The Numbers Don't Lie

If there is anyone out there who still thinks that Israel's August 2005 withdrawal from Gaza was not a complete and utter failure, they should check out what the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service had to say today.

At a special briefing with the press, Yuval Diskin revealed some statistics that underline quite definitively just how disastrous the pullout has proven to be.

Take, for example, the number of Qassam rockets fired at the Jewish state. In 2005, Diskin noted, Palestinian terrorists launched 401 rockets against Israel. In 2006, by contrast, the number soared to 1,726 – an increase of more than 300%.

Likewise, said Diskin, the terrorists are believed to have smuggled an estimated 6 tons of explosives into Gaza in 2005, whereas in 2006, the quantity reached 28 tons. In addition, they snuck in some 14,000 assault rifles, versus 9,300 in 2005.

Hence, rather than bringing increased security to Israel and its citizens, the Gaza retreat has brought in its wake a sharp rise in Palestinian terror activities.

Indeed, the painful pullout and expulsion of thousands of Jews from their homes has not inspired any deeper Palestinian love for Israel, nor has it reduced the motivation of the terrorists to attack.

This is one case where the numbers, as they say, speak for themselves.

Comments

[Gentile Warrior]

Numbers only matter when they support the anti-war crowd. The fact that Islamists are murdering their own women and children doesn't play. If these same women and children were dying from American or Israeli bombs, the world will be going crazy. The good guys have lost the propaganda battle and are in the process of ceding the whole war.

[M. D'Souza]

The numbers presented by Shin Bet Chief, Yuval Diskin, clearly indicate that the eager beavers of Hamas are getting ready to strike hard. All these tunnel-burrowing activities and clandestine transportation of weapons from Egypt and elsewhere by these Gaza terrorists, should prepare Israelis for a sudden sneak attack anytime.

Tell this to the Israeli Left, and they will cast it aside as scaremongering of the public; while the media will brush it aside as panic-inciting terror news. The passive wimps in politics will focus on how they can reduce the size of Israel for better security, by evicting Jewish settlers.

What is needed in Gaza is major surgery, and not just fixing flimsy band-aids.

[Luigi Frascati]

Arming Hamas is the Egyptian response to the American arming of Fatah. So therefore, let's say it the way it really is, Mr. Freund - it takes another war with Egypt to end the Palestinian problem.

And since this is not possible for the time being because Iran represents a bigger threat than the Palestinians and not only to Israel but to the Middle East as a whole, the build up of arms, weaponry and terrorist cells in Gaza will continue pretty much unabated - whether the IDF is in Gaza or not.

With that said, however, the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was not a wise move. I have never quite understood why Ariel Sharon insisted so much in it.

[Aryeh]

The idea of a withdrawl was a great idea. The only problem was that it was backwards. Israel should have taken every last Moslem out of Gaza and shipped them out to a host country, say the Sudan or China or wherever. Anyplace. It is never a good idea to have a hostile popluation within striking distance of your homeland.

As to the Egyptian border, Israel should tell Egypt either to take care of its end of the bargain or to relinquish the entire Sinai. Giving them total control of the Sinai was a bad idea. Israel has gained little from it and lost a wonderful potential source of income. A properly developed Sinai could become the mecca of Europeans wanting an escape from their winter. Israel could have even work out a revenue-sharing agreement with Egypt as long as Israel maintained control of its security. Joint flags could have flown and Egypt could have declared that it had the regained the Sinai pen. but Israel was providing the expertise to properly develop and run the new resort capital.