Update 3: Israel Preparing to Retake Gaza Strip

[bemildred]

In a growing barrage of Israeli pressure against Hamas, a senior military commander said Israel is actively preparing to reoccupy the Gaza Strip and a powerful lawmaker said the entire Palestinian Cabinet could be targeted for assassination after the appointment of a wanted militant to head a new security force.

Officials said there were no immediate plans to strike at the Hamas-led government. But the comments reflected rising Israeli impatience with the Islamic militant group, which has refused to renounce violence, defended a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv this week and failed to halt militant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

"If the price we have to pay becomes unreasonable as a result of increased attacks, then we shall have to take all steps, including occupying the Gaza Strip," Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, head of Israel's southern command, told the Maariv daily.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Turkey's state-run news agency Friday that reoccupation of the Gaza Strip would be a "deadly mistake."

Forbes

[Name removed]

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[cali]

2. Abbas is right.

Reoccupation would be a deadly mistake, but Hamas sure isn't helping matters.

[bemildred]

4. Hamas has different interests than Abbas.

This is just bluster at this point, but it is folly to think that Hamas would discourage Israel from a stupid course of action, rather the opposite is to be expected. If Israel looks like it is serious about taking such a step, expect Hamas to encourage them.

I thought this story, which is vacuous, was interesting because it shows the level of frustration within the Israeli government. One could consider that that is linked to the apparent failure of the push to isolate and impoverish the Hamas government.

[cali]

5. I think your analysis is

pretty damned astute- that the push isolate and impoverish Hamas is a failure. It can't possibly work. I don't know what would work, but I agree that this tactic is failing.

[bemildred]

8. It is not a pretty picture.

I can't say I know what would work either, but a cautious and judicious hand would seem better to me. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing. It would seem that Israel's interest is to prevent Hamas from governing effectively, and that seems to be the course that is being pursued, for obvious reasons, but I think that watchful waiting and a measured response to provocation would serve them better now. You can't just undo the mess by fiat.

[bemildred]

9. There is this:

BMD Focus: Israel`s next ABM shield

I've been sort of wondering where they are with this sort of defense. On the one hand, the missiles in question are not much, but on the other hand the reaction time required to do anything effective is very short.

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Most international attention on Israel`s ballistic missile defense programs has focused on the Arrow interceptor system, the U.S.-bought Patriot PAC-3 and their capabilities for intercepting Shehab intermediate-range missiles from Iran or Scuds that would be fired from Syria.

But now, with little fanfare, Israeli is also energetically pushing ahead with some of its traditional major U.S. high-tech corporate partners with a radically new design to protect the Jewish State from extremely short-range Palestinian missiles. This decision also has revealing strategic implications for the policies of the new government currently being formed by Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.

The U.S. missile systems maker Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, has joined the Boeing and Israel Aircraft Industries consortium that is participating in Israel`s Ministry of Defense Israeli Short-Range Ballistic Missile Defense tender worth $50-100 million, Globes-Israel Business News reported on April 4. A consortium of Raytheon and the Israeli Rafael Armament Development Authority is also participating in the tender, Globes said.

The tender is part of the Israeli Ministry of Defense`s Homa project and it is intended develop an anti-ballistic missile defense for the short-range Qassem rockets that Palestinian guerrilla groups like Islamic Jihad have fired into Israeli territory. The Qassems give Palestinian guerrilla groups the tactical capability to threaten major Israeli industrial infrastructure installations in the Ashkelon port area. Israel has huge oil and chemical facilities there.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/intelandterror/article_1157284.php/BMD_Focus_Israel%60s_next_ABM_shield

[dusmcj]

3. if the Pals would stop being clever and start serving their people's

interests, this sort of thing wouldn't happen. Less bombast from Hanan Ashrawi, more statesmanship from their putative "leaders". Which isn't about posing overweight boys with AK-47s on pickup trucks, but about identifying the needs of the people and serving them. Less corruption and blowhard bullshit, more pertinent action. What a concept.

[ktlyon]

6. if Israel is going to attack Iran they might as well reoccupy the Gaza

Strip
They can claim security reasons

[Name removed]

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