A disturbing report from an IDF source:
Hamas, the officer went on to say, had established a full-fledged army, consisting of four brigades, corresponding to the different sections of the Gaza Strip. The brigades were made up of a number of battalions and platoons. In addition, Hamas had smuggled in the past two months over the twenty tons of explosives via the Philidelphi Corridor from the Sinai into the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, the officer claimed that the group had obtained anti-tank missiles, as well as an unknown number of anti-aircraft missiles. Hamas also reportedly possessed old models of Katyusha rockets, and they were working to improve the range of their cache of Kassam rockets, he said.
‘They have an organized military,” the officer said, adding that the total number of infantry had reached some 13,000 recruits. “They have the manpower, they have the training, they have the motivation; the principle is creating a balance of deterrence against Israel,” he said.
The officer also noted that over the past two years since the disengagement, several hundred Palestinians had traveled from Gaza to Iran to receive training. In one case, the officer said, a Palestinian who trained in Iran was responsible for training 400 Palestinians upon his return to Gaza.
That’s the bad news. The good news, the officer says, is that Israel can take out Hamas—if she does it soon.
Claiming that Hamas has jumped light years since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, a high-ranking IDF officer said that there was currently a limited window of opportunity for Israel to confront the Hamas threat in the Gaza Strip.
“There is an opportunity today since the world has not yet become accustomed to the new Hamas entity, and Hamas has not yet fully completed strengthening it’s military capabilities,” the officer said, adding that Israel was on a “collision course” with the Islamist group.
“The Gaza Strip is a boiling pot, the fire underneath is fueled by [a poor]economy and [an Islamist ideology] and the lid over it is Israel,” the officer was quoted as saying by Israel Radio. “Hamas is currently not acting against Israel because it is not in the group’s interests, but one must not mistake this with the organization’s ultimate goals,” he added.
[…] According to the officer, the IDF has the necessary capability to stop Hamas, and all that was needed was the go-ahead from the government.
Of course, the worse news is that the world will consider any move against Hamas a “disproportionate” “incursion” into Palestinian territory. But the worst news, of course, is that Israel is led by Ehud Olmert. Don’t count on the IDF taking out Hamas anytime soon.
Don’t forget that Shimon Peres is going to try to turn his position as president into something that will allow him to do what he failed to do as prime minister.
With the two of them working together, Israel is facing an even more dangerous position that it would be with only one of them around.
Israel should totally ignore the worlds feelings and do what is right. The world will respect decisive action such as Entebbe, however the Hamassholes have Ehud Olmerde pegged correctly – a feckless nincompoop!
Israel can always cut off water, food and power to Gaza but Snoopy the Prime Minister will never do it as he takes his marching orders from his anarchist wife and daughter.
Maybe a heavy potted plant can accidentally fall out of a tall building onto Olmerde’s head. The man is an existential danger to the Jews. Shimon Peres should have been put out to pasture years ago.
Releasing prisoners, pardoning terrorists, transferring tax money, and incessantly meeting with corrupt Fatah bureaucrats will not win Israel any points with these cold and bitter enemies.
But cutting off Gaza’s resources and launching constant and effective air attacks on Hamas’s military facilities will win respect from all Palestinian Arabs, and from Syria and Hizballah as well.
Deterrence does not lie in physical ability but in the demonstrated will to destroy enemies.
Ultimately, all the Palestinian Arabs will reject any reasonable compromise on refugees, Jerusalem, and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. At that time, they will all have be transferred elsewhere.
Perhaps beating Hamas into the dust will postpone that day, by suppressing these people, who are either at your feet or at your throat.