Army aims 'to topple Hamas regime'
By HERB KEINON

The government has yet to define or approve the overall goals of the current military campaign in the Gaza Strip, and will wait until Wednesday - after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit - to do so, senior government officials said Sunday night.

Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post the IDF had short-term goals for a limited offensive, such as the one now under way, dubbed "Hot Winter," and longer-term goals for a larger operation.

The longer-term goals for an IDF operation that has not yet been approved by the government include "weakening and even bringing down the Hamas government," the officials said.

(This has been the plan all along. That's what the failed Coup attempt in June, and the imposition of Collective Punishment on Gaza (which provoked the rockets Israel at first claimed to be 'responding to') since that failure, have been all about. The media's silence during these events appears to have been designed to allow Israel to do claim the rockets they provoked as an excuse for a war they planned months ago.)

The other goals of a much broader operation in Gaza include putting an end to the rocket fire and dramatically reducing the smuggling of arms from Egypt into Gaza.

The short-term goals are to shift Israeli cities out of Kassam range, which explains the current IDF activity near the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip; delivering a heavy blow to Hamas; and hitting the Kassam production line.

(And slaughtering civilians, in a desperate attempt to convince them to give up their resistance to Zionism's incessant Expansionism.)

"Israel wants to stop the rocket fire," one senior official said. "If it is done through diplomatic means, that's one way. But if it isn't, then we will have to do it militarily."

(Since Israel's policies provoked the rockets, as their own defence staff warned, changing this policy and entering into negotiations will stop the rockets. But Israel's ruling Extremists have no intention of doing this, as they reject the notion of "compromise" - giving back a portion of what they have stolen - in the name of peace.)

The official said it was no coincidence that the security cabinet was not meeting until Wednesday to discuss the government's goals and aims in Gaza, after the Rice visit, to see if her intervention would put an end to Hamas's rocket fire.

(Or until they secure America's blessing for the planned assault and possible reoccupation.)

The officials said that if Rice were able to bring about calm by getting Hamas to stop the attacks, it was unlikely that the government would go ahead on Wednesday and okay a widespread ground push into Gaza.

(Sure. The war is not about the rockets.)

Rice is scheduled to go to Egypt before coming to Israel on Tuesday. Since most of the international community does not talk directly to Hamas, Egypt is the mediator.

Senior government officials said the IDF was likely to scale back its activities on Monday night, so as not to embarrass Rice with a major conflagration when she arrived on Tuesday.

The sources said the level of the fighting tapered off on Sunday, largely because the combat was most intense when the IDF first penetrated into Gaza. Once the army was deployed there, the intensity diminished, as those who resisted were either killed or retreated.

(Actually, over half of the people killed were civilians, so this statement is dishonest. Israel came under unanymous international condemnation, and they know it.)

Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, meanwhile, said that since Wednesday, an average of 50 rockets had hit the South per day, including 13 Grad missiles in Ashkelon. He said about 100 Palestinians had been killed in the fighting and that, despite media reports that the majority were civilians, 90 were terrorists.

(However, B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, released a report which refutes this LIE. Despite releasing the report before this story was written, the Jerusalem Post decided not to reference it ...)

Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), illustrated at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday the Palestinian use of the civilian population by telling the story of an elderly man from Jabalya who was filmed driving a wagon that carried a Grad missile. When the wagon went past a grove of trees, two men came out, took the missile out of the wagon and set it up to fire. That incident was captured on film.

(Israel made similar claims after it deliberately targeted civilian apartments in Lebanon, going so far as to supply "video evidence", which was refuted by satellite imagery a day later, exposing Israel's LIE.)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, told the cabinet that the current round of fighting was "unavoidable" and must be seen as part of efforts to create a "different equation" in the South.

(Aggression is always 'avoidable'.)

OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin expanded on this and provided the ministers with an overall assessment of what Hamas was trying to do by increasing its rocket fire, saying that the organization's decision to bombard Israeli communities was connected to its own strategic situation.

(Actually, it's their only way of responding to an attack by one of the world's strongest militaries upon an impoverished Concentration Camp.)

Having been in power now for more than two years, Hamas was dissatisfied with its overall situation and decided that it needed to take dramatic action to reshuffle the deck, Yadlin said.

(It doesn't need to do this. Failed Israeli and American policies, aimed at toppling the democratically-elected Government left Hamas supported as never before.)

"Hamas is not pleased with the current situation," Yadlin was quoted as telling the cabinet. He ticked off a number of factors working against the Islamist group: the Quartet conditions for talking to Hamas have remained in place for two years; very few countries are willing to speak to them; a diplomatic process is under way with the Palestinian Authority; and the Annapolis process runs contrary to the organization's overall strategy.

(Sure it does. Annapolis was a charade, designed to give Israel some much-needed positive PR, while requiring nothing real of its ruling Extremists, who rejected peace, and plotted this war long before the conference.)

"All those pressures - diplomatic, economic and military - brought Hamas in the last two months to the conclusion that its situation is unbearable, and they need to break the siege and create a new military balance against Israel," Yadlin said.

(No, Israel simply decided that it had softened up the Strip enough that it could reinvade with little resistance.)

He added that Israel's killing of a "high-quality" terrorist cell on Wednesday, made up of operatives who had trained in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, was also a severe blow to the Islamist organization.

Yadlin said Hamas was trying to create new rules for the game. However, he added, "I want to say that with all attention on the South, when I look at the threats on Israel, I remember Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. The fact that they are not shooting now does not mean that they are outside of the battle. The opposite is true. They are all looking to see how this will end, and how this will end [will significantly affect] how they will act."

(Nobody threatens Israel militarily. It is Israel that is threatening its neighbours.)

Diskin, meanwhile, said Hamas was fundamentally interested in further establishing its control in Gaza, and once that was consolidated, wanted to move to take over the West Bank as well. Diskin said Hamas wanted to create a new balance of terror, whereby Israel's killings of Hamas leaders would be met by barrages on Israeli cities in the South.

(Evidence? Hamas doesn't have to consolidate power. Israel's failures and atrocities have built their support for them.)

"They are trying to create a new balance of terror to create calm, so they can consolidate their strength in Gaza and then move to the next level: taking over in Judea and Samaria," Diskin said

Hamas signaled by firing fewer rockets on Friday that it was interested in calming down the situation, and was surprised that Israel responded with a massive offensive on Saturday, he said.

(Hamas, of course, has offered cease-fires and negotiations since it was elected. Israel's ruling Extremists, however, refuses to enter into a process it feels it cannot control, because they know full well they are in the wrong, and that "Just Peace" will mean giving back a portion of what they have stolen.)

Palestinians in the West Bank were beginning to show signs of solidarity with Gaza, Diskin said, but he didn't envision masses taking to the streets on Monday. That didn't mean, however, that there would not be attempts to carry out a terror attack from the West Bank as a sign of solidarity, he said.

Olmert, during the cabinet meeting, called on his ministers to refrain from talking publicly about the situation. Perhaps influenced by the negative fallout from Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i's use of the word "shoah" (Holocaust) to describe what the Palestinians would face if they continued pounding Israel with rockets, Olmert said that while he could not prevent the ministers from talking, "I direct you to refrain from giving analyses, ultimatums, explanations or forecasts regarding the situation."

(He really doesn't want the world to hear just how insane these violent Extremists are becoming, because that would lead to immediate international intervention.)

Olmert also took the international community to task for condemning the IDF's actions. Saying that he had heard "criticism and claims that civilians are being hurt, that Israel is using too much force," Olmert said, "I do not recall that some of those making these claims have - over the years - said that the situation in the South was intolerable and that measures had to be taken to put a stop to it."

(That's because Olmert's policies and increased aggression provoked these attacks, which are nothing compared to what Gaza has suffered over the past few years.)

Olmert said Israel would continue to protect its citizens in the South.

(But he is the one who has placed their lives at risk, and used them as pawns in Zionism's sick game.)

"Nobody has the right to preach morality to the State of Israel for taking basic action to defend itself and to prevent hundreds of thousands of residents of the South from continually being exposed to incessant firing that disrupts their lives."

(Immorality Breeds Contradiction ...)

Despite Olmert's words, one government official said that on the whole, the reactions from overseas were "relatively balanced."

(Many right-wing 'democratic' Governments are willing to ignore their citizens in the name of Appeasing these Zionist Extremists in the name of political support. This seems about to change, however, as increasingly, the Jewish community is becoming one of Israel/Zionism's greatest critics.)

He said that while it was not pleasant to hear condemnations of Israel for using "disproportionate force," the reactions from the US, EU and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon all condemned Hamas and the firing of rockets as well.

The official said that on the public relations front, Israel benefited from the fact that the IDF's escalation had taken place on a weekend and at a time when the US press was preoccupied with the upcoming presidential primaries, the Russian media were focused on the Russian presidential election, and the British media were concentrating on the return of Prince Harry from Afghanistan.

(Proving, once again, that Israel uses the international media, and plans its operations accordingly, just as its critics have always said.)

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'We'll reoccupy Gaza if necessary'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Israel has informed foreign diplomats that it would reoccupy Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary, though it prefers not to do so, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, as the IDF operated against defiant Gaza rocket squads.

(Actually, they 'acted' against a defiant Palestinian population. Israel has always intended to reocuupy Gaza, and now, the Extremists who opposed the pullout are in power.)

Israel is contemplating a reoccupation of Gaza even as it makes efforts to make peace with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the West Bank. On Sunday, Abbas called off talks with Israel to protest the high death toll from the IDF's latest incursion into Gaza. Palestinians reported more than 120 dead in the military campaign.

Israeli leaders have signaled that a broad invasion of Gaza is in the works to halt rocket fire that is striking closer to Israel's center.

(Actually, that is just the excuse. Their own illegal policies provoked the rockets. The aim of this war is 'Regime Change' and the reoccupation of Gaza.)

In a meeting Monday with foreign diplomats based in Israel, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did not rule out an Israeli reoccupation of the Strip, home to 1.4 million Palestinians. Israel pulled its settlers and troops out of Gaza in 2005, and last June, Hamas violently seized control there.

(Actually, Hamas responded to a Coup attempt by the US and Israel, who used Fatah members as proxies. Now that this story has broken, the media can stop making this dishonest statement. Vanity Fair: Bush approved plot to oust Hamas  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546391346&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull )

"We cannot afford this kind of extreme Islamic state controlled by Hamas," Livni said, according to a ministry statement released Tuesday.

(What she means is that Israel's Extremists, who reject the prospect of Compromise in the name of peace, cannot afford to take part in talks they cannot control.)

Israel evacuated Gaza "not in order to come back, but we might find ourselves in a situation where we have no choice," Livni said.

Fighting escalated sharply last week after Israel mounted an onslaught in northern Gaza to go after Palestinian gunmen who have fired closer to Israel's heartland than ever before. Israel pulled out its ground forces on Monday, but has continued the air assaults against persistent Palestinian attacks.

(How one-sided but typical ...)

Livni told the diplomats that Abbas' decision to halt the negotiations "shows weakness," signaling to Hamas that its attacks from Gaza could influence Abbas' actions.

Hamas, meanwhile, urged Abbas to resist Rice's appeals to return to the negotiating table.

"Once again, this visit is designed to provide more support for the Israeli occupation to commit new massacres and ... to provide cover for Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. "We do not welcome this visit and are pinning no hopes on it."

(Indeed. This process is designed as a cover for Israel's increased aggression and annexation, just as the world turns against it.)


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Amnesty Int'l Condemns IDF for Reckless Disregard of Life in Gaza
 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204473061572&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Rights Group: More than 50% of Gaza casualties were civilians
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960338.html

Joint Statement Against the Israeli Airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
 http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/joint-statement-against-the-israeli-airstrikes-on-the-gaza-strip-20080301.html

U.N. Chief Condemns Israel After Bloody Day in Gaza
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/392791.html