Ehud Olmert is moving to box in Hamas by not responding heavily to yesterday’s suicide bombing.
“Olmert heard the defense establishment’s ideas for possible strikes against the Palestinian Authority, and though the government is responsible, the decision was that there should be more limited action for now,” a political source said.Among measures authorized was the revocation of the Israeli residency status of Hamas officials living in East Jerusalem and a police crackdown on the smuggling of Palestinians without permits, who could be militants, into the Jewish state.
Not much considering what happened, but I think this is a smart move. Israel has much larger concerns at the moment and should save energy for them. Meanwhile, Hamas and their pals contribute to their own demise by attacking the hapless Abbas for criticizing the suicide bombing.
“We ask President Abbas to apologize to the entire Palestinian people because of the offense he committed,” the groups said in a joint statement by a coalition of militants read by a masked gunman at an open-air news conference in Gaza.
The Mossad couldn’t have done it better. [Maybe it was the Mossad.-ed. Who knows?]
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5 Comments
1. Piranha:What are you suggesting that Mossad did, exactly?
Apr 18, 2006 - 9:23 am 2. Doug S.:So you’re arguing that Ohlmert has decided to let the two scorpions sting each other to death?
Apr 18, 2006 - 10:53 am 3. Mark Poling:Doug wins the stuffed Arafat doll.
Careful with the stuffing though….
Apr 18, 2006 - 6:57 pm 4. Doug S.:Eww. That sounds even creepier than a hundred troll dolls combined!
Apr 18, 2006 - 10:57 pm 5. Daniel in Brookline:I must say, Roger, I’m not as confident as you that Olmert is outflanking Hamas and the Palestinians. But I’d love to be wrong.
I love your final point — suppose some Mossad operatives pretended to be Hamasniks and gave a press conference, in Arabic, while wearing guns and masks/i>. Who would doubt them?
I have wondered for a while how Palestinians hope to govern themselves, when their strongest leaders are apparently afraid to show their faces in public. That’s not how you build a society; that’s how you perpetuate a reign of terror.
Judging by the results of the recent Palestinian elections, that seems to be what they want. God help them.
respectfully,
Apr 19, 2006 - 11:21 amDaniel in Brookline