Thursday, June 29, 2006

Nobody does Chutzpah like the Israeli Security Forces

Watching the last few days of the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip I have to hand it to the Israelis – they know how to do incursion with chutzpah and a sense style that the rest of the world can only sit back and envy. It leaves us all asking - whatever will they think of next? Talk about shock, awe, and woo.

From an incursion to the most radicalize area in the region without producing a single casualty in the last 48 hours, to the Sonic Boom flyover by the IAF to Syrian Presidents Assad’s palace, to the detention of half of the Hamas parliament members of the Palestinian Authority. If anything, this shows us the true meaning of leave no man behind or Hamas Parliament member. Here’s the Jerusalem Post’s account:
In an unprecedented operation, the IDF arrested overnight Wednesday over 60 senior Hamas members throughout the West Bank, including ministers in the Palestinian Authority parliament. Detainees included such senior figures as Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek, Labor Minister Muhammed Barghouti, parliament member Mohamemd Abu Teir and the mayors of Kalkilya and Jenin. Army Radio revealed that Deputy Prime Minister Naser a-Din Shaer was not arrested, as was reported earlier.

In the cities of Ramallah, Nablus, and Bethlehem security forces arrested the men and took them to be interrogated under the suspicion of being involved in terror activities against Israel. OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh told Army Radio that IDF troops surrounded a building in Ramallah where some 20 Hamas members were staying. They surrendered without a fight, he said. He added that the arrests were to continue in the future days. Army Radio revealed that they were being brought to a military detention campe, and would soon be brought before a judge on charges of involvement in a terror organization.

Interior Minister Roni Bar-On emphasized Thursday morning, in an interview to Israel Radio, that accusations claiming the men were arrested to be used as bargaining chips to be dealt in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit were baseless.
Bar-On added that if enough evidence was found tying the men to terror activity, they would stand trial in Israel.

Within the IDF, however, conflicting voices gave the impression that the men could possibly be used as bargaining chips. Other sources said that the detainees would certainly not be released in exchange for the soldier, and that they were arrested for their involvement in a terror organization.

UAL MK Ahmed Tibi on Thursday called the massive arrest operations "a macho display of strength." He stated that the operation had nothing to do with the release of Shalit and added that it would only lead to deterioration in the situation and additional bloodshed. A Hamas military-wing spokesman in the West Bank responded Thursday morning by saying that the arrests would not bring about Shalit's release, and that Hamas was still demanding the release of female Palestinian prisoners, as well as prisoners under the age of 18, from Israeli prisons.

About those women and youth being held in Israeli jails. Forget for a minute that the majority of them committed acts of violence to get incarcerated in the first place. Has anyone asked, if they want to be freed? I know I might be more than a tad resentful, if I worked on finally getting a life by being sent to an Israeli jail ,and then some alleged do-gooder went and tried to negotiate my release so I could go back to under burqa arrest.

It is also hard to believe that the Israel won’t be using those Hamas members as bargaining chips – I’ll raise you a deputy minister, 10 legislative members, and south Gaza for a corporal, and 25 legislative members for a settler. But who knows, maybe the idea is to force a new election by locking up the bad guys. If Hamas and than Fatah leadership ends up in jail, maybe the Palestinians can finally elect a new government without terrorist creds, and get a thriving economy, clean water, and a football pitch for those youth.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Hamas claims the arrest of their legislative members is tantamount to declaring war; yadda, yadda, yadda. Funny, I would have thought Hamas declared war by launching an offensive into pre-1967 Israeli territory, killing two soldiers and kidnapping another soldier. My bad.

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