Sorry Sir, but an operation as you describe will never take place. The author of this article describes the situation as if the IDF was completely controlling the situation, that they could gain such thing as freedom of movement in Gaza, and that they could just go in and then promptly out. First thing first: the objectives described here will require complete destruction of all terror groups. This means the killing or arrest of at least 25 000 fighters. Now, that will not be possible to acheive without killing at least as many civilians. Let's not dream: as soon as a few hundreds (thousands, perhaps) will be killed, the pressure to stop the bloodbath will be tremendous, even within the IDF. Second, Gaza is 10 kilometers by 40 kilometers. When the IDF invades an area, the civilians have nowhere to go. They will stay in their home, because they don't have the choice (an probably resist the invasion). Third, occupying Gaza means controlling all streets, and this will require destruction of every single house in Gaza. There is no other way to take Jabalya that to destroy all standing structures. Now, who will take care of the roofless survivors once the war is over? There is one way of avoiding all that. But an operation which does not result in the "side-effects" mentionned above will never meet the objectives that the author dreams about.

Barak may be in fact good at planning this tpe of op. That does not mean he has the determination to implement it. That doesn't mean he is and will be a good defense minister, for that you need to will to implement. Netanyahu is your best hope for PM, because he has the Will to do and of course Moshe Arens the old lion, one of the last of his generation will do whaat needs to be done, not giving a damn about world opinion. A kinder and genteler approach is not what is needed, Devestate, destroy and make them shake with fear

so that one mortar does a lot of casualties

3 days ago I wrote an article about the pending Gaza op in a Swedish paper. They wanted further proof. Thank you for the article that has been sent to a friend. Good hunting! Israel hazak! Shabat Shalom

To David: you are so right. I realized after starting to read this article, that the author is smoking big time., too many words, too much fantasy. Look, Israel does not need to or want to re-occupy the Strip and control 1.4m angry Palestinians. This undertaking, unless emulating Hitler's march through Europe, (and it's consequences to everyone), would be the worst possible action by Israel. To believe that Syria, Egypt, Jordan Lebanon and Iran would remain quiet is outrageous. Hez alone will fire up to 20,000 rockets, Syria thousands, and maybe even Iran. Al Qaeda Iraq can also join in as they have threatened. The Strip is in fact a great prison by itself., keeping Palis penned in for the most part. Israel could simply nuke Palis cities and get it over with, but is that the way to go. Lots of words, describing an impossible scenario. Selective targets, keeping them on the run..other pin point actions, is about the best alternative. Remember, Hitler lost after he invaded Russia and got sucked down in the wet (snow) land.....his armies crippled ultimately. Again, this article is laughable..and hopefully not plausable.

if you know so much, do you really need to print this over the internet where all the gazans, iranians and whomever else needs to read this?

Inaction by the Israeli government is "not an option" in this case, whatever the consequensces. May Hashem look after every individual in the IDF and the people of Israel whatever steps will eventually be taken Shabbat shalom.

wise guy don t talk from u.s.a settle down in israel and then talk

The failure of Israel and the United States, as well as Europe, to see that the world is in a state of war is characterised by the seasonal birth of "peace initiatives." That Israel has convinced itself that "peace is an option," even "the only option," in spite of the fact that its enemies are actively engaged in preparing its destruction, is one of the astonishing phenomena of our times. The Arabs read the signs coming from Israel correctly, and act accordingly. On the one hand, they are arming themselves to the teeth and preparing for war and, on the other hand, they talk "peace" and occasionally release "peace plans," which aim at turning Israel into an indefensible narrow strip of land that can be conquered in a single attack. We should have the courage to face reality. We should go to war and fight with one single goal – a total victory on the terrorists. We will have to fight in order to rebuild our deterrence. We will have to fight for our survival. The medias should be kept away from the battlefield until the army has finished its job. The civilians collaborating with the terrorists, the “human shields”, should be treated as soldiers without uniforms. The war should be short and cruel to the enemy. Victory is at that price as explained at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/01/stop-them-with-clear-cut-victory-part-i.html

first of all, i am jewish . i would suggest that we can go for negotiation rather than the war. it is not fair to kill housands of people ! then what does the future hold? more violence, do you think the conflect is going to approach the end? no way. i hope to find the proper altternative rather than the stupid iinvasion or war

Get off it !! As if IDF does not already have prepared for a long time a variety of plans updated often for such an offensive action. The only hold up stopping this is Olmert.

Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan will not lift a single finger to help the Gazans. If Hizbollah attacks it will be because of Mughaniyah. How exactly is "al qaeda in Iraq" going to do anything? They can barely do anything in Iraq. Israel needs to go in and make some noise. I remember reading exactly the same nonsense about Defensive Shield before it came about and how many suicide bombers are there now?

You must be in cloud 9. Of course no one wants war, but Israel has to defend its citizens, no?. Since you are such a no it all kind of left less Jew, than I please tell me what Israel must do, in order to achieve peace with a murdering entity, who only want your Jewish blood?

just bring out the big cannons and blow gaza to dust. The soldiers can be safely in Israel as retribution is repaid. Any politician supporting a ground action is not using his head.

Palestinian groups have promised a wave of suicide bombings against Israel if they attack. Also, Hamas has obtained better weapons. And most importantly they have the conviction and absolute belief in what they are doing whilst Israeli soldiers are less convinced. Dont you think youre going into another south lebanon here? Sure the hamas government could fall but its popularity would go up and you tell the Israelis that they should be ready for casualities. This is the difference between you and Palestinians. The Palestinians see their fatalaties as martyrs and indeed most seek death as the highest honour whilst Israelis seek to preserve the life of their soldiers. You cannot win.

I find mr.Yishai and y-net completely inept to have written and published this article. Some secrets true, or not should remain just that-A Secret. This article article does nothing but aid the enemy, if it is true. Informing the public of an impending incursion is one thing, but giving army objectives and logistics is governing on the border of treason. I would think that y-net would have picked a better option then printing this article. I am not sure that y-net will even print this talk back, since they have changed the meaning of other talk-backs that I have written. So I will say again, I say what I mean, and mean what I say. One does not win wars by dying for ones country. Wars are won by making the enemy die for his. Lets make sure Israel continues to follow that philosophy. Am Yisrael Chi Dovid Ben leizer Hakohain Lt.Col.Ret. Novi, Michigan USA OMNI-BERATUS

The answer to the problems you cite is spelled out in post #14. The Pals get their martyrdom and 72 virgins, and the Israelis get peace without putting a bunch of infantry soldiers on the line. Hey, it's just a response to the Qassams after all. See how easy that was?

Whatever the IDF's power and tactics, the sad fact is that here, as in Lebanon, the cowardice and ineptitude of Olmert and the Kadima clowns will destroy any chance for success. You can't win fighting with half measures and concern for so called "innocent civilians" who hide, equip, support and protect the terrorists they elected to office. If Israel had leadership, Israel can and would prevail. With Olmert and his Kadima clowns, sadly we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes that lost the Lebanon war.

You are somewhat nieve and definitely ill informed. The palys only consider suicidal acts to be of benefit if they can kill large numbers of Jews. since 2002 the cost-benefit ratio of suicide bombing has decreased to the point because of Israeli retalliation, that a large number of palys have become informers to avoid the cost. also you seem to forget that Israel has learned from Lebanon II not to fight with one hand tied behind your back by humanitarian considerations. Even if the next war includes Hizbullah, Iran and Syria, the Isrealis now have definite existential goals to defend and will do so with maximum ruthlessness. They will be hurt, but the Islamonazis will get obliterated. It would be better if foolish bleeding heart left wing Islamonazi sympathizing idiots like yourself would wake up and realize that your goal of Israeli elimination is not going to happen and that your genocidal heros are about to get a termially nasty surprize.

For a people who "seek death as the highest honour" they do a lot of whinning about their rather small number of dead. Bit like the Lebanese. As for "wave of suicide bombings" - well there would be a wave of attempts, rather like there is now so this hardly a threat. At the end of the day - according to you - Hamas militants want to die and Israelis want to kill them; isn't that the very definition of win-win?

missile fired into Israel. They damn sure don't care if they kill innocent Israeli's. Why should Israel not return the favor? If you go in and break it....then you have to fix it.....remember??????? If you just blow their electrical facilities up accidentally......well.....you just don't have to supply free electricity anymore. Water suppies could be blown up accidentally also. What a bummer it would be if Egypt filled up wiht their terrorist buddies being refugees. Why take over a friggen cluster buck in the first place? If they chose to fire missiles into Israel, then make their lives just as miserable. Make a refugee exodus a reality, if they won't stop killing Jews. Why get Jews killed when you can cut off supplies until they leave. The ones who don't want their children dead will go. Then you have nothing to be ashamed about when you kill civilians, who are in bed with the enemy. The hard core terrorists will stay behind to raise hell. Like they aren't already doing it anyways. Ask Jimmy Carter to send Egypt some tents and water bottles. Jimmy Carter might set up some polling places for elections while he is at it.He can be their new leader.

Although a full scale operation is farfetched, I believe that it is necessary for all sides to uproot all terror organizations in the Gaza Strip once and for all whatever the consequences will be. Many Palestinians in Gaza want peace, but they are hijacked by a bunch of terrorists that silence them with brute force if they speak out for peace. If a full fledged operation fails to take place, Hamas will continue to get stronger and terrorize both our people. I hope that your government is serious.

I'm afraid by living where you do, you have come underthe influences of your former P.M.Chamberlin who went to Munich and let Hitler unleash WW2 and Holocauset. We don't need another one. I believe that the time for talk has passed. Now is the time for action. and the less talked about it the better.

If it's supposed to be a 'surprise??'

sometimes you are sleeping becouse the lecture is not good and sometimes becouse you are tired in israil it is the both conditions and dreaming only about the solution ...... and then ..another lecture and another sleeping and another dreaming .. and more killing of both

Here's a damp towel, mate, to try and wipe off that big yellow streak running down your back. You Brits have truly become the "generation of rot".

Just send your blah-blah directly to Hamas

I think many of us are living back in 1947. We think the Palestinians still want to "push us into the sea". The situation now is that the Israeli military government wants to take over the entire land of Israel and is playing on our fears. The illegal and brutal occupation of lands we are to share with the Palestinians is the problem. Stop the terror of the occupation and the Palestinian terror will fade. Show that Israel is a "light unto the nations" and uphold the Jewish tradition of justice and compassion. Israel must accept international law. Israel is becoming a pariah nation bound for its own destruction. Speak out for sparing the Palestinians, it's the way to save Irsrael as well.

stand-in PM olmert is NOT a coward ! olmert , failure as mayor has become a failure as stand-in PM of Israel. Leb II has proven that olmert is NOT made of the stuff that produces a great leader . 1. olmert does NOT know how to choose advisors from the myriad of Israeli military men available to a PM 2. olmert does NOT know how to exhibit sympathy or to give hope to Israeli citizens. KNESSET of Israel: GET RiD OF olmert ! moshe Israel