[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: If the IDF is aiding and abetting in a plan that
assumes that a multinational force would be effective instead of also
including in its plan a "morning after the morning after" regarding what
the IDF would do after the failure of the multinational force then it is
irresponsible.]

IDF exit plan: Gaza invasion will bring multinational force
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 18, 2008
www.jpost.com
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Israel is considering a large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip during
which it would present an ultimatum to the international community for the
deployment of a multinational force as the only condition under which it
would withdraw, defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post.

Meanwhile Sunday, a soldier from the IDF's elite General Staff
Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal) was seriously wounded by a gunshot
wound to the shoulder during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.

At least three Palestinian gunmen, including the shooter, were killed. The
soldier was listed in serious but stable condition after being operated on
Sunday night.

While Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said numerous times that a major
operation in Gaza is inevitable, the IDF has been reluctant to recommend
such an incursion for a number of reasons, especially the lack of a clear
exit strategy.

Without a multinational force on the ground and with Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party too weak to retake control of Gaza, a
large operation seems unlikely.

However, Defense officials told the Post on Sunday that the current thinking
in the defense establishment was to launch an operation in Gaza if deemed
necessary by the political echelon, even without a multinational force in
place. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has called for the deployment of such a
force numerous times in recent months.

Toward the end of Israel's monthlong war against Hizbullah in the summer of
2006, Israel told the US and Europe it would not agree to withdraw its
troops unless the UN force in Lebanon was beefed up and given more
aggressive rules of engagement. In the end, a cease-fire was reached after
European countries pledged their participation in UNIFIL.

"We are talking about the Second Lebanon War model," a defense official
said. "To go to war and tell the world that if they want a cease-fire and
for us to leave then they will need to send a force to replace us."

In Gaza on Sunday, troops backed by aircraft and tanks swept into the
southern part of the Strip near the former Dahiniye Airport and clashed with
gunmen firing mortars and machine guns.

Three gunmen were killed and more than 20 others were wounded, including
several gunmen and a 45-year-old civilian who lives near the airport and was
shot in the head, said Palestinian Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya
Hassanain.

The fighting erupted around 1 a.m. Sunday after IDF undercover troops took
over several homes near the airport. Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers
moved in to back the troops, and Israeli aircraft struck twice, Hamas said.

In one air strike, three terrorists were killed, two from Hamas and one from
the Popular Resistance Committees.

During the raid, bulldozers flattened agricultural land to deny rocket
squads cover and the army arrested men under 45, Hamas security and
residents said. According to Hamas, at least 25 men were taken into custody.

In Jerusalem, at the beginning of Sunday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said Israel would continue imposing economic sanctions,
including small cuts to the electricity supply, on the Gaza Strip as long as
the Kassam rocket attacks continued.

"I think that this is being done correctly, prudently and responsibly,"
Olmert said. "This may not always be loved but it is an important part of
counterterrorist activity."

Also Sunday, a rocket hit next to a home in Sderot. No one was injured but
several people were treated for shock.

AP contributed to this report.