Today's Situation

DEJECTION, REJECTION AND BIONIC WASPS, November 17, 2006

Two days after the fatal Qassam attack on Sderot, the Israeli media was firmly focused on the inability of both the military and political leadership to come up with a solution.

As if to emphasize the point, a rocket fell Friday morning close to the dining room on Kibbutz Be'eri. The settler-affiliated Yesha News website reported that no one was injured in the attack.

Israel Radio reported Friday that Air Force planes struck four Gaza Strip buildings that it said had been used to store and manufacture weapons for Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Palestinian sources said four people were wounded in the attack. However, it appears that no one living in nearby buildings was hurt, following an Israel Defense Forces warning about the impending attack.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, confirmed that Israel has no plans for a massive military operation in Gaza to stop the Palestinian rockets. Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who lives in Sderot, had promised a punishing response, and Olmert himself said several weeks ago that Israel's operations against rocket squads would be broadened. But his remarks Thursday indicated that the Israeli leader was having second thoughts.

Dissenting voice were heard from the right of the political spectrum, however, calling for IDF troops to enter Gaza in massive numbers to end the daily Qassam barrages. Knesset member Yitzhak Levy, from the rightist National Union-National Religious Party, told Army Radio that 'we have to clean up Gaza and end the Qassams.'

In typical flamboyant style, Arcadi Gaydamak decided to take the plight of Sderot residents into his own hands. The billionaire Russian tycoon provided getaway breaks in the Red Sea resort of Eilat for the traumatized Sderot residents - and earned equal measure of plaudits and criticism for his efforts. While there were those recognized the philanthropic nature of the gesture, others blasted Gaydamak as 'well-intentioned but misguided.'

According to rightist MK Nissan Slomiansky, Gaydamak's 'solution is the opposite of what needs to be done. The solution is fighting without compromises. Is Gaydamak capable of evacuating the children of Ashkelon and Ashdod tomorrow? Because the Qassams will ultimately reach everywhere,' he told Maariv.

One rather surreal initiative in Israel's war on terror is uncovered by Yedioth Ahronoth, which claims that the army is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets. The flying robot, nicknamed the 'bionic hornet,' would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers, the paper reports.

Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, three European nations tabled a new five-point diplomatic initiative on Thursday, only to see it quickly rejected by Israel. The proposal, formulated by France and Spain, with the backing of Italy, calls for an immediate cease-fire, formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition, an exchange of prisoners (including the Israel Defense Forces soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza this summer), talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.

In rejecting the proposal, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her Spanish, Miguel Angel Moratinos, that it was unacceptable for an initiative concerning Israel to be launched without coordination with Jerusalem. She told Moratinos that if the sponsors of the initiative were inclined, they should seek to conduct dialogue with Israel on any new initiative.

According to Haaretz, one senior Israeli official said, "As far as we know, even the European Union is not interested in the idea. This initiative will not get off the ground.'

The Jerusalem Post, meanwhile, reports from Lebanon on the renewed flow of arms from Syria to Hizbollah. 'Lebanese civilians close to the border with Syria told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that weapons for Hizbollah were being brought in by the truckload at night,' the paper reports. 'Lebanese Army troops on duty at the border refused to confirm the claims.'

In Gaza, meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh were due to meet in Gaza in their efforts to try and thrash out an agreement on a national unity government and an end to the international boycott of the PA. According to Israel Radio, the two leaders met on Thursday night - without results.

Haaretz, meanwhile, reports that the three Palestinian families who lost 19 relatives in last week's shelling by the IDF of Beit Hanun plan to sue Israel for monetary damages. Representatives of the Athamneh, Kassem and Aduan families have already hired attorney Ehud Segev to represent them in their suit.

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

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