Israel will decide within the next 24 to 48 hours whether to accept a cease-fire deal brokered by pro-Palestinian governments in Egypt and Turkey or launch a ground incursion into Gaza, former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Harel said on a conference call today.
“Basically we are moving with the Palestinians straight into a [juncture],” said Harel, who served as deputy chief of staff from 2007 to 2009, and also led Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005. “There are two basic alternatives. One is an agreement, which is cooked in Cairo, apparently. And the other one is escalating the situation and move forward into the Gaza strip with a land effort, which is going to be bad for both sides.”
Harel said that there are two conditions Israel believes must be met before a deal is reached. First, there must be guarantees that the cease-fire will be long-term. Second, there must be an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza. Harel didn’t specifically mention the one-kilometer buffer zone on the Gaza border, which the Times of Israel reported was also an Israeli condition.
“If both conditions [are] answered…then the Israelis, as far as I understand, will sign the agreement,” said Harel. “So basically we are about 24 to 48 hours from this [juncture], and we will have to see which direction each side will take.”
Harel also said that Hamas’s infrastructure has been severely degraded by air attacks. The IDF has hit nearly every launching pad that it was aware of — numbering from several hundred to one thousand — as well as Hamas government infrastructure, he said.
Though Israel has successfully targeted Hamas leadership since the operation began, many remain underground. “They are not being attacked because of the places they are hiding,” said Harel. “We are not going to attack a hospital or mosque, and so forth.”
But if Israel is drawn into a ground war, the Obama administration might not necessarily receive warning notice beforehand, Harel added.
“It might, it might not. I really can’t call it,” he said. “Basically, it’s not something you hide from the Americans, and I guess if they ask, they’ll be answered.”
When we say truce we mean Israeli Truce since clearly no one's prepared to speak up about Hamas or place any sort of demands on them at all. Which is fine, really. That's the truce they want, that's the truce they'll get. Just dial back operations now and get ready to spool them up again in a few weeks. In fact I wouldn't even wait for a precipitating event. Just bomb them more or less at random in, say, 4 weeks. n nAnd I can't stress this enough. CUT ALL SERVCES TO GAZA NOW. No electricity, gas, fuel, anything. Let the heroic heroes of Hamas figure it out.
I ask again, how much control does Hamas have over its fighters? n nI don't think they have the ABILITY to honor a cease-fire – do you honestly believe that they could convince their people that Israel was now their friend and to not try to kill Israelis? Or that there aren't a few rockets hidden somewhere that some ideologue will decide to touch off next week or the week after? n nAnd then what? Israel is both an open society and a democracy, so the fact that rockets came in will get reported, and a cease fire that fails could bring down those who supported it.
“We are not going to attack a hospital or mosque, and so forth”, says Dan Harel. n n25 mosques have already been attacked. At least two have been destroyed. n nDan Harel has no credibility.
who cares-obliterate them all n nmosques are where the moslams learn to hate-learn that everything belongs to them n neverything n nwhere moslams learn infidel women are meat n nthe moslams store their rockets in mosques n nso, let's just do it n nfaster please
“Our message to Netanyahu is that we will defeat you like we defeated your ancestors,” n n- Qassam leader named Mosheer Al Masri n nvia NYTIMES n nWell, on the bright side, at least he admits there were Jews in Palestine in antiquity, even if his ancestors were in the Arabian peninsula.
“We are not going to attack a hospital or mosque, and so forth.” And why not a mosque? A great deal of the vile anti-Semitism spewed out of Muslim mouths originates in the Mosques. Even the hospitals. If armed enemy or leaders are inside, it is an appropriate target. The stinken world will scream. So what? The enemy inside will murder a Jewish child the next day. Is that what we will allow for the sake of preventing bad publicity from Nazis?
in pure theory, yo uare one hudnred percent right- and one only has to look at World War II to see that Allies bombed quite indiscrimately. Add to that the fact that Moslems themselves pretty enthusiastically kill each other in the holiest of places and you a strong argument for bombing everywhere.However, the Israelis are wary of fighting on too many fronts- and the propaganda war is another serious front. They are not willing to cede that territory to Hamas, as much as we grind our teeth. The "inner' cabinet has some pretty strong hawks (Yaalon, Lieberman) and I do trust that cabinet to make the right decisions, even as i fret of Ehud Barak's oversiced influence.
The Israeli government needs to face reality – any credible cease-fire terms from Hamas will require Israel to end their blockade and legitimize the Hamas government. If Israel wants to end the attacks and not legitimize Hamas, they need to re-occupy Gaza. There is no third option – no UN or third party that is going to take responsibility there. Wake up Israel