Smoke: The aftermath of a reported Israeli air strike today in Rafah, which has been pummeled by the military for days in the escalating Gaza conflict
Senior IDF Official: We Could've Taken Down Hamas In 10 Days -- YNet News
Army says Hamas was left in power so that one organization could be held accountable for terrorist attacks coming from Gaza.
The IDF did not take over the Gaza Strip or worked to completely destroy Hamas in order to leave an organization in power that would have to answer for terrorism in the Strip, a senior IDF source said on Sunday.
"There's an Israeli interest to have one address in Gaza, we don't want a Somalization in the Strip, but rather one group to enforce its control of the Strip. This is why the collapse of Hamas was not defined as one of the objectives," the senior source said.
"We wanted to have an address on the other side on the day after. This address could be the enforcer against militants and take care of its citizens," he added.
The senior source said that if the objective was to take down Hamas, the IDF could've easily have taken over the Gaza Strip within 10 days, and taken another year or two to search for and destroy terror infrastructure.
Read more ....
My Comment: If they want to hold Hamas accountable .... it is not working. This conflict has revealed that Hamas has limited (if any) control over the more radical groups .... they do what they want knowing that Hamas is not in a position (or unwilling) to stop them.
6 comments:
I don't think Hamas could stop Islamic Jihad. They could do a good job of rounding up and killing all the known operatives. The problem would be Islamic Jihad would recruit more people and infiltrate them into Gaza and start a war.
However, Hamas was strong enough to to round up and execute all the Fatah members.
What is to stop Islamic Jihad form building up and one day doing to Hamas what they did to Fatah?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah–Hamas_conflict
I included absolute astronomy because it has many links and I think the site is clean.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Fatah-Hamas_conflict
I would appreciate a feedback/discussion. Maybe I don't know, what I think I know.
Your analysis looks pretty spot on to me - there is nothing stopping Islamic Jihad taking over at a later date and in reality they are the darling eye of Iran.. Hamas is trying to repair ties with Iran ever since they backed the rebels in Syria.
I think already Islamic Jihad are too strong and armed to the teeth for Hamas to try and round them up, although a part of me would love to see it.
Terrorists fighting Terrorists and reducing each other's members is a good thing, each one is one less we have to deal with at a later date.
I've not seen this absolute astronomy site, will check it out after work - thanks for the link :)
The only thing I'm not sure about in your analysis is the line about bringing more into Gaza. Whilst possible, I think Egypt has a pretty tight stranglehold on Gaza these days including what's left of the tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor.
My understanding is that this source is nearly fully closed and it's in Egypt's interest 'currently' to stop the flow in either direction of goods, weapons and people.
Nothing stops them from further recruitment within the Gaza Strip and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Hamas fighters do in fact defect to Islamic Jihad later after this war concludes.
I do not know what measures the Egyptians are taking regarding the flow of people and goods over or under the Philadelphi Corridor.
Did people still cross the border on a daily basis before this latest operation? Did Egyptians allow military age males to cross? A person could misrepresent themselves as a trader, business man or something and walk across with the rest of the daily traffic unless stopped and questioned.
I guess my best argument is that if Hamas could build tunnels and get them past the Israelis maybe Islamic Jihad could do the same with the Egyptians and Hamas.
Once Israel leaves, more tunnels will be built. It will be harder and take longer (maybe much longer), but they will try.
Some enterprising FSO from Europe or the U.S. will try to give them the money for "civilian development".
Since the Muslim Brotherhood was forced out, the Egyptians have pretty much kept Rafah shut in both directions. They are only opening it every now and then with a much reduced traffic flow. It has been shut most of the time since this latest conflict erupted.
One of my favourite bloggers has been keeping tabs on it - did a very quick search for some articles I have previously read, here is a link to get you started:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/human-rights-organizations-ignoring.html
The following articles discuss the tunnels being closed by Egypt, they are a good read:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/8169-egypt-gaza-tunnels-the-lifeline-under-threat
http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-destroys-1370-gaza-smuggling-tunnels/
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/04/27/gaza-tunnels-discovered-rafah-mosque/
Everyone (average Joe that is) thinks that cruel Israel has Gaza under complete siege but most people forget that Gaza shares a border with Egypt that Israel has no control over.
The Egyptians do not like Hamas. Apart from their links to the MB, they see Hamas as stirring up trouble in Sinai by harbouring Islamists that are attacking Egypt and supplying them with weapons and training.
Mattathias ben Johanan
Thx.
Mattathias ben Johanan
Thx.
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