Sensitivity and determination (Ha'aretz editorial)

[Violet_Crumble]

I thought this was worth posting after reading some posts in this thread. The editorial also points out a major difference between Hamas and Islamic Jihad, so I thought it was also worth posting for anyone who thinks they're the same. To make it easy, I bolded the relevant bits...

Five Palestinians were killed in the Tul Karm refugee camp last Wednesday night, one day after the evacuations of the settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank were completed. A shoot-out broke out in the camp after a Nahal unit came to arrest members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization involved in carrying out deadly terror attacks within Israel and the territories and in planning other attacks.

The timing of the operation drew criticism from within the Israel Defense Forces and from beyond. The repercussions of the operation could lead to an escalation and threaten the completion of the complex plan to end Israel's civilian and military presence in the Gaza Strip and transfer control of the area to the Palestinian Authority.

One can understand the desire of the IDF and Shin Bet domestic security service commanders charged with fighting Islamic Jihad to carry out their mission with determination. Since the beginning of the year, a kind of calm has descended on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organizations. The government of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which draws strength from the obvious popular support for the cease-fire, persuaded Hamas to suspend its attacks. It's a very limited suspension: The IDF's operational journal is filled with attempts to smuggle suicide bombers into Israel and to shoot at Israeli communities, and Hamas is using the relative hiatus to build up its forces for the next battle, but overall there has been a sharp drop in the frequency and severity of the attacks. The success of the Shin Bet and the IDF in preventing these efforts has been crucial, while the PA is still not doing enough to weaken Hamas' ability to carry out attacks. These are important facts in analyzing the fragile nature of the process, but when the cycle of attack, response and counter-attack is suspended, it is easier to promote contacts between the two governments on renewing the diplomatic process.

That is the background to Israel's decision to show restraint regarding Hamas. On the other hand, no truce was declared against Islamic Jihad, which in any case is not committed to one and which turned the area between Tul Karm and Jenin into a base for planning and carrying out terror. Islamic Jihad in Samaria is directed, funded and prompted by the organization's headquarters in Damascus. It wants to be the main agent in the armed struggle against Israel. It challenges Abbas' authority, but Abbas is hesitant to act against it. Israel faces a difficult choice: Not operating against Jihad could result in more attacks against Israel, but operations in which many Palestinians are killed could cause other organizations, including Hamas, to carry out revenge attacks or represent other attacks that were planned beforehand as such.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/617762.html