What Would Sharon Do?

Irena Shaulov, mother of David Shaulov who was killed in the Tel Aviv suicide bombing, kisses her [nine-month] pregnant daughter-in-law during her son's funeral in Holon, near Tel Aviv, April 18, 2006. 

(REUTERS/Eliana Aponte)

From today's International Herald Tribune:

Israel's leaders on Tuesday held the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority responsible for the deadliest suicide bombing in 20 months, but stopped short of branding it an "enemy entity" or ordering a large-scale military operation.

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and key Cabinet ministers decided instead to revoke the Israeli residency rights of three Hamas lawmakers who live in Jerusalem, participants in the meeting said. . . .

Olmert and senior advisers and security chiefs met for two hours Tuesday to weigh a response. . . .  Participants said Olmert decided against launching a large-scale military operation and blocked a proposal to declare the Palestinian Authority an "enemy entity." Such a declaration would have paved the way for direct strikes against the Palestinian Authority. . . . 

It was the second major Passover bombing in four years. An 2002 attack at a hotel in the coastal town of Netanya killed 29 people and triggered a major Israeli military offensive.

(Hat tip – and essential reading:  Boker tov, Boulder!)

Comments

[J. lichty]

What Would Sharon Do?

That's about what he would have done, but he would have sounded really threatening doing nothing.

[J]

What Would Sharon Do?

Nothing. He was too busy expelling Jews from their homes and pretending that the PA was changing to continue with a proactive rational security policy.