WarSclerotic

Peace upon the boys, not the Palestinians, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, July 1, 2014

PA President Mahmoud Abbas — who had been lauded publicly by the Israeli government (and by Naftali Frenkel’s mother, Rachel) for his assistance in the search for the boys and their kidnappers — immediately appealed to the United States and Europe to prevent Israel from retaliating militarily.

 [I]t never ceases to boggle the mind that Western countries consider Israel to be a greater threat to “stability” than the Arabs who seek its destruction. Nor does it cease to amaze that the hackneyed phrase “enemies of peace” is still being used to refer to state-backed terrorists. They are not enemies of peace. They are enemies of Israel.

The discovery on Monday of the dead bodies of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel and Gil-ad Shaer sent shock waves across the country. In spite of a growing sense of doom — due to the fact that their Hamas captors had not come forth with demands, and extensive searches were coming up empty — there was nevertheless a ray of hope that the boys were still alive.

Fresh in the public’s mind was the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who spent five years in Hamas captivity until being released in exchange for 1,027 terrorists. Based on this experience, much discussion following the June 12 kidnapping of the three teenagers was devoted to the question of how to handle the current situation better. In other words, there was an assumption that Israel’s biggest dilemma was going to be whether to launch a rescue operation or negotiate for the boys’ release.

It is thus that the news of their cold-blooded murder and subsequent burial in a hole in the ground was not only tragic and enraging; it also came as somewhat of a surprise.

What came as no surprise at all, however, was the response of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the so-called “international community.”

Residents of the PA attacked the ambulance transporting the bodies of Eyal, Naftali and Gil-ad out of the area near Hebron where they were found. The mob expressed its sentiment about the boys by hurling epithets, rocks and paint at the vehicle, smashing its windshield.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas — who had been lauded publicly by the Israeli government (and by Naftali Frenkel’s mother, Rachel) for his assistance in the search for the boys and their kidnappers — immediately appealed to the United States and Europe to prevent Israel from retaliating militarily.

Hamas thumbed its nose at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that “Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay” for the premeditated slaughter of the teens. Its senior spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, wrote on Facebook: “Netanyahu … must understand his threats do not terrify us. If he launched a war against Gaza, the gates of hell would be open on him.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement condemning “the deliberate killing of civilians,” calling the murder of the boys a “heinous act by enemies of peace [that] aims to further entrench division and distrust and to widen the conflict.”

The Vatican called it a “hideous and unacceptable crime” and an “obstacle to peace.”

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki managed to condemn the murders without actually acknowledging them as such.

“The harm that has been done to these teenagers is a tragedy,” she told reporters. When asked whether the U.S. was calling for “restraint,” she answered, “It certainly does.”

President Barack Obama echoed this message in a statement.

“The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless act of terror against innocent youth,” he said. “From the outset, I have offered our full support to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to find the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice, and I encourage Israel and the Palestinian Authority to continue working together in that effort. I also urge all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation.”

As was to be expected, everybody’s main concern is that Israel will do what is necessary to defeat those who aggress against it. That the Arabs in Gaza and the PA wish to keep the “Zionist enemy” and “occupation forces” at bay is at least understandable.

After all, since Monday night, the Israeli Air Force has been striking dozens of terrorist targets throughout Gaza.

And though Netanyahu’s emergency meeting with the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet ended just after midnight with no final decision on how to respond to the murder of the boys, Abbas and his new Hamas partners undoubtedly realize that even their patsies in Washington and Brussels may not be able to serve as their buffer in this instance.

But it never ceases to boggle the mind that Western countries consider Israel to be a greater threat to “stability” than the Arabs who seek its destruction. Nor does it cease to amaze that the hackneyed phrase “enemies of peace” is still being used to refer to state-backed terrorists. They are not enemies of peace. They are enemies of Israel.

When the autopsies of Eyal, Naftali and Gil-ad are complete and the innocent teenagers can be buried — this time properly, with their grieving family and friends there to pray and mourn — Israel must be determined not to let the societies that bred their killers ever rest in peace.

Execute the death cult’s emissaries, Israel Hayom, Dror Eydar, July 1, 2014

We must employ full force against the emissaries of the death culture, those who aid them, their military and civilian infrastructure, their sources of funding, their families, their clans, and anyone who knows something but just nods his head and keeps quiet.

What has the death culture that surrounds us sought to sell in the past hundred years? Look around: there are no Jews in Iraq and no “territories” in Syria, and nevertheless the angels of death gleefully slaughter each other. No science and no industry and no inventions that will benefit humanity. Just death, and it’s wrapped in a thick layer of damned political correctness that has distorted our thought process. Dozens of organizations stand up for the rights of the emissaries of the death culture while we are stunned by the additional absurdity that crosses the bounds of tolerance. “Just as long as we don’t associate Islam with terrorism” has been the line of the Obama administration since he was first elected and up through the catastrophic embrace of the Fatah-Hamas unity government. The abduction of the three teens Gil-ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach began when humanity’s healthy consciousness was hijacked. If we don’t realize that the executioners who pack the condemned into cattle trucks and lay them by the dozens or hundreds in ditches and put them to death amid devilish ululations — if we don’t get that this bunch is operating on our borders, and that its successes encourage our own local death culture, we will have to pay heavier prices in the future.

Action

We must employ full force against the emissaries of the death culture, those who aid them, their military and civilian infrastructure, their sources of funding, their families, their clans, and anyone who knows something but just nods his head and keeps quiet. We know the argument that keeps us emasculated: “It will only increase tension and give an incentive to terror and strengthen the cycle of bloodshed.” Not at all. The culture of death doesn’t need incentives — it kills and murders and kidnaps, because that’s what it is. Perpetuum mobile. It’s a shame to go on. Instead of trying to understand, we should look at it as a natural phenomenon. No one negotiates with cancer cells — we fight to dig them out at the root. If new ones appear? We’ll fight again. And if, heaven forbid, again? We’ll fight again. That’s our fate. In the past 150 years we have learned to grasp a scythe with one hand and a sword with the other. Up until now we’ve managed all right, thank God. Our neighbors and all the saints of the death culture will learn that we aren’t afraid of it, and we aren’t afraid of close-up photos of cut-off heads and spilled guts. They are the ones who should be afraid of us and of their own deterioration, because that culture will bring destruction only upon themselves.

The families

From time to time we hear despairing remarks about the state of the young generation and how idealism is fading, about spreading materialism and “Big Brother”-style reality shows and all the rest. But then larger-than-life characters appear who don’t keep their distance but rather give us courage to live and believe, and even in their grief give the entire nation strength. In this case, these were the mothers and fathers who stood up and reminded us of life truths. If we want to live — and we do — this is the way, the example we should follow. The rest of the complaints and the debates are transitory foam on top of the deep currents inside us that are stronger than any horror. These mothers even faced the world, in one of the most hypocritical places on earth — the U.N. Human Rights Council (rights that include everything except the right of the Jews to a single independent state and to defend themselves.) And there, in that place, they spoke for all of us, throwing the truth in the impassive faces of Israel’s persecutors. That is why Israel has embraced these families so strongly. Not only to comfort them, but also in thanks.

The settlements

Aah, the accusers said, they’re settlers, so it’s understandable and there is room to explain, and anyway they brought it upon themselves, and all sorts of other stupid remarks that only Jews would know how to fling at each other, even when at the gates of the death industry.

But that’s just it — we’re all settlers. Not just in the hills of Samaria and Judea, but also in Tel Aviv. In the eyes of our neighbors and some parts of the world we are all people who stole a land that wasn’t theirs. This blood libel is spread every day by anti-Semites and haters of Israel, as well as by useful idiots among us. There’s nothing new under the sun. But this is the truth: We are settlers because we returned to settle our forefathers’ inherited land. It’s simple. This country was a wasteland that waited for its rightful descendents for 2,000 years, like a mother keeping her milk for her true children, like a woman waiting endlessly for her lover who disappeared.

Various conquerors and nomads from the four ends of the earth have arrived in this country. But since we Jews were exiled, no other sovereign entity has sprung up in this land. What would this country be if it weren’t for the Jews? What would Jerusalem be without the Jews? The groups of strangers never wanted to compromise with the Jews who survived extermination and came home after a long exile. Even today they refuse to compromise and seek to oust us from the entire country. From Tel Aviv, too. This murder is the latest in a long line of murdered Jews, the cursed fruit of the death culture of our neighbors. The fight for Israel is our fight for life. In the face of a culture that has sanctified death, the boys’ families showed us the sanctity of life and devotion to the land of our life.

Prayer

Israeli society discovered at the height of the matter an ancient weapon in the history of our nation: prayer. The People of the Book believe in the written and spoken word, it its power to imbue the skies and build on earth; to pierce the heavens and mainly to rejoin those who are separated. Singing in a group is also prayer. Some were startled by this religious awakening, but most of us prayed, each in his/her own way and style. The legitimacy given to public prayer won’t dissipate; it will remain. The purity of prayer will restore — if not the dead, then at least those left behind, letting them cling together to the power of the ancient words and remember where we came from and where we are going. Even if it seems like the door is shut and the decree has been made, it is accepted in the tradition of our people that: “Even if a sharp sword rests upon a man’s neck he should not desist from prayer.” It’s a matter of culture. And belief. And in the end, we will remember the deep, courageous words of Rachel Frenkel, Naftali’s mother: “God doesn’t work for us.”

Revenge

We still don’t know exactly what happened, but in sane places people don’t die from flagging down a ride. No sane place carries on a hypocritical dialogue about the necessity of hitchhiking while our boys’ blood is spilled. No sane place indirectly justifies the bitter fate of these youths, our children.

Don’t preach, the ones who always preach against us in favor of our enemies will say. Don’t listen to them and to the castrating talk. We are allowed to be angry and impassioned about the murder of our children and an entire country’s descent into madness. We are definitely allowed to seek revenge. We are the sane ones, not them.

I always wondered why God asks Adam in the Garden of Eden why he ate the forbidden fruit, and then asks the woman, but doesn’t ask the snake — he metes out immediate punishment. Here is the answer: We don’t ask snakes why they bite. We cut off their heads.

Kurds: ISIS captured enough US arms for 200,000 soldiers , DEBKAfile, July 1, 2014

Sources of the autonomous Kurdish government of Iraq say ISIS has plundered in the past fortnight enough advanced US-made weapons to arm 200,000 combat personnel. They include the arsenals of the four Iraqi divisions supposed to have defended Mosul, Kirkuk, its oil fields and the Saluddin province. Los Angeles Times said Tuesday that that US armored Hunvees, artillery pieces as well as truck rockets from Iraq were seen on the Syrian battlefield.

Hamas leaders in Gaza scramble to avoid Israeli attack, Al Monitor, Adnan Abu Amer, June 30, 2014

(Delightful “peace partners.”  All should hope that urgings by Secretary Kerry and President Obama that nobody do anything nasty to destabilize the calm situation they helped to create are heeded, Insha’Allah. Oh. I almost forgot: death to Israel,  Insha’Allah. — DM)

Mourners surround the bodies of Palestinian members of Hamas’ armed wing during their funeral at a mosque in Gaza City, June 21, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)

Going into the third week since the disappearance of the three Israeli settlers from the West Bank, Hamas, which Israel accused of the kidnapping, feels that an attack against it in the Gaza Strip is imminent. The concern has become even more pressing with reports that three bodies were found near Hebron, the home city of the two Hamas-linked suspects identified by Israel last week as Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha.

Al-Monitor has learned that Hamas leaders in Gaza have virtually disappeared from sight, with journalists facing great challenges in reaching them. Hamas has implemented strict security measures to thwart any Israeli attack against its leaders, who resurfaced only to attend the funeral of five Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades militants who died on the evening of June 20, when a tunnel collapsed on them in eastern Gaza.

The funeral procession was led by Ismail Haniyeh, the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau; Ahmad Bahr, the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council; and Mahmoud al-Zahar and Khalil al-Hayeh, two senior Hamas members.

The public daytime appearance of Hamas’ political leadership in this way caused concern for security officials in the Gaza Strip, who told Al-Monitor about their fear of Israel’s ability to track the leaders’ movements and possibly assassinate them.

In addition to preventive security measures, Hamas has raised the level of its threats against Israel should it attack Gaza. On June 24, Zahar said, “The Qassam Brigades have upgraded their rocket capabilities and are now able to target any Israeli city in any upcoming battle,” while warning against waging an attack on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’ concern of an imminent Israeli attack was evidenced by the evacuation of its security headquarters, for fear that it might be targeted by the Israeli air force.

The security measures carried out by Hamas in Gaza were bolstered by diplomatic and political efforts on the part of the movement abroad, whereby intensive contacts were conducted with Arab and international capitals to restrain Israel from dealing a severe blow to Gaza.

In this regard, Izzat al-Rishq, a Hamas official, affirmed in a telephone interview with Al-Monitor that between June 21 and June 25. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal contacted the chairman of the Arab Summit, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad, as well as the Yemeni and Sudanese presidents and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. According to Rishq, this was to “inform them of the latest Palestinian developments, and discuss with them the Israeli threats against the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to the responsibility borne by Arab countries to back the Palestinian people.”

Rishq, who lives in Qatar, said, “Meshaal conducted other telephone conversations with the Qatari and Omani foreign ministers, Khalid al-Attiyah and Youssef bin Alawi; and Secretary-General of the Arab League Nabil Elaraby to discuss the position vis-a-vis the Israeli threat against the Palestinian people. He invited them to act, on an Arab and international level, to pressure Israel into halting its military operations.”

“Meshaal also telephoned Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on June 26 to brief him on the developments of the situation in the occupied territories. Meshaal also sent a letter on the morning of June 27 to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, asking him to support the steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian people in confronting Israel. Furthermore, he contacted Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Abdul Latif al-Zayani and the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Iyad Madani,” Rishq said.

Meshaal has also held talks with the Russian president’s envoy to the Middle East and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, which indicated Hamas’ desire to bolster its relations with Moscow.

Meshaal’s diplomatic outreach was accompanied by his Al Jazeera announcement on June 23 that he had “met with a number of foreign delegations from foreign countries, some of which classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, and which, behind closed doors, curse Israel and demand that it is internationally sanctioned for the violations it perpetrates against the Palestinian people.”

On the other hand, Osama Hamdan, the head of Hamas’ international relations department, said it was likely that “Hamas would conduct a series of visits to a number of Arab countries soon.” He also revealed that the “substance of Meshaal’s contacts with those countries’ leaders revolved around Israel’s escalating military operations against the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the need to intervene and put an end to them.”

Al-Monitor asked an official within Hamas’ foreign affairs department about the benefit of the diplomatic efforts that have been recently made by Meshaal, after Israel identified the two suspects. “Undoubtedly [these efforts will be beneficial], Israel wanted through this accusation to cut the way to any international and regional condemnation of its expected offensive on Gaza, and this is what Meshaal has sought to achieve through his current political contacts. … It is not unprompted, but rather it is intentional that the Israeli accusation of kidnapping the settlers coincides with the movements in terms of diplomatic efforts,” the official said.

Al-Monitor has learned from a Hamas official that the movement was in the process of “preparing a political memorandum addressed to influential capitals of the region and the world as well as a number of international organizations, warning against an Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip. In the memorandum, Hamas disputed justifying the attack by accusing it of kidnapping the settlers and explained how Gaza was suffering from difficult living and economic conditions, rendering it unable to endure a new war.”

The official said, “The movement is in a race against time to disseminate the memorandum before any Israeli attack on Gaza. Yet, despite the fact that such a memo cannot prevent an attack, the two previous wars of 2008 and 2012 have confirmed that Israel came out a loser in the international war for public opinion, which the Palestinians began to win. And this is what we continue to work toward.”

Popular anger and anguish over teens’ murders not assuaged by bombing empty Hamas buildings.

Funerals of three murdered boys in Modi’inThe funerals of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, Tuesday, July 1, whose parents decided to bury them side by side in Modi’in, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, have become a national event, drawing many tens of thousands of sorrowing sympathizers from every segment of the population. Their anguish over the senseless murders of the three boys shortly after they were kidnapped on June 10 on their way home, is mixed with anger and demands for real retribution. They will not be satisfied with the government’s knee-jerk order to bomb empty Hamas and Jihad Islami facilities overnight, shortly after their bodies were found in a shallow grave in Kachil, a Palestinian village north of Hebron.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s sorrowful words to this mass of mourners won’t assuage their fury.
They will watch him tensely to make good on his vow:“Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay,” backed up Tuesday by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. He said: “The blood of the killers is on their heads” and the price Hamas pays will be “heavy indeed.”
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for a military operation against Hamas in Gaza on the same lines as the Jenin cleanup campaign, which finally terminated the four-year Palestinian suicide bombing war against Israeli towns in 2004. He linked the kidnaps and the unending rocket attacks from Gaza as part of Hamas’s muscle-flexing exercise to hasten its seizure of the West Bank from the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.

This design must be thwarted by uprooting Hamas’s Gaza infrastructure and operational arms, said Lieberman, no doubt recalling how the delay in the Jenin operation encouraged a lethal upsurge of Palestinian terror before it was cut down.
The suspected kidnappers, named Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Ayshe by the Shin Bet three days into the massive search on the West Bank for boys and their abductors, are still being sought.

But meanwhile their homes were blown up.

Trade and Industry minister Naftali Bennett urges the annexation of the parts of the West Bank settled by Jews and more settlement.

Other ministers in the Netanyahu government urge substantial punishment for the Islamist Hamas and its terrorist networks, if only as a deterrent for any future kidnap attempts and an immediate halt to its rocket attacks.

One or two ministers echo the sentiments of foreign condolers. Israelis are outraged when world leaders like US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon and an organization like the International Red Cross urged “restraint on both sides,” as though the perpetrators and their victims were equally to blame for the atrocity committed against the three Israeli teenagers.

Military and intelligence sources have warned the ministers in discussions on national security that if Hamas is not stopped in its tracks, Israel will soon see the black flags of Al Qaeda and ISIS pushing towards its borders, through doors opened by their ally, the extremist Islamist Hamas.

In the northern Syrian town of Raqqa, the Iraqi jihadis paraded Scud D surface rockets capable of reaching Israel, Iraq and Jordan. Photos of the parade appeared Tuesday in a number of web sites and social media  Western weapons experts who saw them judged them “likely inoperable.” However, according to debkafile’s military experts, the Al Qaeda-linked group has been able to seize large Syrian and Iraqi army arsenals in recent weeks and has not qualms about using them.

No one doubts the IDF’s rare capabilities and skills in counter-terror combat. But when politicians are too weak to exercise them, they are eating away at Israel deterrent strength.

Bombing empty buildings gives Hamas a blank check to carry on kidnapping Israelis and shooting rockets. It will not persuade Abbas to break up his unity pact with Hamas, provide security for nearly a million Israelis in daily peril of rockets, or stop Western leaders pontificating against Israel’s “lack of restraint.”
debkafile reported earflier Tuesday:

Monday night, June 30, the Israeli Air Force bombed 34 Hamas and Jihad Islami facilities in the Gaza Strip while, in the West Bank town of Hebron, soldiers demolished sections of buildings inhabited by the kidnappers who murdered the three Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel.

Their bodies were found during the day abandoned in the rocky field of a Palestinian village after a nerve-wracking 18-day hunt. The Israeli cabinet went into emergency session Monday night after the discovery and will continue sitting Tuesday to decide on fitting punishment for this shocking crime. Meanwhile, air force planes and drones struck 34 empty Hamas and Jihad Islami facilities in the Gaza Strip, from which the terrorists had fled to safety in good time.

debkafile: The ministers and army chiefs knew that the enemy, which kidnapped and murdered the three teens in cold blood, would again escape harm and, worst still, lose none of their capacity to continue harassing southern Israel with a rocket blitz.

And indeed, the Israeli air bombardment was followed immediately by three rockets launched from the Gaza Strip against the Eshkol District. They damaged buildings. There were no Israeli casualties.
The two Palestinian terrorist groups were making it clear that should Israel intensify its punishment for the boys’ murders, they too were fully capable of answering back with heavier and more precise guided rocket strikes against the Israeli population.
debkafile’s military sources: Both the IDF and Hamas-Gaza have evidently opted for a controlled confrontation until one of the two adversaries determines how to proceed next. Israel’s deliberations continue Tuesday amid pressing demands by Israelis, stunned by the tragedy, for action to hurt the terrorists where it counts and deter them from ever again abducting an Israeli.
The statement Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued from the cabinet meeting Monday night was a clear vow: “Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay.”

On the West Bank, Israeli soldiers early Tuesday razed sections of the Hebron homes of the two Hamas activists, Marwan Qawasmeh, 37, and Omar Abu Aysha, 33, who are held guilty of the kidnap and murder of the three Israeli boys. The attorney general who was first consulted ruled that the demolition of the large dwellings must be confined to the sections inhabited by the two men.

The half a million population of the Hebron district, where the kidnaps and murders took place, has been placed under lockdown for the hunt for the perpetrators, who have not been seen since the kidnapping occurred on June 10.

According to Israeli intelligence, they are still holed up somewhere in this district. At some points, Palestinian youths stormed the soldiers who opened fire to repel them.

Near Jerusalem, an Israeli woman of 21 was rescued from a house in Beit Jallah, which adjoins the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, claiming she had been snatched by Palestinians. Heavy army and policy forces, moved into this Palestinian location to retrieve her. Her claim is being investigated..

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers on a counter-terror operation in the Jenin refugee camp further north came under attack. A Palestinian mob hurling firebombs, rocks, explosives and iron bars was broken up when the Israeli soldiers began shooting. One of the assailants was shot dead.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was on the phone to world leaders Monday night and early Tuesday to plead with them to hold Israel, driven to retaliate for the teenagers’ murders, in check.

No decisions were reached in Ramallah about the future of the unity government Abbas sealed with Hamas last month.

In his message of condolences to the Israeli nation, US President Barack Obama urged “all parties to “refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation” and encouraged Israel and the Palestinians “to work together to find those responsible for the crime with US support.”

( The following is my translation of the ending from the Hebrew edition.  Edited out of the English. )

There is no doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon, won for the first time after a very long time, lots of praise from the Israeli media on their policy.

Vacuous slogan coined the fly on Monday with Washington, Brussels, and Channel 2 News “that we must exorcize restraint and must rely on our heads rather than our gut in reacting to the murder of the three boys.

What this slogan really means, if anything, nobody says. The main thing is that it catches your attention.

1. Will Hamas stop kidnapping soldiers? No!
2. Will Hamas stop firing rockets from Gaza? No!
3. Will Mahmoud Abbas cancel the Palestinian national reconciliation agreement, which added a bunch of terrorists to in Ramallah? No!
4. will Washington and Brussels no longer support the rapprochement hurt? No!
5. Is the security of Israeli residents as a result of Operation army man” to return boys? The obvious answer is no!

Whereby restraint?  What head? What stomach?

The public demands revenge, but Netanyahu doesn’t want long war with Hamas – Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz.

( This is the leftist Haaretz which represents the views of about 20% of Israelis.  “The public” which they speak of with fear and loathing is the rest of the country.  They embrace “blame Israel first”closer than anyone other than Arabs. – JW )

Bad blood between Jews and Arabs on rise in territories, Israel proper; ‘price tag’ attacks expected.

Israel Air Force strike in Gaza. Photo by AFP

Israel Hayom | Follow Golda’s lead.

Dan Margalit

Tears for Israel’s murdered teenagers | Fox News.

Arabs Throw Stones at Ambulance Carrying Bodies of Murdered Boys | Truth Revolt.

Israel air force bombs terrorist bases in Gaza, blasts Palestinian kidnappers’ Hebron homes.

Blowing up top floor of abductor’s Hebron home

Monday night, June 30, the Israeli Air Force bombed 34 Hamas and Jihad Islami facilities in the Gaza Strip while, in the West Bank town of Hebron, soldiers demolished sections of buildings inhabited by the kidnappers who murdered the three Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel.

Their bodies were found during the day abandoned in the field of a Palestinian village after a nerve-wracking 18-day hunt. The Israeli cabinet went into emergency session Monday night after the discovery and will continue sitting Tuesday to decide on fitting punishment for this shocking crime. Meanwhile, air force planes and drones struck 34 empty Hamas and Jihad Islami facilities in the Gaza Strip, from which the terrorists had fled to safety in good time.

debkafile: The ministers and army chiefs knew that the enemy, which kidnapped and murdered the three teens in cold blood, would again escape harm and, worst still, lose none of their capacity to continue harassing southern Israel with a rocket blitz.

And indeed, the Israeli air bombardment was followed immediately by three rockets launched from the Gaza Strip against the Eshkol District. They damaged buildings. There were no Israeli casualties.
The two Palestinian terrorist groups were making it clear that should Israel intensify its punishment for the boys’ murders, they too were fully capable of answering back with heavier and more precise guided rocket strikes against the Israeli population.

debkafile’s military sources: Both the IDF and Hamas-Gaza have evidently opted for a controlled confrontation until one of the two adversaries determines how to proceed next. Israel’s deliberations continue Tuesday amid pressing demands by Israelis, stunned by the tragedy, for action to hurt the terrorists where it counts and deter them from ever again abducting an Israeli.
The statement Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued from the cabinet meeting Monday night was a clear vow: “Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay.”

On the West Bank, Israeli soldiers early Tuesday razed sections of the Hebron homes of the two Hamas activists, Marwan Qawasmeh, 37, and Omar Abu Aysha, 33, who are held guilty of the kidnap and murder of the three Israeli boys. The attorney general who was first consulted ruled that the demolition of the large dwellings must be confined to the sections inhabited by the two men.

The half a million population of the Hebron district, where the kidnaps and murders took place, has been placed under lockdown for the hunt for the perpetrators, who have not been seen since the kidnapping occurred on June 10.

According to Israeli intelligence, they are still holed up somewhere in this district. At some points, Palestinian youths stormed the soldiers who opened fire to repel them.

Near Jerusalem, an Israeli woman of 21 was rescued from a house in Beit Jallah, which adjoins the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, claiming she had been snatched by Palestinians. Heavy army and policy forces, moved into this Palestinian location to retrieve her. Her claim is being investigated.

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers on a counter-terror operation in the Jenin refugee camp further north came under attack. A Palestinian mob hurling firebombs, rocks, explosives and iron bars was broken up when the Israeli soldiers began shooting. One of the assailants was shot dead.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was on the phone to world leaders Monday night and early Tuesday to plead with them to hold Israel, driven to retaliate for the teenagers’ murders, in check.

No decisions were reached in Ramallah about the future of the unity government Abbas sealed with Hamas last month.

In his message of condolences to the Israeli nation, US President Barack Obama urged “all parties to “refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation” and encouraged Israel and the Palestinians “to work together to find those responsible for the crime with US support.”