Ashkelon, Back In Cross Hairs

by Joshua Mitnick
New York Jewish Week
March 6, 2009

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/816/ashkelon-back-in-cross-hairs

Itamar Cohen moved to this coastal city a month ago from Jerusalem, hoping that Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas had snuffed out the barrage of rockets during the war.

But when sirens went off in Ashkelon on Saturday morning, Cohen found himself running for the cover of a bomb shelter.

"It's scary to live here. I'm not used to this situation," said the 25-year-old Web master, whose brother sustained moderate wounds during the war.

"There's a feeling the war didn't achieve its purpose. They wanted Hamas to think twice before shooting, but that didn't happen. The operation finished prematurely."

Indeed, the vaguely formulated goal of the Gaza war, which Israeli politicians repeated at every opportunity, was to "change the security situation in southern Israel."

But after a week in which the trickle of cross-border missile fire resumed as if there had been no war, Ashkelon and southern Israeli residents were complaining that the government had once again abandoned them as if they were second-class citizens.

Amid reports of Israeli army officers warning that the military gains from the war were being eroded by the missile fire, there seems to be a growing consensus that Operation Cast Lead is not turning out to be the success that the government initially trumpeted after declaring a unilateral cease-fire on Jan. 18.

Middle East analyst Meir Javedanfar said that Israel's handling of the conflict is worse than the 2006 Lebanon War. For all of the criticism of Israel's inability to deliver a decisive blow against Hezbollah and the resulting erosion of Israeli deterrence, that cease-fire has held for the most part.

In the case of Gaza, "Israel sent a message that it has the capability to inflict heavy damage against Hamas' military infrastructure, but because the conflict wasn't followed up by any agreement, Israel missed an opportunity to restore its deterrence," he said.

"Israel made the mistake of declaring a unilateral cease-fire without any agreement from Hamas," Javedanfar continued. "That gave Hamas the initiative. By taking the initiative they've eroded the gains of the war. We should have had an agreement worked out behind the scenes, with the Egyptians to work out the rules of the game — but we didn't do that."

Instead, Israel is now involved in complex talks to reach a cease-fire and on a prisoner swap to release Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Last week, Israel's government linked the freeing of Shalit to the opening of the Gaza border crossings — a move that was immediately the subject of heated debate.

Speaking on the Israel Channel 1 show "Politika," Likud Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely called the outgoing government's policy a failure, and pledged that Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu will correct the mistakes.

Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar Ilan University, said Hamas has felt more confident in firing missiles at Israel since the army released soldiers who had been massed at the border. 

Meanwhile, Israel has been losing in the arena of international public opinion because of the focus on the humanitarian plight of Gaza's residents and the charges of war crimes against Israel. All of that emboldens Hamas to undertake more attacks, saidSteinberg, who also heads the watchdog NGO Monitor.

"At some point Israel is going to cross a red line, and there is going to be another operation," he said.

Before, during and after the war, Ashkelon residents said they feared that the coastal city would turn into another Sderot, the Israeli border town that has been absorbing Palestinian rocket fire for the last seven years.

Though residents say they haven't recovered from Saturday's attack, a shopping mall across from the municipality was bustling with people earlier in the week. Cohen said that slowly but surely Ashkelon residents are learning to live with missiles.

"That's the worst part: that people are getting used to it," he said. "That is the most dangerous. When the government sees people continuing with their daily lives, they won't take care of the problems."

Over the weekend, a Hamas missile landed in the courtyard of the Amit religious high school, spraying tiny metal shrapnel balls that left the walls with giant pockmarks. In an adjacent computer lab, the ceiling tiles were blown out from the force of the explosion, leaving monitors covered in dust and metal frames and a light fixture dangling overhead.

"Here is what's left of the computer lab," said Tomer Sultan, the computer teacher, as an assessor from Israel's tax authority surveyed the damage. "I used to worry about every little virus; now to see it like this is painful. I'll bet 80 percent of the computers are dead."

The direct hit at the school injured no one because it occurred on a Saturday morning. "If it happened one day later, we would be at war now," said one security guard outside the municipality. The city's parents' association called for a boycott of school on Monday because the government hasn't provided shelter for all the children.

Not everyone complied, according to Israeli news reports. In the parking lot outside the local shopping mall, Galit David said her 14-year-old daughter insisted on going on with her studies. "She wants a framework. It's boring at home," David said.

Inside the mall, Itamar Cohen was joined by his sister Liat, a single mother who recently moved back to Israel after several years in the U.S. After staying in Ashkelon during the war, Liat said she was planning to move to a city or town closer to central Israel. 

"I'm not going to put my daughter in a grade school here," she said. "There are a lot of things that I am willing to fight, like the economy, but I'm not willing to sit around and wait" for rockets to fall.

Yossi Alpher, the co-editor of the Israeli-Palestinian online journal BitterLemons.org, said the operation and the lack of any resolution highlight the absence of a clear strategic concept on Israel's side.

"It confirms that an attempt to use military force did not solve the problem," he said.

Cease-fire negotiations are foundering on two issues, he said — an agreement on the opening borders and the release of Gilad Shalit.

"The economic war on Gaza has been a failure," Alpher said. "There is not strategic justification for conditioning its opening up to the rest of the world. Here we have our entire strategy, or lack thereof, being dictated by one soldier. That's not sound thinking."

Back at the Amit school, Tomer Sultan, the computer teacher, said that Ashkelon residents had hoped that the operation in Gaza would stop the missile fire, but that didn't happen. Another similar offensive probably won't help. Instead, he said, Israel needs to go back in on a permanent basis.

"This is a tough situation," Sultan said. "There won't be peace. Ultimately, we need to show our presence in Gaza" so Hamas will think twice about continuing to fire rockets.

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