Agresi Israel ke Gaza sudah direncanakan berbulan-bulan

Operation "Cast Lead": Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning
by Barak Ravid
Global Research, December 28, 2008

Haaretz http://www.globalre search.ca/ index.php? context=va& aid=11521

Global Research Editor's Note

While
the Western media remains silent and complicit, the Israeli Press
(Haaretz) reveals the unspoken truth: the careful planning of
a military operation entitled "Cast Lead" coupled with a media
disinformation and diplomatic campaign. What we are witnessing is
genocide. Let us be under no illusiions, this operation was implemented with the knowledge and approval of Israeli's allies.

Long-term planning, meticulous intelligence- gathering, secret
discussions, visual deception tactics and disinformation preceded
operation "Cast Lead" which the Israel Air Force launched yesterday in
Gaza to take out Hamas targets in the Strip.

The disinformation effort, according to defense
officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase
the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense
Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for
the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to
negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources,
Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare
for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as
well.
Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive
intelligence- gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security
infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations
operating in the Strip.

This intelligence- gathering effort brought back
information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the
homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.
The plan of action that was implemented in Operation
Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions
soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the
ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to
facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.

On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets
and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought
for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak met at IDF Kiryat headquarters in
central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.

However, they decided to put the mission on hold to
see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the
ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's
approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the
developments.

That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the
Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues,
the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several
ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak
for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches.

"This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day
War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The
cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's
Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve
around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the
discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza.
In its summary announcement for the discussion, the
Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza,
compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic
organizations.

What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a
five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were
briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a
very detailed review," one minister said.

The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what
sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this
could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they
were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that
the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of
decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully
internalized. "

At the end of the discussion, the ministers
unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime
minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the
exact time.
While Barak was working out the final details with
the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to
inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to
strike at Hamas.
In parallel, Israel continued to send out
disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza
Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike
following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual
order to launch the operation was issued.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after
the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the
organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything
was put on hold until Sunday."
The final decision was made on Friday morning, when
Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the
Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military
Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and
Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave
the air force its orders.
On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition
leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the
impending strike, including Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael
Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President
Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.


 Global Research Articles by Barak Ravid



Satrio Arismunandar
Executive Producer
News Division, Trans TV, Lantai 3
Jl. Kapten P. Tendean Kav. 12 - 14 A, Jakarta 12790
Phone: 7917-7000, 7918-4544 ext. 4034, Fax: 79184558, 79184627

http://satrioarismunandar6.blogspot.com
http://satrioarismunandar.multiply.com