Back? So Soon?

I gotta admit, I'm surprised to see that the Israelis have returned to Gaza. Not that it wasn't always an eventual necessity, but after the retreat sounded by the late Ariel Shraon almost a year ago, it's a wonder they still had the national will to retake the Strip:

Israeli planes attacked a bridge in central Gaza late Tuesday, Israel Radio reported, and Israeli tanks were said to be on the move, possibly signaling the start of a military operation.

Palestinian security forces said Israeli tanks were moving near the Israeli village of Nahal Oz, a main Israeli staging area just outside Gaza, but that they had not yet entered Gaza.

In the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, not far from the border fence, armed militants took up positions across from the blaring headlights of Israeli vehicles, and Israeli attack helicopters hovered overhead. The militants told residents to leave the area.

Israeli military officials said a limited operation has been authorized for southern Gaza, aimed at "terrorist infrastructure."

Limited, my tochus. The kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers was just the final straw. There wouldn't be any need for an "invasion" if the Israelis hadn't abandoned Gaza to Hamas last August. That's the fiasco that allowed "terrorist infrastructure" to be constructed in the first place, complete now with daily rocket attacks and underground terrorist incursions. If they don't want it to come back, the IDF has got to be there to stay. Maybe they don't bring back Jewish settlements right away, but only a reoccupation can keep the terrorists out. That's the direction this "exercise" is heading, mark my words.

As you might expect in a contest between a modern, professional, experienced military machine and a despicable pack of cowardly yIntagh, the IDF is meeting little resistance:

The incursion began shortly before midnight, when IAF aircraft blew up three main bridges, located along the main route connecting between the northern and southern parts of the Strip.

The army said that the operation was intended to keep Hamas from taking kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit out of the Gaza Strip.

Ground forces then began entering the southeastern part of the Gaza Strip and the troops gained control of two key sites near Dahaniya. At the same time, artillery units were shelling areas from where Kassam rockets were often launched at Israel.

The Air Force also struck an electrical transformer station south of Gaza City, cutting the power supply from portions of the region. Palestinian sources said that the IDF shot at least nine missiles at the electric station. A large fire erupted and the turbines and fuel supplies were burned. Still, some of the power was restored by wires connected to an Israeli power supply, Israel Radio reported.

An IDF spokesperson told the Jerusalem Post that there was little Palestinian resistance to the incursion. He denied a report claiming that the Erez crossing had been opened in preparation for entry of troops into the northern Gaza Strip.

The Pals responded as nobody has any reason not to expect: they kidnapped an Israeli civilian, a teenager named Eliyahu Asheri, and threatened to (and promptly did) kill him if the IDF didn't immediately withdraw. The Israelis told the Pals to go schtup themselves, and their tanks rolled on:

Earlier in the day, the IDF took control of the abandoned airport in Dahaniyeh and the town of Shuka in southern Gaza in a move to cement their foothold in areas east of Rafah, a city on the Egyptian border.

The area of Dahaniyeh represents a strategic control and observation point over the area of Rafah and the southern Gaza Strip. So far there has been one incident of gunfire and anti-tank missile fire at the forces, but no injuries or damage were reported. ...

Armored personnel carriers were stationed outside northern Gaza, and were expected to move in later in the day.

Cap'n Ed Morrissey, who has consistently considered the Jews' flight from Gaza to be a sound strategic move, expresses an amusing naïvete at the IDF's operation being "much larger than first thought." Although he is inadvertently incisive when he writes:

The Israelis appear serious this time about delivering the war for which the Palestinians voted when they elected Hamas to govern them. [emphasis added]

I remember when the Jews were ALWAYS "serious" about defending themselves. That they have grown so unserious in recent times makes it wholly unremarkable that even supporters of last year's cut & run from Gaza aren't quite convinced that the IDF is playing for keeps.

Removing such doubts may be why Israeli warplanes dropped by Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's vacation abode to pay him a high-speed visit:

Israeli warplanes buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad early Wednesday, military officials said, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier.

The officials said on condition of anonymity that the fighter jets flew over Assad's palace in a low-altitude overnight raid near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved, and Assad was home at the time.

The flight caused "noise" on the ground, the military officials said on condition of anonymity, according to military guidelines.

And soiled trousers too, I'd wager. Though this isn't the first time that the IAF has sent this message, which kind of dilutes its effectiveness. Had the jets bombed Assad's villa, Zarqawi-style, instead of putting on a glorified Blue Angels show, I would be more impressed. (Don't gasp; if Damascus is supplying Palestinian "militants" with chemical weapons, perhaps from the stockpiles smuggled out of Iraq before Operation Iraqi Freedom, that ought to perk up our own interest in settling matters with the murderous opthamologist permanently.)

In the meantime, Operation "We're Baaaaaaaaack" continues to pick up steam:

Less than 24 hours after the IDF entered Gaza in the biggest operation since disengagement last summer, Defense Minister Amir Peretz gave the green light on Wednesday evening for the second part of the IDF Gaza incursion. The IDF was poised to enter northern Gaza.

IAF planes will distribute flyers on Wednesday night in the Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun areas in the northern Gaza Strip, warning local residents that they are endangering their lives by being in the vicinity of Kassam launch sites....

The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a prisoner swap with Israel, saying the Gaza offensive would not secure the soldier's release. Hamas-affiliated militants holding the hostage previously made that demand, but this was the first time the government did. Israeli has ruled out a deal.

Earlier, IAF aircraft struck a Hamas training camp in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Wednesday afternoon, witnesses said.

The Cap'n speculates that retaking Gaza is using up such resources that Israel may have to call up reserves in order to avoid leaving themselves vulnerable to a Syrian attack (I guess Assad doesn't like Blue Angels shows). I'd like to think that bulldozing a bunch of ragtag terrorist taHqeq wouldn't so tax the IDF's martial inventories. But this just goes back to the folly of the Israeli's abandoning Gaza to Hamas & friends in the first place.

This move, though, may be the one that truly gets the Pals' full attention, and gets across to them that their "leaders"' rabid, relentless, over-the-top, impossible-to-rationalize hostility has finally pushed even a cowed foe too far:

Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian deputy prime minister and dozens of other Hamas officials early Thursday and pressed their incursion into Gaza, responding to the abduction of one of its soldiers.

Adding to the tension, a Palestinian militant group said it killed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped in the West Bank. Israeli security officials said Eliahu Asheri's body was found buried near Ramallah. They said he was shot in the head, apparently soon after he was abducted on Sunday. ...

Army Radio said the arrested Hamas leaders might be used to trade for the captured soldier. Israel had refused earlier to trade prisoners for the soldier's release.

More than 30 lawmakers were detained, according to Palestinian security officials. Among them were Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti and two other ministers in the West Bank.

The Pals expected the Israelis to do a prisoner swap? I'd say the latter just upped the ante one helluva lot. It also sends a message even the Hamasites can't mistake: "We can take any one of you any time we want." Indeed, it shows just how easily Israel could crush them, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad and the thirteen year terrorist war inside its borders once and for all - if they only had the will.

And it is Israeli will that will determine whether this Gaza "incursion" actually attains the goal they should be setting for it - nothing less than the eradication of Palestinian terrorism - or settles for half-measures and eventual withdrawal to the status quo ante that render the whole "exercise" a waste of time, resources, and the dishonoring of the Jewish deaths that served as its raison d'etere.