Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced Monday morning that the Cast Lead counterterrorist operation in Gaza proved that the Kadima-led government stood by its word to retaliate against Hamas rocket and mortar attacks following the elimination of any Jewish presence in the Gaza area in the summer of 2005.
"We said that Israel reserves the right to act and so we did," she said in an interview with Yaron Dekel's It's All Talk program on Voice of Israel government radio. Her reply came after Dekel asked her if the "Disengagement program" did not bring about the escalation of Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
We said that Israel reserves the right to act and so we did.
However, he did not press her to explain why the government did not carry out for three years the campaign that crippled Hamas, which began attacking Gaza Belt communities even before the IDF left the Gaza area following the expulsion of some eight thousand Jews from their homes, which were destroyed and then turned over to the Palestinian Authority.
Even before Hamas took control of Gaza from the rival Fatah organization, the PA used the grounds of the destroyed Jewish communities as terrorist training bases.
At the time of the expulsion, then-Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, also of Kadima, warned that Israel would retaliate even if "one rocket" was fired on Israeli communities.
Instead, Israel carried out a policy of restraint before carrying out a counterterrorist operation in the summer of 2006 and last year that had little long-term effect on rocket attacks, which actually escalated in number, range and capability with time. As of last month, more than 10,000 rockets and mortar attacks were registered, according to the Sderot Media Center.
The Kassam rocket had a range of 8-9.5 kilometers (approximately 5-6 miles) until 2005, when the government carried out the Disengagement program, and 6-12.5 kilometers (up to 10 miles) since then.
The government decision "to act on its word" came after Hamas fired longer-range Grad rockets, similar to Katyushas, that exploded in the populated port cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod and as far north as Yavneh, approximately 20 miles from Tel Aviv.
Livni, in her interview, defended the government decision to vacate the Gaza area, saying "it was the right thing to do."
