Israel Update for May 2008

David Dolan

May was an extra special month in the Promised Land as dignitaries from around the world gathered to celebrate Israel's 60 year anniversary as a modern country. Tens of thousands of visiting Jewish and Christian tourists joined international leaders and local citizens in marking the remarkable re-creation of the world's only Jewish state on May 14, 1948-following a nearly two thousand year absence from the regional map.

However the festivities took place amid stepped up Palestinian rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, striking nearby Israeli cities and towns and leaving several civilians dead and others severely wounded. The attacks prompted officials to warn that a major military operation could soon be imminent to uproot Hamas from the volcanic coastal zone. At the same time, indirect ceasefire negotiations in Egypt stalled as both sides rejected the other's demands.

As Hamas-allied Shiite Hizbullah forces brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war during May, Ehud Olmert publicly confirmed that Turkey is mediating peace talks between Israel and Hizbullah's main puppet masters, Syria. However many Israeli pundits and politicians expressed deep skepticism over the Prime Minister's motives in announcing he is indirectly talking with the Iranian-backed regime in Damascus, given he may be facing indictment over fresh criminal bribery allegations. Olmert promised to resign if formal charges are filed against him, prompting several of his cabinet subordinates to prepare for a sudden Kadima party vote to succeed him.

Although Hizbullah handed back portions of Beirut captured in street battles with anti-Syrian Lebanese Sunni Muslim and Druze forces in early May, a subsequent truce accord mediated by the Arab League gave the radical group unprecedented political power in the fractured country-an ominous indication of further anti-Israel attacks to come.

Islamic Terrorists Push To The Limit

The weeklong Passover holiday ended in late April with more unprovoked Palestinian terror attacks upon Israeli civilians, this time next to the northern Samaria Arab town of Tulkarm. Two Israeli security guards working inside an industrial zone there were shot dead by Palestinian terrorists who successfully penetrated the zone's security fence. The industrial complex, which brings together Arab and Jewish businesses and workers, was established as a "peace dividend" of the failed Oslo peace accords. Both of the male Jewish victims, in their early 50s, left behind wives and children. The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group took initial responsibility for the unprovoked twin murders.

On May 9, a Hamas mortar shell struck a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip, instantly killing 48 year old Jimmy Kedoshim while he was peacefully tending his garden. The father of three was deeply mourned by Kibbutz Kfar Aza residents, and also by many other Israelis who knew him as an engine powered paragliding champion, having won several national competitions. Kedoshim's wife Anna had been gardening at her husband's side until just minutes before the attack, when she entered their nearby home to escape the afternoon heat.

The following day, more than 20 rockets and mortar shells were fired into areas around the Gaza Strip, causing structural damage but thankfully no additional casualties. Palestinian groups said the barrage was meant to avenge ongoing Israeli army operations against Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists in the Gaza Strip.

Four days later, a 75 year old Israeli woman was instantly killed when a Palestinian Kassam rocket crashed into a house in another Israeli community ten miles east of the Gaza Strip. Shlomit Katz had decided to visit friends living in the western Negev community of Yesha, where the rocket struck.

The untimely deaths of two Israeli civilians, slaughtered when terror suddenly reigned down from the skies while they were simply living their quiet lives, caused additional mourning during the week between Israel's annual Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers. Speaking at the official state ceremony on May 6 to commemorate and salute Israel's 22,437 soldiers killed in eight wars, dozens of limited operations and hundreds of terror attacks since 1948, Prime Minister Olmert said Israel's survival in such a hostile region "depends on our willingness and ability to continue to defend ourselves, to battle our enemies when we need to."

Mother and Child

As hundreds of foreign dignitaries, including American President George W. Bush, were gathering inside Jerusalem's main convention center to mark David Ben Gurion's historic declaration of independence in Tel Aviv, an Iranian-made Grad rocket struck a shopping mall in Ashkelon. A 24 year old mother was holding her young daughter in her lap while talking to a doctor at a gynecological clinic, located on the top floor of the four story Hutzot mall, when the rocket came crashing through the roof in the coastal city with 120,000 residents.

The subsequent explosion and falling debris severely injured all three females, along with another female patient sitting in a nearby waiting room. An additional eight people shopping or working in the crowded floors below were wounded, most of them struck by falling debris. Around 87 others were treated for shock as the large building shook from the powerful blast. Officials said the number of wounded and/or dead would have been significantly higher if the Grad rocket had not exploded when striking a thick crossbeam holding up the roof, which they said kept it from crashing through the floors below.

The sinister attack seemed to be the final straw for many Israeli officials, some of whom heard about it while meeting with their foreign counterparts in the early evening of May 14. Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the scene the following evening, where he told angry residents "You all need to bite your lips, but not for very much longer." Other political and military officials spoke even more bluntly, telling military reporters that a massive IDF operation to oust Hamas leaders from power in the Gaza Strip, and to defeat and dismember the estimated 20,000 Hamas militia force, would likely begin soon after this month's anniversary celebrations are over-meaning possibly at any time now.