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Preventing Gaza from Becoming Somalia

[Christian Science Monitor] Ilene R. Prusher - Over the past few weeks, there's been a steady resumption of Palestinian Kassam rocket launches into Israel. But the lessons of the war between Israel and Hizballah this summer have led the Israeli establishment to some new conclusions: Waiting while a neighbor arms itself is out; preemptive attacks may be the new norm. "Israel cannot afford to let Gaza turn into a southern Lebanon," says Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University. "The link is that the longer Israel waits, the more likely that they'll have the same abilities for longer-range and better weapons in Gaza." For Israel's strategic-minded, the major error before the war in Lebanon was allowing Hizballah to build up a large arsenal of short- and medium-range weapons. Now Israel is concerned that Hamas is trying to emulate Hizballah. "Israel's basically run out of alternatives," says Steinberg. "It's been a year since disengagement. The rocket attacks continue and the range of the missiles grows. There's no effort to enforce the arrangements that were agreed on at the time of disengagement," he charges, such as Egypt patrolling its border with Gaza to prevent smuggling, and the use of EU monitors. "The PA is in total disarray, and there's no attempt to prevent Gaza from being used as a launchpad. All of those pieces together lead to a need to pay whatever price is necessary to keep it not just from becoming Lebanon, but Somalia."
2006-10-18 01:00:00
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