Israel Matzav

New York Times: Kassams, Shmassams!

The New York Times agrees with the Prince of Piece by Piece, Shimon Peres. You may recall that about a month ago, in reaction to the Kassam rockets raining down on Sderot, 'Deputy Prime Minister' Shimon Peres' reaction was "Kassams Shmassams." Now the Times uses much fancier language to say the same thing.

In Gaza, where Israeli operations have been going on for two weeks and seem to be expanding day by day, it is not too soon to question Israeli military strategy, as many Israelis themselves are now doing. Israel’s initial foray into the southern part of Gaza, after one of its soldiers was kidnapped near the border, was appropriate, as were the initial airstrikes on bridges, meant to impede the movements of the kidnappers.

But after these steps failed to produce their intended result, the operation seemed to lose its clear territorial and counterterrorist definition and began to take on a perverse momentum of its own. Israel should not back off its efforts to secure the release of its kidnapped soldier. But it needs to refocus its Gaza operations on that very specific goal.

You got that folks? It's okay for us to go into Gaza to rescue one soldier who is being held hostage by Hamas, but not to rescue hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are being held hostage to the constant pitter patter of rockets raining down that are being shot by Hamas? Something is very wrong with that equation.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:04 PM