TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Israel's government came under attack for failing to intercept at least six rockets fired at Israel by Palestinian critically wounding a worker earlier this week. An aide to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to downplay the attack's significance, suggesting it is more of the same.
The Qassam rockets are still poor, inaccurate but statistically are bound to kill someone. Last week it was a 57 years old woman. One of Defense Minister Amir Peretz' guards lost both legs. Olmert's media advisor, Miri Eisin, told United Press International there has been no increase in the number of rockets the Palestinians fire, their lethality or technicalities.
Such attacks could be expected following the last Lebanon war. Hezbollah rocket barrage that Israel failed to stop forced some 350,000 Israelis to leave their homes. It became a strategic weapon.
Three months after that war political pressure on the government to do something about such rockets intensified.
A Jewish-Russian billionaire, Arkady Gaidamak, seemed to put the government to shame when he sent busloads of Sderot residents to relax in Eilat. It indicated the government was doing too little.
The fact Israel withdrew from Gaza and that lawlessness governs there probably increased Israelis' sense of anxiety and the demand the government do something about it.
"No state would have put up with a situation...whereby crossing a road in one of its cities, or going to the grocery store would become a bloody poker (move)," wrote Ha'aretz columnist Yoel Markus.
Palestinians maintain Gaza's occupation is not over. The head of the Palestinian president's press office, Mohamed Edwan, said Israeli troops surround the Gaza Strip, its aircraft fly over it, and that it has closed the crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt stranding thousands of people.
"Some of those who shelled these Qassam rockets are ... provoking Israel, but Israel is very much provoking them because of all kinds of occupation and terror actions against Palestinian civilians. Do not forget the Beit Hanoun massacre," he said. Edwan was referring to the shelling of that town a fortnight ago. Israel said it wanted to hit a Qasam rocket launching area but that a faulty circuit board caused the artillery to hit the town, killing 20 civilians.
The Israelis are deeply concerned also over increased arms smuggling from the Sinai. It fears that if unchecked the tons of standard TNT, rockets, missiles and guns would enable the Palestinians to build a stronger military capability.
Military Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Dani Halutz Sunday told the cabinet that buildup was more disconcerting than the rocket attacks.
Olmert noted that in the past three and a half months Israel killed some 370 armed Palestinians.
Monday Israeli troops, operating deep inside Gaza, killed two Hamas militants and, according to Palestinian accounts, a 70 years old woman.
Tuesday bulldozers destroyed a plant in a rocket launching area. Hothouses, fields, irrigation systems and a transformer, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported.
Tuesday night soldiers were still south of Beit Hanoun and south of the Gaza Strip's northern border, the army reported.
Peretz offered a cease-fire. It is a move Israel has not done in years and reportedly angered Olmert who reportedly told the defense minister not to initiate moves without clearing them first, with the prime minister and foreign minister.
Tension around the Cabinet table surfaced Sunday. Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, noted that when he had been defense minister, "Targeted killings of all Hamas leaders and not just the activists in the field produced results ... such activity should be resumed."
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter was roundly criticized when he said the army ought to be ordered to stop the Qassams.
"If you favor occupying the entire Gaza Strip, say so," snapped Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, also a former defense minister.
"It is wrong to create an impression that there is an idea (of how to cope with the rockets) and that the nebbish government, the army, or both are idiots and don't do it," said Olmert.
Olmert and Peretz do not want to reoccupy Gaza. They know it will be a costly operation.
Eisin noted that in 2002 Israel lost 23 soldiers while trying to reoccupy Jenin, in the northern West Bank. Resistance in Gaza is expected to be stronger, she indicated.
Peretz told defense industry executives he has commissioned the development of "a response to the high trajectory fire" and hoped to decide "within weeks" on the preferred direction.
However an executive in missile producing industry estimated it would take four years before a suitable solution is available.
The Palestinians, too, have a dilemma. The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations demand their government renounce terror, accept Israel, and abide by previous agreements the Palestinian Authority has concluded with Israel.
Fatah and Hamas parties are negotiating the formation of a national unity government. They hope it would lead to lifting the international boycott that has been crippling their economy.
They want Israel to transfer some $300 million of taxes it collected on their behalf, release prisoners including ministers and legislators it arrested following the kidnapping of Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
However in order to get all that, there must be an effective security system or an agreement among the various political groups and powerful families to stop the violence. In a society that is disintegrating, that might be a tough task through some Israelis advocate giving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a chance.
