A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

January 16, 2008 Dozens of Rockets on the Negev

Forty rockets reigned down on the area around Sderot today. Israel responded. Israel's additional options are very limited, other than the one thing Israel certainly does not want to do: a large scale ground attack into Gaza. While the images of the dead Palestinians were powerful, even some Arab commentators stated that they were fighters and brought some of this on themselves. The father of one of those killed yesterday (Zahalan) was interviewed on Israel Channel 10 tonight. He has not agreed to be interviewed by an Israel journalist since his older son was killed last year. In the interview, he stated that Hamas would not give in as a result of the attacks. He did not say that Hamas would seek revenge or that it would start sending suicide bombers or anything else, despite the loss of his son.

MK Avigdor Lieberman announced his resignation from the government. Most observers are trying to understand Lieberman without much success. Why did he join the government? Why did he leave it? His excuse was that Prime Minister Olmert was engaging in 'heart of the matter' discussions. Olmert is reported to have asked him to wait- after all, nothing has been agreed to. So now Olmert's iron coalition is a little less iron; he is now dependant on Shas and labor. To ensure that Shas stays in the coalition, Olmert has assured them that there will be no serious discussions with the Palestinians over Jerusalem at the moment.