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Israel Seeks to Restore Deterrence

(New York Times) Isabel Kershner - Given the growing threats from Iranian-backed militant organizations both in Gaza and in Lebanon, some in Israel suggest that in the next war Israel will apply more force. "The next round will be different, but not in the way people think," said Giora Eiland, a retired major general and former chief of Israel's National Security Council. "The only way to be successful is to take much harsher action." Both the three-week campaign in Gaza, which ended on Jan. 18, and Israel's month-long war in 2006 against the Shiite Hizbullah in Lebanon have brought relative quiet to Israel's borders. Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, the chief of Israel's military intelligence, said the source of the quiet is Israeli deterrence, starting with the war in Lebanon and continuing with the Gaza operation. But in the military's assessment, the calm is temporary and fragile; Hamas and Hizbullah are said to be rearming, making another confrontation only a matter of time. Israel's objective, according to Gabriel Siboni, a retired colonel who runs the military program at the Institute for National Security Studies, is to shorten and intensify the period of fighting and to lengthen the period between rounds. Siboni said the idea was to inflict such damage that the other side would ask whether confrontation was worthwhile.
2009-12-25 08:08:16
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