Sderot roundup

Rockets have fallen on Sderot almost daily for over a year now, and the world notices them only when they do damage—or when the IDF responds.

Israel’s leadership has decided that the terrorists can fire at will. Once again, Israel won’t do what it takes to stop the kassam fire.

The IDF’s policy in Gaza has not changed drastically, but the military will be permitted to operate more widely, while focusing on specific targets, in order to minimize the Qassam rocket threat on Israel.

The decision came following the emergency evaluation meeting held by Defense Minister Amir Peretz Tuesday night after Qassams barrages hit the southern town of Sderot, leaving a mother, her son, and about 20 other residents wounded.

It was also decided that the Home Front Command will increase its aid to residents of Sderot and the vicinity.

In light of the intelligence and operational evaluations presented in the meeting, the Israel Defense Force will be permitted to perform wider operations in the Gaza Strip, including hitting terror sources, ‘targeted killings’, and other operations meant to stop the rocket shootings.

Luckily for Olmert, Hamas is killing Fatah members are a pretty good clip, and even managed to screw up and kill five of their own. (And may they have more such luck in the future.)

Police from the Fatah-allied Preventive Security organization arrested five Hamas men and were driving them through Gaza City when the vehicle was ambushed by Hamas fighters, Preventive Security officials told The Associated Press. Five of the Hamas men were killed, along with two Fatah men, they said.

Oh, they got another civilian. A rescue worker, in fact. Not that that matters much. She’ll be considered a “martyr” and added to the “killed-by-IDF” stats.

Hamas radio reported that a Hamas man was killed in another clash, and a nurse in an ambulance was shot in the head after being caught in the crossfire, hospital officials said. Her family said she was brain dead and on a respirator.

War crimes abound in Gaza, but you will see no special UN session to discuss them.

A group of about 200 Palestinians marched in central Gaza City, waving Palestinian flags and demanding an end to the fighting. Dozens of masked gunmen used the cover of the demonstration to improve their positions on the street, and then opened fire on the demonstrators, wounding one in the leg. The rest fled.

Hamas, of course, blames everyone but themselves for the fighting.

The international community, Israel and Arab countries are to blame for the current inter-Palestinian fighting in the Gaza Strip for failing to life an economic siege on the Palestinians, a senior Hamas official said Wednesday.

[…] “The international community and Arab countries shoulder part of the responsibility for the current events due to their attitudes toward the national unity government,” Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press by telephone in Damascus. “The continued financial and political siege has pushed matters to this simmering tension.”

[…] “The Israelis are behind all these events,” Abu Marzouk said. “It’s illogical that the Arabs stand idle watching the Palestinian arena while it’s on the verge of explosion under the siege. … This is a constant pressure that has led to a real explosion.”

Abu Marzouk singled out Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, for criticism. “He was one of the main instigator for these events because he is continuing his siege of the Palestinian people and had boycotted Palestinian elections,” the Hamas official said.

Yeah, because just look at all the suicide bombers and civil wars the situation in Darfur has caused. Oh. Wait. The deaths in Darfur are mostly due to the Arab Janjaweed militia. My bad.

Meantime, the man who would be PM is evacuating Sderot using his own money.

Business mogul Arcadi Gaydamak came to the rescue of hundreds of terrified Sderot residents on Wednesday, after nearly 30 Qassam rockets landed in the town in 24 hours.

Gaydamak received a letter on behalf of Sderot’s residents on Tuesday, requesting that they be evacuated from the town.

The billionaire responded to the letter by sending eight buses to the town, in order to take residents out of harm’s way to hotels in Beer Sheva and Ashdod; he also pledged to aide in the fortification of homes in the town.

The problem is, the terrorists are using the evacuation as proof the rockets are working. It’s a Catch-22 situation. Stay and be shelled, leave and lose the town to terrorism.

“Launching Qassam rockets has proven itself,” said Ahmed when confronted with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas statement, that the firing rocket further damaged the Palestinian cause.

“The rockets have caused the Israelis to leave Sderot” he said.

He’s right, of course. Israel can’t stop the rocket fire. Only the Palestinians can do that, and they have so far shown no inclination of doing so. And so the mess that is Gaza, which holds the dysfunctional group that is the Palestinians, continues to drag Israel down. And what is the world’s response to all of this?

Aid to Palestinians has nearly tripled. In other words, the world is funding the war on Israel.

Donations to the Palestinian Authority almost tripled last year as a result of the international boycott of the Hamas government, according to a report published this month by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Aid in 2006 totaled $900 million, up from $349 million a year earlier.

The boycott meant that most countries refused to channel money directly to the PA, and Israel refused to transfer the tax revenues it collects on the PA’s behalf.

However, Arab and Western nations continued and even increased their donations, channeling them through either a “Hamas bypass” mechanism known as the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM), or the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. This money, which compensated entirely for the halt in Israeli tax transfers, partially financed the salaries of PA employees and was used to make welfare payments to the needy.

Thanks, world. Way to make Palestinian society whole again. Reward them for their continued anarchy and terrorism.