Soccer Dad

Bunker buster request

It's not just that Hezbollah has re-armed, it's influence is being seen in Israel's south too.

Hamas is apparently beefing up its border defense (and probably offensive capabilities too) in a manner reminiscent of its allies in the north of Israel.

Hamas has organized along the lines of a conventional army, with companies and battalions assigned to defense of specific sectors, a fixed chain of command and teams attempting to stage ambushes of Israeli forces as they enter and leave the strip.

In the months after Hamas' capture last year of an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Israeli forces made dozens of aggressive forays into Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinian fighters without counting a single loss to enemy fire.
. . .
"They are building an army," said Gen. Moshe Tamir, commander of the Israeli division assigned to Gaza, "and are trying to build bunkers and mortar positions along the border. We are constantly modifying our tactics and they are watching what we do." He said more than 200 militants have been killed since the beginning of the year.

Given the building of the bunkers, Israel's arms request to the United States makes a lot of sense.

The agency's notification to Congress included a laundry list of missiles and munitions. Among them were: 2,000 Radio Frequency TOW anti-armor missiles, 1,500 114M3 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles, 200 114L3 Hellfire II Longbow missiles, 100 Patriot guidance-enhanced missiles and 5,000 M141 83 mm bunker-defeat munitions.

While the arms request makes sense as a reaction to Hamas, what doesn't make sense is why Israel waited for the situation to reach this level. Has the false promise of diplomacy prevented Israel from acting militarily in an effective (and pre-emptive) manner?

Crossposted on Yourish.

israel, bunker busters.