I bet bears will use this weeks ISRAEL attack
to crush the bulls. Just watch, one day this week
you will see a headline in the middle of the day
"Sharon launches massive airstrike against PLO
headquarters" or something like that and then WHAM,
down go the markets!
SHARON GETS READY TO RUMBLE
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July 17, 2001 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday let it be known that he's finally loosening his self-imposed bonds of restraint in the face of Palestinian terror.
"In conjunction with the continuous attacks against our citizens and soldiers," Sharon's spokesman declared, "we are going to exercise the policy of immediate response to every attack."
That statement followed the suicide bombing of a bus stop in the northern Israeli town of Binyamina which killed two civilians and wounded several others.
Just hours earlier, two Palestinians - members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction - were killed when the bomb they were assembling near the stadium where the Maccabiah Games are being held exploded prematurely.
To prove Sharon's point, Israel responded to Arab shooting attacks on Israeli army posts by sending tanks into two Palestinian-controlled cities.
That's still far short of an all-out assault against Palestinian terrorism - but maybe Arafat will take the hint.
Don't bet on it, though.
So what happens next?
Fact is, no self-respecting nation on Earth should be expected to show the kind of self-control that Israel has demonstrated these past few months.
President Bush would never sit still if American towns were the victims of repeated terrorist bombings; British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Sharon he simply would not tolerate the deadly bombing of a London disco, like the one in Tel Aviv.
Only Israel is expected to turn the other cheek.
But Sharon has now sent the message that his country will no longer accept repeated violent attacks without striking back - quickly and effectively.
What fair person would blame him? |
