15-Sep-10: Southern discomfort, again

True, there are discussions going on between top-tier political leadership on the Israeli and Palestinian Arab sides. Discussions calculated, according to their US sponsors, to lead to peace via a serious attempt to grapple, as Hilary Rodham Clinton put it this morning "with the core issues that can only be resolved through face to face negotiations". The highly problematic nature of Israel negotiating with a PA echelon that, at best, speaks for half or less of the Palestinian Arabs does not need reiterating here. Nor does a long list of other aspects of the Abbas regime's constant recourse to the ugliest forms of incitement against Israelis, incitement against Israel and incitement against the kind of mutually-painful compromises essential to any progress towards peaceful co-existence.

But there is also war - an ongoing war. a shooting war. 

Two additional rockets and two more mortar shells were fired into Israel in the early hours of this morning (Wednesday) from launch pads in Hamas-controlled, rocket-rich Gaza. The Jerusalem Post calls them further evidence of "Hamas's attempts to fulfill threats made by the group on Tuesday promising a wave of violence meant to derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks." 

Today's mortars landed in the Eshkol region of southern Israel while one of the two Qassam rockets landed in the suburbs of Ashkelon, a coastal city in southern Israel with the misfortune of being more and more within range of the Gazan jihadists. (We still don't know where the second Qassam exploded.) Very fortunately no injuries or damage are reported. This, as we keep pointing out, was not the outcome that the terrorists wanted or intended from their attack. More than a dozen rockets have been fired into Israel so far since the Jewish New Year was celebrated this past weekend.

Yesterday (Tuesday), IDF soldiers operating near the border fence with Gaza came under anti-tank fire and responded with tank shells and light gunfire. One of the terrorists was killed; four others were wounded. A report suggests they belonged to al-Qaeda or one of its local franchisees - in any event, certified, dues-paying jihadist terrorists. In the wake of the shooting, Ahmed Jaabari, leader of Hamas’ military wing, issued what JPost's correspondent termed a rare statement threatening a wave of violence intended to derail the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on Tuesday. That wave appears to have gathered momentum this morning, and it's fair to assume there will be more, just as there were plenty before it.

This past Sunday, three Palestinians were killed after one of them picked up an RPG found in a field near the security fence and pointed it in the direction of Israeli forces a short distance away on the Israeli side of the fence. At least two of those killed – a 91-yearold man and his grandson – were later identified by the IDF as innocent civilians who were not involved in terrorist activity.

The AP photo above was syndicated out this morning. It will be interesting to see which parts of the mainstream media give publicity to Israel allowing construction materials to enter Hamastan so that a water purefication plant can be upgraded, while missiles are falling on the homes and heads of Israelis.

UPDATE Wednesday 16:00 - Today's attacks on southern Israel - the talley of mortars is now six according to AFP, in addition to the Qassam rockets.