Israel Not Amused By Attempts To Turn Gaza Into Lebanon
After Hezbollah managed to push Israel out of Lebanon again - with not a little bit of international military and diplomatic help - their allies Iran decided that the same tactics will work if Hamas trots them out. To that effect, they paid Hamas not to release Gilad Shalit and began to build an Hezbollah-like army. They fully intend to turn Gaza into South Lebanon, complete with missiles launching cluster munitions into Israeli schools. And they fully expect that they will be able to defeat Israel - to finally initiate the genocidal war that they've been talking about for decades.
We think there's a difference. We think that Gaza is not Lebanon, because Gaza is (a) smaller and (b) urban. We think that blockading Gaza is different than blockading Lebanon, since there's no government recognized by the US or the EU in Gaza. But mostly, we think that there's no Iranian embassy for Hamas leaders to hide in (something that Hezbollah leaders were rumored to have done in the early days of Lebanon II) - and that if they try to emulate their terrorist brothers from the north the Hamas leadership will be dismantled from the top down:
If Hamas resumes attacks deep inside Israel, the Israeli army is preparing to assassinate several Hamas leaders, particularly Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the official Israeli radio reported on Thursday. Well-informed Israeli sources told the national radio that "the Israeli government will implement this [assassination operations] after several intelligence reports by the Israeli 'Shabak' [Shin Bet – the Israeli domestic intelligence service] show that some Palestinian... factions, including Hamas and its military wing, will resume operations in the heart of Israel."... The sources added that the Israeli government has issued some very strong warnings, through regional and international parties, to the leaders of Hamas that the "Israeli forces will assassinate political leaders if the movement launches attacks deep inside Israel."
Of course, we could be wrong. International mendacity relating to Israel knows no bounds, and they could easily find a way not to let the IDF win. But we're not sure that Olmert can really afford to cave to international pressure and allow Israel to end another military campaign indecisively. If the IDF has to go into Gaza to root out the cutting-edge military assets that Hamas has stockpiled, the Hamas leadership is probably going to have to pay a steep price.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
We think there's a difference. We think that Gaza is not Lebanon, because Gaza is (a) smaller and (b) urban. We think that blockading Gaza is different than blockading Lebanon, since there's no government recognized by the US or the EU in Gaza. But mostly, we think that there's no Iranian embassy for Hamas leaders to hide in (something that Hezbollah leaders were rumored to have done in the early days of Lebanon II) - and that if they try to emulate their terrorist brothers from the north the Hamas leadership will be dismantled from the top down:
If Hamas resumes attacks deep inside Israel, the Israeli army is preparing to assassinate several Hamas leaders, particularly Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the official Israeli radio reported on Thursday. Well-informed Israeli sources told the national radio that "the Israeli government will implement this [assassination operations] after several intelligence reports by the Israeli 'Shabak' [Shin Bet – the Israeli domestic intelligence service] show that some Palestinian... factions, including Hamas and its military wing, will resume operations in the heart of Israel."... The sources added that the Israeli government has issued some very strong warnings, through regional and international parties, to the leaders of Hamas that the "Israeli forces will assassinate political leaders if the movement launches attacks deep inside Israel."
Of course, we could be wrong. International mendacity relating to Israel knows no bounds, and they could easily find a way not to let the IDF win. But we're not sure that Olmert can really afford to cave to international pressure and allow Israel to end another military campaign indecisively. If the IDF has to go into Gaza to root out the cutting-edge military assets that Hamas has stockpiled, the Hamas leadership is probably going to have to pay a steep price.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
