Daily Times

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday that he had ordered commanders to prepare for a major offensive following a deadly Palestinian militant attack and the kidnapping of a soldier.
The 20-year-old soldier, who also holds French nationality, was snatched in a raid on an army post on the Gaza Strip border at dawn on Sunday in which two other Israeli servicemen and two Palestinian fighters were killed.

Israel has been amassing troops on the border to prepare for any retaliatory operations after Sunday’s assault by gunmen who tunnelled their way under the border and attacked the post with rockets and bombs. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the attack while the Hamas-led Palestinian government, boycotted by both Israel and the West as a terrorist organisation, has demanded the immediate release of the soldier.

However, a representative of the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a telephone call that it was holding the soldier. “He is alive and in good health,” the representative of the group said. “He is not seriously injured.”

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert’s official number two, said it was Israel’s “natural and legitimate right” to use military force in an effort to retrieve the missing soldier.

A high-ranking security official also said that Israel would work to topple the Hamas-led government – boycotted financially and politically by the West since taking office in March – unless the soldier is released alive. “We will make sure that the Hamas government ceases to operate if the kidnapped soldier is not returned to us alive,” the source said. Agencies

The 20-year-old soldier is Cpl. Gilad Shalit (pictured above). Israeli troops destroyed the tunnel the Palestinians used Sunday at an Israeli army post in Kerem Shalom on.

Independant Online

An editorial in Maariv newspaper said that regardless of whether Shalit was returned alive, it was “impossible to overestimate the severity of yesterday’s incident”.

“Hamas’s audacity, the killing and the kidnapping are the final and absolute proof that the organization ruling the Palestinian Authority is adhering to the path of war against us. The tahdiya (truce) is dead.

“Any any further escalation, if one should take place, would be immersed in a great deal of blood that would be spilled on both sides.”

This is a real crisis although some seem to be pretty indifferent about it. I think people are so used to hearing about conflict between Israel and Palestine they see it as just another day. But it’s not.

Israel has amassed a huge force at the border with Palestine and have demanded Cpl. Shalit be returned without further harm. The Palestinians are making their own demands that prisoners in Israel be released.

They seem to miss the point that Palestinians in prison in Israel are there because they have attempted to do harm to Israel while the Cpl was taken in a raid while he was on his own side of the border.

Throughout history, at least as long as I can remember, there have been numerous attempts to find Peace in the Middle East. Presidents and leaders throughout the world have held peace talks. Periodically one or the other declares success with these talks, President Jimmy Carter did, and inevitably Palestine breaks whatever treaty they have come to and the fight is on again.

It’s naive to think that peace talks will ever work, in my opinion. Palestine is very clear that they want nothing less than the complete destruction of Israel. Short of that, this cycle will continue. Israel has the capacity to destroy Palestine but not the cruelty to do it. Palestine has the cruelty and desire to destroy Israel, but not the capacity to do it.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected the Palestinian demands and continue to demand the release of the Cpl.

“The time is approaching for a comprehensive, sharp and severe Israeli operation. We will not wait forever,” he said. “We will not become a target of Hamas-terrorist blackmail.”

He also said:

“I announce here that we will respond. We will respond toward any terrorist, any terrorist organization, wherever they may be. You know, and they know that we can reach them in far-off places, even when they think they are hidden and protected,”

Egypt is trying to difuse the crisis.

It doesn’t look like Israel is going to blink. I don’t think Palestine will because their people are clammering in the streets and they are lead by a bunch of hooligans.

Keep your eye on Israel and Palestine. This stand-off could very easily have far reaching ramifications. The next few days will tell us a lot about how to resolve crisises with radical muslims. Israel knows how to deal with the threat of intimidation by radical muslims.

The only hope for this young Soldier is if Israel can put the fear of God into the Palestinian terrorists [or allah as the case may be]. It’s horrible to think of what he is going through tonight.

UPDATE: The Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced on Sunday that its members have succeeded in manufacturing chemical and biological weapons. From the Jeruselum Post:

The group said its members would not hesitate to add the new weapons to Kassam rockets that are being fired at Israeli communities almost every day. It also threatened to use the weapons against IDF soldiers if Israel carried out its threats to invade the Gaza Strip.

“We want to tell [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz that your threats don’t frighten us,” the leaflet said.

“We will surprise you with our new weapons the moment the first soldier sets foot in the Gaza Strip.”

h/t PC Free Zone

Remember, Palestine will kill their own people just to be able to accuse Israel of doing it. Israel, Palestine, Haditha and the Gullible Main Stream Media

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More sources: Middle East Times
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