Showing posts with label Gaza ceasefire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza ceasefire. Show all posts

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Israelis Angered by Gaza Ceasefire After 174 Mortars and Rockets Hit Negev - Ryan Jones Israel Today

Israelis Angered by Gaza Ceasefire After 174 Mortars and Rockets Hit Negev

Sunday, July 15, 2018 |  Ryan Jones  Israel Today
Many Israelis have characterized the government's response to ongoing "terror kite" attacks from Gaza as flaccid, at best.
So, when Hamas and its allies upped the ante by lobbing no fewer than 174 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel at the weekend, there was some hope that the Israeli army would finally get a green light to take real action.
The Israel Air Force did bomb a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad installations, but it's the kind of damage from which the terror groups quickly recover.
Israelis want the threat eliminated completely, and see the ceasefire agreed to by the government on Saturday evening as a bandaid on a festering wound.
The constant fear of having to run for bomb shelters at any moment "is ruining our lives," a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza told Israel's Mako news portal.
Others complained that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemingly isn't making their ability to live in peace and security a top priority. "Another escalation, and [Netanyahu] is off traveling to the World Cup," said a resident of Netiv HaAsara, referencing the fact that the prime minister took the opportunity during last week's visit to Russia to enjoy the world's largest sporting event.
The government argued that the return of relative quiet to the area known as the "Gaza envelope" should silence the residents' grumbling.
In an interview with the Ynet news portal, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz insisted that it was Israel's "strong response" to the rocket fire over the weekend that compelled Hamas to seek a ceasefire. "We will not accept any acts of terror against us," Steinitz said, stressing that additional attacks on southern Israel would be dealt with harshly.
But the mayor of Sderot, the Negev town most often hit by Gaza rockets, warned that the manner in which the weekend's violence was resolved had put Hamas, not Israel, in the driver's seat.
"We are not pleased with this ceasefire," Mayor Alon Davidi told Mako. "It is Hamas, not Israel, that's deciding when to escalate and when to back down. I call upon the prime minister and his cabinet to come down to the south and hear from the residents what life is like here."
Mayor Davidi's criticism was echoed by Education Minister Naftali Bennett.
"Allowing Hamas to dictate the terms of the ceasefire after two months of arson attacks and hundreds of rockets on the residents of Gaza border communities is a serious mistake," read a statement released by Bennett. "Showing restraint creates an escalation in violence."
Indeed, as Bennett concluded, the greatest fear of the residents of southern Israel is that their government's policies have committed them to a "long war of attrition."
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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Obama Using Hamas Terror as Leverage Against Israel - ISRAEL TODAY

Obama Using Hamas Terror as Leverage Against Israel

Tuesday, July 29, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff
Israelis were once again left dumbfounded by the behavior of the American Administration after US President Barack Obama on Monday appeared to be using Hamas terrorism as leverage to get Israel to resume peace negotiations under Palestinian terms.
Earlier in the day, the White House was found whining to the press as US Secretary of State John Kerry once again became the recipient of a diplomatic tongue-lashing by senior Israeli officials after he proposed a Gaza ceasefire deal that some in Jerusalem described as “offensive.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki insisted that Kerry’s truce plan was consistent with an earlier proposal that Egypt had put forward and that Israel had accepted. However, the fact that the Palestinian Authority also rejected Kerry’s deal, which it said had been authored by the “Friends of Hamas,” called into question Psaki’s grasp of the details.
At any rate, Psaki complained that Israel’s manner of rejecting Kerry’s plan is “not how you treat your partners.” Not a few Israelis retorted that the same could be said of Kerry’s plan, not to mention incessant American complaining over Israeli military actions.
By the end of the day, Kerry appeared to have drawn closer to the Israeli position, suddenly declaring his support for the demand that any ceasefire lead to the disarmament of Hamas and the entire Gaza Strip.
There was still a gap between Kerry’s position and that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told Israelis in a televised address that an acceptable Gaza truce must include, not lead to, Hamas’ disarmament.
And then Obama stepped in and dropped his bombshell, suggesting that he’d only press the issue of Gaza’s disarmament in the context of a final status peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The latest round of US-brokered peace talks broke down after the PA unilaterally sought UN recognition outside the framework of an agreement.
“The President stressed the US view that, ultimately, any lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must ensure the disarmament of terrorist groups and the demilitarization of Gaza,” the White House press secretary announced.
What is really angering a lot of Israelis is the fact that the demilitarization of Gaza was a primary Palestinian obligation when the so-called “Oslo Accords” were signed 20 years ago, as Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz has pointed out in a number of recent interviews and press briefings.
“Gaza was supposed to be totally demilitarized. That is a Palestinian commitment signed on the White House lawn 20 years ago,” Steinitz told CNN, noting that former President Bill Clinton and those involved at the time all recognized the necessity of disarming Gaza as a fundamental step toward peace.
That Obama is now using, and allowing the Palestinian Authority to use the overly exaggerated militarization of Gaza as leverage against Israel is further proof to many Israelis that the American government cannot be trusted to honor or guarantee any agreement signed by the Jewish state.
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