BE PREPARED?

Middle East prepares for mayhem (Abraham Rabinovich, 23aug03, The Australian)

ISRAEL and Palestinian militants busied themselves yesterday preparing mutual mayhem following the termination of a ceasefire that had held for six weeks.

Hamas spokesmen vowed that "rivers of blood" would flow in Israeli cities following a helicopter attack in Gaza that killed the organisation's third-ranking leader, Ismail Abu Shanab. All Palestinian militant organisations said they would renew attacks on Israel.

Israeli officials said Abu Shanab's targeted assassination was only the first of a series approved by the security cabinet following a bus bombing in Jerusalem on Tuesday that killed 20 people, including six children.

The officials also said Israel was contemplating a massive incursion into the Gaza Strip, similar to the takeover of Palestinian cities in the West Bank last year. [...]

Israel was not an official party to the unilateral ceasefire, but it suspended its more aggressive actions, such as targeted assassinations and large-scale incursions. It did, however, continue to arrest "ticking bombs", militants whom it said were planning attacks against Israel. In two such arrests earlier this month, four militants were killed when they opened fire, killing one soldier. In retaliation, Islamic militants staged two suicide bombings, killing three Israelis.

Because of the relatively low number of fatalities and the desire not to undermine the ceasefire, Israel did not respond to the suicide attacks as it once would have.

The "rules of the game" changed sharply in a third tit-for-tat flare up, when the Israeli killing of a single Islamic Jihad military leader in Hebron last week was followed by the Jerusalem bus bombing. Within hours, the Israeli Government decided to make its own changes to the rules with a massive crackdown on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including political leaders, regardless of what happens to the Abbas administration.

It's a damned depressing headline, but this too shall pass and the ceasefire was always meaningless, because Mr. Abbas doesn't control the militants. One would wish though that the Israelis would take advantage of this opportunity to execute Yasir Arafat. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 23, 2003 1:01 PM