Israel shows resolve against Hamas victory by attacking its own settlers

By Aussiegirl

In its first military response to the recent Hamas victory, Israel showed its resolve to resist terrorism by waging war on its own people. That will show them who's boss!

If Hamas continues to refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist and refuses to disarm and threatens Israel's annihilation, Israel may finally be forced to take the gloves off and commit national suicide in a dramatic gesture designed to demonstrate its good will and good intentions to the world.

But I doubt the world would be satisfied even with that. I'm sorry, this simply strikes me as insane and cynical in the extreme.

Israeli Army Clashes With West Bank Jewish Settlers - Los Angeles Times

In the Israeli government's first severe clash with Jewish settlers since last summer's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, soldiers and police used nightsticks and water cannons today to subdue hundreds of rock-throwing protesters who had sought to prevent authorities from razing an enclave of illegally built homes.

The clashes, which injured scores of people, including two members of the Israeli parliament, were covered live on local television for hours. By afternoon, authorities succeeded in clearing protesters from the hilltop cluster of nine homes and smashed the houses with tractors.

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Although the episode resembled the government's unilateral evacuation of 21 Gaza settlements and four others in the West Bank last year, it was far more violent and appeared to symbolize a tough new approach toward the settlers by Ehud Olmert, Israel's acting prime minister.

Chanting rooftop protesters hurled grapefruit-sized rocks and sticks and poured gasoline, paint and acid onto soldiers and police below. Helmeted officers, aided by front-end loaders and ladders, stormed atop the homes and were seen clubbing the holdouts in a show of force that differed drastically from the generally gentle treatment shown settlers during the Gaza evacuations.

In a sign of the government's resolve, about 6,000 soldiers and police took part in the evacuation — a force nearly matched by protesters, who numbered as many as 5,000, according to the police.

The scene at times resembled a miniature battlefield, with the injured being carried one after another in stretchers, bloodied and bandaged. A patch of gravel near the row of stone-sided homes became a makeshift triage center, where medics treated the injured on sheets of cardboard that bore pools of blood. Pungent black smoke curled from burning tires.

Officials said more than 160 protesters and members of the security forces were injured. More than 40 people were arrested or held for questioning, police said.

By demolishing the enclave, which sits north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Olmert in his first weeks in office appears to be showing a greater willingness to confront settlers and their supporters than his predecessor, Ariel Sharon. Olmert took over as prime minister after Sharon suffered a massive stroke on Jan. 4. Sharon remains comatose in a Jerusalem hospital.

The action comes less than two months before Israeli national elections, and was seen by many people mainly in political terms.