Tel-Chai Nation

Yesterday, the IDF made a successful raid on the Jericho prison holding the murderers of the late tourism minister Rechavam Zeevi to capture the them, lest they be released, as the PLO was planning to do:

The six murderers of former Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi surrendered Tuesday evening to IDF forces after a day-long siege on the Jericho prison where they were being held.

A special anti-terror police unit and the IDF Nahal Brigade charged the prison Tuesday morning after U.S. and Britain withdrew their observers “out of concern for the monitors’ safety.”

Ze’evi’s killers surrendered along with 202 other prisoners after nine hours of shelling with heavy artillery and machine gunfire. The six will be taken to a prison in Israel.

[...]

IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz made a personal call to Ze’evi’s family to inform them of the capture. “This is a great day for Israelis,” said Palmach Ze’evi, the son of the murdered Tourism Minister. He also said, however, that Israel should have “settled the score right then and there” on the day his father was assassinated.

Quite right, it should've been done at least five years ago, when the crime first occurred.

Not too surprisingly, the Islamofascists in Gaza ran riot:

Arabs protested the action with riots and kidnappings throughout Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. During the day, 17 foreign nationals were kidnapped. Two Australians, an American lecturer and a Red Cross official were released shortly after they were abducted.

According to Israel Radio, armed terrorists were hunting for foreigners in local hotels. The Gaza police chief ordered his officers to fire on anyone who attempted to kidnap foreigners.

[...]

Some 15,000 Arabs protested in Gaza City against the Jericho operation, the British Cultural Center was torched and approximately 300 rioting Arabs broke into the European Union compound. In addition, gunmen burst into the German television network (ARD) offices, the same building that houses the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) studios. The office of AMIDEAST, a private nonprofit organization that provides educational support services, was also a target for armed Arab attackers. “We don’t want to see any Americans here,” one shouted at police who arrived on the scene.

The UN and the Red Cross both announced they were pulling their representatives out of Palestinian Authority-controlled areas temporarily in the wake of the kidnappings and other violence. Red Cross officials in Geneva later denied they had told their staff to leave.

European Union monitors also fled their posts at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings with Gaza Tuesday afternoon at the instruction of their governments. Both crossings were closed as armed Arabs gathered at the sites. In addition, the Karni crossing was closed due to specific warnings of impending terror attacks.

Meanwhile, PA security forces did nothing to prevent the disorders taking place at the crossings. There was also concern that Arabs might try to break through the fence separating Egypt and Gaza. Egyptian and Israeli officials were continuing to exchange information on the situation.

Israeli officials exchanging info with a regime that's anti-Israel? How sad. That aside, this shows that the PLO is just unworthy of recognition as the Hamas is. And Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) blatantly condemned the raid:

Abu Mazen called the Israeli operation, which involved besieging the prison compound and gun battles with terrorists from various militias, "an extremely serious crime".

Look at yourself in the mirror, Mahmoud. Because the only extremely serious crime here is what your gang committed over the past 12 years.

A good question though, is if the raid would've actually been carried out if the Likud for one hadn't worked on pointing out how Kadima's been slow to actually approve these operations. One Jerusalem says:

We applaud Israel's action. We also believe that if Likud's campaign that has pointed out the government's weakness in dealing with Hamas was not successful it is likely this aggressive action would not have been taken. In recent days, Olmert has talked about saving settlements and defending Jerusalem. After the election we still believe Olmert will follow a path of appeasement, as he has for the last three years.

That's a good point, we can't let Olmert and the other would-be politicians he's leading fool us on this. They'd taken their time in responding to a lot of these attacks in past months, not doing anything serious until later on, enabling a lot of damage that could've been prevented to occur, including the rocket attacks that have taken place against Sderot, Ashkelon and a couple of other areas. And the murderers of Zeevi are not the only ones who need to be brought to justice, there's also murderers who took the lives of many other Israelis in past years. And lest we forget, that the PLO, just like the Hamas, is also a terrorist organization, and does not deserve to be in a position of power.

Others on the subject include Israpundit (plus, here's another one), IRIS Blog, Westbankblog, The Dry Bones Blog, Israellycool, Soccerdad (plus, another one), Wizbang, Power Line.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, military