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August 4, 2014

Just Do It



The IDF could take Nike's corporate motto to heart, but they won't.
From the Jerusalem Post:

We could have taken Gaza in a week, but that wasn't our mission,’ says senior IDF source

Had the IDF been ordered to, it could have seized the whole of the Gaza Strip in a week, and spent up to two years taking apart Hamas’s guerrilla army, but this has not been the goal of the operation thus far, a senior military source said Sunday.

“Had we been ordered to defeat Hamas, we would have done it. We would have drafted four divisions, evacuated the Gazan population from battlegrounds, conquered the area and scanned it thoroughly.

It would take a week to take Gaza, and up to two years to destroy terrorist infrastructure,” the source said.

In such a scenario, “A guerrilla war would have started. This was not the mission given to the IDF, and rightfully so,” the source said. “The IDF divided up Gaza dozens of times, most recently in Operation Cast Lead [in 2009]. Every brigade can do it. The question is, what is the aim?” The goal of the offensive was not to topple Hamas, but to create a better security environment for Israel, the source continued.

At the same time, he warned, “The IDF has a range of plans. We are prepared for everything.”
Sounds like the IDF has several exit plans for Gaza. Wish we had the same for Afghanistan.

4 comments:

Fredd said...

Israel up to this point, like Abba Eban quipped, has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

They had a perfect opportunity, and God knows every right to simply wipe Gaza off the map. And perhaps even to bomb the crap out of Iran who has been supplying Hamas' missiles.

But there they go again, showing restraint.

And Hamas will recover, regroup, re-arm and start their missile attacks on Israel shortly. You can take this to the bank.

And then when that happens, Israel will again show way too much restraint, and fail to wipe Gaza off the map. And then Hamas will recover, regroup, re-arm....

Sigh.

Fredd said...

Israel up to this point, like Abba Eban quipped, has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

They had a perfect opportunity, and God knows every right to simply wipe Gaza off the map. And perhaps even to bomb the crap out of Iran who has been supplying Hamas' missiles.

But there they go again, showing restraint.

And Hamas will recover, regroup, re-arm and start their missile attacks on Israel shortly. You can take this to the bank.

And then when that happens, Israel will again show way too much restraint, and fail to wipe Gaza off the map. And then Hamas will recover, regroup, re-arm....

Sigh.

sig94 said...

Wash, rinse, repeat. The Near East cycle.

Kid said...

I know a Recon Marine who says the last army in the world he'd want to go up against is the IDF.