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| By Israel Insider staff June 14, 2007 |
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Former IDF Intelligence Deputy Chief Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror said that Gaza's transformation into an Islamic preserve ruled brutally by Hamas poses huge and imminent dangers to Israeli security. While the corrupt Fatah was "busy stealing public monies," Amidror told Ynet, Hamas was strengthening militarily and was poised to "turn Gaza into Hamastan like Hizbullah in Lebanon, with Iranian and Al-Qaeda elements. We will have a full-fledged terrorist state on our borders. This will affect not only Sderot, but soon Kiryat Gat and Ashdod as well, and in the long run, rockets will even be directed at Haifa."
Amidror, quoted in Ynet, was one of a growing number of Israeli military leaders who saw the collapse of Fatah in Gaza as being the disastrous fulfillment of the dire predictions of opponents of the 2005 "Disengagement" from Gaza, which led to the removal of the IDF, the destruction of 19 Jewish communities, and the expulsion of more than 7000 Israeli residents.
"Israel's irresponsible departure from Gaza enabled Hamas to get stronger with tremendous quantities of explosives, weapons, training, money and more," Amidror said.
The solution? "Israel must be willing to enter Gaza and remain there for years," Amidror said.
IDF Gaza Formation sources, quoted anonymously on the NRG-Maariv Hebrew news site, say that if Israel had listened to ex-Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon before the Disengagement, Israel might not now be facing such a dangerous situation in Gaza and the Negev.
Yaalon had warned that Disengagement would provide a "supportive tailwind" to Gaza's islamic terrorists. Such statements cost Yaalon his job; then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hired Gen. Dan Halutz, who subsequently resigned in disgrace, to carry out the withdrawal/expulsion for him instead.
"What we are seeing now in Gaza," Gen. Yaalon now says, "is just the first step. Hamas is taking over... Our entry into Gaza is inevitable; no one else will do it for us. There are many questions and dilemmas, of course, but the writing is already on the wall. We must enter before the threat reaches Ashdod and elsewhere."
Yaalon says he is aware of the dangers and price that a ground entry into Gaza will cost, "but that's the job of the army; there is no alternative other than a broad ground operation against the terror infrastructures."
Vilnai Takes Dovish Approach
Former Deputy Chief of Staff Matan Vilnai, now an MK of the Labor party, remains optimistic that things will turn out just fine: "The Egyptians are definitely our allies in the war against terrorism in Gaza. They can stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza..."
Perhaps they can, but for the most part they don't.
Vilnai does not support that massive military force in Gaza: "We must use our military force smartly, together with diplomatic moves vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority.... We must resume targeted killings, air strikes, and special forces in Gaza against those who try to use terrorism against us..."
Meanwhile, the United Nations may send troops into Gaza to keep the peace, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying said that the Security Council would considering this option. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the far-left Meretz party have all recently expressed support for an international patrolling force in Gaza. Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman says NATO troops should be deployed there.
Hamas will have none of that, announcing fierce opposition to any international force. The Islamic terrorist group said that it would relate to such a force as if it they were "Israeli occupiers."
In other words, not nicely. |
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