Israel Matzav

Deja vu all over again?

Giora Eiland - IDF Major General, former Israeli National Security Advisor, etc - was interviewed on Israel's noon-time Reshet Bet radio show, about the overnight rocket Hamas rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip. Short version: Israel is working very hard to deescalate the situation, but unless things calm down in the next few days there will be no stopping an escalation. Israel would be forced to launch a major operation to stop the rocket fire. Quick, rough translation:

“I assume it’s a matter of days for us to know if we succeeded [together with other parties] to create the required calm, or if not we will certainly be prepared to carry out a larger process than the [current] spontaneous responses... a hard/harsh Israeli action against Gaza would be accepted, maybe not with encouragement, but with great understanding in Washington and most places in the world... Hamas knows this and therefore there is a structure of deterrence... [without deescalation] I estimate that there will be an Israeli action, or at least there will be a call for an Israeli action that is much more massive – like Operation Pillar of Defense maybe even bigger than it, in order to achieve a renewed deterrence for another period of a year or two.”

Labels: Gaza, Giora Eiland, Hamas rockets, IDF, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 PM