Brains and brawn
No country in the world would sit around and watch one of its cities being bombarded for six years, powerless to bring the violence to an end.
By Yoel Marcus1. No country in the world would sit around and watch one of its cities being bombarded for six years, powerless to bring the violence to an end.
2. With all due respect to the Palestinians, they must be complete idiots to be fighting one another. As Abba Eban famously put it, the Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss every opportunity.
3. The dreams spun at Oslo have been shattered for good. All the stars of this show have died, become weaklings or disappeared from the stage. Challenged by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Fatah has lost the reins of government and the confidence of its people. The handshakes on the White House lawn and the Nobel Peace Prize have faded away like a dream.
4. Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement turned out to be a serious mistake. It gave terror a boost, allowed the Iranians to call the shots in Gaza instead of the Egyptians, fueled anarchy in the Palestinian street and pushed the chances for an agreement even further away.
5. At the same time, our settlers have become more radical. The next evacuation, if there ever is one, could end in bloodshed. Extremists on both sides are nourishing one another: The Jews have gone back to their dream of not giving up an inch, and the Palestinians have gone back to their dream of a greater Palestine.
6. After six years of Qassam rockets, Sderot has become an item on the international news. At first, these weapons were pooh-poohed as primitive metal pipes. They could not be aimed; they did not always explode; and they could not hit Sharon's ranch. From there, they moved up to primitive but lethal. Israeli defense officials were so dismissive of Qassams that they would not spend money on an interception system. They were right: We need to be getting ready for intercontinental missiles.
7. Very few people in this country of soaring stocks and high-rolling officials have ever stopped to consider what their homes might look like and how their kids might grow up if Qassams were landing in Ramat Aviv and Herzliya Pituah.
8. We cannot wipe out the Qassam launchers because they are much too primitive for a sophisticated army like ours.
9. The people launching the Qassams are not exactly quaking in their boots. They do not give a hoot when we say: "If we don't have quiet, you won't have quiet." What we need to get rid of over there is their motivation.
10. Every time we evacuate Sderot rather than Beit Hanun, we have lost the battle.
11. All this grumbling about bomb shelters is a bunch of hot air. First of all, shelters signify weakness. Second of all, this is like giving an aspirin to a cancer patient and resigning ourselves to the fact that Palestinian terror will be with us forever. Are we going to let a primitive hunk of pipe dictate how we live? Jacob Perry is right when he says that spending on shelters, in our case, is like throwing in the towel and giving up on the war on terror.
12. Major General Yisrael Tal is in favor of the "hate for hate" approach: Set up guns facing the "sources of rocket fire," and for every Qassam launched at us, we give back double and triple. Citizens might be killed? And Israeli citizens aren't?
13. An improvement on the Tal approach is the ultimatum: Every time a Qassam is fired, Israel will issue an immediate announcement that within three hours buildings x, y and z, on this or that street, will be blown up. This will give the tenants time to leave and no one will accuse us of killing women and children.
14. Moshe Ya'alon and a few other old-time generals think that we should carry out a Defensive Shield-type operation in Gaza - just mop up and leave. On the other hand, we would have to be idiots to go into teeming Gaza when we pretty much know that they have stashes of long-range Katyusha rockets capable of reaching Kiryat Gat and Ashkelon and knocking out power in half the country.
15. So what are we going to do with Gaza? Occupy it? We have already done that. What have we achieved by that, apart from occupation? Haven't we learned that occupation is like riding on a tiger's back? All the fleas go along for the ride. There are no overnight solutions. What we need are leaders endowed with both brains and brawn - courageous leaders prepared to talk to Syria, Saudi Arabia and all the Sunni Islamic countries in order to reach a comprehensive agreement. Only that will put an end to Hamas.
16. The time has come to stop going into a panic every time Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens to destroy Israel. He is just a show-off with a very big mouth. The ayatollahs are the ones who say what's what and make the decisions in Iran. They will cut off his hands before he ever reaches the red button.
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...shows very clearly how much the "open minded Israeli" has become like the ver image he has of his crazy arab neighbors. This is pathetic and of no use whatsoever.
The Saudis and the Syrians are going to help Israel ? Jeez, Marcus is as screwy as Eldar. Lastly, as others pointed out, Marcus failed to admit that he strongly supported every failed Israeli policy.
Maybe some middleman arms dealer agents could arrange for them to be fired. Nothing better for arms sales on the steps of the temple than a little help from a bomb salesman. Is nice to know that Israelis work hard to make US War and Oil Bankers rich. What would they do without their poor little Israeli lap poodles? I suggest if Israel really wants the alleged Palestinian tin-can Kassams to quit crashing where they really do no harm, then Israel should talk to it's arms broker and leash holder - the US Arms Industry and arrange for the Palestinians to get F16s - Apaches and all that cool ordinance IDF and IAF use. Give the Palstinians the same weapons Israel has and they won't have to use those embarrasing tin can Kassams. It must have hurt to loose against Lebanese armed with tin cans. All those shiney IDF tanks and no victory to claim. Israel - the wolf is on your stoop - and time is running out - come to your senses before the world hates you right out of existance.
I say that for every Kassam that is fired (whether it hits anything or not) we fire back five projectiles at their population centers. No need to aim much. Some will fall in field and others will hit houses. Pals will be injured, die or escape. In this way they will learn, as they haven't learnt until now, that for EVERY action there will be a reaction. Their only security in protecting their lives will be to make sure that Kassams are NOT fired first. I wonder how long, in such a scenario, they will be happy to keep firing their metal pipes. Firing a Kassam at Israel is an act of war.
17. If the reason we are not worrying about Iran is that the Ayatollahs will protect us.... it's all over.
Good article, but there's a misconception about Hamas "improving" Kassams to reach 20-30 miles into Israel, like the Hezbollah Fajr rockets from Lebanon. Look, physics says that to fly 3 or 4 time as far, MORE than 3-4 times as much rocket fuel is needed, which means a bigger heavier rocket structure. Fajr rockets from Lebanon weighed 400-1200 Kg, way too big for 2 guys in a rusty Toyota to unload and assemble on a launcher. To do this needs a substantial transporter-erector truck, something easily detected/destroyed by the IAF, especially in the open spaces of Gaza. Further, the sugar-nitrate fertilizer rocket fuel Hamas uses is very difficult to scale up for use in rockets bigger than 6" diameter (chemistry reason) - or NASA would use this for the Space Shuttle. Kassams are a dead-end technology, a terrorist weapon. Defeat them in their present form, and the entire threat goes away. Remember: 100% of the components of today's Kassams MUST BE IMPORTED, choke off the supply, game over!
Shouldn't Egypt be inforcing the law in Gaza? Israel has a treaty with Egypt, yet it results in nothing on the Gaza issue. Israel should have kept Sinai and offered pieces of it to the Palestinians as bargaining chips.
...articles in even minor European news papers standing for Palestinian/Arab politics....and people think this to be typical Muslim. Sderot stands for Palestinian politics. Go on with making new friends. This time the Palestinians may loose any rest of sympathy and political back up in Europe, since Hamas' programme is spreading and read well in the European Parliament.
he describes and now gets money for it . As if it were Marsians,not himelf&Co enthusing over the fatal mistakes. Now he pushes for the final blunder-accepting Saudi Initiative,aimed at deluding Israel with pals. Take personal consequences Marcu of your crimes against Israel.
Israel has turned a full circle and is retreating. Give up the occupied land, return to the 1967 border and take up ht eoffer of Hudns from Hamas, and many lives will be saved. A one-state South African solution is the on just and viable option that will bring peace, if thats what Israelis want.
Yoel writes this doom and gloom article as if the Qassam launchers are dominant and have the upper hand over Israel. If he checked, he would see that in six years, the Qassams have killed exactly 14 Israelis. Just about the same number that had been killed by one suicide bomber in the past. Over those same six years, The IDF has retaliated numerous times, killing hundreds of Palestinians, mostly civilians. Beit Hunan has been occupied and shelled, destroying an apartment building and killing many, including children. Attacks have occured from Israeli naval ships, tanks, artillery, jets, helicopters and infantry units. Hamas leaders have been assasinated. Their officials have been jailed. Their utilities cut off. Israel and America have armed and supported Fatah to attack Hamas, as Yoel mentions, in order that he might call them idiots. They have been embargoed. Now, Yoel wants to get serious!! Come on Yoel, Get serious...