The Washington Times had a story yesterday on current political developments in the Israel town of Sderot, just outside the HAMAS-run Gaza strip ['Macabre' menorah makes political point]. The mayor of Sderot is trying to draw attention to the constant attacks on the town via home-made Qassam rockets launched from inside Gaza - more than 2,000 of them so far in 2007 - and his latest ploy is a giant Hanukakh menorah crafted from recovered rocket tubes:
"Eight spent and twisted rocket casings constituted the Hanukkah structure, crafted by local activists with a political as well as a religious point to prove."
It's a clever photo opportunity, however, the political and security problem in Sderot appears to be insolvable. The Palestinians certainly won't stop firing Qassam rockets, the Israeli government won't go back into Gaza and create a security buffer zone, and the Egyptians won't take effective action to stop the smuggling of explosives from its territory into Gaza. Monitors from the European Union just stand by and watch, and the UN [or, as I call them, the Bureaucrats Without Borders] won't even do that much.
Provided the Palestinians don't escalate to longer-range and more potent rockets, which could trigger a serious Israeli retaliation, this looks like the kind of low-intensity conflict that can go on for generations, like Cyprus.
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