Israel has no Desire to Reoccupy!
Where Are the World Powers Focused?
Russians & US on Elections, Br its
on Prince!
Where Are the Israelis Focusing Their Attention?
To give Hamas a reason to stop launching the Missiles!
Where Are Iran, Syria, and all Terrorist Groups Focused?
On Getting the United Nations to stop Operation Hot Winter!
On What Are Moderate Arab Nations Focusing Their Priorities?
They seem to be Focusing on Saying as Little as Possible about it!
March 3, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Israel will continue a hit, probe, destroy, and pull out type of Operation Hot Winter for as long as it takes to convince Hamas a continuation of missile launches by Gaza terrorists is detrimental to their own cause.
As I stated in several Blogs, Israel has no desire to reoccupy the Gaza Strip.
It is simply not worth it. So do not be surprised if Israel pulls out as quickly as it went in. It has shown what it can and will do to the Hamas terrorist government of Gaza. Hamas may agree to a long term hudna and stop the missile launches if they see the futility of such attacks, especially considering what they now know Israel will do again if they continue. However, in all honesty, it may take a quite different path.
Hamas desperately needs a time to regroup its political popularity with the Palestinian people. Both Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades have been shooting themselves in their own feet, as well as in each others and, over the last year, a matrix of hatred and confusion has been building between them. A hudna would give them time to bind up their wounds and consolidate.
If Hamas persists in their rocket launches, the IDF will be in and out of the Gaza Strip again and again like a yo-yo, for as long as it takes for Hamas and the associated terrorists in the zone to get the message, and consequently stop launching projectiles into Israel.
The three following articles from the Jerusalem Post give a good insight into who, what, where, when, why, and how the events associated with IDF Operation Hot Winter were carried out over the weekend.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1
The IDF’s ultimate aim is ‘to topple Hamas regime’
Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST
March 3, 2003
The government has yet to define or approve the overall goals of the current military campaign in the Gaza Strip, and will wait until Wednesday – after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit – to do so, senior government officials said Sunday night.
Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post the IDF had short-term goals for a limited offensive, such as the one now under way, dubbed “Hot Winter,” and longer-term goals for a larger operation.
The longer-term goals for an IDF operation that has not yet been approved by the government include “weakening and even bringing down the Hamas government,” the officials said.
The other goals of a much broader operation in Gaza include putting an end to the rocket fire and dramatically reducing the smuggling of arms from Egypt into Gaza.
The short-term goals are to shift Israeli cities out of Kassam range, which explains the current IDF activity near the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip; delivering a heavy blow to Hamas; and hitting the Kassam production line.
“Israel wants to stop the rocket fire,” one senior official said. “If it is done through diplomatic means, that’s one way. But if it isn’t, then we will have to do it militarily.”
The official said it was no coincidence that the security cabinet was not meeting until Wednesday to discuss the government’s goals and aims in Gaza, after the Rice visit, to see if her intervention would put an end to Hamas’s rocket fire.
The officials said that if Rice were able to bring about calm by getting Hamas to stop the attacks, it was unlikely that the government would go ahead on Wednesday and okay a widespread ground push into Gaza.
Rice is scheduled to go to Egypt before coming to Israel on Tuesday.
Since most of the international community does not talk directly to Hamas, Egypt is the mediator.
Senior government officials said the IDF was likely to scale back its activities on Monday
night, so as not to embarrass Rice with a major conflagration when she arrived on Tuesday.
The sources said the level of the fighting tapered off on Sunday, largely because the combat was most intense when the IDF first penetrated into Gaza. Once the army was deployed there, the intensity diminished, as those who resisted were either killed or retreated.
Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, meanwhile, said that since Wednesday, an average of 50 rockets had hit the South per day, including 13 Grad missiles in Ashkelon. He said about 100 Palestinians had been killed in the fighting and that, despite media reports
that the majority were civilians, 90 were terrorists.
Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), illustrated at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday the Palestinian use of the civilian population by telling the story
of an elderly man from Jabalya who was filmed driving a wagon that carried a Grad missile. When the wagon went past a grove of trees, two men came out, took the missile out of the wagon and set it up to fire. That incident was captured on film.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, told the cabinet
that the current round of fighting was “unavoidable” and must be seen as part of efforts to create a “different equation” in the South.
OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin expanded on this and provided the ministers with an overall assessment of what Hamas was trying to do by increasing its rocket fire, saying that the organization’s decision to bombard Israeli communities was connected to its own strategic situation.
Having been in power now for more than two years, Hamas was dissatisfied with its overall situation and decided that it needed to take dramatic action to reshuffle the deck, Yadlin said.
“Hamas is not pleased with the current situation,” Yadlin was quoted as telling the cabinet. He ticked off a number of factors working against the Islamist group: the Quartet conditions for talking to Hamas have remained in place for two years; very few countries are willing to speak to them; a diplomatic process is under way with the Palestinian Authority; and the Annapolis process runs contrary to the organization’s overall strategy.
“All those pressures – diplomatic, economic and military – brought Hamas in the last two months to the conclusion that its situation is unbearable, and they need to break the siege and create a new military balance against Israel,” Yadlin said.
He added that Israel’s killing of a “high-quality” terrorist cell on Wednesday, made up of operatives who had trained in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, was also a severe blow to the Islamist organization.
Yadlin said Hamas was trying to create new rules for the game. However, he added, “I want to say that with all attention on the South, when I look at the threats on Israel, I remember Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. The fact that they are not shooting now does not mean that they are outside of the battle. The opposite is true. They are all looking to see how this will end, and how this will end [will significantly affect] how they will act.”
Diskin, meanwhile, said Hamas was fundamentally interested in further establishing its control in Gaza, and once that was consolidated, wanted to move to take over the West Bank as well. Diskin said Hamas wanted to create a new balance of terror, whereby Israel’s killings of Hamas leaders would be met by barrages on Israeli cities in the South.
“They are trying to create a new balance of terror to create calm, so they can consolidate their strength in Gaza and then move to the next level: taking over in Judea and Samaria,” Diskin said
Hamas signaled by firing fewer rockets on Friday that it was interested in calming down the situation, and was surprised that Israel responded with a massive offensive on Saturday, he said.
Palestinians in the West Bank were beginning to show signs of solidarity with Gaza, Diskin said, but he didn’t envision masses taking to the streets on Monday.
That didn’t mean, however, that there would not be attempts to carry out a terror attack from the West Bank as a sign of solidarity, he said.
Olmert, during the cabinet meeting, called on his ministers to refrain from talking publicly about the situation. Perhaps influenced by the negative fallout from Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i’s use of the word “shoah” to describe what the Palestinians would face if they continued pounding Israel with rockets, Olmert said that while he could not prevent the ministers from talking, “I direct you to refrain from giving analyses, ultimatums, explanations or forecasts regarding the situation.”
Olmert also took the international community to task for condemning the IDF’s actions. Saying that he had heard “criticism and claims that civilians are being hurt, that Israel is using too much force,” Olmert said, “I do not recall that some of those making these claims have – over the years – said that the situation in the South was intolerable and that measures had to be taken to put a stop to it.”
Olmert said Israel would continue to protect its citizens in the South.
“Nobody has the right to preach morality to the State of Israel for taking basic action to defend itself and to prevent hundreds of thousands of residents of the South from continually being exposed to incessant firing that disrupts their lives.”
Despite Olmert’s words, one government official said that on the whole, the reactions from overseas were “relatively balanced.”
He said that while it was not pleasant to hear condemnations of Israel for using “disproportionate force,” the reactions from the US, EU and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon all condemned Hamas and the firing of rockets as well.
The official said that on the public relations front, Israel benefited from the fact that the IDF’s escalation had taken place on a weekend and at a time when the US press was preoccupied with the upcoming presidential primaries, the Russian media were focused on the Russian presidential election, and the British media were concentrating on the return of Prince Harry from Afghanistan.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article 2
Hamas is pushing for a cease-fire
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST
March 3, 2008
Beleaguered Hamas leaders on Sunday signaled their willingness to reach a cease-fire with Israel, sources close to Hamas said.
The sources said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sent urgent messages to the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia urging them to work toward ending the IDF military operations in the Gaza Strip.
The sources told The Jerusalem Post that Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders also appealed to Turkey to intervene and convince Israel to halt its offensive.
Hamas’s apparent readiness to reach a cease-fire with Israel is seen by some Palestinians as evidence of the Islamist movement’s concern that it may lose control over the Gaza Strip should the military operations continue.
“Hamas is nervous,” remarked a senior Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah. “All their leaders have gone underground. They didn’t expect such a massive attack from Israel.”
Other Palestinians, however, said Hamas’s call for a cease-fire at this stage of the fighting was aimed at showing that Israel had failed in achieving its primary goal of toppling the Hamas regime.
Taher a-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government, confirmed that the Hamas leadership had sought the intervention of a number of Arab countries in reaching a cease-fire with Israel.
He said Hamas had also invited Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to visit the Gaza Strip in solidarity with the Palestinians.
“Hamas wants to end the genocide and holocaust in the Gaza Strip,” the spokesman said.
“We have urged a number of Arab and Muslim leaders to exert pressure on the Americans and Europeans to save the Palestinians.”
He also accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of providing Israel with an excuse to attack the Gaza Strip by declaring that al-Qaida had established bases there. “Some of the leaders of the Mukata [presidential compound] in Ramallah gave Israel a green light to launch its aggression on the Gaza Strip,” he added. “The Americans have also given their blessing to the attack.”
Hamas leaders and spokesmen expressed deep concern over the failure of the Arab and Islamic governments to put pressure on Israel and the US to stop the IDF operations. “The Arabs and Muslims are not only sleeping,” said a Hamas official. “They are actually partners to the Israeli aggression.”
He said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II were the only Arab leaders who were actively working toward reaching a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
The Egyptians and Jordanians are clearly worried that the violence in the Gaza Strip would trigger unrest in their countries. Over the weekend, thousands of Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians demonstrated in protest against the IDF raids and the “continued silence” of the Arab leaders.
Mubarak on Sunday decided to reopen the Rafah border crossing to allow Palestinians to be brought into Egypt for medical treatment. Some 200 Palestinians were transferred immediately from the Gaza Strip to different hospitals in Egypt. Jordan also decided to open its hospitals to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, PA officials in Ramallah voiced concern over growing protests in the West Bank in the aftermath of the IDF military operations. The officials warned that the ongoing offensive and the growing number of casualties in the Gaza Strip could spark a “new intifada” in the West Bank.
According to a PA official, Palestinian policemen refused Sunday to confront demonstrators in many West Bank cities out of fear of being branded “collaborators” with Israel. “The Israeli military escalation is weakening the Palestinian Authority,” the official warned. “Israel is rallying more and more Palestinians behind Hamas.”
Abbas, who has been facing heavy criticism from Hamas and many Arabs, on Sunday succumbed to pressure to halt peace talks with Israel. His decision also received the backing of the Fatah and PLO leadership.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said the PA president decided to suspend negotiations and “all forms of contacts on all levels [with Israel] because it has become meaningless in the wake of the continued Israeli aggression.”
Begin Jerusalem Post Article 3
IDF begins clearing ‘Kassam perimeter’
Rebecca Anna Stoil, THE JERUSALEM POST
March 3, 2008
After two days of Operation Hot Winter – intense IDF activity on the outskirts of northern Gaza towns – Grad missile fire eased off on Sunday, although shorter-range Kassam rockets fired from the Strip continued to pound the western Negev.
Givati Brigade infantry backed up by Armored Corps battalions began to search residential and public buildings in the “Kassam perimeter,” the security zone over which the IDF first began to assert control a day earlier. Sunday’s operations focused on the agricultural areas closest to the Gaza security fence, and the easternmost portions of Beit Hanun, Jabalya and Gaza City’s Sajaya neighborhood.
It is from this eastern perimeter that many Kassam cells have operated in recent months, as the proximity to the western Negev maximizes the limited range of the home-made rockets.
But IDF sources said the much larger Grad missiles, brought in via Sinai, were being fired from farther inside heavily populated areas of the Gaza Strip, including from Gaza City itself.
Soldiers reported that the enemy in northern Gaza was using a wide range of weapons, including improvised explosive devices, anti-tank missiles and snipers. Booby-traps were found in some of the houses, and in at least one case, soldiers discovered a weapons storehouse inside a mosque.
The soldiers arrested around 30 Palestinians wanted for questioning.
Two Palestinians were killed and two were wounded Sunday in an IAF strike in the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalya, Palestinian sources reported. According to the reports, 10 Palestinians had been killed in IDF operations since midnight Saturday, although it was unclear how many were gunmen and how many were civilians.
Four soldiers were lightly wounded.
Overnight Saturday, the IAF fired three missiles into the empty office building in Gaza City used by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
The building was razed to the ground, and five people were lightly wounded, according to Palestinian sources.
The IDF confirmed that Haniyeh’s office had been hit, as well as seven weapons workshops and arms depots in northern Gaza.
Hamas issued a statement following the attack on Haniyeh’s office, saying Israel had “crossed a red line.”
A Grad missile hit Netivot for the first time on Sunday, albeit in a field on the outskirts of the western Negev town. The projectile struck meters away from the grave of kabbalist Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, also known as the Baba Sali. Residents have long believed that the grave protected them from the Kassam fire that plagued Sderot, their neighbor to the north.
Meanwhile, Ashkelon received a partial respite from the Grad missiles it absorbed over the weekend.
One Grad hit the city, tearing through the wall of a home in which a woman and her three grandchildren were sitting. Fortunately, in the four seconds between the time the “Color Red” siren was sounded and the instant the rocket tore into the side of the house, the four managed to run to a more secure interior room.
The eldest child, a high-school-aged girl, suffered minor shrapnel wounds to her back.
The Home Front Command continued to be active in Ashkelon Sunday, with teams dispatched throughout the city to assess the state of bomb shelters and to map out their locations.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i approved the transfer of NIS 300 million to improve the state and availability of bomb shelters for the city’s 120,000 residents.
Residents of Sderot and the western Negev were somewhat less fortunate, with an estimated four dozen rockets striking in communities and in open areas. Four people suffered shrapnel wounds, and Sderot-based Magen David Adom teams treated 14 people for shock.
The IDF is considering directing artillery fire at the source of rocket launchings. Barak is expected to convene a discussion on the legality of this tactic, since the rockets are frequently fired from residential areas.
In the midst of the fighting, the Defense Ministry gave permission for a massive humanitarian convoy to enter southern Gaza through the Sufa crossing on Sunday afternoon. The Gaza Strip Coordination and Liaison Administration oversaw the delivery of 62 trucks, including three carrying medical supplies (bandages, water pumps, tourniquets, etc.), seven with World Food Program cooking oil, seven carrying sugar, nine bearing milk products, eight carrying fruit, two with water purification supplies and four with meat and fish products. It was the first such mission to go through the Sufa crossing in recent months.
AP contributed to this report.
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