Posted on 10/05/2002 10:48:11 AM PDT by knighthawk
JERUSALEM: Israeli military operations have seriously damaged the "terror infrastructure" in the West Bank, but more work needs to be done in the Gaza Strip, Israel's army chief of staff said in remarks published on Saturday.
“The terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) has been hit hard," General Moshe Yaalon was quoted in the Haaretz daily as saying in a speech to a Tel Aviv business group. "In the Gaza Strip there is still a long way to go.”
Without mentioning Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by name, Yaalon said the decision to end Palestinian "terror" could only be made by the head of the Palestinian Authority, but "with the current one, this will probably not happen".
He claimed that the current Palestinian leadership still does not recognise Israel's existence as a Jewish state, and wants to use terror and demographics to impose a Palestinian state that stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to Jordan.
Regarding the expected US-led war on Iraq, Yaalon said it could take place without Israeli involvement of any kind.
"This battle can be carried out without Israel getting involved at all," he said, warning that "any attack against Israel will require that Israel defends itself".
And that's the rub; Saddam has a history of lobbing scuds into Israel when he's in a pickle. Last time we tied the Israeli's hands. I suspect we won't this time.
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