IMRA..
03 July '14..
Observation: Israel's Message to Hamas: You can continue building your army if you stop shooting
"Now we are preparing for two possibilities in the south: The first is that the firing at our communities will stop and then our operations will stop as well and the quiet that prevailed in the south after Operation Pillar of Defense will continue. The second possibility is that the firing at our communities in the south will continue and then the reinforcement forces that are located in the field will act forcefully. The security of our citizens comes first."
PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the US Embassy Fourth of July Celebration 3 July 2014
Let me spell out what this message to Hamas is actually saying:
Dear Hamas leadership,
If you stop shooting - at least stop shooting much - then we will leave you alone so that you can continue to build up your offensive capabilities.
We call this our "quiet for quiet" policy.
And we don't have to tell you just how much the "quiet for quiet" policy has been a gift for Hamas until now.
When we first began the "quiet for quiet policy" there were only very primitive launching devices in the Gaza Strip with extremely limited range and payload.
At the time we adopted the "quiet for quiet" policy because we didn't want to invest the military effort required to clear out the Gaza Strip of the terror threat as we did in the massive operation we carried out in the West Bank and we wanted to keep life bearable within the area that was within range of attacks from the Gaza Strip.
Thanks to Israel's "quiet for quiet", there are now weapons factories in the Gaza Strip producing rockets and missiles that can reach Tel Aviv and beyond.
And we are even more motivated today to continue with "quiet for quiet" because there are millions of Israelis within range rather than just thousands or tens of thousands.
Yes. You may have noticed that for a few days after the announcement of the Hamas-Fatah unified PA that we actually mentioned that the Gaza Strip should be cleared out of the rockets and missiles in accordance with the signed agreements we have.
But that's dropped off the agenda.
We are back to desperately wanting to kick the can down the road.
So please take us up on our offer.
Just stop shooting - too much.
Of course, we accept a tit-for-tat exchange every now and then.
You shoot at us and we fire back at an empty field or an empty building.
Think about it.
Right now, given the number of rockets you have that can reach Tel Aviv, how many do you really think would actually make it through?
Return to "quiet for quiet" and we will allow you to increase the number of rockets by magnitudes!
So please accept our "quiet for quiet" offer and let us continue to indefinitely postpone our actually addressing the situation.
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=64217
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
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