Palestinians break Truce.

[Minischoles]

Two rockets 'strike Israeli town'

At least two rockets fired by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have hit the Israeli border town of Sderot, Israeli police have said.

No-one was seriously injured in the first rocket attack since last week's truce in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip

Israel said the attack was a "grave violation" of the ceasefire.

*snip*

A spokesman for Islamic Jihad accused the Israelis of breaking the ceasefire.

The group had earlier said attacks on its militants in the West Bank could jeopardise the six-day-old truce in the Gaza Strip.

While the West Bank is not covered by the truce, correspondents say incidents like these have put a strain on similar ceasefires in the past.

The Israeli army said the Islamic Jihad member, Tareq Abu Ghali, had been planning a bomb attack and that troops had found weapons and explosives in his rooms.

So it barely managed to even last a week before they struck at Israel after Israel stopped someone wanting to bomb them to violate the ceasefire anyway.

[Rickie]

War is an effect, not a cause. Nothing is going to improve until there are chances for economic prosperity in Palestine, something Israel has a long history of preventing.

Cheerio.

[Beowulf]

Surprise! If there's a way the Palestinians can fuck themselves over, they'll try for it.

[hongi]

Islamic Jihad didn't keep to the truce, but Hamas did. So the majority of Palestinians is keeping to the truce.

[JBG]

War is an effect, not a cause. Nothing is going to improve until there are chances for economic prosperity in Palestine, something Israel has a long history of preventing.

Cheerio.

Weasel words. Why can the Palestinians purport to make agreements that they will typically, for whatever reason, break but there is no hit to their integrity? I wouldn't buy a used car from them.

[Lancer]

The Palestinians themselves aren't a unified group. Though Hamas is now the dominant militant group and the de jure government of the Gaza Strip, they still can't extert any significant degree of control over the other militant groups, so any deal they make with the Israeli government can and will be gleefully broken by any old asshat with a rocket workshop.

[Coyote]

Just so you two know, Rickie and JBG, there is a general moratorium on Israel vs. Palestine threads due to the propensity for such discussions to spiral down into acrimonious nothingness...

[Darth Raptor]

I like how any mook with a rocket launcher can break the truce on behalf of the whole country.

[Stormbringer]

I like how any mook with a rocket launcher can break the truce on behalf of the whole country.

"Islamic Jihad said it carried out the attack to avenge an Israeli raid in the West Bank in which two died."

It's not 'any mook'; it's one of the major terrorist organizations which the cease fire is intended to cover. Either the Palestinian government can or cannot deliver on the actual enforcement end of the cease fire agreement. If they can't then their word doesn't really mean a damn thing. And it seems that one of the principle offenders has already broken it.

[Rickie]

Just so you two know, Rickie and JBG, there is a general moratorium on Israel vs. Palestine threads due to the propensity for such discussions to spiral down into acrimonious nothingness...

K

[hongi]

I like how any mook with a rocket launcher can break the truce on behalf of the whole country.

"Islamic Jihad said it carried out the attack to avenge an Israeli raid in the West Bank in which two died."

It's not 'any mook'; it's one of the major terrorist organizations which the cease fire is intended to cover.

Either the Palestinian government can or cannot deliver on the actual enforcement end of the cease fire agreement. If they can't then their word doesn't really mean a damn thing. And it seems that one of the principle offenders has already broken it.

The truce is only between Israel and Hamas, and only in the Gaza Strip. IJ isn't part of the truce. But Hamas should definitely have better control over Islamic Jihad, considering the rocket attack came from Gaza, which is their jurisdiction after all. If Islamic Jihad wants to respond to Israeli attack in the West Bank, they should have fired rockets from the West Bank.

[Ace Pace]

Islamic Jihad didn't keep to the truce, but Hamas did. So the majority of Palestinians is keeping to the truce.

Like hell. Islamic Jihad and many of those 'splinter' groups that Hamas can't control are basically Hamas puppets that Hamas uses to act outside their channels. This has been obvious since last thursday when Hamas basically came out and said "we will not stop smuggling weapons. Nor can we control splinter groups wishs to fire rockets."

[JME2]

It lasted less than a week? Well color me shocked...not...

[hongi]

Islamic Jihad didn't keep to the truce, but Hamas did. So the majority of Palestinians is keeping to the truce.

Like hell. Islamic Jihad and many of those 'splinter' groups that Hamas can't control are basically Hamas puppets that Hamas uses to act outside their channels. This has been obvious since last thursday when Hamas basically came out and said "we will not stop smuggling weapons. Nor can we control splinter groups wishs to fire rockets."

If Hamas are a bunch of useless tossers who won't or can't stop attacks, then what's the point of the truce?

[Kanastrous]

That was the same problem with dealing with Arafat.

If he can't control his people, what was the point of dealing with him? If he won't control his people...what was the point in dealing with him?

[Sidewinder]

Surprise! If there's a way the Palestinians can fuck themselves over, they'll try for it.

I second that. The Palestinians are starving because they can't get jobs or import food, and they can't get jobs or import food because SOME of them decided to launch terror attacks against Israel and to import weapons with which to launch those attacks. Logically, the terrorists would uphold the truce so the people they claim to be helping, can get jobs in Israel and import food, but their logic makes Brannon Braga's look like Herman Melville's.

If Hamas are a bunch of useless tossers who won't or can't stop attacks, then what's the point of the truce?

It's possible Hamas WAS able to stop attacks, but it encouraged aggression towards Israel in an attempt to get further concessions, i.e., foreign aid, and that plan went down the toilet when the aggressors acted WAY BEYOND the limited scope Hamas demanded.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

If Hamas are a bunch of useless tossers who won't or can't stop attacks, then what's the point of the truce?

I believe that that was the point raised by this board and many Israelis the first time this 'truce' was announced.

That whole 'Desperate last hope for some semblance of peace to grab like drowning man on a rope before we go and raze the God-forsaken place again' feeling apparently won out.

[Ace Pace]

If Hamas are a bunch of useless tossers who won't or can't stop attacks, then what's the point of the truce?

The point of the truce is two-fold from Hamas's point of view.
One, it further erodes political stability in Israel, because for the last two years it has been an implict assumption that any cease-fire must return Gilad Shalit. Clearly, he was not returned. This will likely provide the final push that will break Olmert's coalition.
Second, it gave them a week to move forces around. Once they were not under constant helicopter threat, they re-did safe houses and such things. Also, gave them a week of uninterrupted gun smuggling. This will likely cause another full scale land invasion of Gaza.

Israel got nothing.

That whole 'Desperate last hope for some semblance of peace to grab like drowning man on a rope before we go and raze the God-forsaken place again' feeling apparently won out.

What semblance of peace? In the west bank maybe, but Gaza has been an active war zone since the last real chance of peace, the dis-engagement. The Hamas government has systematically destroyed any chance of peace and reconciliation.

[cosmicalstorm]

Im curious; is there any predicitions for how this conflict is likely to continue/evolve into the future?
How will they be affected by an energy crunch for instance?

I've heard various people claim that the jewish population in Israel is shrinking (They are trying to make up for it by importing "worthless" eastern Europeans) while the Arab-Israeli population is growing.

But that might be a crock of shit for all I know.
Are there any predictions other than "they will continue bickering for a thousand years"?

[Coyote]

The Arabs' birthrates are higher than the Jews', but both are growing. The Israelis' birthrates (last time I checked) still outpaces most of the Western world.

But demographically, the Israeli gov't will face a choice-- keep the land and lose the Jewish majority --and openly embrace Apartheid statism-- or cut the Palestinian lands loose and retain Jewish majority in Israel proper.

They originally took th eland to give themselves 'strategic depth' in the event of an invasion, but after Saddam's SCUD attacks in 1991 it became clear that the idea no longer has real merit. May as well cut 'em loose.

[hongi]

But there's no guarantee that an independant Palestinian state will be strong enough, or indeed even willing, to prevent further attacks against Israel. I think there's at least the possibility that the Islamic groups will keep on fighting because Israel is full of Jews and they "did horrible things to us in the recent past!! the jewish pigz must pay for their sinss!"

Sure, we'll now have a state that we can actually hold responsible and if need be, go to war over, but then isn't that the same problem?

[Vympel]

Moratorium enforced.