SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN TO ME

An End to Ambiguity - Hillel Halkin
If terror consists of randomly killing and maiming non-combatant civilians for the purpose of sowing fear and insecurity, Sunday's raid on an Israeli military post, carried out by the military wing of Hamas, was the antithesis: A well-planned and well-executed attack on a strictly military target that was chosen long in advance - an act of war. The Palestinian organizations have wanted to kill civilians rather than soldiers because this is precisely the message they have wished to deliver - namely, that their enemy is not specifically the Israeli "occupation," nor even the Israeli army, but the entire Jewish population of Israel.

The Palestinian Authority now has a Hamas government - and however this government may twist or turn, and however it may have tried to disassociate itself from the hundreds of Kassam rockets shot from the Gaza Strip into Israel with its complicit knowledge in recent months, it cannot disassociate itself from the Hamas soldiers who raided the Israeli outpost on Sunday. Israel should therefore say to this government: "The charade is over....We are also declaring war on you. From now on we will treat you as any country treats another country it is at war with. We will close all our borders with you, cease providing you with all services, and consider any branch of your government, any of its members, and anyone on your side contributing to your military effort, legitimate war targets....And when you're ready to sue for peace-and-quiet, let us know." (New York Sun)

Stop Terror at Its Source - Michael Oren (Wall Street Journal)
By invading Gaza, Israel hopes to counter increasingly bold Palestinian attacks - such as the firing of some 1,000 Kassam rockets at Israeli border towns and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas earlier this week. The quandary Israel confronts today originated in the unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza last August. Infiltrations and rocket strikes began almost the day after the Gaza disengagement. Several Kassam rockets struck Ashkelon, Israel's major industrial city in the south - and the Palestinians elected a Hamas government sworn to escalate the violence.

By demonstrating that disengagement impaired rather than enhanced Israeli security, Hamas has dissuaded many Israelis from supporting a similar withdrawal from the West Bank, from where Kassams could be launched at Tel Aviv and the Ben-Gurion Airport.

After a few days of heated battles and accusations of Israeli atrocities, the government will be compelled to extract its forces from Gaza, and the rockets will keep raining on Sderot. Posing as defenders of the land, Hamas will be made more, not less, popular by the Israeli attack. There is, however, one way to avert a public relations disaster for Israel, to limit casualties, and to restore Israel's deterrence power.

Israel must return to the targeted-killing policy that enabled Mr. Sharon to triumph over terrorist organizations. Israel must target those Palestinians who order others to fire rockets from within civilian areas but whose families are located safely away from the firing zones. No Hamas or Islamic Jihad leader should be immune from such reprisals - neither Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah nor Khaled Mashaal, who masterminds Hamas from Damascus.

Those responsible for causing injury and death to both Israelis and Palestinians must pay the ultimate price. Only then can quiet be restored to Israel's borders and progress toward either unilateral or negotiated solutions resumed.