Intelligence source - Israel unsure what to do next in Gaza
mydailyclarity.com
>>We have reported before that Israel began the Gaza campaign with confused objectives, and it has no idea how to end the exercise unless someone else tells it to. This fact is finally now being recognized by Israeli intelligence. This is leading Israel to fumble its actions. Should they send in ground troops? They don’t really know because they are not sure what they want to achieve.*** Today’s Jerusalem Post reports further speculation from Israelis familiar with the situation about the current confusion on the Israel government and military command:
The Israeli leadership presented incoherent, even contradictory goals from the start for Operation Cast Lead, and that’s why there is a growing sense of uncertainty about how it is unfolding.
This is the view of the former national security adviser and former head of the IDF’s Planning and Operation branches Giora Eiland.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eiland told The Jerusalem Poston Thursday that it made no sense to set, as goals of the operation, the need both to deter Hamas from firing rockets into Israel and to remove Hamas’s capacity to fire.
“If the idea is to deter attacks, then you don’t need a ground operation,” said Eiland. “If, however, you want to destroy Hamas’s ability to fire rockets, then you need to invade Gaza,” he said. “The problem here is that the political establishment has not decided which course it wants to follow.”
“You can reach a situation where Hamas is sufficiently deterred. Or you can invade Gaza, with greater risks and casualties. But there’s really nothing in between. And it’s hard for the political echelon to accept that.”
Eiland said an agreement that binds Hamas “could be reached tomorrow” and would hold for months, and probably much longer, since the Arab states and Turkey would be pressing Hamas to honor it. But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “doesn’t want this, because it would legitimize Hamas,” said Eiland.
Eiland added that far too much attention had been paid by the political leadership to the “relatively straightforward” military aspect of the operation, and far too little to the diplomatic side.
“The military aspect is much easier - it involves us and them, that’s all, and the IDF can take care of that. The diplomatic field is far more complex, with all kinds of players - Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, the UN, the US, Turkey, the EU and others - all with something to say.
“The political echelon needed to decide on Saturday afternoon what [arrangement] it wanted [at the end of this operation] and how to get it. Who to initiate it? Not us, obviously. Whether to involve the UN Security Council, and so on.
“That was the task of the prime minister, the foreign minister, the defense minister. But they only started on Tuesday. That was long overdue.”
The impression being created, Eiland said, is of uncertainty. “If you want Hamas incapable of firing, then why are you waiting for the ground operation? If you want a deal, then why the delay? There’s a sense of treading water.”<<
*** Not only do they not have an objective for any ground assault, they are bloody scared. All Hamas needs to do is destroy/incapacitate a few Merkava tanks and they win the battle. In fact, Hamas has virtually won already because, despite Israel having killed 400, wounded 2000 and smashed up the place, the Qassam firing still goes on relentlessly. So all Israel has achieved is a human disaster in Gaza and more hatred for itself round the world. |
