Ground offensive
Photo: AP
Pinchas Wallerstein
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Settlers call for 'Operation Defensive Shield' in Gaza
There is no other option but to launch a ground offensive in the northern Strip to reoccupy it, Yesha Council says in leaflet distributed ahead of Shabbat
"Israel
must take its fate in its own hands. There is no other option but to launch a ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip to reoccupy it," said a leaflet distributed by the Yesha Council in synagogues across the country ahead of the weekend.
The leaflet also addressed the "errors" of the disengagement plan in a slightly reconciling tone: "In spite of the pain over the injustice and terrible mistakes, made, the situation is reparable. Today there is a broad national agreement among the people that we cannot continue this way. The terror nests must be critically hit and uprooted."
The Council called on the government to "clear the entire area" of the Qassam manufacturing industry, adding that "they should be hit hard with the right maintenance for a long period of time."
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The Yesha Council also slammed the "conception" according to which Israel can win by fighting from the air, claiming that this had failed in the Second Lebanon War.
"It was proven that only fighting which combines the Air Force's accurate firing abilities with cleansing and eradicating terror on the ground can improve the results of destroying terror, as was done in Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank towns."
Operation Defensive Shield was a large-scale military operation conducted by the IDF in April 2002 after a series of terrorist attacks launched against Israel.
Binyamin Regional Council head Pinchas Wallerstein told Ynet that "without a ground operation in Gaza, the price the people of Israel will pay will be unbearable. The residents in Judea and Samaria see that the threat of terror attacks today is much lower than any period of time since the intifada, and this is without a doubt thanks to Defensive Shield."The leaflet accused the Palestinian territory of turning into a "monster of terror", aiming to erase the State of Israel along with Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian terror and government officials.
Following a ground offensive in Gaza, the leaflet calls on the government to rebuild the settlements on the security zone which will be created in the northern Strip. According to the Yesha Council, this is the terror organizations' biggest fear.
