Five and a half months

Israel's defense minister Peretz said:

... that any attempt to fire into Israeli territories would be considered a breach of the cease-fire and treated with severity.

According to Peretz, Israel is interested in quiet, but would not accept attacks on its citizens.

He also said:

"Israel cannot afford to accept harm to its citizens, and will perform the necessary operations to defend its sovereignty and ensure the citizens' safety.

"We will not be part of internal Palestinian power struggles, but we will react harshly," he added.

This is all great, except that his first statement was made five and a half months ago, and the second statement was today. And even when he said it today the IDF announced that it will not react harshly but just lob a few rockets back at Gaza, where one will inevitably kill a bystander and the nearly six months of goodwill that Olmert and Company have tried to build by allowing Sderot residents to be sitting ducks will evaporate.

Somehow I don't think that nearly half a year of lies and the occasional tiny reaction is going to help the citizens of Sderot very much.