Gaza Situation Cannot Continue As Is!
Something Must Give Due to Public Pressure!
Ground Operation May Eventually Produce A Hudna!
February 29, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod,com/
If Israeli were to inflict a serious wound on Hamas’ forces, Hamas will seek a long term hudna to recover its strength.
I do not know precisely when Israel will launch such an attack, but the IDF is ready to do it immediately when the order does come down, and the Israeli public is putting the squeeze on the Knesset to launch it.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1
Israel prepares world opinion for assault on Gaza
Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST
February 28, 2008
As Hamas drew Ashkelon
into the circle of communities coming under heavy rocket attacks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the Foreign Ministry on Thursday began preparing both Israeli and world opinion for the possibility of a large-scale incursion into Gaza.
Barak, during a series of meetings at the Defense Ministry, said, “We should be prepared for an upswing in hostilities in Gaza.
The big ground operation is a reality and it is tangible. We are not eager to embark upon such an operation, but we are not put off by it either.”
According to defense sources, the goals of such an operation – reportedly in the planning stages for weeks if not months – would not “merely” be to reduce the threat of rocket fire and rocket manufacturing in the Gaza Strip, but would also likely entail paralyzing the Hamas government’s ability to operate, and even include “regime change.”
Barak spoke with Quartet envoy Tony Blair and Egyptian intelligence head Omar Suleiman and said Israel could not tolerate the current level of rocket fire in the South without offering a wider response.
Barak also offered hints as to his plans, telling local community leaders gathered at Sapir Academic College outside Sderot that “the solution to Kassams will be a lot quicker than many people think.”
And the Foreign Ministry, in talking points sent to its representatives abroad, instructed them to say that when Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 it did so without the intention of ever returning, but that the continuation of terrorist attacks was likely to place the country in a position where it may have no other choice.
The ministry also instructed its representatives to reveal that the Grad missiles that were fired at Ashkelon on Thursday were smuggled through Sinai from Iran.
According to one diplomatic source, stressing the Iranian origin of the missiles showed the importance of aggressive action to stop the smuggling and isolate Hamas from Syria and Iran, which “directs the organization’s terrorist actions.”
“We have warned for a while about the arming of Hamas, and what is happening now is proof of this,” the official said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also seemed to be preparing the world for stepped up Israeli action, telling visiting Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas that the international community should “respect” all actions that Israel takes to protects its citizens.
Livni said Israel rejected condemnations and arguments that there were casualties on both sides of the fence, saying “there is no moral equivalence between terrorists and those fighting them, even if during those actions innocent civilians are accidentally killed. In these cases the world should not come to us – there is only one address for the Palestinian situation in Gaza and for what is likely to happen there in the future – and it is Hamas.”
Foreign Minister director-general Aaron Abramovich traveled to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit about the situation on the Egyptian-Gaza border.
Government officials said that while Abramovich wanted to concentrate on how to combat the arms smuggling across and under the Philadelphi Corridor, Gheit was more interested in talking about how to get the Rafah crossing re-opened.
The talks came in preparation for a high level discussion on the situation on the border excepted early next week with the arrival on Tuesday of both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Suleiman.
In light of the recent tension with Egypt over the situation on the border, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Israeli delegation “stressed the strategic importance of the relationship between Israel and Egypt, in enhancing and addressing challenges to peace in the region and promoting peaceful coexistence.”
In a related development, government officials said Israel was not getting “too excited” over an interview Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave to a Jordanian newspaper that appeared Thursday saying he did not rule out returning to the path of armed “resistance” against Israel.
The official said these comments were aimed at Abbas’s domestic audience and that Abbas should be judged by his deeds – a willingness to negotiate peace – rather than by statements “meant for internal consumption.
In an interview with Al-Dustur, Abbas also took pride that he had been the first to fire a bullet on Israel in 1965 and that his organization, Fatah, had trained Hizbullah. “At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different,” he said.
Rebecca Anna Stoil contributed to this report.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article 2
‘Hamas will soon be able to strike any target in Israel’
JPost.comStaff, THE JERUSALEM POST
February 29, 2008
Hamas is improving its rocket technology, and will soon be able to “any target in Israel,” Reuters quoted a senior member of the organization, Fathi Hamad, saying Friday at a rally in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was recently reported to have “gone underground” out of fear he would be targeted for assassination by Israel, also spoke at the demonstration. Haniyeh addressed the possibility of a large-scale IDF incursion into Gaza.
“[Such an] operation would end in total failure for Israel, just like the rest of its operations in the past,” Haniyeh declared.
“Israel is living under a delusion if it believes that it can topple the Hamas regime in Gaza… Even if Israel kills our leaders, it can’t damage the purpose of [our] struggle,” he continued.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also spoke about a possible IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, saying that Hamas was “in a war against the new Nazis.”
Zuhri’s comment came after Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i said Friday that “as long as the rocket attacks escalated, the Palestinians are bringing upon themselves a bigger Shoah [Holocaust].”
Begin DEBKAfile Report
Israeli leaders approach mediators for a ceasefire with Hamas
February 29, 2008, 1:15 AM (GMT+02:00)
Reporting this, DEBKAfile’s sources say Hamas would claim it had came out ahead of this round after the Israeli Air Force and army failed to stop its two-day barrage of 105 missiles and rockets.
Ashkelon, brought firmly into the Palestinian rocket cycle Wednesday, Feb. 27, was hit by a dozen Grad (Katyusha) rockets Thursday, injuring three people and sending 55 to hospital in a state of shock.
The damage to the town of more than 120,000 was extensive. Thursday night, defense minister Barak finally approved the Red Color alert system which gives victims seconds to run for shelter from an incoming Qassam missile or rocket.
Our military sources report that some 20 Israeli air strikes over the Gaza Strip against Palestinian missile teams and Hamas command centers, which left 14 dead, including four children, there was no perceptible easing off on the missile fire, especially against Ashkelon.
Those sources add that, despite the defense minister’s assurances that effective military to terminate the missile and rocket attacks was coming soon, no immediate preparations are in sight for a large-scale military action in the Gaza Strip.
Members of the Olmert government have been focusing on leaning hard on Hamas to accept a truce by targeted air strikes aimed at reducing the volume of missile fire.
This strategy failed for lack of ground action. The more frequent the air raids, the heavier the missile barrages and the broader the scope of their targets. Hamas topped Wednesday’s score of 50 missiles and rockets by shooting more than 60 Thursday – most aimed at Ashkelon and Sderot.
Israeli officers reported signs that the Palestinian terrorists were planning to expand their offensive Friday and over the weekend; their Katyushas may now be aimed at the southern districts of Ashdod, north of Ashkelon.
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