Thursday, January 22, 2009

Condi Had "Indirect" Responsibility for This Shooting

As predicted (here), the removal last April of the Rimonim checkpoint at the demand of Condi Rice has led to a shooting.

...33-year-old Moshe Avitan, was driving on the Alon Highway with his wife, Sarah, who took the wheel of the car after the shooting and drove to the entrance of Kochav Hashahar. The man was airlifted from there to Jerusalem's Hadassah
Hospital on Mount Scopus, where he underwent an operation. After an initial
investigation, police said the shots were fired from a passing vehicle in a drive-by attack.


It was clear that would happen:

The removal of the Rimonim checkpoint - which connects Ramallah with Jericho - on Monday has created a number of headaches for the IDF's Central Command and its commander, Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni. From a military perspective, the checkpoints are a crucial tool in the war against terror, with troops catching Palestinians on a daily basis trying to cross them carrying weapons or explosives.

Officials close to Barak admitted on Monday that the lifting of the roadblock was accompanied by a number of security risks. But, they said, the risks were "calculated."

As demonstrated by the 35-page report that Barak presented US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with on Sunday, Israel's primary objective with the gestures is to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his government in Ramallah. This is being done in face of the growing Hamas threat in the West Bank and the terror group's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.

Bolstering Abbas comes with a degree of danger. The lifting of 50 dirt roadblocks, as well as the Rimonim Checkpoint, will allow Palestinians to travel on roads they did not have access to in the past. Weapons smuggling will most likely increase, and there is a fear in the IDF that drive-by-shootings will as well.

1 comment:

Ashan said...

The Avitan family should sue Condi for criminal negligence.