Israel Matzav

"A drop in the bucket"

Yesterday, Arutz Sheva interviewed Israel Radio correspondent Nissim Keinan regarding the IDF's successful operation in Beit Hanoun this past week (although the Kassams continue to fall, the IDF has apparently pushed the launchers back). Keinan says it's only a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done:

Speaking with Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine on Monday, Keinan said, "Yes, it was a successful operation, but it appears that the terrorist activity will simply revert right away to the way it was before. We're talking about looking for a needle in a haystack - because Beit Hanoun, where the offensive took place, is just a small town of 30,000 people; but what about Beit Lahiya and all its terrorists? And what about Jebalya, and the entire area of the Shati refugee camp, and the Khan Yunis area, and Dir el-Balach - I mean, the entire place is swarming with terrorists. Just because you took care of one place and confiscated weapons and ammunitions, it still doesn't mean that you've achieved the goals."

"In any event," Keinan continued without stopping, "it's strange to hear the army talk of such great successes, when really it was just a routine operation. They moved the Kassam launchers southward, true - but you can fire Kassams from the south too, you know, and they also fire them from the north. Yes, the accuracy of the firing has been impaired, but they were never accurate; they just shoot and it hits wherever it hits."

Keinan then moved on to the catastrophic situation in Rafah, at the Philadelphi Route between Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai. Many army generals, security experts and MKs have warned of the huge amounts of weapons being smuggled in through and under the border in that area. Keinan said, "All the arms caches that we uncovered in Beit Hanoun are zero compared to what there is in Rafah... There is no real military activity by Israel in Rafah - but the truth is that even an air attack would not be effective. It's simply a paradise of terrorism, with barely anyone bothering the smugglers. Huge amounts of ammunition and weapons are constantly being smuggled in, and only once in a while does anyone do something to stop it. The IDF looks for tunnels, and sometimes finds a few, but the more they find, the more tunnels are dug. We are still very far from a real high-level strategic massive offensive that can start dealing with this largest terror arsenal in the Middle East."

"The only way to solve the problem of the tunnels," Keinan said, "is by flooding the area with water, as former Gush Katif Regional Council head Araleh Tzur once proposed."

Read the whole thing.

For those of you who are wondering how the tunnels work, there is an amazing diagram of them here.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:53 PM