Posted on 06/16/2007 7:27:02 PM PDT by rface
ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there.
According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days.
The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings.
Barak, who is expected to become defence minister tomorrow, has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry division, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets, against Hamas.
The Israeli forces would expect to be confronted by about 12,000 Hamas fighters with arms confiscated from the Fatah faction that they defeated in last week’s three-day civil war in Gaza.
Details of the plan emerged as Fatah forces in the West Bank stormed Hamas-run buildings, including the parliament in Ramallah, where they tried to seize the deputy speaker.
Israeli officials believe their forces would face even tougher resistance in Gaza than they encountered during last summer’s war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
A source close to Barak said that Israel could not tolerate an aggressive “Hamastan” on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable.
“The question is not if but how and when,” he said.
The problem now is that the Syrian_Iranian Axis has opened up two fronts against Israel and the Lebanese army cannot do anything because they are occupied with Fatah Al-Islamyi
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
yep - the sh@t is about to hit the fan.
Ehud Barak is the new Defense Minister? Good grief. The man who bugged out of Lebanon so fast that the Palestinians claimed they had chased him out, starting the violence that threw him out of office and brought in Sharon?
Which is the more incompetent for this post, Barak or Peretz? Shall we toss a coin?
Before Israel goes to war again, it would be best if the government resigned and held an election. This is really asking for trouble.
There’s no miracle there to perform and the idea of invading a place like that is insane. They basically want to cut off all water, money, electricity, and everything else to the place, and then just sit there and watch, either that or carpet bomb the place.
Sad when Barak is the new tough guy in Israel. They need Bibi, but this will have to do for now.
I hope Olmert is going to use THIS as his political Hail Mary rather than last week’s give-back-the-Golan idea.
Instead, why not just turn off the F'n water and electricity the next time a rocket flies toward Israel from Hamastan? Seems better to let Hamas (try to) deal the massive resulting civil unrest. Better than giving them Israeli soldiers to fire RPGs at.
If there was ever a time when the rest of the world would stand back and just shrug its shoulders about Gaza....now would be the time.
Won’t this merely unite Hamas and Fatah against Israel?
I don’t see the purpose of the invasion. Unless they co-ordinate a coalition of Egypt and Israel. Boy that would be intresting.
Fatah can’t crush Hamas, and the State Dept. has placed all its chips on Fatah; so now Israel will have to go crush Hamas in order to turn the Gaza back over to Fatah, so that Fatah can then demand Israeli withdrawl from more territory so that Fatah rockets can strike deeper into Israel and even hit Ben Gurion airport, etc. etc.
Makes sense if you’re James Baker or Condi Rice...
As I have said over and over again … when you have a lawyer in charge, you will have “negotiation” upon “negotiation” upon “negotiation”.
“Ehud Brog joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1959. It was then that he decided to change his name to “Barak”, which means “lightning” in Hebrew.[1] He served in the IDF for 35 years, rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of Rav Aluf, the highest in the Israeli military. During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal, Barak took part in the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four other citations for courage and operational excellence; these five decorations make him, with Major Nechemya Cohen, the most decorated soldier in Israeli history.
Barak is also an expert in krav maga, the official martial art of the Israeli Defense Forces.”
It will mean many more potential IDF deaths because the brain surgeons in our current government thought it would be a fabulous idea to send Fatah thousands of M-16 machine guns and ammunition. God only knows what else Hamas found in those weapons storage areas that the US gave them.
Insanity. Then again, this might be just what the palestinians have been planning all along with their benefactors from Damascus and Tehran.
When a first-world, first-rate military power fights against terrorists that hide behind women and children and eagerly commit suicide for their deranged cause the former rarely if ever looks good. (We Americans have learned this lesson all-too well).
Fighting terrorists is a war of attrition -- spectacular victories are rare and confined to killing individual terrorist leaders. Both the U.S. and Israel are far better equipped to fight against conventional/traditional/national militaries where victories are clear-cut and decisive.
This is total propaganda. The Israelis would be fools to even entertain the idea. By all means, continue to assassinate Hamas leaders to inflict cost on terrorism, but they need to sit back and shut up for the present. Let everyone see how fascism works.
Well, the media better start planning to be indignant, right now.
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