HIGH ALERT AHEAD OF CEASE-FIRE’S END
Yaakov Katz
Jerusalem Post, December 17, 2008

   Twenty-three Kassam rockets pounded the western Negev on Wednesday as the IDF went on high alert ahead of the official end of the cease-fire on Friday. One of the rockets struck next to a shopping center in Sderot, wounding three people and causing extensive damage to storefronts and parked cars. The wounded were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon .

   Following the attack, the IDF bombed two rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip, next to Beit Hanun. The military said the launchers were ready for use. Moments later, two more Kassams hit the Sdot Negev region and another struck the Sha’ar Hanegev region.

   Defense officials said the escalation in rocket fire came after Hamas instructed Islamic Jihad to increase its attacks ahead of the end of the cease-fire. The officials predicted that Hamas would eventually agree to an extension of the truce but was “posturing itself” in an attempt to gain a commitment from and to reopen the crossings into Gaza ….

   The IDF, officials said, was preparing for a number of scenarios, from small operations along the security fence to reconquering the entire Gaza Strip.   Other scenarios include taking over the Philadelphi Corridor between Sinai and Gaza , where Hamas maintains tunnels—they are thought to number in the hundreds—that it uses to smuggle weapons and explosives into the Strip.  Another IDF scenario calls for taking over the Kassam launch sites in northern Gaza .

   Each plan, the officials explained, has a different objective—stopping the smuggling, minimizing Kassam rocket fire and toppling the Hamas regime in Gaza . Under the leadership of OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant, each plan has already been approved by the General Staff and Barak. All the IDF needs is a green light.

   At the moment, the army has a number of units deployed along the border with Gaza . First, there is the Paratrooper’s Brigade. It has been there since July and is scheduled to be replaced in the coming weeks by the Golani Brigade, which just completed four months of intensive training. There are also armored units, Engineering Corps teams and special forces….

‘30,000 KIDS UNPROTECTED IN ASHKELON ’
JPost.com Staff, Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2008

   Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin on Sunday told Israel Radio that over “30,000 students [in Ashkelon ] are without rocket shields.”

   “Not to mention thousands of unprotected residents,” he continued. “I think the government should announce that every rocket fired at Ashkelon would have such a price tag, that [terrorists] would think many times before firing, [because the government’s reaction would be] harsh and decisive.”

   “We cannot continue playing Russian roulette here,” he added. Vaknin stressed the danger to which his city’s populace is exposed, and called on the government to react to Gaza fire.  “Is there a government in ? I think not, I’m looking for one,” said the mayor.…

   Mulling the options he faced in forcing the government into reacting to Gaza fire, Vaknin stated, “We are formulating non-compromising modes of action; we will fight this government until it awakes, and if it doesn’t, I will close [the city’s] schools, and [some] 32,000 students will sit at home…. What would happen if, god-forbid, a Grad rocket hit the city? You must keep in mind that regarding Ashkelon , it’s also about Grads, which can kill dozens of people,” he concluded.

LIVNI VOWS TO TOPPLE HAMAS IF ELECTED PM
Gil Hoffman
Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2008

   Kadima leader Tzipi Livni issued her strongest overture to center-Right voters on Sunday when she vowed that if elected prime minister, she would bring down the Hamas regime in Gaza ….   Kadima strategist Eyal Arad said she would continue to air such views to attract voters who backed the party when it was led by prime minister Ariel Sharon but left afterward.

   “A government under my leadership would topple Hamas in Gaza using military, economic and diplomatic means,” Livni told the top 40 candidates on her party’s list. “As long as is fired upon, must respond to restore its deterrence and stop the fire….   That’s what the government must do and will do under me.”

   Livni also addressed centrist and center-Left voters, warning them that voting for any party to the left of Kadima would weaken her attempts to prevent Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu from becoming prime minister. “The struggle in this election is between me and Bibi,” Livni said. “The choice of ballot is between Kadima and Likud. Whoever doesn’t vote Kadima, votes Likud.” A Teleseker poll published over the weekend in Ma’ariv found Likud and Kadima tied at 30 seats each.…

BIBI: ISRAELIS CAN’T COUNT ON MIRACLES
Abe Selig
Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2008

   As Hamas rockets continued to pound the South on Sunday, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu inspected a Sderot home damaged only hours earlier and decried what he called the “politics of pacifism” of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

   “We’re paying for the mistakes of Olmert and Livni,” Netanyahu said after surveying the home, which bore the burn marks of a crude rocket on an upstairs balcony. “They shrug it off, but they’re ultimately responsible for the unilateral withdrawal that resulted in the creation of a terrorist state in Gaza ,” he said.

   “For three years, the ministers of Kadima have been burying their heads in the sand,” the Likud leader continued. “And that needs to change. In the long term, we have no choice but to topple the Hamas rule in Gaza . But in the short term, we have to go from the politics of pacifism to the politics of active attack.”

   Likud members who accompanied Netanyahu also went on the attack.  “It’s inconceivable that rockets are landing in Sderot and the surrounding area, day after day, month after month, and the government of Israel is doing nothing to stop it,” MK Yuval Steinitz told a bustling crowd of reporters outside the house. “I have no doubt that if or or came under attack, they would operate against the threat immediately. We have to go on a military offensive because you cannot simply ask terrorists to lay down their weapons.”

   Another member of the Likud contingent, former IDF chief of general staff Moshe Ya’alon, blamed the government for having allowed a “Hamastan” to thrive in the Gaza Strip. “The decision to protect the citizens of needs to rise above the atmosphere of elections from both the opposition and the governing coalition in order to do what needs to be done,” he told The Jerusalem Post….

MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN BAD AND WORSE GAZA OPTIONS
Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Ha’aretz, December 22, 2008

   The rocket barrages on communities near the Gaza Strip, particularly since the official end of the cease-fire on Friday, have led Israel to officially change its line from “quiet in exchange for quiet” to open threats.

   The Olmert-Barak-Livni trio has decided to respond, and the timing will depend on operational conditions; in other words, the Israel Air Force will go into action. The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service assume that increased operations from the air will be met with heavier rocket fire from Hamas on targets farther from Gaza . The IDF might then launch a ground operation.

   Ground troops have not received operational orders, but on the home front, warning systems have been upgraded in communities 30 to 40 kilometers from the border, in rocket range. That’s the distance Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin discussed with the cabinet when he warned that Hamas rockets can reach the outskirts of Be’er Sheva.

   These are upgraded Katyushas that have recently been smuggled into Gaza . Diskin told the ministers that Hamas wants a conflict with for a limited time to force a renewed lull under more favorable conditions. Meanwhile, a number of Hamas leaders have gone underground in the Strip, out of fear of assassination by ….

   According to leaks from Jerusalem Sunday, a decision has been made for an extensive military action, and a ground operation is not out of the question… First, the air force will go in, striking not only rocket-launching cells but also attempting to hit the manufacturers, suppliers and commanders. Targets might also include Hamas bases, offices, and if there’s an escalation, assassinations of senior Hamas officials.

   As for a ground operation, the question is how to get Hamas to go back to the understandings in place at the beginning of the cease-fire without risking all-out fighting that would begin with rockets on Ashdod and Be’er Sheva and end with the return of Israeli armor to Gaza .

   A series of decisions—the disengagement in the summer of 2005, the agreement to allow Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006 (which Hamas won), and the cease-fire of June this year—all led to the current dilemma. must now decide among a number of bad options.

   A point the media has missed over the past few days is that most of the rockets are being launched by Islamic Jihad and smaller factions, which Hamas has stopped reining in. If Hamas goes into action, there could be 100 rockets a day instead of dozens….

‘HAMAS WANTS BETTER TERMS FOR TRUCE’
Jpost.com staff, Yaakov Katz and AP
Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2008

   Hamas is interested in renewing the relative calm with but is prepared for military conflict and wants to improve the cease-fire conditions, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin told the cabinet Sunday, as the western Negev was being pelted by Kassam rockets. Diskin listed Hamas’s conditions as cancelling the blockade of the Gaza Strip, obtaining a commitment that won’t attack, and expanding the cease-fire to the West Bank .

   At the same time, Diskin warned that Hamas’s military wing, Izzadin Kassam, was interested in and preparing for confrontation, saying the group “took advantage” of the cease-fire to improve its long- and medium-range missile capabilities. “They have the ability now to reach Kiryat Gat, Ashdod and the outskirts of Beersheba ,” he said.

   Diskin told the ministers that the fire was coming from various factions inside the Gaza Strip, including Hamas, and said there was no effective negotiator to work with. There had been a breakdown in trust between Hamas and , which brokered the cease-fire agreement six months ago, he said.

   Diskin also said that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip had worsened, partly due to shortages of certain foodstuffs that were not coming through tunnels from in the necessary quantities. In addition, there were occasional power outages and Gaza ’s banks were “in trouble,” he said.

   According to Diskin, the gaps between Fatah and Hamas remained wide and deep. He added that many people on the Palestinian street wanted to see the IDF enter the area and put an end to Hamas’s control….

      Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began the cabinet meeting with a plea to ministers to tone down their statements, even though the country was in the midst of a political campaign.  “I am aware of the fact that we are living in a period that is naturally sensitive and that there are many people who think that if one makes aggressive and daring statements, the statements will solve all problems,” Olmert said. “I have no intention to compete with any of those who issue such statements.”…

   Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed similar sentiments, saying that neither the raid on Entebbe nor the Six Day War would have taken place if the level of discussion had been what it is now. Barak added that the army was preparing for military intervention but that its “time, place, and manner” would be decided in other forums….