Israeli Former General: We'll Have to Bulldoze Gaza

Retired Israeli Major General Yoav Galant said Monday that Israel's "lack of action" and military "negligence" has escalated the situation in Gaza to a such a degree that the country will soon be forced to undertake a massive ground offensive -- in the end, with "bulldozers" -- in the Hamas-run enclave.

Israel National News adds:

Galant told attendees of a speech at Tel Aviv University that Israel's concerted efforts to dismantle against terrorinfrastructures in Judea and Samaria caused terror levels to plummet, while Gaza terrorists were being allowed to thrive and build.

"A lack of action, negligence by military officials, has resulted in a situation in the West Bank where we took care to tend the lawn, but in Gaza - since we didn't - thorns grew into tree trunks."

"In the end we'll have to go in with bulldozers," Galant added.

Galant, a former contender for IDF chief of staff, added that Gaza is "something belonging to the Islamic bloc. That's a reality no one knows how to solve."

According to INN, Galant joins former IDF chiefs of staff Shaul Mofaz, Moshe Yaalon, Dan Halutz, and Gabi Ashkenazi in calling for massive operations to root out and dismantle Gaza's terror infrastructure. Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch has also publicly called for a Gaza incursion.

Israel's strategic paradigm of airstrikes-for-rockets has largely been seen as maintaining the poor security situation of its Gaza belt communities - which have had over 12,000 rockets fired at them from Gaza since 2001.

The timing of Galant's remarks come as Hamas' leadership finds itself in a tenuous position in Damascus as the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad comes under increasing domestic and international pressure for him to step down

And as the Muslim Brotherhood and other hardline, Israel-hostile Islamists rises to power in Egypt, Iran's proxies are growing in strength, reach and numbers, leaving Israel increasingly vulnerable to attack.