1.

ISRAEL THREATENS TO UNLEASH 'HOLOCAUST' IN GAZA
By James Hider

Times (London)
March 1, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3459144.ece

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli minister gave warning yesterday that the Gaza faces a “holocaust” if Islamist militants there do not end their daily barrages of home-made Qassam rockets, and their increasing use of Iranian-built Grad missiles.

“The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” Matan Vilnai, the Deputy Defense Minister said.

The use of the term "holocaust" is usually restricted to descriptions of the Nazi genocide of the Jews in Europe in the Second World War, and many Israelis resent its use in any other context. Mr. Vilnai’s deployment of the word appeared to show Israel’s growing frustration that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza refuse to curb their attacks, despite heavy tolls inflicted in Israeli air strikes and tank raids.

As Israeli media relayed his controversial comments, Mr Vilnai’s spokesman was forced to issue a clarification. “The minister used the Hebrew term 'shoah' which means 'catastrophe' and in this context does not refer to the 'the Shoah' -- the Holocaust,” he said.

Israel has killed more than 30 Palestinians, including four children and a baby, in the past two days amid a dramatic escalation of the cross-border war. Palestinians have fired close to 130 rockets in the same period, killing one man on an Israeli campus.

Israeli defense officials said that preparations for a large-scale ground offensive to storm Gaza and break Hamas have been completed, but that they are waiting for improved weather conditions to begin what many predict would be a hugely bloody offensive into the crowded streets of Gaza’s cities and refugee slums.

Many observers worry that Israel could be dragged back into a costly, long-term military occupation of Gaza, which may not even halt the rocket fire. Militants have been firing them for seven years, while Israel only ended its occupation of the Strip two years ago.

“We’re getting close to using our full strength. Until now, we’ve used a small percentage of the army’s power because of the nature of the territory,” Mr. Vilnai said.

Ehud Barak, the Defense Minister, was reported in the Israeli media to have sent messages to world leaders giving warning of an impending conflagration in Gaza, but insisted that Hamas’s endless rocket attacks have left Israel with no choice but to attack. “Hamas bears responsibility for this deterioration and it will also bear the results,” he said.

Thousands of Gaza residents rallied after Friday prayers to protest against the increased Israeli raids, with children holding up placards saying “They’ve killed my right to childhood.”

Ismail Haniyah, the dismissed Hamas Prime Minister who has largely avoided public appearances for fear of being a target of Israel, warned worshippers at a mosque that they were looking at open conflict.

“Gaza today faces a real war, a crazy war led by the enemy against our people,” he said, condemning the Arab world’s silence over the escalating violence and accusing it of “encouraging the Israeli aggression.”

2.

BARAK: HAMAS WILL PAY FOR ITS ESCALATION IN THE SOUTH
By Haaretz Service and Reuters

Haaretz
February 29, 2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959532.html

Defense Minster Ehud Barak on Friday blamed Hamas for the escalating violence in the south, and said the Islamic movement would bear the consequences of it.

"Hamas is directly responsible for the current situation and will be the one to bear the cost of our response," Barak said during a visit to Ashkelon, adding that "an Israeli response is necessary and will be carried out."

The defense minister spoke in the wake of escalating rocket attacks that peaked Thursday with a direct hit on a home in Ashkelon, and Israel Defense Forces operations against militants which killed at least 18 Palestinians on the same day.

During his visit to the port town, Barak was debriefed by officers from the Southern Command, the Israel Police, rescue services officials, and the mayor of Ashkelon on steps being taken in the city in light of the present security situation.

Barak also visited a house in the city hit by a Katyusha on Thursday.

Also Friday, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said the IDF must reoccupy part of the Gaza Strip for an unlimited time and overthrow the Hamas government.

"The State of Israel must make a strategic decision to order the IDF to prepare quickly to topple the Hamas terror regime and take over all the areas from which rockets are fired on Israel," MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima) told Israel Radio. He said the IDF should prepare to remain in those areas for years.

MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) said his party would back an invasion of Gaza, though he fell short of advocating reoccupation.

"There is no doubt that the security response needs to include a ground component," said Sa'ar. He said the "takeover of territory in the northern Strip" from which the Palestinians launch rockets at Israel would reduce the barrages from Gaza.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai went as far as threatening a "shoah," the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster. The word is generally used to refer to the Nazi Holocaust, but a spokesman for Vilnai said the deputy defense minister used the word in the sense of "disaster," saying "he did not mean to make any allusion to the genocide."

"The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Vilnai told Army Radio on Friday.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said of Vilnai's comments: "We are facing new Nazis who want to kill and burn the Palestinian people."

Palestinians in Gaza fired about a dozen Grad rockets Thursday on the southern port city of Ashkelon, some 15 kilometers north of the Strip. A 17-year-old girl was lightly hurt in the rocket attacks and several others suffered from shock. The day before, a Sapir College student was killed in a rocket attack on Sderot. Fighting in Gaza also continued Thursday, with at least 18 Palestinians, including five boys and a 6-month-old baby, killed in Gaza air strikes.

Israeli military analysts say that as Ashkelon becomes a permanent target of Hamas missile attacks, an Israeli ground offensive is becoming inevitable and likely to occur sooner rather than later.

Such an offensive seemed to move one step closer Thursday, with Barak declaring that such an operation was "a real likelihood" -- although he told Quartet representatives that it was not imminent, a position that appeared to be echoed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Barak also ordered rocket alert sirens activated in Ashkelon for the first time, starting Friday.

"The major ground operation is real and tangible," Barak told his security chiefs during a meeting Thursday, according to sources who took part in the meeting. "We are not afraid of it."

Meretz-Yahad chairman MK Yossi Beilin advocated a diplomatic solution rather than a military one.

"My solution is to reach a cease-fire with Hamas," said Beilin, who said Israel should also continue negotiation with the Palestinian Authority.

Beilin said Hamas has expressed an interest in a truce over the last few weeks and that it was irresponsible of Israel not to respond to them.

"There have been at least two requests from Hamas, via a third party, to accept a cease-fire," he said.

The government, for its part, has been sending mixed messages regarding the possibility of a ground offensive in Gaza.

Olmert appeared to suggest that a major Israeli ground operation against militants in the Gaza Strip was not imminent, saying Israel's fight against them was a "long process" and that there was "no magic formula" to halt frequent rocket attacks.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, who visited Sderot on Thursday, rejected proposals to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, calling them "populist ideas which I don't agree with, and in my opinion, no intelligent person does either."

Nonetheless, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman later said the violence "may leave us no choice" but to send troops back in, two and a half years after Israel ended its occupation of Gaza.

Early Thursday evening, a Katyusha-type rocket struck an apartment building in Ashkelon, crashing through the roof and slicing through three floors. No casualties were reported.

In another Grad-missile attack on Ashkelon, a 17-year-old girl was lightly hurt and several other people were treated for shock.

A senior Israeli security official said that the rockets fired into Ashkelon have been Iranian-made imports, with a range of about 22 kilometers, but some locally made rockets have fallen on the southern outskirts of the city.

The missiles, known as Grads, are taken apart, smuggled into Gaza through tunnels, and reassembled. But Hamas has only a limited supply, the source said.