Remora

Museum or Masoleum

According to a story in the Ha'aretz,

thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush in Jenin this morning.

"Thirteen IDF soldiers were killed following a series of clashes in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on Tuesday morning. In addition, an officer with the paratrooper brigade was killed during gunfights in the Nablus casbah.

Also Tuesday, in Dura, south of Hebron, another paratroop brigade officer was critically wounded after the IDF thrust into the village.

All of the casualties in Jenin were reserve soldiers. Nine other soldiers, also predominately reservists, were hurt in the clashes, two moderately and seven lightly. They were taken to Afula's Emek Hospital for treatment. "

According to the paper, there are a dozen Palestinian dead, at least, scattered through the camp. According to the Washington Post, Palestinians estimate that there are many more dead: "more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in battles inside the camp over the last week. Before the latest ambush, nine Israeli soldiers had been killed inside the camp and the neighbouring town."

This, according to the Economist, is how the battle went down in Jenin:

"But the real carnage on Monday and Tuesday occurred in Jenin refugee camp and in Nablus�s Old City, hitherto impenetrable bastions of the Palestinian militias. In Jenin, Israeli army bulldozers ploughed through flimsy shelters in pursuit of Palestinian fighters; helicopters pitched rocket after rocket into mosques; and Israeli and Palestinian machine-gun fire raked the alleys of a camp that is home to 13,000 refugees. No one has any idea of the Palestinian death toll. But the conservative estimate is �dozens�, says a doctor at Jenin hospital. He cannot be sure, because his ambulances are fired on when they try to cover the 200 metres to the camp. It is the same in Nablus, as soldiers and fighters fight house-to-house�and sometimes hand-to-hand�through the Old City�s warren of cobbled streets. The avowed aim of the Israeli incursions is to root out the �terrorist infrastructure� which has underpinned so many suicide bombings, including, most bloodily, the one on March 27th, in Netanya that killed 27 people. That was the immediate provocation for the latest Israeli offensive, which has certainly dealt grievous blows to the Palestinian militias and police forces: dozens have been killed, hundreds arrested and arms, equipment and buildings seized. But the result is not going to be surrender. It will almost certainly mean radicalisation."

As the Economist points out, Sharon has succeeded in destroying the Palestinian authority. One of Sharon's advisors said that the only place for Arafat was in a museum or a masoleum. Well, there are a lot of Palestinian corpses to put in a masoleum, aren't there? Luckily they didn't get there through the messy and barbaric acts of suicide bombers, but the rational, nay, compassionate method of raking alleys between dwellings with machine gun fire. It is the clash of civilizations, after all; and we know the terrorism taught by those Koran shaking Palestinians. So we just have to deal with it, although of course in our hearts, our compendious hearts (heart of Cheney, heart of Bush, heart of Peres, heart of Sharon, heart of Daschle, heart of Powell, heart of Zinni, heart of Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz, heart of Blair -- oh, the parade of hearts on display! all these honorable men dealing, hand to hand, frankly, with animals!) we are deeply, deeply grieved. But we have to remember that though the bodies in the alleys of Jenin look human, -- they are beyond are compassion. We might pity the kicked dog, but our duty is to put him down, put him manfully down, if he turns on his master. So the Sharon-Bush strategy now is to find a kicked dog that doesn't turn. One of the canine sort that you can kick again and again.

Good luck, boys.