Diplomacy Upstaged by Defence
The senior commander in the West Bank authorized a raid into Ramallah to seize a rare opportunity to aprehend the Ramallah commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, loosely affiliated with Fatah. Although Rabe Hamed, the militant in question was wounded, he was spirited away by his men and the IDF came away empty-handed. But not before the skirmish caused the deaths of four men.
Given the fact that fighting in the Gaza Strip between Hamas forces and those of Fatah, (bitter enemies to the nth degree), caused six deaths in factional fighting, including a senior security officer of the Fatah movement killed during a dramatic day-long siege of his house by a Hamas paramilitary force, internecine warfare is far outstripping deaths and casualties among Palestinians, as compared with skirmishes with the IDF.
Still, Israeli raids, whatever their motivation (defensive, in attempts to identify and disable sources of rocket attacks into Israel; offensive in attempts to isolate and capture commanders of militants whose sole function is to destroy as much of Israeli life as possible) infuriate Palestinians, understandably, and also have the effect of uniting an otherwise bitterly divided Palestinian population.
On the other hand, despite the outrage over Israel's latest and unexpected incursion into Ramallah, the killing of Col. Mohammed Ghayeb, chief of the Fatah Preventive Security Service at his home in Beit Lahiya by Hamas militants, will ensure that both party leaders will face insurmountable difficulties in reining in their militias. All the more so that four of Col. Ghayeb's guards were killed and 30 people, including eight children were wounded during the attack.
As for the four young Palestinian men that the IDF forces killed during the Ramallah raid, they were among a crowd throwing stones, firebombs, metal trash barrels, blocks of concrete and even a refrigerator at the Israelis, from rooftops. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the clashes. The kid gloves come off when faced with this level of violence from the population.
The unfortunate and somewhat embarrassing fallout of the IDF Ramallah incursion appears to be the staging at such a time when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is meeting with President Hosni Mubarek of Egypt in talks aimed at enabling peace initiatives between Israel and Fatah's Abu Masen (Mr. Abbas). President Mubarek is also pushing Israel to engage in peace talks with Syria, and that's a bit of a stretch, given Syria's funding of its proxy-terror-militias, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Peace will ensue when terror stops.
Given the fact that fighting in the Gaza Strip between Hamas forces and those of Fatah, (bitter enemies to the nth degree), caused six deaths in factional fighting, including a senior security officer of the Fatah movement killed during a dramatic day-long siege of his house by a Hamas paramilitary force, internecine warfare is far outstripping deaths and casualties among Palestinians, as compared with skirmishes with the IDF.
Still, Israeli raids, whatever their motivation (defensive, in attempts to identify and disable sources of rocket attacks into Israel; offensive in attempts to isolate and capture commanders of militants whose sole function is to destroy as much of Israeli life as possible) infuriate Palestinians, understandably, and also have the effect of uniting an otherwise bitterly divided Palestinian population.
On the other hand, despite the outrage over Israel's latest and unexpected incursion into Ramallah, the killing of Col. Mohammed Ghayeb, chief of the Fatah Preventive Security Service at his home in Beit Lahiya by Hamas militants, will ensure that both party leaders will face insurmountable difficulties in reining in their militias. All the more so that four of Col. Ghayeb's guards were killed and 30 people, including eight children were wounded during the attack.
As for the four young Palestinian men that the IDF forces killed during the Ramallah raid, they were among a crowd throwing stones, firebombs, metal trash barrels, blocks of concrete and even a refrigerator at the Israelis, from rooftops. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the clashes. The kid gloves come off when faced with this level of violence from the population.
The unfortunate and somewhat embarrassing fallout of the IDF Ramallah incursion appears to be the staging at such a time when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is meeting with President Hosni Mubarek of Egypt in talks aimed at enabling peace initiatives between Israel and Fatah's Abu Masen (Mr. Abbas). President Mubarek is also pushing Israel to engage in peace talks with Syria, and that's a bit of a stretch, given Syria's funding of its proxy-terror-militias, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Peace will ensue when terror stops.
posted by Pieface | 6:12 PM
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