Olmert: Settlers the problem, not Hamas

Rejects intelligence assessments of Hamas and Hizb'allah threat

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By Stan Goodenough
February 22, 2006

Israeli acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appears to be somewhat confused as to who Israel?s real enemies are.

In the last two days he has differed with the country?s military and intelligence agencies over the extent of the danger to Israel posed by the Iranian-aligned Hamas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and the Iranian-backed Hizb'allah in Lebanon.

At the same time, he has stressed his determination to uproot Jews who have made their homes in areas Hamas aims to grab for an interim Palestinian state in the next phase of its plan to destroy Israel in stages.

Olmert, whose military experience is limited to his time as a unit commander in the Golani Infantry Brigade in the 1960s and a stint as a military correspondent for the publication Bamahane, gave his assessment on the situation in the north after peering over the border into Lebanon during a tour of the area Tuesday.

Seemingly unimpressed by the accumulated intelligence reports about the 12,000 plus missiles Hizb'allah has deployed for use against Israel ? some of them bringing Haifa and the Galilee into rocket range, a number tipped with non-conventional warheads ? Olmert told reporters there was no strategic threat to Israel?s northern border.

He drew this conclusion after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Hamas? win in the ?Palestinian? elections last month had strengthened the Hizb'allah.

Olmert?s take on the level of the danger posed by Hamas was made during his first appearance as acting prime minister before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Wednesday.

During that meeting, apart from butting heads with Likud leader and former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as with right-wing Knesset Member Effie Eitam, Olmert expressed his ?respect? for the head of the Israel Security Agency, Yuval Diskin, but said he did ?not agree with his assessment.?

Two days ago Diskin warned the Cabinet that Hamas, which has wide backing throughout the Arab world and is seeking support from Iran and Russia, does indeed pose a strategic threat to Israel.

Despite his rejection of this, Olmert ? somewhat illogically ? recognized that ?the entire Palestinian Authority has turned into Hamas.?

But then he went on to vow that he would disband more Jewish outposts declared illegal under the ?Road Map? plan. (This after earlier statements by Kadima officials declaring that Hamas? win last month had rendered the Road Map dead.)

According to our estimation here at Jerusalem Newswire, Olmert will not see the Hamas and the Hizb'allah as strategic threats to the Jewish state because he will not take seriously the ties between these two terror groups and Iran ? alliances that could quite easily see both organizations unleash a flood of terror attacks and missile strikes on Israel in the wake, for example, of the US going after Iran?s nuclear sites.

Furthermore, given the accelerated growth of Hamas? popularity among the ?Palestinians,? and the organization?s successful routing of the veteran PLO during the January elections, the trend is for Hamas to grow rapidly in strength and capability now that it is the governing power over the Palestinian Arabs.

Related Articles:

• Settler-hating Jewish group 'tired of waiting'
• Government readies to rip up more Jews
• Olmert drives Jews from their Hebron homes
• Police, soldiers drive off Jews trying to return to settlement
• Jewish refugees to return home for Independence Day

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