Phew

I guess this is kinda self explanatory, but it's worth noting that Sharon made a good decision: The Israeli government and the defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eleizer, decided that the element of surprise had been lost, Palestinian militants of Hamas and Islamic Jihad had gone into hiding and that there was less chance that a bloody operation in Gaza would achieve its goals.

The Haaretz take: The army began releasing some reservists Sunday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer decided Thursday night to cancel - or "defer" in official parlance - the incursion. The IDF action was originally planned as a response to the suicide bombing Tuesday night in Rishon Letzion, in which 15 people were killed.

In other news, a rather odd story appeared in Haaretz's website two and a half hours ago. They're quoting today's New York Post; but the story (which says that an arms smuggling ship was sunk) has a lot of unanswered questions, most pointedly, why would Uri Dan write this story? And why would he write it for the Post, which isn't exactly one of the world's leading news sources? I wouldn't be surprised if the story is true, but I'm wondering what the story behind the story is. Overall very sketchy...