Crisis Engulfs Israelis and Palestinians

Jerusalem • 7/17/2005

Israeli armed forces continue to mass around the Gaza Strip today, poised to launch a major military operation at any moment amid a continuing barrage of Palestinian rocket attacks upon Israeli civilian communities. Well over 100 Kassam rockets—produced by the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hamas Islamic terrorist group, which is also linked to Hizbullah militiamen in Lebanon and the Al Qaida terrorist network—have pounded Israeli communities inside the Gaza Strip and also outside of it since late last week, leaving one young Israeli woman dead and several more civilians wounded. Two homes and several other buildings have been destroyed in the rocket blitz. The unprovoked Hamas attacks upon the Israeli town of Sderot—not far from Ariel Sharon’s northern Negev ranch—have prompted the angry mayor to cancel all summer activities for children after several rockets landed near city-run summer camps. A family dog was killed last night when one rocket struck a yard outside of a private home. People in communities all around the Gaza Strip, as well as the 8,000 settlers living there, are on full alert as rocket assaults continue today. MAJOR ARMY ACTION IMMINENT The Israeli cabinet met this morning and decided to give Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas one final chance to immediately halt the rocket firings before ordering the army and air force into imminent action. For the first time, Abbas directed his PA security forces to actively suppress the radical Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist fighters, producing the worst internal Palestinian clashes in many years. This came after many world leaders phoned Abbas after last Tuesday’s Islamic Jihad suicide terror strike in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, which left five people dead, including four females, two of them teenage girls who were lifelong best friends. That homicide blast came just minutes after PM Sharon decided to seal off the Gaza Strip in an apparent attempt to thwart a mass Israeli civilian protest against his disengagement plan, scheduled to begin tomorrow near the Gaza Strip. Despite his unprecedented action, PA leaders continue to partially justify the rocket and terror attacks as an “understandable response” to supposed Israeli aggression. In fact, the army has indeed stepped up action in recent days against known Islamic radicals—which is only natural given that Israeli civilians are again being targeted for sudden death by the extremist groups. MORE SIGNS OF CIVIL VIOLENCE As internal conflict engulfs the Palestinians, Israelis are closer to serious civil strife than at any other time in my two and a half decades living in the land. Serious clashes between Israeli soldiers and civilians took place overnight and this morning at the Kissufim junction into the sealed off Gaza Strip. Dozens have been injured in the clashes and arrests have been made. The first signs of a potential split inside the army—which is extremely dangerous given Israel’s many vociferous regional enemies—were evident at the scene. A reported 13 soldiers obeyed a religious ruling issued last Friday by two of Israel’s widely respected former Chief Rabbis for all soldiers to disobey government orders to seal off the quaking strip. One soldier actually left his post and joined the hundreds of Israeli civilians and Gaza residents protesting the closure and the pending evacuation of settlers from their Gaza Strip homes. When traveling in parts of Europe and the United States earlier this year, I shared with many audiences my strong sense that the Gaza and northern Samaria uprootings scheduled to get underway in mid-August will not take place in the end. This was based on my prayers about the situation over the past year. I shared that I have sensed that a combination of potential major Al Qaida terror attacks abroad, combined with military action in the Middle East, probably involving the Hizbullah militia and its regional Islamic allies, would so overturn the applecart that the withdrawals would at least be put off. Of course, only time will tell—and I stressed that this was just my private sense, not a prediction or a “prophecy.” . However this past week’s sharp escalation in violence here, coming in the wake of the atrocious terrorist bombings in London, have only reinforced my sense that something really big may be brewing. I will send out my full monthly news report next week. In the meantime, your prayers, as always, are greatly appreciated.