(Ha'aretz) Ze'ev Schiff - This time, Dahlan arrested several arms dealers, sent forces into the northern Gaza Strip to prevent the firing of Kassam rockets, and plugged up the openings of tunnels in Rafah used to smuggle weapons (though some of the tunnels had not been used for quite a while). The effort was not directed at the real terror infrastructure - such as seizing workshops used to produce rockets or arresting suspects. According to the Shin Bet, all of the measures taken by Palestinians in recent days were intended for public relations purposes and had only a marginal impact on the security situation. There is still no real war on the terror infrastructure. There is an unequivocal decision by Israel's defense establishment not to return to the same type of cease-fire as before. This time there will be no discussion of a cease-fire if it does not include from the outset direct Palestinian action against the terror infrastructure. The bus bombing in Jerusalem was carried out by the Hamas branch in Hebron, which maintains contacts with leaders of the organization abroad, including those in Jordan. While it seems that the Hamas leadership in Gaza did not have advance knowledge of the operation, they immediately adopted the action and praised it, thus making themselves direct partners in the attack.
2003-08-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive