Weekly Commentary: Open Letter to Gen. Eyal Zamir - Your Assessment of Hamas
is Disturbing
Dr. Aaron Lerner 21 April 2016

Dear Gen. Eyal Zamir - Southern Command

Today you claimed that Hamas is "deterred" by its experience in the last
round and then noted that Hamas is preparing for the next conflict.

I sincerely hope that you said that only for public consumption.

Because if you genuinely believe that Hamas is deterred then this indicates
that you and the people briefing you are profoundly clueless.

As you yourself noted, Hamas is preparing for the next war.

And thanks to the "quiet for quiet" arrangement with Israel, they are
preparing for the next round under ideal conditions.

They can openly train forces for the next round - today they even had a live
fire exercise - confident that the IDF won't interfere.

They can openly develop, test and manufacture weapons - confident that the
IDF won't interfere.

They can even fly various platforms practicing in earnest for the day that
these platforms will cross into Israel - confident that the IDF won't
interfere.

No. Hamas is not deterred. They are patient.

I daresay that when I compare the behavior of Israel to that of Hamas that
we are the deterred party.

You say that we will respond, when that day comes, with a broad, deep and
strong response.

I most certainly hope that that is the case.

And it doesn't require access to top secret reports to identify what will be
most certainly a very simple indication of just how broad, deep and strong
the IDF's response is in the next round.

And that is if the IDF succeeds in destroying vital targets protected by a
difficult civilian cover such as a hospital.

Far be it from me to claim that this is an easy challenge.

But with all of our special forces, technology and intelligence I am
confident that we are up to this challenge.

The next round we have to get it right.

And its your job to make it happen.
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Arab-Israeli relations

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