With Their Soldiers Poised to Attack, Israelis Try to Decipher the Delay

 

"Experts say that the Israeli government and military are struggling with competing considerations and real dilemmas.

“It’s a delicate balance between the advantage of letting the air force do what they do best, and how long you can delay the ground offensive,” said Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The more tunnels the air force destroys, he said, “the easier it will be for the forces on the ground.”

Beyond that, Mr. Yaari said, Israel has been using the time to expand its roster of targets in Gaza by gathering more intelligence and interrogating the scores of Hamas operatives who were captured in Israeli territory.

There are risks to waiting, however.

As the days pass, Israel may encounter an erosion of international support for its actions, as the Palestinian death toll rises and a humanitarian crisis grows still worse in the besieged enclave.

Then there is the morale of the soldiers and reservists being kept in limbo to consider, as well as the impact on the Israeli economy and the state-funded evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis from the border areas around Gaza and in the far north, where cross-border skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, the heavily armed Lebanese Shiite organization, have been intensifying.

“This is not something that can go on and on endlessly,” Mr. Yaari said of the waiting game and the fighting still to come."

read report by Isabel Kershner

With Their Soldiers Poised to Attack, Israelis Try to Decipher the Delay – DNyuz