Israel Radio: Palestinians launching rockets from abandoned communities on
northern Gaza border

Aaron Lerner Date: 16 December 2005

Israel Radio Southern Correspondent Nissim Keinan reported this morning that
the Palestinians are now exploiting the abandon Israeli communities on the
northern border of the Gaza Strip as rocket launching sites that are
considerably closer to such strategic Israeli targets as a power plant and
a large fuel storage area located south of Ashkelon.

Prime Minister Sharon decided to retreat from the Israeli communities
located on the northern border of Gaza based on the assertion that an
Israeli retreat would only be acceptable if it was a complete and total
retreat to the '67 line. While Mr. Sharon's team has already made clear
that he intends to repeat the retreat from Gaza in the West Bank they have
not yet applied the "not an inch" logic to the West Bank retreat that would
mean that an "acceptable" retreat would have to be a total retreat to the '67
line[President Bush's remarks about large communities possibly having a
impact on final status meant that they might be valid bargaining chips so
that Israel might be able to convince the Palestinians to allow Israel to
retain French Hill and other Jewish neighborhoods beyond the '67 line in
Jerusalem - not retain the settlement blocs themselves].

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il