Howdy Mark;
1. It was not Israel who refused to renew the truce back in mid-Dec.; it was Hamas who declared the tahadiyeh over a day early and fired 80 rockets into Israel to emphasize the point.
2. Israel has never said that the goal of Operation Cast Lead is to destroy Hamas, but rather, to render it incapable of shooting rockets and of being rearmed. Since the number of rockets fired per day has been reduced down to less than 20/day, significant progress has been made.
3. If you think that the survival of Hamas and the ability to shoot a few rockets is a "win" for Hamas, then they can have their "victory" with the IDF in possession of the rural areas of the Gaza Strip and with their arms-smuggling routes cut until Hamas runs out of ammo.
4. Yes, the IDF made a lot of mistakes in Lebanon II; the main one was not to hold ground already taken--a mistake that the IDF has not made this time. Even so, Hezbollah was trained to stay on its side of the Blue Line, and now Hamas. |
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