International Law and common sense call for Israel to replace the caretaker government in Gaza with one that is not murderous. I would argue for an Israeli governor to replace Hamas, rather than trying to find a Palestinian alternative to Hamas. Certainly Fatah is not an option for reliability against terror nor stability against another coup. But one thing is clear, now that a major population center like Beersheva is under continual attack, the Knesset's moral obligation to act is clear.
The story of Sderot is hard to believe. A border town attacked with thousands and thousands of rockets, and insufficiently defended by its own government. But Beersheba is no mere border town, and with the expanded range of rocket attacks, to be able to hit that historic population center of the South of Israel, the next expansion of Gaza's rockets' range would place Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport in range, G-d forbid.
Regional concerns of how enemies may try to use the retaking of Gaza against Israel at the U.N. are mute arguments. If your major cities are being attacked, diplomatic score keeping must take a back seat. Concerns of escalating matters to a war level is illogical. There already is war, the only question is how to stop it. In addition, the war pattern is Islamic Jihad Vs innocent civilians, with reprisals by the IDF against the terrorists. It's time to consider allowing combatants to battle each other and leave the weary citizens of the South alone.
Stop mere tit-for-tat strikes that make bad press, and limited security enhancements. Retake Gaza entirely and then as with the Golan, take pause before you consider giving it back to anyone.
May it be the Will of G-d that such reasoning appear more sensible to the memshalah/government than the current status quo.
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The day after I wrote the above post, this following essay was posted to the Web:
"The war on terrorism cannot be won by defensive - but only by offensive – means, notwithstanding the impressive performance of the Iron Dome missile defense system."
"...More than10,000 Gaza-based missiles have been launched, systematically and deliberately, at Israeli cities, kibbutzim and villages since Israel's disengagement from Gaza in September 2005 (1,700 annually), compared with 700 missiles launched from 2001 to September 2005 (140 annually). In addition, over 5,000 mortar shells have been launched at Israeli civilians since the disengagement."
From: Defense and Retaliation – Not an Option
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought”
"Israel Hayom” March 12, 2012
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1534
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