Israel on target in Gaza response

Palestinian terrorists' tactics can no longer be tolerated

Yet again it is ordinary Palestinians who will be the biggest losers in the latest outrage by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israel's military strike at the heart of Gaza following the kidnapping of 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit is exactly right. Even more so with yesterday's news that Palestinian terrorists killed a young Jewish settler seized from the West Bank at the weekend. In June last year, Ehud Olmert, then Israel's deputy prime minister, declared the Jewish state was tired of fighting and wanted a new partnership with its difficult neighbour. The election of the terrorist organisation Hamas to replace Fatah at the Palestinian Authority helm pulled the rug from under his words. To his credit, however, as Prime Minister Mr Olmert has shown considerable restraint in recent months in the face of a daily barrage of Palestinian rocketfire into Israel from Hamas's Qassam rocket sites. Sunday's assault on a military post inside Israeli territory by members of three terror organisations – Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Islamic Army – was a bridge too far. Two Israeli soldiers died in the attack, another was severely wounded and Corporal Shalit was captured. By Monday, Mr Olmert had jettisoned his conciliatory rhetoric, signalling the time for restraint had passed.

According to Israel, its military response in bombing raids and sending tanks into Gaza is designed not to punish Palestinians, but to pressure the terrorists responsible into delivering Corporal Shalit safely back to his family. Good. No one but the terrorists is responsible for the consequences for Palestinian civilians of their senseless and provocative act. Israeli missiles knocked out 60 per cent of Gaza's electricity – a fresh blow for a people already reeling under the move by Western nations to cut off funds to the Hamas administration. As they light candles and try to cook without power they will perhaps recall the votes they cast in the January election. If the short-term consequences of the kidnapping bring pain to Gaza, the long-term consequences for Palestinians could be even more brutal. With Mr Olmert threatening extreme measures if Corporal Shalit is not returned, a bloody conflict with high civilian casualties and political anarchy could be the result. The terrorists' aim in their brazen raid is transparent: to throw into tumult negotiations between the political wing of Hamas and Fatah, represented respectively by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and President Mahmoud Abbas, to recognise Israel.

Last month, members of factions of both organisations serving sentences in Israeli prisons – many for their role in organising the slaughter of civilians – issued a statement calling for a coalition government and implicitly accepted Israel's existence. This week, before Israel moved its troops into Gaza, both leaders signed a document accepting the idea of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem – meaning recognition of Israel next to it. The weak position of both Mr Abbas and Mr Haniyeh within the chaos that characterises Palestinian politics and its factions means the deal may be worth less than the paper it is written on. Demonstrating the point, Hamas moved quickly to deny it had agreed to recognise Israel. For its part, Israel rolled its tanks into Gaza, Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian Authority's Deputy Prime Minister and its jets buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a warning over the refuge he provides the hardline leader of Hamas's military wing, Khaled Meshaal, the possible mastermind behind the kidnapping. Mr Abbas's remaining credibility is at stake. The President must assert his authority and send the soldier home.