The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that senior Defense Force commanders want an immediate ceasefire in Gaza:
During meetings of the Israel Defense Forces General Staff and of the heads of the state's other security branches, officials have said that Israel achieved several days ago all that it possibly could in Gaza.
They added that it is better to cease the offensive now, just several days before the inauguration of new U.S. President Barack Obama.
In contrast to similar discussions from last week, there is a significant decrease in support among top defense brass for an expansion of the operation.
Among the minority who support broadening the Gaza operation are members of GOC Southern Command, who feel it should take place on the condition it be limited to several months' time, and the Shin Bet security service, which thinks a continuation would further weaken Hamas and bring Israel more favorable truce conditions.
Word got out yesterday that Olmert is ducking his defense minister, Ehud Barak, and his foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, because he knows they too want a prompt ceasefire. Despite moving himself ever further out on a limb, Olmert didn't hesitate to kick George Bush and Condi Rice in the teeth yesterday.
So the answer seems to be that it's George Bush's worst friend ever, the outgoing prime minister Olmert, who alone is continuing this carnage regardless of what anyone, within his government and defense force or among the international community, says.
2 comments:
I have to agree, I really do not see what else can be accomplished in Gaza. You probably said it best when you said "once Israel loses sight of the exit door, it might be hard to find again."
And yet what will be the fallout of the ceasefire? Hamas is strengthened. Israel will have to lift its ill-conceived siege and the Palestinian people in both Gaza and the West Bank will credit that as a Hamas victory. Abbas, who waited far too long to protest, has probably caused irreparable harm to Fatah even in the West Bank. Fatah will likely have to turf Abbas and find someone more conciliatory to Hamas while cooler to Israel.
Israel went into this without a viable strategic game plan and the lack of any clearly defined, achievable objective almost guaranteed this would backfire on Israel, not just in Gaza but throughout the Middle East.
I fear that Netanyahu coming in on the 20th of next month is only going to undermine already tattered support for Israel from abroad.
Even Petraeus said some weeks back that the trick to dealing with outfits like Hamas was to find a way to "turn" them, not waste your time in futile attempts to destroy them.
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