The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted on its website some answers to many of the more frequently asked questions it received during Operation “Cast Lead.” Questions include:
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit took aim at Iran, Hamas, and Hizbullah for trying to foment conflict in the Middle East. Reuters reports:
“(They tried) to turn the region to confrontation in the interest of Iran, which is trying to use its cards to escape Western pressure … on the nuclear file,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview with Orbit satellite channel broadcast Wednesday.
In additional news, the AP reports on an Iranian ship intercepted by the US Navy. A search revealed small arms, which probably destined for Gaza, but are on their way (at least for now) to Syria.
The new American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, affirmed Israel’s right to defend her citizens in a press conference today, after Israel responded to a Palestinian attack on an IDF patrol. Reuters noted Clinton’s main concern would be to get a durable cease-fire on the ground and to attend to the needs of the civilian population.
However, she also noted,
It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defense instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza.
Palestinians attacked an Israeli patrol this morning ina cross-border raid, killing one soldier and wounding two others. As the body controlling Gaza, Hamas bears direct responsibility for violating the ceasefire and for the consequences of this action.
For further information and analysis, see the Christian Science Monitor.
Ambassador of Israel Sallai Meridor made the following statement in response to news that the Obama administration has appointed Senator George Mitchell and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as special envoys:
“As the United States and Israel continue to work jointly on achieving peace and stability in the Middle East, and of countering the common threat of terrorism and state sponsors of terror from acquiring nuclear weapons, we warmly welcome and congratulate Senator George Mitchell on his appointment as special envoy for Middle East peace.
“Israel holds Senator Mitchell in high regard and looks forward to working with him on taking the next steps towards realizing a future of peace and security for Israel and her neighbors.
“I would also like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke on his appointment as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Holbrooke has been a longstanding friend of Israel and we wish him every success.”
Much has been made of Hamas’s use of tunnels to smuggle arms and fighters into the Gaza Strip. They also used these tunnels to shoot Qassam rockets and hide from the IDF. The following, from Newsweek (emphasis added):
“They [the Israelis] were claiming there are tunnels under here,” she said. Hamas fighters use tunnels, often short ones that are little more than bunkers, to pop out and launch attacks and then get back in, hiding from Israel’s ubiquitous surveillance drones, reemerging in a house or backyard as an unarmed civilian. “There aren’t any tunnels around here, we are not resistance,” she said. Yet not more than 20 feet away from Najah, there was just such a tunnel, which Israeli troops had unearthed. Right in the middle of the road, it had a convincingly camouflaged roof that matched the rest of the road. Inside it was shored up with timbers and concrete.
In similar news, the Associated Press reports today that Palestinians are reopening their smuggling tunnels, some of which were damaged during the recent operation. While smuggling Iranian weapons may not have restarted, this may be a sign of things to come.
A report in today’s Corriere della Sera (in Italian) profiles some Gaza residents who say Hamas used some strong arm tactics to keep them in harm’s way. For example, Hamas gunmen forced residents to stay at home while they fired at Israeli troops (rather than telling the civilians to run away). You can read an English-language summary in Haaretz.
Bret Stephens, in the weekend’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required), analyzes the results of Operation “Cast Lead” in the wake of the recent Israeli ceasefire and troop withdrawal. Israel, he says, has learned a great deal from these past three weeks–but so has Hamas. And while Israel hopes for peace, it’s not clear that Hamas shares that feeling–and peace can’t come about in that environment.
An excerpt:
All wars eventually end. The question most Israelis are asking is whether this one has merely gone on vacation.
So why are the top echelons of Israel’s political and military establishment delighted by the war’s result? Long answer: They think that Israel has re-established a reputation for invincibility tarnished in the 2006 war with Hezbollah; that they bloodied and humiliated Hamas while taking few casualties; that they called overdue international attention to the tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle its arsenal; and, with the unilateral cease-fire, that they put the onus to end the violence squarely back on Hamas’s shoulders.
As Operation “Cast Lead” has come to a close, charges have once again been raised that Israel used weapons containing depleted uranium. The UN showed this charge to be baseless the last time it was raised, in 2006, but has been raised again under similarly dubious aims. Below is an excerpt from the 2006 notice of the UN Environment Programme’s findings:
Reporting on the findings of a UNEP assessment carried out for three weeks in October, Achim Steiner said samples taken from 32 sites south and north of the Litani river found “no evidence of penetrators or metal made of DU or other radioactive material.”
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