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Israel Sees Gaza Ground Invasion as Inevitable
(Al-Monitor) Ben Caspit - Israel seems to be waiting for a green light from Washington to launch its ground assault on Gaza. The ground operation is being delayed, apparently in order to give the Americans time to deploy additional forces in the region. "The U.S. is aware that the IDF's entry into Gaza is liable to set off additional arenas....They want to complete their preparations. This involves a major shift of forces...and there is no reason why we should not wait until this move is completed," a senior Israeli security source said. Biden has also urged Israel to take advantage of a small window of opportunity to free at least some of the 220 Israeli and foreign hostages. Israelis are learning what it's like to prepare for war together with America. "To all those who support a defense pact," a senior Israeli defense official said, "I suggest examining how we now coordinate everything with the Americans, how we don't do anything contrary to their opinion, at least for now, and how we do all this without having a defense alliance." "It's not that you can't attack without a green light from the Americans," an Israeli War Cabinet source said. "The Americans don't forbid us or veto anything, they only advise us closely and we cooperate fully. They immediately put at our disposal, without us even asking, all the power and backing of a superpower. That said, we know how to appreciate what we received. Two aircraft carriers and $14 billion is a major event, and we have to pay for that too, at least on the level of cooperation." The senior War Cabinet source said, "The Middle East has been looking up to us for the past decade. We were the only ones who took on Iran on an almost daily basis, we contributed greatly to the defeat of ISIS, the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] have operated in almost every corner of the Middle East and beyond with phenomenal success, and then suddenly comes a small terrorist organization. Everyone, from Cairo to Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Beirut and Tehran, is raising their eyebrows. We must show them we are still a regional superpower." "This is the most important point - our deterrence," the senior War Cabinet source said. "The region must quickly understand that whoever harms Israel the way Hamas did, pays a disproportionate price. There is no other way to survive in our neighborhood than to exact this price now, because many eyes are fixed on us and most of them do not have our best interests at heart."