Israel Matzav

Going the wrong way in Gaza

The Olmert-Barak-Livni government (or the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government as Caroline Glick calls them in Tuesday's column) is headed the wrong way in Gaza in yet another bid to avoid doing what needs to be done and to find someone else to fight its battles. The government is now proposing to set up buffer zones around Gaza to make it more difficult for the terrorists to shoot rockets into Israel. There's only one catch: Instead of pushing the 'Palestinians' back to create the buffer zones, the group of appeasers that runs this country wants to pull Israelis back.

In an effort to minimize chances of successful terrorist attacks against Israel, the IDF is drawing up plans to move the Gaza crossings away from Israel's border, defense officials said Monday. [I'm sure this will just thrill residents of the Jewish towns on the border. Right Netiv Ha'asara? CiJ]

There are currently four crossings into Gaza - Karni, Erez, Kerem Shalom and Sufa, all of which straddle the tense Israeli-Gaza border.

Plans to move the crossings and reduce them in number began last month, shortly after Palestinians perpetrated a car bombing against the Kerem Shalom crossing in which 11 soldiers were wounded.

Last Thursday, a truck laden with four tons of explosives blew up on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing, causing extensive damages but no Israeli casualties. The plan to move the crossings several kilometers deeper into Israel is being coordinated by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i, together with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav, and the Shin Bet.

"We want to create a sterile area between the crossings that would reduce the risk of car bombs and other attacks against the crossings," said a defense official working on the project. [That makes sense, but why not doing by pushing the 'Palestinians' back? CiJ]

According to the plan, some of the crossings would be cancelled and others moved slightly east and into Israel in order to create a buffer zone between the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the crossings.

The project could cost several hundred million shekels. As the plan could be implemented in the coming months, Vilna'i has ordered the Defense Ministry to refrain from investing the several million shekels needed to fix Kerem Shalom, which has been closed since the attack last month.

Officials are also considering building conveyer belts to transfer supplies across the buffer zone and into Gaza. This method is already used at Karni to transfer wheat and other cereals.

If this plan goes through we will see another Hamas 'celebration' in the streets of Gaza. It would be much better to cut the 'Palestinians' supplies off altogether than to do something foolish like this.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:58 AM