Israel pledges revenge as rocket attack kills woman

Palestinian rocket fire has killed a woman in Sderot, bringing the inevitable Israeli calls for revenge to be taken.

The woman, Fa'ina Slotzker, 57, is the ninth Israeli to be killed by a Qassam since 2000.

This, in turn, comes on the back of Palestinian calls for revenge after the Israeli's killed 19 Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun last Wednesday and seems to undermine the Israeli claims that their actions in the Gaza Strip are to reduce the firing of Qassam's into Israel. At the very least, their actions are not stopping the attacks.

The Israelis continue to insist that there is a military solution to this problem:

Avi Dichter, the public security minister, told Army Radio that Israel must expand its operations to bring about "a complete halt" to rocket fire, "whether that means a ground operation, or an air operation or other special operations".

Eli Moyal, the mayor of Sderot, who said the dead woman had not been Jewish, added: "We have to convince the Palestinians not to shoot. The Israeli government has to make clear shooting doesn't pay. There has to be a reaction and that means using the army."

Mr Ziegler, whose front-room window was smashed by the shock of the blast more than 100m away, said: "The army should go into Beit Hanoun and demolish all the houses so there are no areas to shoot from. That is the only possible solution."

A far more sensible solution would be for the Israelis to halt their operations in Gaza and engage in negotiations with the Palestinian's elected leadership, many of whom are currently being held in Israeli jails.

The Israelis seem to cling to the belief that they can bomb and blast their way to peace, despite 38 years of evidence pointing to the opposite conclusion. If military might could solve this problem, then the Israelis - with their vastly superior firepower - would have established peace long ago.

The only solution will be through negotiation with the Palestinians, a path that Olmert's government - backed by the neo-cons - seems unwilling to explore.

Orly Saroussi, 26, a communications student at the local Sappir College, said there should be a ceasefire by both Israelis and Palestinians. "We can't go on like this," he said. "I don't know if we should bring the leaders of the two sides together to talk but we need to stop all this first. This is just a chain of destruction."

She said many Sderot residents did not agree with her. But she added that she believed no one in the town, considering the shelling which killed 17 members of a family in Beit Hanoun last week, thought "that they deserved it". She said: "Children are being killed, children are hurting. We can't live like this."

I find myself in total agreement with the young Israeli student. However, it looks likely that Olmert will take this as an opportunity to further increase his attacks on the infrastructure and population of Gaza and that the cycle of violence will continue.

People are sometimes mind-numbingly stupid.

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tag: Israel, Palestine, US foreign policy, Gaza