(Government Press Office)
Three papers discuss GOC Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin's report yesterday to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hamas now has rockets with a 60-kilometer range, which, if launched from the northern Gaza Strip, could hit – inter alia – Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion International Airport:
Yediot Aharonot avers that "The security leadership does not ask if there will be an additional military clash with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but when," and suggests that such a clash could come as early as next month. The author believes that Maj.-Gen. Yadlin's report signifies that "Hamas has implemented one of its main lessons from Operation Cast Lead: The leaders of the organization concluded that as long as they do not have rockets that can threaten Tel Aviv, they have no tangible card to influence Israeli public opinion and genuinely deter the Government and the IDF." The paper speculates that Hamas might want to provoke a clash sooner rather than later in order to heat things up ahead of a possible rupture in the negotiations with Iran over Tehran's nuclear project, and Abu Mazen's intention to hold elections, even without Hamas, on January 24, as well as over the drawn-out negotiations on a prisoner release.
Ma'ariv says that the existence of such rockets "undercuts the Israeli belief that it is possible to put Gaza under lock and key." The author asserts that the key factors are "intentions, the utility of the calm and the damage that would accrue from any possible violation. We will never create a situation in which the enemy will lack means, or even be limited in their quality and quantity. It is much more important that it not be worth his while to use them."
Yisrael Hayom says that the report "is the tip of the iceberg that attests to the size of the problem that Israel will be compelled to deal with in the future, if and when Hamas feels that it is strong enough for such a confrontation," and adds that "The State of Israel is eating the rotten fruit of the Oslo accords and the unilateral withdrawal together." The author believes that "Operation Cast Lead taught Hamas that its military power is weak," and accuses the terrorist organization of "exploiting," the prevailing relative quiet "for training and arming itself." The paper warns that "Hamas emerged from Operation Cast Lead battered but not beaten and is now implementing lessons from the fighting in order to be better prepared for the next operation," and cautions that, "Whoever thinks that it is possible to fight terrorism and prevent Hamas from turning into the Palestinian version of Hezbollah without absolute IDF control of the ground is delusional." The author acknowledges that while this may not be palatable, the alternative – "knowing that Hamas could, at any given moment, attack a considerable part of the territory of the state of Israel and even threaten Tel Aviv" – is worse.
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The Jerusalem Post debates the possibility of introducing the death penalty for child killers into the Israeli justice system, and notes that due to the marked increase in "quality-of-life crimes in the public square," ". . . it is far easier for politicians to call for the death penalty than to undertake the hard slog of reforming the country's police, criminal justice and penal systems." Noting that criminologists cannot categorically conclude that the death penalty has any deterrent value, and fearing the possible execution of even a single innocent person, the editor suggests that we lock up child killers and throw away the key.
Haaretz calls on the Obama administration to "Stop treading water" with regard to the Israel-Palestinian peace process and declares: "The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders."
[Alex Fishman, Ofer Shelah and Yaakov Amidror wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]