I had a chance to look at some of the comments from the Gretaholics. Thanks, I'll pass the sentiments on to my crew. It's 1:30 am. We're all huddled in the car trying to stay warm. Last night was crazy cold. Tonight, I opted for my big down jacket instead of the flack jacket. The rocket fire hasn't been that bad at our current location since the ground offensive began.
Isr's military objective is becoming clearer and it seems simple: Hit Hamas hard. One General told me this morning that you can't get down to zero rockets by force. Isr can control the orchards from which they fire, but that will only control the short range Qassam rockets and eventually, Israel will pull out. The General indicated that the goal was deterrence; make Hamas think long and hard before shooting again.
The other result is to get Hamas searching for a way out of this. According to isr's shin bet intelligence agency, that is starting to become a possibility. Hamas is starting to warm to the possibility of a 3rd party negotiating a cease fire. And get this: the third party could be their old rival from the Fatah party, Mahmoud Abbas. It's a long way from a done deal.
If it's a quiet backchannel deal, it would allow Hamas to save face and come up with a deal that stops the rockets.
