What would Barack say? Israeli leaders split on how to end war
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Free Headline Alerts
JERUSALEM — Israel's leaders were on Tuesday divided over how to end the war with the Hamas regime, amid rising international pressure and uncertainty on whether U.S. policies will change.
Officials said the Cabinet has been overseeing a war in the Gaza Strip amid a stalemate between senior ministers. They said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants to expand the military's ground operation in an effort to force Hamas to surrender while his senior ministers seek to end the war over the next week. The government has approved two of the military's four stages planned for Operation Cast Lead.
"There is lots of fear of sustaining the war after President Bush leaves office [on Jan. 20]," an official said. "Bush has been supportive, but we are getting signals that [incoming President Barack] Obama will not be the same."
[On Jan. 14, at least three Katyusha-class rockets were fired into Israel from neighboring Lebanon. This marked the second such rocket attack since Jan. 8. No group has claimed responsibility and nobody was injured.] Officials said the chief advocates of a rapid end to the ground operation have been Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Both are regarded as close to the United States and receive much of their financing for their election campaign from elements close to the incoming Obama administration.
"Barak has been under heavy pressure by those close to Obama to stop the ground invasion," another official said. "The reason there has not been a major operation in Gaza City is because of the pressure on Barak."
Instead, Barak was said to favor an army withdrawal from all but northern Gaza and the continuation of Operation Cast Lead by the Israel Air Force and Navy. Officials said Barak has urged Olmert to allow Egypt to play a key role in any ceasefire in exchange for a commitment by Cairo to stop weapons smuggling from the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip.
Barak was expected to send his senior aide, Amos Gilad, to Egypt on Jan. 15 to negotiate a security arrangement along the Gaza-Sinai border. Officials said Barak, supported by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, has proposed an immediate week-long ceasefire to facilitate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. At the same time, Barak would seek to advance talks with Cairo to block weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip.
"Barak accepts the view of [the military's] Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant that expanding the operation and occupying Gaza would require a lengthy deployment — possibly up to a year," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. "The defense minister is concerned that when U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes office next Tuesday, he will demand that Israel immediately cease the operation."
For her part, Ms. Livni was said to share Barak's belief that Israel could come under severe U.S. pressure when Obama enters office. Officials said the foreign minister has stressed that Bush was the only one to have blocked U.S. support for a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire.
"Tzipi believes that the government can claim victory and withdraw," the official said.
At this point, Olmert has refused to convene his senior ministers to decide on whether to continue the war. A meeting of the Cabinet's security committee, scheduled for Jan. 14, was not held to avoid a showdown between the prime minister and Barak and Ms. Livni.
Officials said the argument over when to end the Hamas war was linked to the approach of Israeli parliamentary elections on Feb. 10. Sources close to Olmert have argued that the elections should be postponed until normalcy returns to southern Israel.
"The cynics say Olmert wants to stay in office longer, but cooler heads understand that if Hamas still has rockets, it could completely disrupt voting and then there will be a leadership crisis in the country," an Olmert source said.
Likud Party chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, who leads in the polls, has rejected the prospect of an election delay. Netanyahu has called for the destruction of the Hamas regime.
"I think if we do not hold it on time, it will give the terrorists an enormous victory," Netanyahu told a news conference on Jan. 13. "It means that they hold Israeli democracy hostage."