This column has predicted several times that later this year there will be a massive Israeli ground campaign to rout Hamas, as Israel cannot ignore the many rocket and mortar attacks on its territory from Gaza.As the political editor of Murdoch's flagship newspaper, Sheridan has some powerful friends in Washington and Tel Aviv. If he's predicting a major Israeli assault, you can assume that planning is already well underway.
Sheridan is still desperately talking up the "thousands of newly translated documents from the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein" (which nobody else, curiously enough, seems very interested in). He's also busy linking Hamas with Iran, accusing them of supplying long-range rockets which will soon be hitting Tel Aviv. He even quotes an "internal Iraqi intelligence report of March 26, 2003", forgetting to mention that the USA had invaded Iraq six days earlier!
As this column has previously assessed, Israel will eventually have to respond. I believe there will be a big Israeli campaign and this will convulse the Middle East. Because to really remove the rocket threat, Israel will have to take back control of the Gaza-Egypt border, establish military intelligence and response posts at least in some parts of Gaza, and possibly occupy some of what have been the rocket launch points in northern Gaza.It's hard to see how John McCain will be able to run on a pro-war platform through to November without some major new violence to hype. It looks like his friends in Tel Aviv (not to mention Sussex Street, Sydney) are already trying to help him out.
