(Ha'aretz) Ze'ev Schiff - "In the present conflict against Palestinian terror, the IDF had excellent intelligence, like no other army has ever had in dealing with terror. I have found no other army with such quality of intelligence in a war of this type," said Brig.-Gen. Gadi Eisencott, commander of the Israel Defense Forces' Judea and Samaria division, who for the past two years directed most of the operations against terror organizations in the West Bank. It is often mistakenly thought that most intelligence information comes from the Shin Bet security service, but in fact a great deal of it originates with military intelligence, through the eyes and ears of its battalions in the field. Eisencott is among those who argue that advanced technology, including the air force, is not enough to win the war on terror. The enemy must know that it faces experienced fighters who also use pistols, and at short range. That is what causes terrorists to run and hide. Eisencott believes that if Palestinians begin firing Kassam rockets and mortars from the West Bank on adjacent Israeli cities, there will be no choice but to occupy the area from which the rockets were fired.
2005-05-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive