Will Israel do what it takes to degrade Hamas after 400 rockets?

T. Belman. Hamas has 20,000 rockets. What does that say about the effectiveness of our bloickade. Israel is giving warnings and striking empty buildings. Gazans voted for Hamas.  There is no reason for Israel to avoid casualties. This is war. Apparently we are deterred from attacking them in a serious way but they are not deterred from attacking us.

What is clear is that Israel doesn’t want a full scale war at this time and that Iran who ordered the violence does.

DEBKA

Nov 13, 2018 @ 1:05

Israel’s deterrent strength is on the line after the Palestinian Hamas fired more than 400 rockets in 5 and-a-half hours on Monday, Nov. 12. After their massive barrage, Hamas and its terrorist allies threatened to expand their targets beyond the South if the Israel air force on missions in Gaza Monday night goes beyond its routine tit-for-tat reprisals against empty buildings in the Gaza Strip.

An escalation of violence is therefore unavoidable in the next hours.  It is up to the IDF to switch its tactics to attacks that cause the Palestinian terrorists real pain. Monday night, the IDF dropped small rockets on the Hamas Al Aqsa TV channel building in Gaza City as a warning of the coming bombardment. The building was evacuated before it was demolished and their were no casualties. Israeli jets and drones went on to strike more buildings in Gaza City and Rafah, still within the usual norms, while Hamas confined its rocket launches to the South, although an anti-tank missile on an Israeli bus in the afternoon occurred minutes after 50 soldiers debarked, and could have caused a massacre. One of the soldiers was critically hurt.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his security and military chiefs are convinced that if the air force starts seriously attacking Hamas’ missile stores and the residences of its leaders, then the rockets will start exploding in Tel Aviv.

At the end of a top-level security assessment of the Gaza crisis, led by the prime minister on Monday it was announced that “operational decisions had been reached” and the security cabinet would resume the discussion on Tuesday. DEBKAfile’s military sources deduced from this comment that no final decision had yet been reached for the IDF to embark on a serious ground operation to cut down the terrorist forces plaguing Israel from the Gaza Strip. It is hard to believe that they are still hesitating after  hundreds of thousands of civilians were hammered by 400 missiles, confined to small shelters with their children, and 50 soldiers escaped harm by a hair.
For a successful large-scale military operation of this kind, two things are essential:

  1. Firm resolve to achieve a clearly-defined target.
  2. Concentration of a sufficiency of armed military strength ready to go

Since all those in authority have been barred from making public statements, it is hard to estimate whether Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot have finally dropped their insistence on avoiding a major conflict in the Gaza Strip on the grounds that, after it is over, Israel will be back where it started. Countering this argument, critics say: Yes, but Israel will have regained the whip hand and be able to enforce a long period of calm. A former Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen (res) Yair Golan has dismissed the current Netanyahu-Eisenkot position as “unwillingness to win the battle.”

This unwillingness is challenged by a determined opponent. Yahya Sinwar is Hamas’ one-man decision-maker. It is he who runs the war on Israel. So long as he sees Israeli planes attacking empty buildings in the Gaza Strip, he will continue to turn the screw on the Netanyahu government for more concessions and a steady supply of cash and fuel against empty promises of calm. This strategy works perfectly. Last week, Qatar delivered $15m in cash to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel began running convoys of fuel tankers into Gaza. And yet, on Friday, Hamas staged its regular mob assaults on the Israeli troops defending the Gaza-Israeli border fence and unleashed this incredible rocket barrage.

This situation is untenable. It can only be altered if the IDF changes its tactics and goes for targets of military value and hits Hamas armed wing’s actual locations without prior warning. If Israel is ready for a real showdown with Hamas on those lines, it has a good chance of winning the current round with the Palestinian terrorists, regaining its deterrence and achieving a lengthy period of calm for the battered population of the south.

November 13, 2018 | 5 Comments »

Subscribe to Israpundit Daily Digest

Leave a Reply

5 Comments / 5 Comments

  1. I agree with the sentiment of no more mowing the lawn. A complete defeat of the terrorists is the only option. The reason for hesitancy is the much greater threat of Hezbollah in the north. 150,000 rockets pointed at Israel with the Iranian puppet masters pulling the strings and Russia siding decidedly with Iran. The weaponization of south Lebanon and takeover of the government since 2006 will exact a very heavy price from Israel. There are no good options here. Iran is the head of the snake. Perhaps we need a paradigm shift in creative thinking.

  2. A close friend of mine (who lives in the US of course and has NO IDEA (Yet!) of what it’s like to live in constant threat of being knifed, shot, rock-thrown-at-while-driving, gun-shot while shopping or missile-bombarded in the middle of your sleep, etc. via Arab-Muslim crazy religious fanatics like Hamas and their ‘Pious’ Co-Revisionist, Devote, Jew-Hating Muslim brothers and sisters) sent me a message last night in the middle of Hamas’ 400-Missle Barrage in which he (Naively-Stupidly) said:

    “You know, I don’t want wars. No one wants wars. People just get killed. Everyone, both sides, must just sit down and talk and come to some mature, reasonable agreements.

    NO MORE WARS! War accomplishes nothing!”

    “After all, it’s a great tragedy for BOTH sides, for the “Poor” Palestinians in Gaza too.”

    I replied to him as follows:

    Balloney!!!!

    We MUST put an END TO HAMAS AND ALL of the Jew-Haters IN GAZA—-
    BEFORE THEY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO PUT AN END TO US, G-d Forbid!

    The Talmud teaches us: “HaBo L’Harrigecho, Hashkem L’Hrrigo”

    Translation: “The one who is on his way (intends) to kill you;
    Wake up early (Preempt) To KILL HIM- FIRST!

    BTW, There’s a Statute in International Law which basically says the SAME THING.

    The Gaza POPULATION voted Hamas into power by a 75% win in open elections in 2007. And they CONTINUE to support Hamas and their GENOCIDAL Anti-Jewish/Anti-Israel (=DESTROY ISRAEL and ANNIHILATE its Jewish Population) aspirations.
    See Hamas Charter Here & Here.

    They indoctrinate and radicalize their children from birth to HATE AND KILL JEWS AND TO ANYTHING & EVERYTHING TO DESTROY ISRAEL AND ITS ‘FILTHY JEWISH’ POPULATION, Men, Women and Children.
    Some Examples: Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, For Just a SAMPLING ……………..

    WAR– REAL, DECISIVE WAR- (Not an “Mowing The Lawn Operation”- Good-For-Nothing-Military-Maneuver) With CLEAR INTENTION TO BE TOTALLY VICTORIOUS-
    is THE ONLY OPTION.

    ONE DOES NOT NEGOTIATE OR TRY TO APPEASE TERRORISTS OR TYRANTS.
    (Think, Neville Chamberlin and the Sudetenland- Munich Agreement)

    APPEASEMENT ONLY BRINGS MORE TERROR AND MORE TYRANNY- IT’S A PROVEN, HISTORICAL FACT!

    EVEN MORE SO WHEN IT COMES TO GENOCIDAL MUSLIM, FANATICAL JEW-HATERS.

    THEY UNDERSTAND ONE, AND ONLY ONE LANGUAGE-
    THE LANGUAGE OF POWER!

    NO MORE TALK- JUST REAL ACTION IS THE ONLY THING WHICH WILL SETTLE THIS ETERNAL DISPUTE.

    IT’S A NO SUM GAME- IT’S EITHER US OR THEM, PERIOD. !!!!!

  3. Of Course NOT!

    The Current ‘GOI’ are a band of Politically (In-)Correct, ‘Progressive’ WIMPS, Period.

    To sacrifice their own citizens and (likely) Sovereignty is a small price to pay, in their eyes, to garner ‘ACCEPTANCE’ from the Global Community.

    Grater TYRANTS than these (especially ‘Jewish’ ones) have never existed!

    APPEASEMENT, and PUSSY-FOOTING around with Genocidal Hamas and the like WON’T WORK.

    DECISIVE VICTORY is the ONLY OPTION that WILL.

  4. They won’t do it….unless they can still cuddle up to the Saudis and others -which is more important…they “kleibn nachas” thereby….