Heinrich
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officials said Saturday evening that Jerusalem is not currently interested
in a ceasefire in the four-day conflict with Hamas, adding that the IDF’s
campaign might be expanded and could continue for weeks, if necessary.
Operation Pillar of Defense would only end after Hamas had been dealt a
serious blow, they vowed, as the fourth day of the offensive came to an end.
Some analysts, by contrast, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
several of his top ministers would not in fact be opposed to a rapid halt to
the campaign if the other side were to commit itself to a ceasefire.
“In parallel to the military effort, there is a diplomatic effort [to stop
the rocket fire on Israel],” an Israeli government official told The Times
of Israel on Saturday evening. “But the operation will continue until we can
be sure that the people of Israel’s south will no longer live under constant
fear of rockets — and that goal will be achieved, one way or another.”
The IDF’s OC Southern Command Tal Russo said earlier Saturday that Israel
had delivered a serious blow to Hamas’s rocket infrastructure — and wiped
out much of its long-range rocket capacity — but added that the IDF still
had many targets left to hit. Hamas, he said, had built up “an impressive”
arsenal.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Cairo on Saturday,
where he met with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Hamas political
chief Haled Mashaal in an effort to broker a ceasefire. Egypt is trying to
convince Hamas to sign on to a proposal for a temporary end to the rocket
fire, but Hamas is currently unwilling to discuss a cease-fire, officials
close to the contacts said. Erdogan was trying to mediate between the two
sides, but without tangible success thus far.
Egyptian defense officials have had “primary” contact with their Israeli
counterparts, but so far Cairo has not engaged Israel on the political and
diplomatic level, a Foreign Ministry official told The Times of Israel.
“Israel will go ahead [with the military offensive] as long as there’s
massive rocket fire from Gaza. It’s not possible to stop unilaterally, while
rockets are flying at our towns.”
While Hamas was probably interested in a ceasefire, the Israeli government
is keen to continue striking at terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, according
to a government official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Hamas probably wants a ceasefire by now. They want a time out — so that
they can rest a bit, and then continue to shoot rockets at us next week.
Israel is not interested in that,” the official told The Times of Israel.
“We hope to come out of this operation with a new reality — that people in
the south will no longer live under threat of rocket attacks.”
Operation Pillar of Defense has three main goals: bringing quiet to the
south, establishing Israeli deterrence, and eradicating the long-range
missile arsenal of Gaza terror groups, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman
said Saturday. “The only way to live here in peace and security is to create
a real deterrent by causing an overwhelming response, so that they don’t
test us again,” he said Saturday.
If the IDF found it necessary to launch a wide-scale ground operation into
Gaza, “it cannot be stopped in the middle; it needs to go all the way,” he
said.
The foreign minister and other top Israeli ministers are “absolutely
resolute” to continue and even intensify Operation Pillar of Defense,
according to a source close to Liberman.
“They are convinced that this can’t just be another Operation Cast Lead,
where we only do what’s necessary and then, after three or six months, Hamas
rearms itself and we have the same problem,” the source told The Times of
Israel. “This has got to stop. We can’t have a million, or even hundreds of
thousands or tens of thousands of our citizens under fire.”
Cast Lead, which began with air strikes in December 27, 2008, and continued
with a ground operation into Gaza seven days later, lasted for three weeks
and one day.
“It’s absolutely impossible to say that there will never ever be a single
rocket fired at Israel again. But we need to restore our deterrence. It has
been lost over recent years,” the source added.
Some Israeli analysts, however, said Netanyahu, Liberman and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak would not be against a cease-fire, if the opportunity
would arise. The three convened Saturday evening at the Defense Ministry in
Tel Aviv to discuss further course of action.
Militarily and diplomatically to date, the leadership trio are said to
believe, the offensive can be viewed as a resounding success, with several
senior Hamas operatives eliminated and a significant blow inflicted to Hamas’s
rocket and other military infrastructure.
If Jerusalem were to reach a ceasefire and restore calm to the south at this
stage, analysts on Channel 2 news suggested on Saturday night, Netanyahu and
his government would likely re-enter the pre-election campaign — temporarily
suspended as the rockets fly — with their popularity boosted. If the
campaign were to be expanded, and to include a major ground offensive,
however, rising Israeli casualty figures and high numbers of Palestinian
deaths could possibly turn Operation Pillar of Defense into a quagmire for
Netanyahu, they said. It would therefore be likely, these and other analysts
said, that Israel would now seek to de-escalate the situation.
Led by the US, much of the West to date seems to share Jerusalem’s position
that Hamas bears prime responsibility for the current round of violence and
has supported Israel’s right to defend itself. But Jerusalem is not
confident that this would last if the conflict expands.
Some officials said that Israel has succeeded in its efforts to convince
Western leaders of the righteousness of its cause. But others expressed fear
that the messages of support and understanding could soon turn into calls
for restraint and then outright criticism if Israel’s military operation
comes to be perceived as overly aggressive or heavy-handed.
Along with the US, Britain, Germany, Canada and several other countries have
pinned primary blame on Hamas, the officials noted.
“I wouldn’t say that international support for our operation is waning.
Every time Hamas shoots a rocket at Jerusalem or Tel Aviv people understand
what we’re doing, that we’re acting to defend our citizens,” a government
official said Saturday.
The rocket that on Friday night reached the greater Jerusalem area “really
takes the mask off Hamas’s face, if anyone still had any illusions,” this
official added. “They fired an inexact weapon into city with hundred of
thousands of residents, with many holy sites important to three world
religions. Who knows where this could have landed? But they don’t care. In
fact, the rockets landed in the West Bank and could have easily killed
Palestinians. Again, these terrorists don’t care; they are nihilistic.”
On Saturday, Netanyahu spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Prime
Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, Greek Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
Netanyahu told the leaders that no country in the world would agree to a
situation in which its population lives under a constant missile threat. He
also reportedly asked them if they had any suggestions for how to stop the
rocket fire from Gaza, and elicited from them tacit support for Operation
Pillar of Defense.
On Friday, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the
rocket attacks from Gaza “are totally unacceptable for any government and
must stop. Israel has the right to protect its population from these kinds
of attacks.” Ashton acknowledged that Palestinian terrorist groups are
responsible for the current crisis, but also urged Israel “to ensure that
its response is proportionate.”
Netanyahu on Friday also spoke to US President Barack Obama, for the second
time since the campaign started on Wednesday. The prime minister thanked
Obama for the US’s steadfast support and its assistance in purchasing the
Iron Dome missile defense system. Earlier last week, Netanyahu spoke to
Ashton, French President Francois Hollande, UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, and
Middle East Quartet representative Tony Blair.
‘International patience is very short. We’re walking on thin ice, and you’ll
only know the ice is getting cracking when your feet are getting wet. And
then it’s too late’
Over the weekend, Liberman spoke to his counterparts from the US, Russia and
Romania to shore up support for Israel’s operation.
On Sunday, Netanyahu, Liberman and President Shimon Peres are scheduled to
meet with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is set to visit
Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Recognizing that the support of Western countries could easily vanish if the
death toll increases drastically or Israeli troops mistakenly hit a civilian
target, a government official said, “We are aware of such scenarios, and we
are doing our utmost to avoid any civilian casualties.”
A different official said that some individuals and organizations, such as
the United Nations Human Rights Council, are likely to censure Israel over a
drawn-out military campaign with many civilian casualties.
“There are the usual suspects; there’s nothing we can do about them. But the
international community learned a lesson from Goldstone,” the said,
referring to a report authored by South African Judge Richard Goldstone that
castigated Israel for war crimes allegedly committed during Cast Lead,
including the false charge that the IDF deliberately killed civilians. A
year and half later, Goldstone partially retracted his condemnation, though
his co-authors did not.
The civil war currently raging in Syria, during which more than 30,000
people have been killed so far, would put into perspective any casualties
caused by an Israeli operation in Gaza, the official said.
“I spoke to presidents from across the world, including President Obama —
no-one doubts the justification of the operation,” Peres said Friday. “This
is not the launch of a war but a justified defense of our civilians and the
world stands with Israel.”
A Foreign Ministry official who deals routinely with organizations and
governments hostile to Israel predicted that Western support for the
offensive will not continue for much longer.
“International patience is very short. We’re walking on thin ice, and you’ll
only know the ice is cracking when your feet get wet. And then it’s too
late.”