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HAPPY CHANUKAH ! MERRY CHRISTMAS ! ========================== Monday, December 15, 2008 [Fundamental misunderstanding of IDF's job] Yaakov Katz : Israel doesn't want to occupy Gaza to stop attacks because doesn't know how will leave Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:   [This week we had two illustrations of the fundamental misunderstanding of the job of the IDF:   #1. DM Barak explaining that one of the reasons the IDF won't launch an operation to stop the attacks against Israeli civilians is that such an operation could endanger a soldier now being held in Gaza.   #2. The reason for not occupying Gaza to put a general end to the Hamas threat and attacks is that "Israel knows how it gets into Gaza but does not know how to get out."   The following are rough words, but they come from someone with a son and many nephews etc. now serving in the IDF: It isn't the job of civilians to endanger their lives for soldiers. Its the other way around. And the job of the IDF vis-a-vis Gaza is not figure out how to pull out from there but instead to worry about doing the job that must be done in Gaza. And if the answer is that the IDF has to figure out how to occupy the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future then their job is to come up with a way to do this that keeps our losses to a minimum. Not to say "no".   The "yes"/"no" decision is up to the elected government to decide. ]   Analysis: Why Israel prefers the cease-fire in Gaza Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 14, 2008 www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728196517&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull   On Thursday, after a grueling weeklong maneuver spanning the Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee, Col. Avi Peled summed up his first brigade-level exercise as commander of the Golani Infantry Brigade: "The capabilities that were demonstrated here instill within me confidence that the brigade is prepared for any challenge that awaits it." By the end of the month, Peled will lead the Golani Brigade in its return to operational duty on the Gaza front following four months of training. It will replace the Paratrooper's Brigade, which has been there since July. Following Khaled Mashaal's announcement Sunday that Hamas will not extend the cease-fire, chances are that Golani will lead military operations in the Gaza Strip after Friday, when the six-month truce expires. Peled is no stranger to Gaza and was commander of the Southern Gaza Brigade when Gilad Schalit was taken captive by Hamas 904 days ago near Kerem Shalom. In August, he became commander of the Golani Brigade after serving as commander of its elite Egoz Battalion. So, while Israeli officials made a point Sunday to stress that the IDF was prepared for renewed violence with Hamas, officials in Defense Minister Ehud Barak's office said that in the end, Israel was in favor of continuing the truce. There are a number of reasons why and they were set out in a document prepared for Barak recently by the ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau on the benefits of extending the cease-fire. Firstly, and most important, is that Israel knows how it gets into Gaza but does not know how to get out. At the moment, the Fatah Party - led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - is not strong enough to fill the vacuum that would be created by a major Israeli operation and subsequent withdrawal. After disappointment with UNIFIL in south Lebanon, Israel is also opposed to a multinational or NATO-like force deploying in Gaza. So, without a clear and defined exit strategy, the document asked, what is the point in an operation in the first place? Another consideration is that under any operation - limited or massive - Hamas would still succeed in firing Kassam rockets into Israel, likely by the dozen. The most rockets fired into Israel in one day from Gaza has been around 60. Fears in the defense establishment are that Hamas is capable of firing closer to 200 in the event of a large Israeli operation inside the Gaza Strip. Barak is also concerned that small-scale operations in Gaza could lead to a larger attack that would eventually force Israel to take over the entire Strip all over again. The assumption is that with the increased rocket fire, the IDF would be under immense pressure to push deeper into Gaza, killing more innocent Palestinians and losing more soldiers on the way. Public pressure would mount against the continuation of the operation as the IDF loses soldiers and fails to stop the rocket fire and Israel would come under harsh public condemnation, possibly even from the new administration in Washington. Last but not least is the northern front and concern that Hizbullah - which is still calling to avenge last February's assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus - will take advantage of Israel's preoccupation in Gaza to launch an attack along the border with Lebanon. This happened once before in the summer of 2006. Two weeks after Schalit was kidnapped, Hizbullah abducted reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. While the IDF's units, like Golani, are prepared for renewed violence in Gaza, there is still the home front to worry about. Last week, the cabinet approved the allocation of NIS 600 million to build reinforced security rooms for thousands of housing units in Gaza-belt communities. Needless to say, it will take time for these rooms to be built.