When is a cease fire not a cease fire?
When more than 60 rockets are launched on a daily to near-daily basis, destroying property and wounding civilians.
When is a war a “shaky truce”?
When only Israelis are targeted.
Israel decided on Wednesday to resume pinpoint attacks against Palestinian rocket-launching cells in Gaza, jeopardizing what is already a shaky, month-old truce with Gaza militants.
The decision came hours after a Palestinian rocket seriously wounded two Israeli teenage boys in Sderot, a town in southern Israel close to the Gaza border. Shortly after the new policy was announced, a rocket was fired from Gaza but no injuries were reported.
Although Israel said it remains committed to the truce, the decision to strike against rocket launchers clearly raises the tension.
Parse that last sentence. The rockets that wound Israelis are not “raising tensions.” But trying to kill the terrorists launching the attacks “clearly raises the tension.”
WTF is wrong with these people? WTF is WRONG with these people? WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
But wait, it gets worse.
What’s missing from this Reuters article about Israel resuming pinpoint attacks against terrorists? Any mention of the latest rocket attack, which seriously wounded two Israeli teenagers. “Youths,” they’d be called if they were palestinians wounded by the IDF.
Israel said on Wednesday it would resume attacks against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip but insisted it remained committed to a month-old ceasefire in the territory.
In a statement that appeared to rule out a major military offensive in Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said: “A directive has been given to the defense establishment to take pinpoint action against rocket-launching squads.”
The governing Palestinian Hamas movement said “there is a risk the calm will be blown away by the wind” if Israel resumes what the Islamic militant group termed assassinations.
“There has been almost complete (Israeli) restraint,” Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said on Israel Radio. “We have changed this policy.”
Olmert has come under growing public criticism for failing to retaliate for more than 60 such attacks from the Gaza Strip since the November 26 truce.
Not a word about the wounded children. Not. A. Single. Word.
But in this Reuters factbox, they mention the wounded boys. Barely.
HOW LONG WILL THE CEASEFIRE HOLD?
The month-old truce faces its toughest test.
Israel had said it would show restraint despite continued rocket fire from Gaza, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved the change of policy after a “Qassam” wounded two teenagers in southern Israel on Tuesday.
Although Israel said it remained committed to the truce, any deadly strike against militants in Gaza could quickly feed a spiral of violence that would put paid to the ceasefire.
If a Palestinian rocket killed an Israeli, then Olmert would be under even greater domestic pressure to take tough military action. He already faces accusations of weakness from some opponents.
WHAT HAS THE TRUCE DELIVERED?
The ceasefire halted an Israeli offensive in Gaza aimed at recovering a soldier captured in a cross-border raid and significantly reduced rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
Liars. No, wait, they’re telling the truth. The cease fire did stop Israel from invading Gaza. So it was a win for the terrorists.
I can’t stand this Alice in Wonderland talk any more. It’s as if the entire news media has taken the Humpty Dumpty rule as their role model:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Obviously, to the media, “rocket attacks” means “truce” and “wounded Israelis” means “shaky cease fire”—no more, no less.
This is indeed outrageous. But then again, a Jew defending one’s self has always been considered a crime in Europe.
And when Israel finally takes some action my prediction is that the western media will refer to it as “breaking the fragile truce.”