The IDF failed on Wednesday to obtain a green light from the Security Cabinet to expand operations in Gaza. Instead, the army was told to train and prepare for extended operations, but not to deploy. The Cabinet also decided to expand cooperation with Egypt in an effort to prevent arms smuggling. Both Military Intelligence and Shin Bet warned that Hamas is smuggling weapons into Gaza at an accelerated pace. They also said that Gaza was becoming increasingly politically radicalized.
Newly appointed minister Avigdor Lieberman, attending his first meeting of the forum, said that Israel should act "like the Russians in Chechnya" and cultivate a friendly local leadership in Gaza. He argued that there was no point in toppling the Hamas government until there was something to put in its place.
The other order of business at Wednesday's meeting was to approve a series of gestures the White House is demanding in advance of PM Ehud Olmert's Washington visit scheduled to take place in a little more than a week from now. The Bush administration wanted Israel to approve - and it did - a plan to arm and train forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator in the territories, wants to prepare Abbas' forces in Gaza for a confrontation with Hamas, which the U.S. believes is inevitable. The training has been underway for a month.
The White House also wants Israel to withdraw its longstanding opposition to allow the Badr Brigade of the PLO to move into the Palestinian territories from Jordan. Dayton wants to turn it into Abbas' rapid reaction force in Gaza. Olmert's office said approval of the Badr Brigade request is unlikely "right now," but should he face a direct request from President Bush it's unlikely he will refuse, though Defense Minister Amir Peretz must also approve the decision.
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