Jerusalem, Israel – Following 80 missiles fired from Gaza on Tuesday, Israel’s Independence Day, Israel Army sources confirm that preparations for a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, which have taken several months, are almost complete.

The Israeli forces, including reserves, have trained and are positioned for the Gaza invasion. Yet as preparations near completion, top Israeli policymakers assess that the diplomatic damage that will occur as a result will not serve Israel’s interests.

The way to disband a terrorist infrastructure involves a military operation that entails a stay of months or even years. The model admired in Israeli military circles is known as “Operation Defensive Shield,” when Israel dispatched troops in April 2002 to patrol all strategic and sensitive points of the Judea and Samaria, so as to put a lid on terror attacks that would emanate from the Palestinian Authority Those troops continue to patrol all the parameters of all Palestinian Arab communities, and the results have paid off. During the calendar year 2006, 11 people were murdered by terrorists in Israel. Compare that to an average of 175 people murdered by terrorists in Israel during the years 2000-2005.

However, unlike the sparse amount of armed Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, Arab armed groups in Gaza now amount to more than 60,000 men, and they are purposely positioned throughout the Gazan civilian population,, especially in the crowded UNRWA refugee camps.

That means that the expected heavy Israeli firepower in Gaza will result in a situation where civilians are going to get hurt, children are going to be killed, and mosques will be damaged. The resultant scenes on worldwide television will not help Israel.

However, in discussions held after Hamas’ missile attacks on the western Negev, The Israeli Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi reportedly spoke in harsh tones for the first time, saying that that the situation cannot continue as it is.

The choice lies with the Israel’s defense minister, foreign minister and prime minister -all of whom may be implicated by the Israel Government Commission on the Summer 2006 Lebanon War.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2007

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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