Word: commander
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...Israeli troops encircle Gaza City, their commanders are faced with a painful dilemma: How far must they advance into the deadly labyrinth of slums and refugee camps where Hamas militants await with booby-trapped houses and snipers? With each passing day, Israel's war against Hamas grows riskier and more punishing, with the gains appearing to diminish compared to the spiraling costs - to Israel's moral stature, to the lives of Palestinian civilians and to the world's hopes that an ancient conflict can ever be resolved. Ideally, in a war shaped by television images, Israelis would like a tableau...
...case, the widespread destruction certainly was calculated, despite contrary official reports. Not only does Israel commit such crimes against humanity, they announce them brazenly. Last October, Israel’s Northern Command General Gadi Eisenkot said to Ha’aretz reporters: “What happened in the Dahiya quarter in Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired upon. We will apply disproportionate force upon it and cause great damage and destruction there… From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This...
...Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who make the ultimate command decisions for Operation Cast Lead, have been restrained until now from launching a full-scale ground attack because of the limited goals of the Israeli operation and the time available before the diplomatic pressure for a cease-fire compels Israel to back...
...Despite the limits on a ground campaign, many in the Israeli military establishment insisted that even the limited goal of deterring Hamas required its soldiers to get at close quarters with the militants - as they did on Saturday - to kill more of their fighters and disrupt their chain of command. That course of action meant accepting the inevitability of Israeli casualties. Indeed, the Israelis are aware that Hamas has been hoping for a ground operation, in the belief that it offers the militants a chance to fight on a more level playing field than when Israel attacks from the skies...
...critics in the Israeli military establishment insist that even the limited goal of delivering a punishing blow to deter further Hamas attacks requires the Israeli military to get at close quarters with the militants, disrupting their structures and their chain of command and killing more of their fighters - even at the cost of Israeli casualties. They also fear that the coming Israeli election - in which both Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are candidates, but the more hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is the front runner - may be complicating Israel's decision-making. So even if the window of opportunity...