8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN
NATIONAL
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2007
Israel shows restraint despite attack
BY JOSEF FEDERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government came under increasing pressure Tuesday to respond harshly to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip after a barrage wounded dozens of soldiers as they slept in their tents at an Israeli army base.
Despite the violence, U.S. officials urged Israel to show restraint, fearing heavy action in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic militant Hamas, could jeopardize new momentum in peace efforts with the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has faced growing calls to respond to the near-daily rocket attacks out of Gaza. Israel limited its response to brief, limited ground incursions and airstrikes aimed at
rocket squads.
Late Tuesday, Israeli aircraft destroyed a rocket launcher in northern Gaza, witnesses said. No one was hurt.
After Tuesday's attack, along with a rocket last week that exploded near a nursery school in the southern town of Sderot, many Israelis are growing impatient.
"The question is not whether to create deterrence, but when." Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Olmert's ruling Kadima party, told Israeli Radio.
Olmert held a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday with top security officials, where they discussed the attack. Officials said Israel decided to hold off on major military action for now, though it might step up air attacks on militants.
The officials, speaking on con
dition of anonymity because the meeting was closed, said Israel is hesitant about opening a second front at a time of rising tensions with Syria.
Israeli military officials confirmed Tuesday that the army is on high alert along the Syrian border amid allegations by Syria that Israeli aircraft entered Syrian airspace last week. Israel has refused to comment on last Thursday's incident.
The army is also reluctant to mobilize large numbers of troops during the Jewish New Year holiday, which begins Wednesday. Officials also are wary of damaging recent progress in peace efforts ahead of the U.S.-sponsored peace conference, expected in November.
In a routine measure, the military ordered the closure of Israel's borders with the West Bank and
Gaza ahead of the New Year holiday. The statement did not say when the closure, banning Palestinians from Israel, would be lifted, but said some exceptions would be made, mostly for humanitarian cases.
Some Israeli leaders have urged Israel to consider non-military steps, such as cutting off fuel and power to Gaza. "I think we have tools to do this, tools that are not only military," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters.
In Washington, the State Department urged restraint.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"We would only counsel in this case, Israel, which has suffered injuries and losses as a result of attacks, to take into consideration the effects of what they might do in self defense on the overall political process," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Israeli soldier is embraced by his parents at the gate of an army base hours after it was struck by a homemade rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, In Zikim, southern Israel. A Palestinian rocket exploded in an Israeli army base early Tuesday, wounding dozens of soldiers.
Israeli soldiers stand next to armored vehicles at a base on Israel's border with the northern Gaza Strip. A Palestinian rocket exploded in an Israeli army base early Tuesday, drawing Israeli calls for a major military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after five days of fighting against the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel has no relations with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, while it has embraced a new pro-Western government formed by Abbas in the West Bank.
Abbas has repeatedly condemned the rocket fire, saying it threatens the peace process. But he holds little sway in Gaza.
The rocket exploded in the army
base around 2 a.m. Tuesday, spraying shrapnel that wounded more than 40 soldiers as they slept at a base just north of the Gaza border. One soldier was in critical condi-
responsibility for the rocket attack.
But Israel held Hamas responsible for the violence, since it has done nothing to halt the attacks.
"It doesn't matter which terror group took responsibility. Gaza is
"The question is not whether to create deterrence, but when."
tion and 11 others were in serious condition, the army said.
The army said its ground forces struck back at the area militants used for the attack. A Gaza Health Ministry official, Dr. Moaiya Hassainain, said four civilians, including two children, were wounded.
AVI DICHTER Public security minister
Two small extremist groups, Islamic Ihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed
totally controlled by Hamas, and it has the ability to stop this and decided not to," said Livni, the Israeli foreign minister.
Fawzi Barhoum praised Tuesday's attack as a "victory from God." In Gaza City and in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, youths in Islamic Jihad scarves and T-shirts handed out sweets to motorists in celebration.
Olmert and Abbaas held the latest in a series of meetings Monday, agreeing to set up senior negotiating teams. The sides hope to reach a
general outline of a final peace deal in time for the conference.
The leaders have been meeting one-on-one and released few details about their discussions.
Palestinian officials said Tuesday that Abbas has hinted of progress on two of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; which territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war will become part of a future Palestinian state and how the disputed holy city of Jerusalem will be shared, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to discuss diplomacy with the media.
But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, a confidant of Abbas, said talk that the leaders have agreed on principles or documents are baseless. "The only thing they have agreed upon is to form a Palestinian-Israeli team to begin working on how to tackle these core issues," he said.
SCANDAL
BY JEFF KAROUB ASSOCIATED PRESS
STARRING
Wrongly-fired policemen awarded
DETROIT — Two former police
officers were awarded $6.5 million on Tuesday in a whistle-blower lawsuit that alleged extramarital affairs by the mayor and other deeds by his security unit.
about his spending, including the use of city credit cards for expensive out-of-town travel and the city lease of a luxury sport utility vehicle for his family.
The Wayne County Circuit Court jury agreed that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the city unlawfully dismissed the officers and violated the state's Whistleblower Protection Act.
Kilpatrick, 36, denied the allegations against him said the city would appeal the verdict.
Harold Nelthrope said he sued after Kilpatrick's administration released a confidential police memo naming him as a source of allegations of misconduct by other bodyguards. Nelthrope said he was transferred out of the security detail and couldn't return to work out of fear for the safety of him and his family. He described escorting the mayor to trysts with Christine Beatty, Kilpatrick's chief of staff, and other women. Kilpatrick, a married father of three, and Beatty denied the allegations in court.
"I'm absolutely blown away at this decision. I know Detroiters are, too," he said, adding it wouldn't affect his mayoral duties. Kilpatrick struggled for re-election in 2005 following a campaign dogged by questions
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