We’re Heading Toward A Major Clash In Gaza

Jerusalem – In a meeting with teenagers from the missile-torn southern Israeli town of Sderot at Israel’s Knesset Parliament yesterday, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee chairman Tzachi Hanegbi said that “it won’t be long until we will become embroiled in a very serious clash in the Gaza Strip.” He said that “Hamas wants to break the State of Israel and to apply pressure that will cause the ministers and the prime minister to make hasty and mistaken decisions that will not serve the State of Israel. That is the method of cowards who shoot at innocent people.”

Hanegbi assured the teenagers that “the government is responsible for lifting the threat, the threat of Kassam rockets, from you,” but had a hard time convincing the teens, who posed difficult questions, such as why the government failed to act in Sderot the way it did in northern Israel.

Assad: War Is Always An Option

In an interview with the Saudi Arabian daily Al-Jazeera, Assad accused successive Israeli governments of not being serious about seeking peace with Syria. “Various figures visited Israel and came to Syria and conveyed to us the Israeli points of view,” the Syrian president said. “But there was nothing serious on the ground. The present Israeli government, in particular, is the weakest government in the history of Israel.”

Assad noted that Israel recently began a dialogue about resumption of the peace process, but the demarche remains in the realm of talk alone.

“They said in public, from the mouth of Olmert, that the decision lies with Washington, and the present U.S. administration has declared more than once that it is not interested in the peace process,” Assad said.

“We have not given up all hope,” the Syrian president said. “Perhaps we have lost hope in the Israeli government or in the U.S. administration for the next two years, but I cannot lose hope entirely.” To this, Assad added a thinly-veiled threat, implying that if there is no peace, there will be war. “You have to march on the path of war whether you like it or not, and war is the most customary option in this region. The situation will not be easy in the next two years, but we have to prepare ourselves in any case. Perhaps the next stage is the stage of peace.”

In the interview, Assad addressed the expectation that he, as a member of the younger generation of leaders in the Middle East, would be willing to make more concessions than his father was willing to grant.

“They in Israel made the mistake of thinking that, for every new generation, it would be easier to grant what Israel wants in order to achieve peace,” Assad explained. “To tell the truth, what is happening is quite the opposite. The delay exacerbates the tension. The tension increases extremism. The extremists demand quick solutions.” Assad stressed that quick solutions are always the most costly. “That is why we in Syria have always said that peace is the easiest solution, and the least costly of all. …”

MKs To Be Obliged To Swear Allegiance To National Anthem, Flag

The opening shot was fired yesterday in the battle between the Jewish and Arab Members of Israel’s Knesset Parliament. Two new bills that were introduced to the Knesset call for the wording of the oath taken by MKs and ministers be changed so that it contains a statement of loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state and to its symbols, such as the national anthem and flag. The Arab MKs have vowed to fight back.

One of the bills was worded as such: “It is appropriate that Members of Knesset and ministers should declare their allegiance to the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation.” A new member of the Knesset, Atty. David Rotem, argues that the “bills come to underscore that those who are not prepared to declare their fealty to the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and to honor its symbols, such as the national anthem and flag, cannot be either an MK or a minister.

He can, of course, be a loyal citizen, but in order to be an elected public official, he is going to have to accept explicitly the state as Jewish and its various symbols.”

“We are talking about the continued fascist deterioration…” said MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List).

“I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow they demand that the Israeli flag be put on containers of olive oil and packets of hyssop. We reject this proposal outright. This Knesset is capable of passing any vote that has an anti-Arab element to it, even if it includes a clause that stipulates that the sun rises in the west.”

The new bills are expected to be introduced for debate before the Knesset in another number of weeks, after the Knesset returns from its Passover break.

Security Official : ‘We’ll Act If The Shooting Continues’

“The talking is finished. If the violations of the cease-fire continue, Israel will respond forcefully and the IDF will take very fierce action against the terror organizations,” said a high-ranking Israeli security official in the wake of the shooting attack on Monday near the Karni crossing into Gaza, where Kobi Ohayon, an Israel Electric Corporation worker, sustained moderate injuries.

Security officials criticized the Palestinian violations of the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip that was agreed upon between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Abu Mazen. Southern Command officers said yesterday morning that the violations were done on a weekly basis. The officers described a routine of planted roadside bombs, shooting attacks at IDF soldiers and activity along the border fence.

Political officials closely affiliated with Prime Minister Olmert said Monday that the fact that Hamas assumed responsibility Monday for Ohayon’s injury proved that the Palestinian Authority was controlled by a terrorist government.

The political officials said that the terror attack strengthened Prime Minister Olmert’s position that Israel must not talk with the Palestinian unity government. “The fact that Hamas itself assumed responsibility for the terror attack is proof that the Palestinian Authority has a terrorist government that has no intention of taking a pragmatic approach towards Israel,” they said. “It has proven the best way possible that the policy the government adopted is correct.”

Since the cease-fire on Nov. 26, Palestinians have fired 178 missiles into Israel from Gaza, with no Israeli response.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is ww.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.

©The Bulletin 2007