If people expected that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, during which they used armed force to send their citizens back into Israel in order to leave the territory to the Palestinians, would result in a gesture commensurate with the Palestinian desire for peace, today's news confirms this. A Palestinian bomber wounded 21 Israeli civilians in Beersheba, near Gaza, in a suicide-bomb attack on a bus this morning:

Twenty-one people were wounded Sunday, two seriously, in a suicide bombing at a central bus station in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba, Israeli officials said. ...

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place three days after Israeli troops killed five Palestinians. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has vowed retribution for that incident. ...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned what he called a "terrorist attack" and called for "calm and restraint in spite of the Israeli provocations, the most recent being the killing of five Palestinians," in a statement carried by Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority.

The "Israeli provocation", which CNN doesn't even bother to describe in its report, was the killing of an Islamic Jihad leader who had orchestrated two suicide bombings of Israeli civilians. The Islamic Jihad has yet to honor the cease-fire that Abbas has proclaimed, allowing them maximum flexibility for their attacks while hiding behind the skirts of Abbas and the two-thirds cease fire coming from Abbas' territories. The assault on the terrorist resulted in five deaths, and while it's unclear whether all five had ties to Islamic Jihad, it is clear that the Israelis clearly targeted the terrorist leader and not civilians on civilian transports. Also, even more clearly, Islamic Jihad and the other terror groups working in Abbas' regions of responsibility deliberately hide themselves in civilian areas while plotting and conducting their terror campaigns.

This puts the responsibility on Abbas, not the Israelis, to do something about disarming the militias and the terrorists. The Israelis have the right to respond to attacks, and for Abbas to claim that the Israelis have broken a cease-fire in those responses to attacks is absurd. It provides yet another example of the Palestinian triangle offense, as I have often commented here, and the ludicrous credulity of the West in accepting Abbas' claims of supporting peace.

The Israelis performed a concrete act of compromise in abandoning the Gaza settlements this week. All they got in return is more attacks. Abbas and the appeasers at State had better start thinking what lesson that will teach the Israelis. They will not allow themselves to get pushed into the Mediterranean just to satisfy the moral relativists in the West, and their patience may soon run out. Binyamin Netanyahu stands ready in the wings to change the entire military strategy of the Israelis regarding the Palestinians. If the US wants to avoid anyone getting pushed into a body of water, then they had better tap Abbas on the shoulder and remind him of the proximity of the Jordan River.

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Posted by Ed Morrissey at August 28, 2005 8:45 AM

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