Israeli air strikes reduce
Gazan high-rise towers to
dust, while Israelis flee in
droves from Hamas fire
Community leaders of 40,000
dwellers of the dozens of
kibbutzim, moshavim and
small towns adjoining the Gaza
Strip spoke out Monday, Aug
25: "It is no longer possible to
hide what is going on and the
country must hear the truth,"
they said: The populated front
line facing the Gaza Strip is no
more. Some bluntly blamed
this fiasco on Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu and
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon
and their management of the
operation against Hamas.
The collapse of the Israeli line
outside Gaza is analogous in
strategic terms to the fall of
the Bar Lev line 41 years ago
which permitted the Egyptian
artillery and tank assault
across the Suez Canal, some
veteran reservists said.
Others pointed out that,
whereas the IDF should have
carved out a sterile security
zone inside the Gaza Strip,
Hamas had managed to
depopulate a strip of territory
on the Israeli side of the
border by relentless cross-
border short-range rockets
and mortar fire, and was now
dictating events in southern
Israel.
On the 50th day of Operation
Defense Edge, people living in
the south were outspokenly
critical of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.
Benny Gantz and his deputy,
Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkott, in
contrast to the early days of
the operation. They are now
blamed for failing to present
the security cabinet with
creative military solutions for
combating Hamas tactics.
The prime minister and
defense minister this week
turned to covering their
dilatory tactics against a full-
scale war by disseminating
predictions from official
sources that this would be a
week of diplomacy and truce
negotiations would be
resumed in Cairo.
This kite didnt fly for long.
Hamas was too full of triumph
over the Zionist foe to bow to
terms dictated by Israel, Egypt
and the Palestinian Authority
and refused to be cowed in
compromise - even by the
heavy ordnance the Israeli air
force is throwing at the Gaza
Strips tallest buildings and
high officers. Indeed, history
shows that aerial blitzes rarely
cause their objects to
capitulate, unless augmented
by ground action.
In an interview Sunday to
Iranian TV, Hamas political
chief Khaled Meshaal acclaimed
the great Hamas victory over
the Israeli army and thanked
Tehran for the assistance
which made it possible.
Monday morning, Palestinian
Hamas leaders Izzat Rishak
and Osama Hamdan added
their voices to Meshaals by
rejecting talk of an imminent
ceasefire in Gaza and flatly
turning down the amended
Egyptian truce proposal as a
basis for negotiations.
The exclusion of a diplomatic
option, say our military
sources, puts the ball back in
the Netanyahu-Yaalon court.
Air strikes are again proving
unequal to halting or deterring
Hamas rocket offensive
exactly as they did before
Operation Defensive Edge
began. So Israels options boil
down to a choice between a
war of attrition which
Netanyahu has publicly vetoed
and overcoming his
revulsion to ground
operations in the Gaza Strip
preferably a series of short,
sharp surgical strikes.
Three days ago, debkafile
reported: Both sides were
preparing Saturday night, Aug.
23, for an impending battle on
Gaza Strip soil. Heavy IDF
ground forces were poised
ready to enter the territory
initially to demolish Hamass
short-range rocket and mortar
launches, which have
disrupted the lives of
neighboring Israeli
communities and forced their
mass evacuation. Hamas has
been firing those short-range
weapons from 3-7 km inside
the Gaza Strip.
Once they appreciated the
effectiveness of their tactics,
Hamas planners escalated the
barrage Monday, launching
140 rockets and mortar shells,
salvo after salvo, against a
broad Israeli population,
which has begun to register
casualties and extensive
damage.
This was meant as a goading
challenge to the commanders
of the Israel army ranged
around the Gaza border, to
come in and fight - if they
dare.
Netanyahu government can
hardly avoid calling a spade a
spade, namely calling the
conflict a war instead of an
operation and treating Hamas
as the enemy, which has to
be beaten in a ruthless all-out
national effort by every means
available. The present
situation, whereby Israeli air
strikes reduce Gazas buildings
to dust without stopping
Hamas rocket attacks,
juxtaposed opposite vanishing
Israeli communities reduced to
refugees is untenable.