"The cease-fire gave Hamas a lifeline. We are not attacking them. We eased
the blockade on them at a time when they are not committed to stopping their
rearmament," Diskin told the committee.

Shin Bet head Diskin: Gaza lull is lifeline to Hamas
By Amos Harel Last update - 07:18 24/07/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004885.html

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin believes that the cease-fire agreement in the
Gaza Strip serve the interests of Hamas, not Israel, and charged that by
agreeing to the deal Israel has "offered Hamas a lifeline."

Speaking before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday,
the security services head argued that Israel's deterrent has "suffered
substantially" as a result of events in the past three years - the
disengagement from the Gaza strip, the Hamas takeover there and the Second
Lebanon War.

Diskin said the tahadiyeh - the cease-fire agreement - is stable because all
sides have an interest in maintaining it and because Hamas is imposing its
will on smaller Palestinian factions in the Strip.

"The cease-fire gave Hamas a lifeline. We are not attacking them. We eased
the blockade on them at a time when they are not committed to stopping their
rearmament," Diskin told the committee.

"Hamas presents itself as the victor in this confrontation, as having
managed to hold out against the Israeli siege. The lull is being presented
as an impressive achievement on its part," Diskin said.

In return Israel gains a temporary lull, which Diskin said "is essentially
an illusion. In our assessment the rocket attacks will resume at some point
in the future."

The head of the Shin Bet noted that "Israel's situation is very problematic
in its struggle against radical Islam. Palestinian daring against Israel has
increased since Hamas took over [in the Strip] while Israel's deterrence has
suffered a very substantive blow."

Diskin briefed the MKs on the improved rockets produced by the Palestinians
in the Gaza Strip. He said that Islamic Jihad has independently produced
rockets with a 19-kilometer range and that Shin Bet had intelligence
indicating that military-grade rockets, whose range is longer, have been
smuggled into the territory. Some of those rockets, Diskin added, can reach
Ashdod, 30 kilometers away.

Militant groups in the Gaza Strip have also obtained military-grade mortars
from Iran, with a range of approximately nine kilometers, Diskin said.

He said there has been no drastic change in Egyptian efforts to prevent arms
from being smuggled into the strip. Diskin confirmed, however, that there
has been some improvement, but argued that "Egypt accepts the fact that
there is smuggling from its territory... [which] is part of the Middle
Eastern theater of the absurd. We have asked the Egyptians to deal with the
families of smugglers operating in Sinai."