[Ha'aretz] Gabriel Siboni - The main threat Israel had to face in the past was the possibility that the Arab countries would occupy the country or parts of it. Since they have despaired of being able to do so, they have turned their efforts to developing rockets and missiles on a wide scale, putting most of Israel's population at risk of attack. How could any defense umbrella be effective against the threat of rockets fired from Gaza or the West Bank once the Israel Defense Forces have withdrawn? It is not clear how it would be possible to enforce demilitarization on the Palestinian entity that will arise. Gaza is also a "demilitarized" zone, but weapons are smuggled in and Hamas is building its force for a confrontation with Israel. Today it is impossible to identify any element in the West Bank that could deal with the threat other than the presence of the IDF. The writer is director of the IDF Force Structure program at the Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University.
2009-08-18 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive