Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Ex-Southern Command chief argues against ground op
Yoav Galant, the former commander of the IDF’s Southern Command, argues strongly against a ground offensive against Gaza.
Maj. Gen. (ret. ) Yoav Galant (photo credit: Yossi Zamir/Flash90/File)
He tells Channel 2 that when he led Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9, he used ground forces because Israel did not have an effective alternative means of stopping rocket fire. Now it has Iron Dome, he notes.
Galant, who nearly became IDF chief of staff in 2010, says Israel “must conserve the limited resource” of its ground forces. When you “zoom out” and look at the region, Hamas is relatively weak, he emphasizes, compared to some of the other potential threats to Israel.
