Unless this is all talk, the IDF is finally going to go into Gaza in force.
Meanwhile, Defense officials revealed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak met privately on Thursday and decided that Israel would respond militarily to rocket attacks against the western Negev. The timing of the operation will be determined at a later date, likely following a security cabinet meeting later this week.
The government has, meanwhile, decided to embark on an international hasbara (public diplomacy) campaign ahead of a possible major operation in the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni convened a special meeting with heads of her ministry in Jerusalem Sunday night to discuss the situation in the South.
Here’s the really importan fact that most people will overlook:
The Post learned Sunday that the IDF Home Front Command had drawn up plans to evacuate children and elderly from Israeli towns that could come under heavy barrages of rockets in the event of a large-scale operation in Gaza.
That’s the one that shows the IDF means business. When the buses start pulling up in Sderot, the IDF will be moving tanks and gear to the Gaza border. And the Hamas leaders will be hiding in their ratholes. Literally, probably.
Hamas leaders went underground in Gaza on Thursday out of fear of being targeted by Israel as the movement announced that it would not extend its unofficial six-month cease-fire with Israel. Hamas also evacuated many of its institutions and security installations in anticipation of an escalation with the IDF, Palestinian sources said.
Defense officials said that Hamas was likely capable of firing more than 100 rockets a day into Israel throughout such an operation. On Sunday, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet that Hamas had rockets capable of reaching the outskirts of Beersheba.
They will, at first. But Hamas is fighting the last war. Israel is not.
The big question remains, of course: Will this be a full-scale operation meant to topple Hamas, or will it be yet another “pinpoint” that goes into Gaza, destroys a few bomb workshops and a few stores of weapons and ammunition, and then leaves?
I suppose we could wait breathlessly for Uzi Mahnaimi to give us the scoop in the Times of London, but, gee—he’s remarkably silent on this. I guess his sources all dried up. (On the other hand, he may finally be right about that imminent Gaza operation—a year and a half after he wrote the article.)
Barak is resisting.
He’s turning out to be worse than Fuad the Failure.
The time to act is BEFORE the Hamasshole leadership goes into their rat-tunnels.
Put a Laborite in the Defense chair, and Jews get killed.
They need the hammer brought down upon them.
We must support Israel,and prey for Jerusalem.