. The safety of Israel citizens is the primary responsibility of its government, which the people of Israel were foolish enough to vote into power. 2. The safety of palestinians is the primary responsibility of those that the palestinians were foolish enough to vote into power. Count up the dead on both sides, and see who's doing a better job in fulfilling their primary responsibilty. On the other hand, the Israel government get more abuse from its people over one dead israeli than Hamas gets from the palestinian people over the hundreds of dead palestinians. Not sure why this is, maybe palestinians just don't value the lives of their fellows as much as Israelis do.

I can spend rest of my life at Yahoo or here and beg Palesstinians to free people or stop shot? Have you thought you could speak to them?

Give ALL the rights of Palestinians. See whether peace can be achieved.

Hezbollah is rearming like mad, while Israel's clown of a PM declares success. As for Hamas, this interrnational force would serve as a shield for its ongoing terror build-up. It is clear that Olmert and Peretz do not want to order what is necessary to stop the rocket attacks - this is exactly how they handled Lebanon. Lastly, Peretz is not equipped to decide grave issues of natonal security - it is a disgrace Olmert and Peretz have their positions.

The Jews may try to run away from Eretz Israel as the Sharon/Olmert gang tried to do when they they brutally destroyed Gush Katif, in spite of the fact that Jews have been living CONTINUOUSLY in Gaza for thousands of years, longer than the Arabs. So now, it is calling us back. It is just a matter of time until Israel returns to Gaza and rebuilds Gush Katif.

Unless there is a major breakthrough (such as actual dialogue among parties or a summit with real players), peace will not be seen anytime soon. Sad truth!

have no right to be neighbours of the State of Israel. Make the STONE AGE to GAZANS.

The article says: "Amir Peretz ... requested an examination of options for reoccupying areas of Gaza from which rockets are fired in order to distance the fire from Israeli communities." Qassam rockets were fired almost daily from Gaza when Israel occupied all of Gaza, so what good would reoccupying Gaza do. I'd be all for that idea if it proved to be the solution to the Qassams. But before the disengagement things were just as bad as now. But perhaps Israel should reoccupy Gaza for other reasons. This huge concession by Israel has not done any good whatsoever. It has not brought the region one inch closer towards peace. On the contrary, since the disengagement the Palestinians elected a party that refuses to even recognize Israel's existence. Israel has learned a lesson about making major concessions to the Palestinians.