The biggest mistake is not admitting a mistake. Everyone can see that Sharon's pullout was an all around mistake. It ruined many lives of Jewish residents who lived there, it not only did not bring peace it brought terrorism to the Gaza strip. The only solution is to re-capture the strip, kill, not capture terrorists, and put the strip under Israeli military administration and forbidding Islamic education and lengthy detention for cleric who advocate radical ideas. Hard pill? yup, but anything less will not solve the problem. It is like taking a aspirin to alleviate the pain of cancer; only a thorough operation will cure the terror.

what we did. not by whining and pleading.

The battle cry of static apathy? You've tried carving a tolerable status quo with these fanatics festering in Gaza every year. Nothing works, and now matters are falling apart. They will never stop leaping at you. The PA is bad, but the Hamas kids are unrelenting poison. You have delayed long enough. Roll into Gaza, put every member of Hamas to the sword, and install the PA to rule. Is there really any other feasible scenario?

this scenario. We must leave Hamas in its place to avoid even worse? We must leave Fatah in its place to avoid al-Queda? Sounds like very sophisticated appeasement. How about we absolutely exterminate both organizations, make the remaining populations utterly fearful of us without any proxy enemy and keep an eye, two eyes, on developments there after we annex whatever is important to us.

What an assessment... this is an assessment? This is wishful thinking !!! Sorry, this man does not impress me at all ..... But what the hey, you will not publish my comment anyway, just a waste of my time ...

Or plants vs. zombies. Alu Akbar mo- fo. As the famous quote from H. Clinton what difference does it make?

not a math-class, this is about hurting an enemy all the time, every way possible. We'll take care of whoever comes after Hamas, after Al Qaida, after Al emmo.......when the need arises.Seems we're too clever for our own good.

This means better intelligence better means of cutting off money and and arms and maintaining pressure on the leadership whilst disputing passions of small independent cells as far as possible. Finally making sure that the message is sent lid and clear to all other groups operating that the price to be paid by the leadership and their support is so high as to make passions symbolic rather than damaging.

General it wouldn't hurt to get one ;) ,...

take a polygraph test on Abbas. No doubt his Fatah group kidnapped the boys and only then (maybe) sent them over to Hamas. They might very well still be in Fatah's hand. Most terrorist acts against Israel throughout the years were committed by Fatah, the sly fox. It's only for political reasons, in order to advance the dangerous peace talks, that Netanayahu, Livni, Kerry and Obama and the left are blaming Hamas.

You'd think that now that ISIL rules territory bigger than all of Israel and now that Israel's enemies like Hezbollah and Jihad are battle-hardened veterans armed with advanced weapons, the extreme Left would wake up, but no. Netanyahu could use Obama's stunning defeat in Iraq and current lack of popularity to change course and protect Israel, but instead he has chosen to be a Meretz waterboy. Netanyahu's destruction of Hamas while leaving Fatah intact only means that Abbas will win the elections and get international legitimacy for a new Arab state. The Arab state that Netanyahu is building will make Israel impossible to defend. Netanyahu can't say he didn't know: he will be to blame.

Israel hasn't yet learned the lessons of Lebanon or of the ultimately failed Gaza operations. Mass military action is no longer an option. Targeted bombs are only slightly weakening a people who are employing similar methods as the Vietcong did in Vietnam, who took their time, built massive tunnels and lured the mighty USA army into traps. War is not won by might, but by outwitting your enemy, by exploiting its weaknesses, not YOUR strengths. This war has to be a psychological one, a means to an end, the cutting off of their lifeline - if not from Iran, then at least from the useful morons of Europe. Make them insanely jealous of each other and chances are good that they will destroy themselves. Use their own hit and run tactics, and their own people will tire of their fire and turn against their leaders. If Israel wants to defeat this implacable enemy, it needs to abandon strategies that thus far have NOT worked and adopt their own stealth tragedies, avoiding going into their confined spaces (entrapment) and bringing them into ours. If they can build tunnels, so can we. If they can pick off civilians, so can we. The end result is the same: increased fear and frustration until the civilians turn on their own leaders. That's what happened in Vietnam, and with Iraq and Afghanistan. They may not mind dying, but guerrilla warfare works by instilling fear, by creating a permanent sense of unease and uncertainty and this, when prolonged, destabilizes and demoralises. It's why Arab terror has worked everywhere, so surely now is the time to turn the tables on them. As for the idea of DISARMING Hamas, exactly which planet is Major-Gen. Ziv on? So long as the world keeps supplying them with the money, procuring more arms is no problem.

Israel can defeat all of its enemies. Hamas, al-quaida, etc. It really doesn't matter.

crush and destroy al qaeda. believe it or not, al qaeda is made up of ordinary men, albeit evil.

Short term planning is not going to bring desired results. Things aren't going to get better in the near future so it's best to dig in for the long battle. Hamas should be destroyed because it is a terror organisation hell bent on destroying Israel. If a more extreme group rises then they should be destroyed too. They won't disappear unless you hit them with all you have constantly. They are also not about to morph into peace orgs so best be prepared to fight this battle for the years to come.

In the hope that the Israeli government might think with its head rather than its gut we should be thankful, tom, that you are not in charge of its defence policy.

Make hamass disarm? Have you lost your mind sir? Do you, in your wildest dreams think hamass will just lay down all their arms? No, they will not. Ever! In their sick collective hearts they are warriors. To really disarm hamass they have to be killed. And, to face reality, abu mazen is not, or ever will be a partner for peace with Israel. He champions the destruction of Israel with all the rest of his bretheren.

I expected the general to talk like a military man, but what I read in this article was a talk by a politician. Israel's actions should be first and foremost sound in the strategic and tactical sense. From that prospective, there is little difference between Hamas, Al Quaeda or various other groups. All of them want Israel dead and gone. A strategically sound course of action would aim to deny these groups the ability to attack Israel, or at the very least make it both difficult and costly. Since the Hamas side seems to be dead set on fighting a war of attrition, make sure that their rate of attrition is much higher than that on the Israel's side. Israel's military establishment seems to be under the delusion de grandeur of invincibility. No army is invincible simply because of its technological superiority. US was technologically superior to North Vietnam and their allies, nevertheless US did not win that war. The politically-motivated decision process is what got Israel in trouble during the Yom Kippur war. It was an expensive mistake. The decision making process in the armed forces should be driven by strategic, operational and tactical concerns. Leave the politics to the politicians.

I guess the WW II Allies shouldn't have defeated the Nazis. Someone even worse than Hitler might have taken over Germany!!! This article is idiotic. Total Israeli victory is the obvious answer.

#3. Cameron, are you joking? When Israel destroys Hamas; Israel will keep Gaza forever and rebuild Gush Katif. Not give our land to our even worse Fatah enemies.

Everybody can agree on your talkback/comment. Total and eternal victory, with, for and by the Jewish and Israeli people is the right answer and correct solution. May G.D bless Israel (, too)!

It is better for Israel to know the terrorists are gathered on the strip. Win-win they call it, fill up the strip, and the terrorists will start to kill each other when the stress factor increase..

my simplistic call to wage war, but one has to have some form of long term goals. That seems to be missing from Israeli scene. We're still hung up on Oslo fallacies. Fortunately people are sobering up. They do that in the EU as well. Witness the recent voting pattern. Once Islam is acknowledged, as a hostile political ideology the course of action shall be obvious & clear. Hope we both live to witness that, Bertram.