THE COMING WAR IN GAZA

Shin Bet Chief Warns of Large-Scale Confrontation in Gaza - Ilan Marciano
Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that "Israel must prepare for a wide military confrontation in the Strip, if moderate sources in the Palestinian Authority do not get stronger." Diskin outlined the Palestinians' efforts to arm and noted that, "The situation in the Strip is not a flashing traffic light but a red, red, red, light. Israel has no good options in Gaza, there are only bad options, and we need to choose the least bad of all."

"Although the number of terror attacks this year following the disengagement is smaller, the important thing to look at is the amount of weapons and the significant strengthening of Hamas as a result of the disengagement," he said. (Ynet News)

Preventing Tragedies - Editorial
Fifteen months ago, Israel withdrew completely from Gaza, bulldozing every Israeli settlement and even uprooting Jewish cemeteries. From then on, all the Palestinians had to do in order to never see another Israeli in Gaza and to build a future state in peace was just that: build, rather than attack Israel. Instead, Palestinian groups, including Hamas after its election by the Palestinian people, decided to attack Israel with hundreds of missiles aimed at civilian areas. Since the beginning of the year, over 300 rockets have been fired from the area of Beit Hanoun alone into Israel by Palestinian terror groups - with the support of the Hamas leadership. All the Palestinians need to do to end Israel's military operations is to stop attacking Israel. (Jerusalem Post)