IDF Opens New Front: The Internet

Aircraft of the Israel Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday evening were bombing smuggling tunnels along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. This area, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, is rife with such tunnels, estimated at over 600.

You can watch aerial footage from the IAF destroying smuggling tunnels, different rocket launch sites and a weapons depot in gaza.
This is because the Israeli army has announced the creation of the IDF YouTube channel, through which it will disseminate footage of precision bombing operations in the Gaza Strip, as well as aid distribution and other footage of interest to the international community.

After the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, there was great criticism on Israel and the IDF. "Today the IDF is in a different place than it was two years ago. During the last two years the IDF invested a lot of time, money and effort in training reserve and regular army units in urban warfare. The lessons of the Second Lebanon War have been fully implemented," said Head of the IDF Spokesperson Foreign Press Branch, Major Avital Leibovich.

But there is another lesson which Israel learned: it cannot neglect the Media War.

"The blogosphere and new media are another war zone," said Maj. Leibovich. "We have to be relevant there."

The success or failure of the media effort has a strong impact on the window the IDF has to fulfill its objectives.

"I don't know how long it will last, but at this moment Israel has no small measure of understanding and support, and even approval, from many countries," says former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman, who was brought into the media effort by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni shortly before the aerial attack began on Saturday.

"We haven't seen dramatic condemnations [from world leaders], only the expected and generic calls for calm and cease-fire," said Gillerman.

Note to world leaders: If your knee-jerk response is to harshly condemn everything, then eventually your tired condemnations start to sound like approval.

"Even in the UN I didn't see anyone happy to condemn us," he added. "Unless something very dramatic happens, such as a blundered hit that kills large numbers of civilians, then we will have enough time to do what we need to do."

IDF operations in the Gaza Strip are being carried out in response to the continued firing of rockets and mortar shells on to Israeli territory.

Overnight Monday, at least 10 people were killed and 40 others wounded when IAF planes bombed dozens of targets in the central Gaza town of El-Bureij and in Gaza City. That dozens of attacks would kill only ten is further proof of how careful the IDF really is.

Meanwhile, Palestinian terror gangs are extending their range and getting more reckless. On Tuesday morning, a rocket landed in Kiryat Malachi, the first time that the town was hit by a projectile fired from Gaza. Over 30 rockets were launched on Tuesday afternoon, alone, following over 100 rockets were fired Monday.

Warrant Officer Lutafi Nasraladin was the third person killed in the past few days, as a result of missile bombardments upon southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The 38-year-old man from the Druse village of Daliat el-Carmel was killed when rockets struck near Nahal Oz. Irit Sheetrit, 36, was killed Monday night when a Grad-type rocket struck a bus stop where she had run for cover. Earlier Monday, Hani al-Mahdi, 27, of the Beduin town of Aro'er in the Negev, was killed and over a dozen others were wounded when a Grad-model Katyusha hit a construction site in Ashkelon.

So far, the Palestinian terrorists have been more successful at murdering Israeli Arabs.

Currently, there are reports that officials in the defense establishment have recommended to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to suspend military operations against Hamas in Gaza for 48 hours. During that time, Israel's government would review a number of possible ceasefire solutions for Operation Cast Lead. If the unilateral ceasefire would fail, Israel would launch a ground offensive, according to reports.

The idea is that Operation Cast Lead, the massive bombardment since Saturday of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, had already made clear to Hamas that the "rules of the game" had changed and that Israel will no longer tolerate rocket fire against its civilians, the unnamed defense establishment officials said. However, Hamas has already stated that the Islamic terror gang is conditioning a cease-fire on an opening of Gaza's borders.

After news broke of the Israeli defense officials' recommendation, Hamas spokesman Mushir Masri said an end to the fighting was not enough, and only if Israel halted "the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions."

Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, announced on Monday that it was recruiting an additional 1,000 terrorist gang bangers ahead of a possible IDF ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the suggestion to call a ceasefire came from France. The IDF, however, issued a statement that it was not recommending a ceasefire.

It should be noted, though, that a survey published by French newspaper Le Figaro on Sunday showed that 55% of French respondents were understanding toward the Israeli operation, while 45% were critical of it.

"When you have a 10% lead in France, that's better than we could have expected," notes Aviv Shir-On, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general for media and public affairs.