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War on Terror

Analyst: Gaza operation basically useless


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
October 01, 2004

Israel’s latest attempt to curb “Palestinian” rocket attacks by sending a large incursion force into northern Gaza will have no long-term impact on security in light of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s efforts to retreat from the Strip.

That was the conclusion offered by veteran Israeli media analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) Thursday in his weekly commentary.

In order to be truly effective, the current operation must be seen as a model for future responses to “Palestinian” belligerence, Lerner explained.

But the geopolitical realities that would exist post-withdrawal would preclude the use of Israeli ground forces inside the Gaza Strip, much as it has in southern Lebanon since Israel’s hasty retreat from there and despite ongoing Hizballah aggression.

Operation Days of Penitence

Israel sent hundreds of troops, tanks and armored vehicles into northern Gaza overnight Thursday in an effort to curb terrorist rocket attacks on Jewish towns inside and adjacent to the Strip.

Two Israeli preschoolers were killed Wednesday when a Kassam rocket slammed into the street outside their grandmother’s home in Sderot.

The open-ended incursion, code named Operation Days of Penitence, was approved during a late-night security cabinet meeting, and includes the temporary establishment of an IDF-controlled buffer zone in northern Gaza.

During the first 24 hours of fighting accompanying the initial push into PA-controlled areas, 31 “Palestinians” were killed in clashes with the Israelis.

Useless incursion

But Lerner labeled the operation a failure almost before it began.

He wrote in his weekly commentary that Operation Days of Penitence “can be expected to have little if no long term impact.”

This is because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains determined to implement the expulsion of Gaza’s Jewish residents and the withdrawal of all military forces from the Strip, according to Lerner.

“Today ‘Days of Penitence’ is an operation taking place within Israel's envelope - retreat fundamentally changes that,” explains Lerner. “Post retreat Gaza would be a considerably more hostile environment, with ‘Palestinian’ forces armed with better weapons, improved training and command and control.”

And, Lerner notes, “the Palestinians know full well that post retreat conditions - both on
the ground and on the diplomatic front - would make an operation such as ‘Days of Penitence’ next to impossible.”

These realities render Operations Days of Penitence useless as a long term deterrent to rocket attacks on Sderot and other Israeli towns.

Indeed, even prior to the advent of Sharon’s leftist retreat policies, Israel’s temporary incursions into PA-controlled areas of Gaza did little to prevent subsequent artillery attacks on Jews living in the area.

Lerner echoes what is a growing sentiment among right-wing Israelis and their supporters — that Sharon and his government have a “painfully short planning horizon” that extends “only up to the camera angles for the photo-op covering the last Israeli leaving Gaza.”

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