[FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST]

This is Stephen Lloyd for today's FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST and with me today at Day Ten of Israel's ''Gaza Intervention'' or ''Gaza Assault'' as most of the news media is coining or terming what is going on now in Gaza, is Israeli-resident correspondent and journalist David Dolan -- who has worked in Israel since 1980 -- welcome again, David.

Thank you Stephen, and I want to say greetings to those listeners who have contacted me via your radio network's website in the U. S. regarding these reports on Isreal's expanding military operation against Hamas which, as you know Israeli leaders say is designed to end Hamas' rocket assaults upon Israeli civilian centers from Gaza.  Many who have contacted me have close friends or relatives now in harm's way in Israel or in the Gaza strip and my thoughts and prayers go out to them.
I have said publicly since Hamas violenty seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid June 2007 -- and by the way, Stephen, I was in Tel Aviv that day -- I could actually hear the intense clashes raging from Gaza, which is only some thirty miles south of Israel's largest urban area.  Anyway, I had been telling audiences in the States and elsewhere that the IDF would inevitably have to return to the crowded Palestinian coastal zone once again to deal with this radical Islamic group since it lives and it breathes for Israel's ultimate destruction.  And so sadly they are doing even now as I speak.
YES, DAVID, I HEARD YOU SPEAK ON TOUR IN THE U.S. A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO AND I WAS IMPRESSED AND THAT'S WHY I AM VERY GRATEFUL THAT YOU HAVE JOINED US IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS SPECIAL ''GAZA ASSAULT'' FEATURE OF THE ''FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST'' SERIES, THAT IS NOW AIRING ON THIS STATION AND OTHERS ON THIS PUBLIC RADIO NETWORK.  YOUR APPROACH IMPRESSED ME DAVID IN THAT IT'S EASY TO DISCERN THAT YOU TAKE A BALANCED AND TRUTHFUL APPROACH TO EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- WHICH IS IN SHARP CONTRAST NOW TO THE WORDS OF A PALESTINIAN SPOKESWOMAN FROM THE WEST BANK WHO SPOKE ON SUNDAY THIS WEEK, ON MANY OF OUR UNITED STATES' STATIONS FROM COAST-TO-COAST.  WITH A REFERENCE SHE MADE TO THE POSITON THAT PALESTINIANS HAVE ADOPTED, IN SHORT THAT ISRAEL HAS A  RIGHT NOT TO EXIST BUT TO EXIT.  SHE REFERENCED ISRAEL'S POSSESSION OF THE LAND AS ''OCCUPATION'' THAT HER PEOPLE DETEST AND THEN SHE ACCUSED ISRAEL OF USING THE HAMAS' ROCKET ATTACKS AS AN -- ''EXCUSE'' -- TO INVADE GAZA -- AND SHE SAID FURTHER, SOMETHING THAT TECHNICALLY-SPEAKING IS TRUE, THAT ISRAEL -- AS IF THE PALESTINIANS HAD CLEAN HANDS IN IT ALL,  NOT -- OPENLY VIOLATES PEACE-PROCESS ACCORDS.
Well, Stephen, in response to that, as I wrote in a recent news update to my large international list of email subscribers, Israeli troops happily left the Gaza strip in the summer of 2005 under Israeli Government orders.  I was there at the time.  And, they certainly did not want to return there.  Nor did they earlier wish to return to Bethlehem or to Hablus or to Ramallah -- Palestinian cities north and south of Jerusalem that they evacuated in late 1995 as part of the Oslo peace process -- and I covered those withdrawals on the ground.  But they were sadly forced to do so several years later when Nobel peace prize winner Yasser Arafat allowed his urban centers to become hotbeds of violent Hamas' activity.
Many say the late Palestianian leader had no choice since Hamas was gaining much street support by vowing to crush the peace process and to fully return to the path of Jihad.  But, Stephen, whatever the case, rocket-fire hit Jerusalem from Bethlehem and terrorist attacks were launched from Hablus and Ramallah, and so the IDF went back in.
DAVID, COULD YOU ELUCIDATE THAT OR GIVE SOME PERSONAL FIRST-HAND OBSERVATIONS -- SOME EYE-WITNES REPORT -- THAT YOU HAVE HAD YOURSELF, PERSONALLY, THAT SUPPORTS YOUR STATEMENT HERE THAT ISRAEL WAS FORCED TO RETAKE -- LET'S FOCUS IT ON BETHLEHEM, FOR EXAMPLE.
Well, Stephen, Bethlehem is actually the most-glaring example of what did go on then.  Despite it once being a largely Christian town, it's become a center of Hamas' activity over the past decade and I have watched that happen.  They fired dozens of Quasam rockets into Southern Jerusalem, Jewish neighborhoods, especiallly Jilo, in a severe violation of the Oslo Peace Accords and Arafat's commitment to halt all such attacks.  I lived in an adjacent neighbor and I heard and saw the rockets falling on many ocassions.  Hamas even used a Baptist church roof in Bethlehem to launch some of the attacks toward South Jerusalem.  And, that was over the protest of its Arab pastor who I have interviewed on several ocassions.  The Hamas' firing only ended when Israeli forces recaptured the area.
WITH THAT AS A TRACK RECORD, MAYBE A PEACE PRIZE SHOULD BE AWARED TO HAMAS.  I'M KIDDING, OF COURSE AND I'M WONDERING IF OUR PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA AND ENGLAND  AND ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD REALLY UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH HAMAS HAS BEEN DOING MONTH AFTER MONTH AGAINST THE CITIES OF ISRAEL.  WOULD YOU SHED A LITTLE LIGHT ON THAT FOR US, DAVID.
Yes, Stephen, but I'll start with the 'Hamas' Founding Charter' which clearly calls for Israel's total destruction and not just its evacuation from Gaza and the West Bank.  The group is violently opposed to the peace process.  And, last Spring it began launching Iranian-produced Grad rockets at Israel's thirteenth largest city, Ashkelon, where I often visit. And, one Grad rocket directly hit the roof of a large shopping mall killing two Israeli women and a girl who were there and wounding scores of others....
David, I'm sorry to jump in at this juncture especially following such a tragic note as are the deaths of those Israeli women that you're desribing and I know you more to follow in line with this on the question I asked you -- but we are out of time.  And, unless something major happens later today or tonight that we'll need to mention, we'll pick right here where we left off on our next ''FOCUS ON THE MIDDLE EAST.''

[OUT COLD]

Following material was cut to be used tomorrow -- for lack of time in today's feature episode:

''And after Hamas formally ended the ceasefire on with Israel on December 19th, it began raining down rockets upon Ashdod.  Now, that's just some twenty miles north of Gaza.  It's Israel's fifth largest city and it's a major seaport.  And, I might add it's just ten miles south of Tel Aviv and Israel's main Ben Gurion Airport.  Now it's also striking Beersheva, the sixth largest city, with a major university located in it where thousands of local and foreign students study.  And, I might add, many of those are Israeli Arabs.  And, this is a very important point, not far away from Beersheva is Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor a target that Hizbullah and Iran have vowed to destroy in any future conflict involving them.
David, we only have [a minute?] to go here in today's report.  Would you tell us briefly where [you believe, think -- best word???] this is heading as the conflict enters a new phase in its second week now?
Well, Stephen, I can only [consider verbal impact of word used next -- OK if you like it] assume that unless Hamas leaders have entirely lost their minds -- and they ARE sincerely dedicated to their Islamic conviction that a Jewish state, on land once ruled exclusively by Muslims, is a hideous contradiction of their faith -- but unless they've completely lost their minds, it would seem [to me and all reasonable logic] that they had some important strategic reason for firing around 200 rockets into Israeli civilian centers in the days after they ended the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire with Israel on December 19.  After all, they must have understood that Israeli government leaders, facing new national elections in February, would have little choice but to respond to such unprovoked attacks on their cities and towns in a significant military fashion.
DAVID, I KNOW THIS MAY BE BEGGING THE QUESTION, BUT WHO MIGHT BE PUSHING HAMAS TO FORCE ISRAEL INTO THIS MAJOR GROUND CONFLICT THAT THE RADICAL GROUP SAYS WILL PROVE TO BE A ''GRAVEYARD'' FOR ISRAELI SOLDIERS, AND COULD EASILY SPIRAL INTO A LARGER REGIONAL CONFLICT?  DO YOU THINK THAT SOMEWHERE BEHIND-THE-SCENES SOME MORE SIGNIFICANT POWER IS PUSHING OR GIVING SOME PUSH TO HAMAS' BUTTONS?
Well, Stephen, I can only point to Iran -- which, although it is, albeit, a Shiite, non-Arab Middle East country, it [Iran] has become the main external backer of Hamas -- Iran, along with its surrogate Lebanese Hizbullah militia force -- also backed by Iran's main Arab ally, Syria.

DAVID, IN THE FEW MOMENTS WE HAVE TO GO IN THIS REPORT, CAN YOU SAY MORE ABOUT WHERE DO YOU SEE THIS GOING?

Well, Stephen, along with some other analysts, I strongly suspect that Iran is attempting to get the Israeli military to become preoccupied -- and bloodied -- with a major conflict involving Hamas and possibly Hizbullah, if not Syria, in order to deflect a very possible Israeli Air Force operation against their internationally condemned nuclear program sometime later this year.  If so, we could be witnessing the opening stages of the first major Israeli-Muslim wintertime war.''