Wednesday, October 6, 2010

163 Rockets So Far

2010 has been a good year so far on the rocket front: only 163 of them have been shot at Israel's citizens, demonstrating that last year's Gaza operation was a good idea. The IDF has just put up lots of data.

No other country in the world would regard these numbers as satisfying, of course. Only 163 rockets and mortars lobbed randomly towards its civilians.

You might expect Israel to be demanding that a total cessation of any shooting be a prerequisite for any settlement freeze, except that of course the PA on the West Bank can't be expected to deliver. Which then raises the question of the point of the whole negotiations exercise (which I happen to be in favor of).

4 comments:

Barry Meislin said...

You might expect...

Right. Well, um, actually, since the Palestinians are (generally seen as) justified in shooting these things (and anything else) into Israel for as long as the "Occupation" (TM) exists, one should not expect that they would want the "Occupation" (TM) to end any time soon.

Roger Waters notwithstanding.

(You see, Roger, it's an "ergo sum" kind of thing.)

NormanF said...

I am NOT in favor of it.

The PA cannot deliver and Abu Bluff does not want to negotiate.

Ya'acov, do you want to force him to make peace? I don't think you could do it any more than you could lead a recalcitrant horse to the water.

Anonymous said...

I get told told that lots and lots of Gazans are on the Fatah payroll - doing what for the money?

couldn't they run a rocket lab licensing bureaucracy adhering to health and safety standards in order to prevent any more Gazans getting hurt in the process of production. And couldn't they run a shop where the rockets are tested whether they comply with state of the art environment protection rules etc. etc. promising of course that by their activities the Gazan rocket industry could reach new heights of excellence.

Bureaucrats are able to throw spammers into everything claiming with a straight face only the best of intentions, why can't they do it with Gazans' rocket production.

BTW when local ex-Russian Germans celebrate a wedding with fire works the police is called immediately, fire works being only allowed and on sale during New Year celebrations and then of course only those that have passed highest safety standard tests.

Silke

Anonymous said...

I always wondered (since at least the Second Intifada), why Israel has had so much patience with all those terrorists, who are (still)trying to kill as much innocent civilians as possible.

Then I was wondering, why no one did something about it at UN.

Before "Cast Lead" I was wondering, what would happen if Israel would lose this patience.

Now, a bit older, I still do wonder about israeli patience, but not about UN or the "international community".

Now Israel has to endure lots of international pressure, but for now it is mostly safe. So I think from a security point of view "Cast Lead" was a success and the security barrier as well.

That's not as good as real peace, but it's an improvement.

Regards, André