ping
time for a breather . . . Hamas, ball in your court. Keep firing those quassams and kaytushas and the next time the IDF comes rolling into town it won’t be with a few mechanized companies - it may be armoured divisions backed by heavy arty
**An interesting view from DEBKA**
Israeli troops abruptly withdrawn from Gaza
March 3, 2008, 5:30 AM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile reports: No official word of explanation was offered for the sudden pullback of Israeli ground and armored units from northern Gaza before dawn Mon. March. 3, beyond the terse announcement that stage one of Operation Hot Winter had ended.
Our military sources report that this step sharply contradicted the vocal assurances given by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud a few hours earlier that the operation would press on until the Hamas missile-rocket offensive against Israeli civilians was brought to an end.
Up until late Sunday night, Qassam rockets continued to explode in Sderot and Katyusha rockets in Ashkelon. If this continues, Israel will resort to air, surface missile or artillery responses and short forays into Gaza as before.
DEBKAfile’s military sources said this reversed instruction from the government to the IDF in mid-offensive was astonishing and unprecedented. Senior officers were in no doubt that Palestinian Hamas terrorist leaders would rush to claim victory and declare the Israeli army had been beaten into a retreat by their “martyrs”.
Our political sources disclose that Olmert, during his absence in Tokyo last week, was far from happy with the way acting PM Tzipi Livni and Barak handled the sharp spike in Palestinian missile attacks. He felt they had caused an unnecessary escalation of the crisis to the point that a major military operation was unavoidable.
Olmert held that short, sharp military strikes would have defused the crisis and obviated the need for a broad military offensive in Gaza, which he had consistently prevented.
This week, the prime minister came under heavy US pressure to break off the operation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened to call off her visit which was scheduled for Tuesday, March 4 and lay the blame on Israel for the breakdown of peace talks with the Palestinians, although Mahmoud Abbas formally suspended all contacts with Israel until its army ended its Gaza incursion. She accused Israel of undermining the Bush administration’s entire Middle East strategy by its stepped-up Gaza offensive.
“Hit~N~Run” may be a good thing at this point...