Today's Situation

REMORSE AND RECRIMINATION, November 08, 2006

Israel went on the defensive on Thursday, a day after at least 19 Palestinians – mostly women and children – were killed in Beit Hanun by what is believed to have been an errant IDF shell. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered a probe into what went wrong, IDF Chief Dan Halutz ordered the army to stopping shelling Qassam launch areas, and police ratcheted up the alert level after Hamas vowed revenge.

According to Haaretz, the IDF inquiry committee appointed to look into the incident, headed by Major General Meir Kalifi, is examining two main options for what caused the shell to stray 500 meters off course. The committee believes that the disaster was the result of either a technical problem or human error. The problem (or error) could have occurred in either the artillery battery's radar or its firing computer, both of which are operated manually. The panel is due to submit its findings to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz by Thursday night.

The media was filled with a mixture of remorse and recrimination on Thursday. While some commentators said the attack called for national soul-searching, others said it was just the 'price tag' Palestinians should pay for having launched attacks on Israel.

In Yedioth Ahronoth, Sima Kadmon said that if the shells did overshoot their target, it wasn't just a problem of calibration in the military, but in Israeli society itself. 'This was not a mistake. This was a disaster. It's a regrettable mistake when you step on someone's toe, not when you kill 11 members of one family.'

But elsewhere in the Israeli press there was little regret, with diplomats, politicians and commentators quick to say that Israel had little to feel bad about. The deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh, told The Jerusalem Post the 'moral responsibility' for the deaths rested with Palestinian militants who were 'cynically using their civilian population as a human shield for terrorist activity'.

While the cause of the incident is still being investigated, the immediate implications are indisputable. Hamas' call for a renewal of attacks against Israeli targets has caused the defense establishment to raise the alert level to its highest level, and, according to Army Radio, there are 80 terror warnings, 15 of them highly specific.

Police are already stretched almost to their limit because of tomorrow's planned Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem, and police chief Moshe Karadi told Israel Radio this morning that 'we cannot do it all.' Karadi is holding consultations on the matter today, and a decision is expected by early afternoon as to whether the march will be held today - or possibly next Friday instead. The Supreme Court is also to deliver a decision today on whether to allow the parade, and is expected to throw out the petitions against it.

As the Gazans were burying their dead, meanwhile, terrorists fired another salvo of rockets at targets inside Israel. According to settlers Internet site Arutz 7 (www.inn.co.il) one rocket hit the military yeshiva in Sderot, injuring one person, and three more landed in open areas.

There were more reactions to yesterday's deaths, with Vice Premier Shimon Peres quoted on the Yedioth Ahronoth Internet site, Ynet, as saying that 'We need to see how we can turn Gaza from a battle field to a negotiation field, and how to hold talks even when there is no agreement.'

The United Nations nixed an Arab request for an emergency meeting of the Security Council, but agreed to hold a public gathering instead. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, told The Jerusalem Post that he believed the condemnations would be short-lived. 'Some of the Hamas leadership is probably rejoicing; this is exactly what they wanted to happen. They want the tide to turn against Israel,' said Gillerman. But that is not what is happening here. This is not a watershed moment. People realize that Israel is at the forefront of the war against terror that is being fought all over the world.'

On the Lebanese front, meanwhile, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Israel Air Force overflights of Lebanon nearly caused a 'catastrophe' last month, with French peacekeeping troops seconds away from firing on Israeli warplanes. The incident took place October 31, when a squadron of Israeli F-15 fighter planes nose-dived over French peacekeepers' positions in southern Lebanon, Alliot-Marie told lawmakers at France's lower house of parliament on Wednesday night. The planes were 'clearly in attack position,' she said, in comments broadcast on RTL radio Thursday. French troops responded by readying an anti-aircraft missile, and were seconds away from firing on the warplanes, she said.

Finally, Haaretz's Akiva Eldar reports that former Labor minister Ophir Pines-Paz, who resigned from the government in protest at the inclusion of far-right Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman in the coalition, is to be replaced by Lieberman on the ministerial committee on the removal illegal outposts in the West Bank.

According to Eldar, the rightist minister, who is staunchly opposed to the removal of illegal outposts, will now be a member of a six-member committee in charge of dismantling of settlements built on land that is not permitted for construction use and/or has disputed ownership between Jews and Palestinians.

The above text was written and compiled by Simon Spungin using newpaper, radio and wire reports, in English and Hebrew.

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