A Return To
Targeted Killing

and like any other state
it must bear the conse-
awn broke June
quences of its aggression.
27 over the Israel-
. But Israel did none
Gaza border on a
of this. On the contrary,
surreal but not unfamiliar
infiltrations and rocket
scene: Rows of Merkava tanks,
strikes began almost
armored personnel carriers
the day after the Gaza
and Humvees were assembled
disengagement. The pri-
Michael Oren
in preparation for an incur-
mary target was Sderot, a
Special
sion into the Strip. These forc-
working-class town in the
Commentary
es — when given the green
western Negev populated
light — would punch through
mostly by long-settled
booby-trapped refugee camps
immigrants from North
in search of Hamas and Islamic Jihad
Africa and more recent arrivals from
gunmen, while Israeli jets and heli-
Russia.
copters hunt the terrorists from above.
Israel responded with missile
By invading Gaza, Israel hopes to
attacks aimed at eliminating the
counter increasingly bold Palestinian
Palestinian rocket crews and destroy-
attacks — such as the firing of some
ing the Kassam factories. But the
1,000 Kassam rockets at Israeli border crews were too elusive and the facto-
towns and the kidnapping of an Israeli ries too readily rebuilt.
soldier by Hamas June 25. The troops
The attacks against Sderot and
will probably net a large number of
other border towns intensified — sev-
terrorists and may rescue the captured eral Kassams struck Askhelon, Israel's'
soldier.
major industrial city in the south
But while the operation may flex
— and the Palestinians elected a
its military muscle, it cannot restore
Hamas government sworn to escalate
Israel's deterrence power or prevent
the violence.
future rocket attacks and kidnappings.
Israel retaliated by blasting the
Indeed, the attack may well prove pyr- Kassam launching areas with artil-
rhic — inflicting greater injury on
lery fire, but the barrages did little
Israel than on the Palestinians.
but churn up dirt and accidentally
The quandary Israel confronts today hit civilians. The Jewish state, from a
originated in the unilateral withdrawal Palestinian perspective, seemed help-
of all Israeli settlers and soldiers from
less.
Gaza last August. A sizable majority
Israel's impotence was the product
of Israelis supported disengagement,
of several factors. First was Prime
excruciating as it was, as a means of
Minister Ariel Sharon's reluctance to
achieving a national consensus on the
reoccupy Gaza so soon after evacuat-
country's borders and of preserving
ing it. Then came Mr. Sharon's stroke
its vital Jewish majority.
and the Israeli elections, during which,
Yet even those Israelis most in favor traditionally, Israel refrains from stag-
of the Gaza pullout understood that
ing large-scale operations.
many Palestinians would interpret
Finally, Ehud Olmert succeeded
the move as a strategic retreat and a
in cobbling together a left-of-center
victory for Hamas and Al Aqsa terror.
coalition that pledged to proceed with
"We shot at the Jews and they fled
the unilateral disengagement from
Gaza:' they would say, "so let's keep
the territories (or, as it is now called,
shooting and they'll abandon Tel Aviv,
convergence), but largely abandoned
Haifa and Jerusalem."
Mr. Sharon's hard-hitting anti-terror
Israel could have refuted that claim
tactics.
by responding immediately and mas-
Though himself a resident of Sderot,
sively to every infiltration and to every Minister of Defense Am ir Peretz, a
rocket fired, irrespective of whether
Laborite and advocate of renewed
the attacks caused Israeli casualties.
talks with the Palestinians, vowed
Gaza is now a de facto independent
Targeted Killing on page 30
state, Israel should have declared,

Jerusalem

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29