SHABBAT SHALOM and pass the ammunition

LA QUATRIÈME JOUR DE LA GUERRE///07/12/2014 - 14 Tammuz, 5774 Netanyahu: “IDF offensive in Gaza to continue until quiet is restored in south.” When asked whether Israel was preparing a ground invasion, Netanyahu said, "We are preparing all options." Operation Protective Edge will continue until the quiet is restored, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Friday, minutes before Shabbat, after holding high-level security deliberations in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu, who took questions from reporters for the first time since the operation, would not reveal when or whether a ground operation inside Gaza would begin. A calm Netanyahu said that the terror kingdom Hamas set up in Gaza – where there are not only thousands of rockets, but also well over a thousand tunnels – will not be allowed to be replicated in the West Bank. “We need to understand one fact, we are living in a Middle East that is being taken over from radical Islam, leading to the collapse of a number of counties, and is knocking on our doors, both in the and the south.” In addition to dealing with Hamas, he said, “I say we cannot allow a situation where we get Gaza in Judea and Samaria." “Today I think that Israel's citizens understand why I say all the time, that there cannot be a situation in any agreement that we will give up security control from the Jordan River westward,” he said. "I don't want to create another 20 Gazas in Judea and Samaria,” he added. “Those who say that territory has no importance, look how much importance there is,' he said. “In a contiguous territory, you can build tunnels.” If Israel would leave the West Bank completely, he said, there would be the possibility of thousands of tunnels burrowing into Israel. “There are 1,200 tunnels in the 14 kilometers between Egypt and Gaza,” the prime minister revealed, adding that Egypt has sealed most of them. He said the tunnels illustrate that territory “has tremendous importance.” Netanyahu said that the IAF has so far hit more than 1,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets, and that the “military blow” will continue until Israel is sure that that the quiet is restored. Netanyahu did not spell out any conditions for a cease fire, or give any indication about whether a third party was now involved in trying to broker one. The prime minister did not stray from the goal he set out for the operation from the very beginning: to restore quiet. He did not widen the goal to destroying Hamas or re-taking Gaza. Netanyahu, who spoke overnight with US President Barack Obama, and has spoken over the last few days with numerous world leaders, said that “no international pressure will prevent us from acting with all our strength against a terrorist organization that calls for our destruction.” Netanyahu said that there is an understanding for Israel’s actions among the leaders, and that the slow and measured manner in which Israel entered the operation was due not only to operational considerations, but also to create an international atmosphere that would understand why Israel felt the need to hit Hamas, as it is doing. “All the leaders understand our need to act,” he said. “I also asked them what they would do. Would they be willing to absorb a rocket barrage attacks on London, Washington, Paris and Moscow? Of course not.” Regarding an exit strategy, Netanyahu said that he will finish the operation when the goals are achieved, and the primary goal is to restore the quiet to Israeli citizens. Netanyahu also sent a warning to Hezbollah, saying that Israel would act aggressively against any others who will fire missiles on Israel. “I would not recommend anyone to test us,” he said. Netanyahu was full of praise for the country for its “fortitude,” and for Iron Dome. He said that over the years, governments have spent billions of dollars in protecting the home front. For so far, Hamas has not done much damage to Israel. The swimmers were killed the minute they came out of the water. The tunnels have been discovered and bombed. The missiles are causing Israelis to flee to bomb shelters, but thank God (and Iron Dome) they have so far not caused much property damage and no loss of life. Meanwhile Israel targets Hamas’s missiles and especially its missile launchers, headquarters, arsenals and warehouses, and leaders. There is not much Hamas can call a victory except proving the range of its rockets. . . . Hamas wants more than calm: it has demands. It wants the men who were freed in exchange for Gilad Shalit, and recently re-arrested, to be freed again by Israel, and even has demands of Egypt—to open the border with Sinai far wider. Hamas may have reached the conclusion that it must soon abandon those demands and agree to a truce, but be unwilling to stop until it can point to some “achievement” like hitting a major tower in downtown Tel Aviv or killing a large group of Israelis. But if there are no such “victories” and the Israeli assaults continue, that will change. This appears to be Israel’s assessment: keep increasing the pressure until Hamas, which started this war because it saw too many threats to its survival and dominance in Gaza, comes to see continued war as the key threat. Those who want the violence to end must realize that the larger is the Israeli effort now, the sooner Hamas will conclude this round must be ended.