The cycle of escalating violence across the Israel-Gaza border will not be resolved until Israel completely destroys Hamas' and Islamic Jihad's terrorist infrastructure in the coastal enclave, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Avi Dichter (Likud) told Israel Hayom over the weekend.
Dichter, a former director of the Shin Bet security agency, said an undertaking of this nature "is not something that can be done in a week or two. It's more likely to take a year or two, maybe more, but it's clear that the current reality, in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the ones to decide when to provoke another round of violence is unacceptable."
Dichter, who headed the Shin Bet during 2002's Operation Defensive Shield – the large-scale military campaign conducted during the Second Intifada to eradicate terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank – noted that "if there are 40,000 terrorists in Gaza, we'll have to arrest 10,000 or 20,000 and the rest will flee."
"There's no other option, really," he continued. "We did this during [Operation] Defensive Shield and it doesn't look like there's any other choice now. We have to eradicate their terrorist infrastructure. This can be done diplomatically, if Egypt decides to take the lead, but I think the chances of that are slim. It will only work if Egypt, which has tremendous leverage over Hamas, is on board."
Asked when he believes a Defensive Shield-like campaign would be launched in Gaza, Dichter said, "That's entirely up to the political echelon. A strategic military move of this kind follows different rules than a tactical operation. It requires meticulous planning and a clear decision of when to pursue it and to what extent."
