It’s The Mother Of All Historical Days for Israel as thousands of news reports are pumped out containing dramatic details such as this from the Guardian:
Israeli forces dragged hundreds of religious Jews from synagogues in the Gaza settlements yesterday as hardline opponents of Israel’s withdrawal from the territory made a last stand.
Commandos backed by water cannon stormed the roof of Kfar Darom synagogue after a group of ultranationalists barricaded themselves behind barbed wire and pelted the security forces below with acid, paint and large water melons.
In the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, it took an operation involving 5,000 troops and police to prise nearly 1,000 protesters, including hundreds of teenage girls, from two synagogues. Soldiers spent hours wrenching men from a woven network of bodies spread over the synagogue floor.
Despite the resistance, the emptying of the settlements has proceeded quicker than the army planned with most completely or largely cleared in just two days. The operation was scheduled to be completed by September 4 but Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, yesterday said that all 21 of the Gaza settlements could be evacuated by Monday.
So the prime concern right now is on ejecting the stubborn settlers, right?
Perhaps not.
Israel is now seemingly caught in a classic pincer as it struggles to empty the Gaza settlments AND deal with the Palestinians — AND cope with a reported buildup by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas:
The Palestinian group Hamas, responsible for several bloody attacks on Israel, is engaged in a massive buildup of manpower and weapons and must be dismantled by Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon says.
“They have taken a tactical decision to keep terror on a low flame but not stop it entirely,” Ayalon said of Hamas, which remains a potent force in Gaza as Israel withdraws from the territory and part of the West Bank…..
As this AP interview indicates, the situation in Israel is highly complex:
“But we observe a very massive buildup with recruitment and training of new terrorists, of mobilizing more financial support and explosive munitions, and having the cells ready and the chain of command ready,” Ayalon said in an interview Tuesday at the Israeli embassy.
“This is literally a ticking bomb that can explode whenever they find it suitable to their purposes,” he said.
The Israeli diplomat said Hamas is a threat to the Palestinian Authority as well as to Israel and does not have the support of a majority of the Palestinian population.
Ayalon also disputed the assertion of some Palestinian leaders that they do not have the strength to take on Hamas and that that is due, in part, to Israeli forays into the West Bank and Gaza in past years to disable the Palestinian security setup.
Indeed, in the end, Palestinian leaders seem to be engaging in the good, old time-tested technique of “plausible deniability” by not cracking down on Hamas and saying part of the reason they can’t do so is because of Israel. That way they can maintain their more diplomatic image while allowing others to bloody their explosive powedered hands using more overtly bloody techniques for the same cause.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.