There has not been such unity of purpose in Israel in more than 40 years.

The unity of purpose in Israel stems from the current intolerable situation that finds 1 million Israeli citizens hunkered in their homes and shelters, ready to run for their lives in the few seconds that they have when a siren warns that a Gaza rocket has been fired in their direction.

The people in Israel demand an end to that Gaza rocket threat, which is why polls show an overwhelming 85 percent of Israel’s population demands a total military victory in Gaza.

Over the past three weeks, Hamas and other terror groups suffered hard blows – the terror group of 20,000 lost at least 500 of its best fighting men – yet it remains in tact, leaving the Jewish state without an overwhelming victory.

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Despite this, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened a press conference on Saturday night, announcing Israel would declare a self-imposed cease-fire. They also said Israel would enlist the world to stop future arms shipments for Gaza, without uttering one word about disarming Gaza – leaving the door open for further attacks from Hamas and other terror groups against Israel.

Yesterday, the head of Israeli intelligence told the Israeli cabinet that it would only take Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups another two months to develop new ways to import new weapons.

Even worse for the Israeli cause, Israel’s self-imposed cease-fire occurred without the return of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the POW who has remained in Hamas’ hands since 2006. Israel also failed to gain control over the arms smuggling routes from Egypt and failed to disarm some of Israel’s most lethal adversaries

Despite Israel’s unilateral cease-fire declaration on Saturday, Hamas fired rockets 17 times into Israeli civilian communities yesterday.

For the first time in Israel’s 60-year war for independence, it faces an enemy embedded in a genuinely popular movement, contrasting with 1948 until 1973, Israel fought off neighboring Arab states.

Israel now copes with Islamic movements that operate with a popular power base, including both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel must now cope with a civilian army that operates under the cover of a civilian population, which has also trained combatants among women and schoolchildren.

In this war, it will not be enough for Israel to defeat those who are formally defined as fighters.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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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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