No Decision Yet About Israeli Response To Gaza Rockets

Jerusalem, Israel – “A security source clarifies that there is no intention at this point in time to carry out a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip. The forces are indeed deployed. The Gaza Division is ready and prepared for any scenario. The forces have practiced. There are plans. But there is not yet a decision on a large operation.”

This is what Israel Radio military affairs correspondent Carmela Menashe reported on the midnight news magazine of the Israel Broadcasting Authority at 12:07 a.m. this morning.

Throughout the day yesterday, speculation raged as to whether the Israeli army was going to invade Gaza to put an end to the daily shelling of Israeli communities in southern Israel from Gaza. As the day finished in Israel, no decision had been made.

Meanwhile, in Sderot, which has borne the brunt of the Gaza missile attacks, the entire school system closed down yesterday. Representatives of the municipal parents bussed hundreds of children to Jerusalem, to carry out a demonstration at the Israeli government to demand that the government bus their children to schools out of range of the Kassam rockets. Members of the committee said that, under the present conditions, it is impossible to conduct the school system for the entire year.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did convene the Israeli government security cabinet to discuss the firing of the rockets from the Gaza Strip. Some of the ministers demanded decisive action. Israel Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said the IDF should be ordered to stop the firing of rockets into the western Negev, no matter what. Some of the ministers were said to have advocated collective punitive steps. The result of the meeting, however, was in neither direction. The Israeli cabinet simply “left the military option open.”

Israel Says No To The Bush Administration

The Bush administration asked Israel to renew the security coordination mechanism with the Palestinian Authority in various districts of Judea and Samaria.

However, the Israeli government emphatically turned down the request. The request was relayed to Israel through Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, who is the U.S. security coordinator with the PA in the region.

This refers to the system where, after the Oslo Accords were signed in the early 1990s, Israeli and Palestinian officers sat together and coordinated security activities using maps and shared communication systems. This system, which also included security cooperation, worked until the Palestinian rebellion broke out in mid-2000. Until that time, IDF brigade commanders worked directly with Palestinian brigade commanders.

The IDF recommended giving the Americans an absolute no.

The IDF General Staff’s Planning Branch and the Central Command recommended not to allow the DCO system to resume.

Instead, the IDF and GSS, the General Security Service of Israeli intelligence, are monitoring with concern the pressure that the PA is placing to receive full control over towns throughout Judea and Samaria, which would prevent the IDF’s continued freedom of action and arrests. The subject of transferring the cities to PA responsibility will be raised in the course of Middle East Negotiations Coordinator Tony Blair’s visit this week to the region and during U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit next week.

IDF Seals Terror Offices Disguised

As Da’wa Charity

During an IDF operation Tuesday night in Nablus, in coordination with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, forces confiscated documents and digital media from five different Da’wa offices affiliated with the Hamas terror organization.

The Da’wa infrastructure is used to finance and transfer funds under the guise of charity intended for use in terrorism. This serves as an efficient and convenient apparatus for the financial infrastructure of terror organizations.

The Da’wa organizations were declared illegal due to the financial support they provide for families of suicide bombers and imprisoned terrorists. This financial support provides incentive for terrorists to carry out attacks and increases public support for terror organizations.

The IDF issued a statement which read as follows:

“The level of influence which these institutions hold over various groups within the Palestinian public varies. These institutions organize activities ranging from kindergartens in which children are incited against Jews (Israelis in particular) and Americans, to providing funds and guidance to students in higher levels of education, to supporting families of suicide bombers (‘martyrs’) and other Palestinian terrorists who have died or are imprisoned in Israel. It is important to note that these institutions, which are funded by millions of dollars per year, actively encourage terrorism.”

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

©The Bulletin 2007