T. Belman. Israel has no choice but to destroy Hamas in this go around. It bothers the hell out of me that Hamas was able to acquire a stockpile of 20,000 rockets while Israel was supposedly keeping Gaza under blockade and Egypt had destroyed the smuggling tunnels. Last go around we were surprised by the tunnels they had built. This time it was the stockpile.
We should count ourselves lucky that Hezbollah didn’t let loose with their arsenal of 150,000 rockets. We won’t be so lucky next time. I read that Iran restrained them as its primary goal this time is to get sanctions lifted.
Hamas must be made to choose either power or rockets. It cannot have both. Meanwhile, by allowing its civilians to be the target of rocket fire, the government has violated its basic obligation to defend them.
By Zvi Hauser, ISRAEL HAYOM
The results of Operation Guardian of the Walls will be examined according to one basic question: did Israel fight “yesterday’s war” and stay trapped in the concept of periodic rounds of fighting, or did Israel use Hamas’ surprise to create a new reality for the Israel-Gaza relationship?
The strategy of containing rocket attacks on civilians from the Gaza Strip is a fundamental violation of the agreement the state undertakes to defend its citizens. There is no other place in the world where civilians live under the threat of rockets as a matter of routine, with the end of each round promising another one to come.
Bringing the front to the Israeli home front strikes a critical blow to Israel’s status as a regional power; damages Israel’s deterrent capabilities – which are vital in this area – as legitimizes turning Israeli civilians into living targets for any existing and future enemy.
The tactical battle against the tunnels is countered by an pathetic, almost across-the-board approach by the political echelon and the military and the media that rocket attacks on Israel’s cities, its vital infrastructure, and its airport are almost a matter of fate and impossible to contend with.
The paralyzing Israeli thinking when it comes to Gaza allows a relatively small terrorist organization to build up military capabilities to the south of us, similar to the Hezbollah terrorist army. Hamas’ force-building increases between every round of fighting, Israel is addicted to the idea of a long-term truce and opts for pointed tactical operations instead of a strategy that will ensure the security of thousands of its citizens, particularly in the era of a perfect storm of a multi-front conflict.
Israel has no choice. The extent of the rocket fire we have endured in the past decade demands that we anchor the concept of taking Gaza’s rockets away as the central tenet of the “last round” – demilitarization along the lines of how Syrian President Bashar Assad divested himself of chemical weapons a few years ago.
Assad remained in power in exchange for giving up chemical weapons. Remember, removing heavy weapons from Gaza was the goal of Operation Protective Edge in 2014. We must not retreat from that target. Hamas will need to choose between power or rockets. It cannot continue to hold onto both.
The destruction of Hamas’ infrastructure in the past few days puts this challenge in a different light. The IDF has been preparing for a “major” event in Gaza for years, and its abilities have improved unrecognizably since Protective Edge.
Israel has effective points of leverage on Hamas, other than a clumsy ground incursion, whereas Hamas still does not have the capability to paralyze us, like Hezbollah does to the north. But we will encounter capabilities like these in the next round, and we will have to pay much heavier prices, probably on more than one front.
The current Pavlovian opposition to changing Israel’s strategy when it comes to Gaza was the basis for the idea of “the impossible price,” which was prevalent in Israel prior to Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 when it came to Israel’s strategy in Judea and Samaria. Back then, the 30 victims of the Hamas bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya forced the cabinet to change its approach. The impossible became possible. The IDF won, and eradicated the terrorist threat for years. It’s interesting how many casualties we would have sustained if that approach had remained in place forever.
Today on Arutz Sheva
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306359
I think 160 is a good start, but only a start.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
The world can’t afford to sanction Israel in an economic way, except like the “labelling “of products from YESH and such rubbish. They NEED what Israel has far too much , and the massive corporations which have and are opening multi-billion dollar plants in Israel would not stand for it.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I’m sure Hamas has heavy weaponry enough to blast open the Egyptian closed border. And if Sisi is worried about them I’m sure that in the usual Arab way he can, if he takes off the gloves constrained on him by the “civilised” world, deal with the Gazans like a butcher after market day. ….or like the Turks to the Armenia.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I was actually thinking of Sinai, as I said . Never thought of your suggestion but whatever causes them the most discomfort or pain I’m for it. 100% There comes a time, and that time is many years past by, when a person or people should not, can not suffer any more and MUST strike decisively to end the nonsense.
Edgar G. Said:
I just noticed this detail of your proposal, Edgar. It sounds like you are talking about pushing them onto a sliver of Gaza bordering Egypt rather than into Egypt. I missed that little distinction. Would they all fit? If so, I like it. If it gets too crowded, maybe they could be stacked on top of each other in bunk beds in these tents. Tall tents. Ha Ha. Just a thought. Not exactly holding my breath, frankly. The Procrustean state plan.
@ Edgar G.:
i agree that this would be the ideal plan but hasn’t Egypt sealed its border even more tightly than Israel has? Could Egypt’s cooperation be secured and if so, how? At a minimum, wouldn’t Sisi be worried about mini-terror states being formed within Egypt’s borders as happened in Jordan in the 70s and Lebanon in the 80s? Could it be accomplished without Egypt’s cooperation? Would it be necessary to blow a hole in Egyptian defenses to enable the Gazans to escape? What would be the consequences of that, for example, with the regard to the Abraham Accords? In fact, wouldn’t that be seen as an act of war. Moreover, despite Biden’s hostility, otherwise, he has, so far, stopped hostile moves in the UN security council. Does Israel no longer need to concern itself with possible diplomatic or economic sanctions? It’s great if the answer is no. Is it?
@ Ted Belman:
TED- glad you agree with my reading of the disposition of their “stockpile”…
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Seb you are on the ball, as you nearly always are. I have advocated many times, here and elsewhere that same solution, in (simple) detail. Give enough hours (not days) warning for then Gazans to get out into Sinai. Then begin a rolling WW1 barrage from the north right down to the Egytian Border. Next, a convoy of massive bulldozers to shovel all the rubble into the sea, thereby enlarging what later will become desireable seafront property. Presto….!!
As for the Gazans, let their Arab “brothers” and the Goyisher bean heads rush to their aid with tent cities ans etc. They’ll settle them in a variety of Arab countries pretty damn quick, because the responsibility will be theirs…not ours.
Simple..even simplistic, but a sort of blueprint.
@ keelie:
Not possible, this is MODERN warfore. They are obviously in batteries of 4 or 8 and they replenish from well protected storage. They’re not all lined up like skittles as you seem to envisage.
@ Reader:
Well, unlike you, I don’t see “treason” under every bed. There are errors of judgement made by those better fitted than to decide, and there are errors of “intelligence ” This is the uncertainty of War. In the “pin-point” assassinations for instance, a split second timing error, cancause either success or failure.
The only certainty we have, is that neiher you nor I know anything about it. There are times when a prognosis can be seen, but in times of actual combat we know nothing except what we read in the news.
So please get “treason” out of your thought patterns, excpet when referring to the pseudo Israeli-Arabs, many of whom are loyal to Israel, many are not, and some think that now is not the time to show their “stripes”..
@ Tommylaws1:
Thanks. Very exciting.
@ Ted Belman:
Israel is not resting. It is now perfecting its laser defense system which does not cost the reported $100,000 per iron dome shot but $3.50. It is called ‘Iron Beam’ and was unveiled in Aug 2020 and undergoing rapid power to the output beam improvements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n1x_ofMGZI
and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Beam
Israel eventually will place iron beams (and their more powerful successors ), the costs will rapidly decline, their accuracy and ability will become ever more worthwhile and even the Iranian missile threat diminish.
https://defense-update.com/20200108_hel_israel.html
@ Edgar G.:
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they have stockpiles in every or almost every building in Gaza. If this were WWII, and Gaza were under German or Japanese control, the Allies would not have hesitated to destroy every single building through relentless day and night carpet bombing and it wouldn’t have been controversial. I can’t think of any other way of doing more than winning another temporary respite until the next round. Can you?
@ Reader:
Yes Israel is destroying it. You must remember that these rockets are stored in at least 100 different locations. or more. So it takes time.
As for Hezbollah, they haven’t provoked us like Hamas always does. Plus a huge percentage of Hezbollah rockets or missiles are smart which means they can hit their specific targets. They also carry bigger payloads.
When Israel is finally forced to deal with the problem she will have to have a massive invasion to obliterates Hezbollah as quickly as possible, it will still take many weeks during which time she will be hit by 1000 guided missiles each day.
We will suffer enormous damage and many deaths. We are hoping instead that it will never come to that.
@ Reader:
My opinion, is that their “Srockpile” is well hidden below ground, and likely in one of the tunnels that has been destroyed/blocked. d If it had been directly hit we’d have heard the explosion, On second thoughts their stockpile is probably distributed in a dozen different places. SO unless each position is known and ipnpiontedly attacked it’s more likely that most of it is safe from destruction. A ground attack is needed for this.
@ Edgar G.:
I am sure they are being richly rewarded for what they do (and don’t do).
The only result of their behavior is to provoke stronger and more brazen attacks on Israel resulting in a major war with a huge number of casualties and not necessarily the one that can be won by Israel.
The only explanation for it is either incurable stupidity or treason.
Hamas are declared terrorists hiding behind their cvilians who, by and large supposrt them. SO Israel must give it’s civilised warnngs, which it does above and beyond all accepted requirements, and then just get down to the fairly easy tasks of flattening the whole strip. The people can flee into SInai, where all kinds of nternational aid will rush to them right away. Then run hoses from the sea and fill the tunnels with water TO THE BRIM.
I’ve advocyed thsi for as long as I can remember, and no Israeli leader or general with the authority and BAYTZIM has done so. Tikkun Olom on steroids is the kind of war that Israel wages, one eye on the news media and the other on the UN, No wonder they can’t see stright in front of thme to get dne what needed to have been done 25 year ago already.
Think of the innocent, productve beautiful Israeli living and breathing citicens who have been sacrficed on the Moloch alter of “proportional response. What that means is to just put enough wet small coals on the fire to keep it burning without blazing.
Which Israel is very pointedly NOT destroying.
BTW, why not destroy the 150,000 Hezballah rockets?
There must be some way to do it.
typo: collateral damage be damned, I meant to say.
I read in Jpost that Iran is directing this as a test of Israel’s defenses and so Hamas is sending huge barrages of rockets at once and experimenting with speeds because they have determined that that is the best way to overwhelm Iron Dome. They want to use this as a test to see how to employ Hezbollah’s rockets in a future round. In short, it’s an experimental dry run, much like Nazi Germany regarded the Spanish Civil War, as a laboratory in which to come up with the most effective war strategy. This does not appear to be like the previous rounds of alternating terror war and hudna. It is crucial that Hamas and Islamic Jihad be crushed and crushed in such a way that they cry piteously rather than crow victory. Potential sanctions are the last thing Israel needs to worry about now. I remember when, was it the Lebanese ambassador cried tears on television in a previous war. It’s crucial that they project their understanding of having been defeated. As far as demilitarizing Gaza, for real, I think that would require the incursion of ground forces and a permanent military occupation. Considering that this would tie down Israeli forces that would then be precluded from being engaged in the North with Hezbollah in a potential 2 front war, aside from lack of public support for such an occupation, I wonder if it would be militarily wise to make such a committment. Frankly, I’d like to see Gaza simply leveled from the air, collateral damage be damaged, but I don’t think that’s possible politically.
Perhaps there’s something to be learned here… Never let your adversaries build up a stupendous pile of arms which can be used effectively at a time of their choosing…
Having said that, there are reputedly 150000 rockets pointed at the entire country of Israel, and I’m sure the IDF knows exactly where (at least) most of them are. But I am unaware of any attempts to destroy them. And my simplistic understanding is that if you hit one of them, all the others beside them will blow up…
Now, why would it be that Israel has refrained from conducting a series of “excursions” to take care of this festering problem?
Or could it be that Israel has something in mind that is outside of my sphere of thought?