Taheri is making good points...
IRAN-HEZBOLLAH LINK EYED
By URI DAN
May 21st 2004
The NY Post
JERUSALEM — The reason for Israel's ongoing offensive at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip lies hundreds of miles to the east — in Iran.
It is Tehran's deepening involvement in Palestinian terrorism — directly or through Iran's Hezbollah surrogates in Lebanon — that prompted this week's massive hunt for arms-smuggling tunnels at the Gaza town of Rafah.
Tons of weapons are waiting in Egypt's Sinai Desert to be shipped through the tunnels. If the contraband gets through it "would change the balance between Israel and the terrorists," said Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
This is not just a matter of rifles and bullets. It is Russian-made Strella shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and Katyusha rockets and launchers.
It is the same kind of material that Iran tried to smuggle into Gaza in January, 2002, aboard the infamous smuggling ship Karin-A — until Israeli commandos seized it in the Red Sea.
These are weapons that, in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, could knock Israeli planes out of the skies and reach towns inside Israel.
The high command considered the arrival of missiles and rockets on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border such an urgent matter that it ordered the massive sweep into Rafah.
Why can't the smuggling be stopped on Egypt's side of the Rafah tunnels?
Zvi Fogel, former chief of staff of Israel's southern command, told The Post that appeals to Egypt to halt the smuggling have been in vain.
"They don't care if Israel bleeds. They would like to see Israel retreating," he said.
http://www.nypost.com/commentary/21343.htm