Ignore Gaza and it Will Become Lebanon

by Ezra HaLevi

The head of Israel’s General Security Service issued a warning Sunday against treating Gaza with the same neglect that led the government to disregard six years of Hizbullah’s preparations for war.


Shabak (General Security Service) chief Yuval Diskin told the government ministers at the weekly Cabinet meeting that "the intensification of terror infrastructure in Gaza is a strategic problem which, if not treated properly, will result in a reality just like in Lebanon.”

Diskin said that “tons of explosives and hundreds of weapons have been smuggled in recently through the Philadelphi Corridor.” That corridor, a strip between Egypt and Gaza that contains the Rafiah Crossing, was abandoned by Israel during the Disengagement, against the protestation of IDF intelligence. In return, Egyptian and European Union guarantees were supposed to ensure that the border would remain controlled and free of weapons smuggling.

Few security experts expected the guarantees to act as effectively as the team of IDF anti-tunnel experts who discovered hundreds of smuggling tunnels during its searches there.

“This is now a strategic problem,” Diskin said. “The Philadelphi Corridor has been breached…We don't have to wait three years to investigate.” His statement was a reference to Defense Minister Amir Peretz’s calls for an investigation into what led to the war in Lebanon and his statements claiming he did not know about the missile threat.

Diskin said that money funding Hamas is also being smuggled from Egypt to Gaza, as well as expert terrorists. He suggested that the government reexamine its agreements with Egypt prior to the Gaza withdrawal, “which are ineffective in actuality under Egyptian monitoring."

With regard to Judea and Samaria, Diskin said that Hizbullah has already set up a widespread infrastructure there. "In Judea and Samaria, Hizbullah is smuggling large sums of money and encouraging terrorist attacks against Israel,” he said. “[Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassan] Nasrallah is seen as a national hero and they are learning from him. They understand the power of the anti-tank missile, guerilla warfare and underground bunkers.”

Source: Arutz Sheva