Monday, March 03, 2008

There must be no let-up

From DEBKAfile, March 2, 2008, 5:37 PM (GMT+02:00):

... Internal security minister Avi Dichter... criticized the current Israeli military operation in Gaza as failing to stop the Palestinian missile-rocket blitz on Israeli towns and villages.

Just the opposite, he complained to the weekly cabinet meeting: Instead of 125,000 Israeli civilians under fire, there are now 250,000.

Dichter, a former Shit Bet director, stressed there must be no let-up in operations against terrorists; Palestinian civilians shielding them are themselves terrorists, he said....

....Minister Dichter was speaking for the frustrated Israeli commanders conducting the Gaza anti-missile campaign against Hamas. The government is still restricting Israel’s military incursion of the Gaza Strip to 2.5-3 km deep, whereas Palestinian crews are firing missiles and rockets from the relatively safe distance of 6 to 15 km inside the Strip. That is why, Dichter argued, the operation is falling short of its goals, which defense minister Ehud Barak defined to the ministers as halting Palestinian missile fire and cutting down their arms smuggling....

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