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Commander-designate of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan (Tomer Appelbaum / BauBau)
Last update - 13:40 17/03/2008
Next IAF chief: IDF's entry into Gaza will stop rocket manufacture
By Amos Harel and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents and Reuters
Tags: Israel, IDF, Ehud Barak 

The commander-designate of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, believes the presence of Israel Defense Forces troops on the ground in the Gaza Strip could prevent the manufacture of the Qassam rockets that are plaguing the Negev as well as the smuggling of weapons into the Strip.

"Professionally speaking," he said, "if Israel wants to prevent any high-trajectory rocket or mortar fire, it must establish good control on the ground."

At the same time, Israel is examining anew the possibility of purchasing one of two foreign-made anti-rocket defense systems to combat the Qassams, according to defense officials, because the Israeli-made Iron Dome system, currently under development at the Armaments Development Authority Rafael, will not be operational before 2010.
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In a lecture at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs delivered two months ago, and made public Sunday, Nehushtan, currently the head of the IDF Planning Directorate, said: "Compare Lebanon and Gaza to the West Bank, where Israel has control over the external perimeter and can control the entrance of weapons inside the area. In Lebanon, well-organized shipments of weapons flow across an open border with Syria. Gaza is open along the Egyptian border. The West Bank is not open and the weapons don't flow in with the same freedom."

According to Nehushtan, who will take command of the IAF on May 14, while "local arms production is a matter of know-how ... if Israeli forces are present on the ground, as they are in the West Bank, then we can stop the development and manufacture of rockets and other weapons in time."

Asked whether the Gaza problem could be solved militarily, he referred to Israel's Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in April 2002. "It took a few years [after the operation ¬ A.H.], but we managed to establish a different kind of control. The motivation of suicide bombers in the West Bank did not recede, but their capabilities did." The decision as to the role of the army, Nehushtan added, is in the hands of the country's political echelon: "In Gaza, as well, the IDF will do what it is instructed to do."

Nehushtan noted that the Gaza Strip represents the first example in the world "of a regime affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood," which began in Egypt.

"Hamas is building up its power and building its military capabilities ... Even if we build better shelters, this is no way to raise children," he noted, referring to the "constant shelling that really makes life impossible" for people living in Sderot and nearby communities.

He acknowledged "the difficulties of an open, modern, sensitive, Western society such as Israel's in operating against terrorists who operate from within civilian territory against civilians on the Israeli side," adding: "It was not like this in World War II ... We have to operate within this environment and under these constraints. At the same time, we still have to provide security for our people.

"Now that civilians are part of the equation," he continued, "anti-terror operations become much more difficult. When we have to operate against forces that operate within a civilian environment, we have to be pinpoint precise and very sensitive to collateral damage. We are much more limited in what we can do."

This was not the first time that Nehushtan, a former combat pilot, has spoken about the need for ground operations to prevent rocket fire. In meetings at the IDF General Command in late July 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Nehushtan and another pilot Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin were among the first senior officers to tell then chief of staff Dan Halutz that his plan to continue the aerial attacks on Hezbollah was not working.

"You must bring this before the government," Nehushtan told Halutz, according to the protocol of the meeting as published in Haaretz over a year ago. "You need to tell them straight that without a major ground operation, we cannot remove the Katyusha threat. If the government does not approve it, we should tell them that they must stop the campaign now."

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is reviewing two potential substitutes for Iron Dome to counter the Qassam rockets. One is Nautilus, a joint Israeli-American invention that uses lasers to blow up rockets and mortar bombs mid-flight. The other is Phalanx, an automated machinegun produced by U.S. firm Raytheon whose heavy bullets shred incoming shells.

Defense Ministry director general Pinchas Buchris flew Sunday to the U.S. state of New Mexico to watch Nautilus now being upgraded under a new name, Skyguard in action. The mission is significant as Israeli experts long wrote off Nautilus's performance as inadequate. A Defence Ministry delegation visited Raytheon earlier this month to inspect the Phalanx.

Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror confirmed that Israel is examining the Phalanx and Nautilus systems, if only to assess their core technologies as potential complements for Iron Dome. "I think the future will be a combination of laser and missile systems," he said.

Dror denied that protectionism had motivated Iron Dome's initial selection, saying its slated performance was deemed to be more reliable than that of Nautilus or Phalanx.

Palestinians fired five Qassam rockets at Israel Sunday, but no one was injured and no damage was caused.

Related articles:
  • Halutz objected to ground offensive almost until end of war
  • Iron Dome system found to be helpless against Qassams
  • Barak rethinking 'Iron Dome' defense system in face of Gaza rockets
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      1.   Delta Company - First Battalion - Fifth Marines - USMC 02:53  |  Guaranteed Peace 17/03/08
      2.   If the air force boss is saying ground forces are the solution 03:01  |  Mark B. 17/03/08
      3.   refreeshing 03:03  |  geroge 17/03/08
      4.   IS THE FOLLOWING THEN ACCEPTABLE TO PEACE for Jews and Arabs..... 03:04  |  ALI 17/03/08
      5.   Meanwhile - Take Phalanx Out of Stock 03:21  |  Mark of Lewiston 17/03/08
      6.   Barak Needs A Iron Fist In Gaza Not a Iron Dome 03:24  |  Shepherd 17/03/08
      7.   Nothing can stop rockets from gaza 03:33  |  Bobby 17/03/08
      8.   At least 03:34  |  Frank 17/03/08
      9.   What it will take 03:58  |  Mark Lincoln 17/03/08
      10.   Do it now 04:17  |  Commonsense 17/03/08
      11.   Caught in your own web 04:19  |  Harold 17/03/08
      12.   They haven`t tried everything! 05:30  |  Paul 17/03/08
      13.   An option: Push them back 05:35  |  US CITIZEN 17/03/08
      14.   Bobby, you are so wrong 05:40  |  Dan 17/03/08
      15.   IDF has to control the ground to protect whom? 06:25  |  Straight Talk 17/03/08
      16.   Time to go to the heart of the problem. 06:27  |  Akram Zekaria 17/03/08
      17.   Barak needs to make up his mind 06:29  |  Kipperraes 17/03/08
      18.   Nothing will work unless.... 07:20  |  Ossama 17/03/08
      19.   MarKkLincon & Bobby 07:39  |  Brad 17/03/08
      20.   Marc military expert without manage a single unit. 08:03  |  Aby 17/03/08
      21.   Absolute victory. 08:13  |  Jean Van Daem 17/03/08
      22.   Inadequate 08:15  |  Eitan 17/03/08
      23.   Armageddon Not Needed 08:25  |  Mark of Lewiston 17/03/08
      24.   The only solution - Air Attacks on Gaza 08:43  |  A 17/03/08
      25.   zionists why don`t you ever consider peace,and getting out of 09:09  |  lakshmi 17/03/08
      26.   For 60 years IDF has failed to provide peace 09:19  |  Tupac 17/03/08
      27.   Brad: Hamas Will NEVER be destroyed 09:31  |  Tupac 17/03/08
      28.   Shouldn`t this man shut his stupid mouth and simply obey orders? 10:14  |  Clickfool 17/03/08
      29.   Secret weapon lying dorment... 10:21  |  Chanalau, Tova 17/03/08
      30.   #3 Pretentious Kibbitzer 10:36  |  Panther Jet 17/03/08
      31.   israel needs the russian army units that pacified chechyna 10:52  |  v hardman 17/03/08
      32.   8 OUT OF 10 10:55  |  indrajaya 17/03/08
      33.   Bobby 1 11:00  |  ChanahS 17/03/08
      34.   The sign of a true military man 11:19  |  Natallie Durson 17/03/08
      35.   free gaza 11:21  |  jack 17/03/08
      36.   At what cost and what does that mean long term?? 11:23  |  De 17/03/08
      37.   Open front in Gaza will open another in the south. 11:26  |  J 17/03/08
      38.   Another pearl by Mark Lincoln #3 11:46  |  S 17/03/08
      39.   the unmilitary solution 11:58  |  whizbang 17/03/08
      40.   The dogs bark 12:40  |  Yonatan 17/03/08
      41.   WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY 12:51  |  MJ 17/03/08
      42.   About humanitarians concerns. 12:55  |  Robert 17/03/08
      43.   Next IAF chief: IDF`s entry into Gaza will stop rocket manufactur 13:30  |  Goober 17/03/08
      44.   To the Pompous Idiots 13:33  |  George W Patton 17/03/08
      45.   Never worked, won`t work 13:59  |  Salem 17/03/08
      46.   Next IAF chief is right. 14:00  |  Vital 17/03/08
      47.   TO NO 20 14:19  |  DANNY. 17/03/08
      48.   It`s the property 14:29  |  Sam 17/03/08
      49.   To Salem 14:33  |  Oleg 17/03/08
      50.   To Ossama 14:36  |  Oleg 17/03/08
      51.   11# Ossama. "nothing will work" indeed ! 14:43  |  Akram Zekaria 17/03/08
      52.   Nehushtan, Olmert is an incopetent manipulator 14:44  |  Yoel 17/03/08
      53.   Olmert Barak, everything but to make the hard decisions 15:09  |  Yoel 17/03/08
      54.   to Bobby 15:13  |  Dik 17/03/08
      55.   Do You Really Wanna Stop Rocket Attacks? 15:23  |  MIKE 17/03/08
      56.   No One Silver Bullet Will Work 15:37  |  Jeff Northridge 17/03/08
      57.   Next IAF Chief 16:00  |  Fred 17/03/08
      58.   But that means undoing the Itnatkut -another Leftist failure! 16:10  |  Feiglin for PM 17/03/08
      59.   cutting the power cuts the manafacture 16:10  |  peter 17/03/08
      60.   #25-lockshen keeps slurping 16:13  |  peter 17/03/08
      61.   Delta Company 16:16  |  Fred 17/03/08
      62.   Idiot M.Lincoln,V2 were falling on London until their bases were 16:30  |  Absolute Sweden 17/03/08
      63.   peter of Montreal 16:40  |  GABE1 17/03/08
      64.   to Mark of Lewiston 16:45  |  Dik 17/03/08
      65.   Israel is falling down 16:56  |  Atilla Karagözoğlu 17/03/08
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