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Fighting in Gaza Continues

As fighting between Israelis and Palestinians continued in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Jerusalem that the toppling of the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority was not the goal of operations in Gaza. Criticism of Israel?s actions by the European Union, Switzerland, and other nations has been rejected by Jerusalem, with each denunciation of Israeli actions being met with Israeli denunciations of Europe?s failure to unequivocally condemn rocket attacks and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in a Palestinian terrorist infiltration into Israel over two weeks ago.

?We have no particular desire to topple the Hamas government as a policy. We have a particular desire to stop terrorists inflicting terror on the Israeli people. Whoever is involved with terror will have to pay for it.? The Israeli operations in Gaza have now gone on for thirteen days, with Israel demanding the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and the cessation of Qassam rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza. The terrorists, for their part, have demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, but up until now Jerusalem has rejected negotiations.

Even though Olmert stressed that toppling the Hamas government was not currently on the agenda, he did not mince words when describing the group or its leader, currently living in Damascus, Syria. ?(Khaled) Mashaal is a terrorist with blood on his hands. He is not a legitimate partner for anything. Israel will not negotiate with Hamas. The Hamas government is a terrorist government, not one influenced by terrorists or sympathetic with terrorists, but a terrorist government whose members are deeply involved in terror.?