Daily Alert Archives

Escalation is Inevitable

(Ha'aretz) Ze'ev Schiff - Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eisencott was right when he said that the war on terror is much more difficult when conducted from a distance, without control of the ground and the population. The assumption was that following the disengagement from Gaza, the firing of Kassam rockets would stop or be reduced to a minimum. In 2004, 309 rockets were fired on Israel, whereas in 2005, 366 Kassams were fired. The government thought that keeping the northern Gaza Strip in Israel's hands would be a Sheba Farm for the Palestinians, an excuse to continue the fighting, even if it is clear that those who are launching the Kassams see all of Israel as one big Sheba Farm. It was also assumed that the PA would take action on the ground against the launching of the rockets. There are thousands of armed people in the security organizations in the Gaza Strip, and they do not want, or are unable, to stop a few cells of the Islamic Jihad. Egypt already has about 300 security people in the Gaza Strip, among them more than 10 colonels. The Egyptians, too, promised to take action against the Kassams, a promise that has not been kept. Sooner or later the Palestinians will improve their range, or will succeed in smuggling long-range Katyushas from Sinai. At that point we will see that Ashdod, too, is within the range of the rockets. There is also the possibility that they will succeed in smuggling similar weapons into the West Bank territories. In such a situation, escalation will be inevitable. The way of dealing with it will not be another unilateral withdrawal.
2005-12-30 00:00:00
Full Article