The IDF may soon need to launch another ground incursion into Gaza, Col. Amir Baram told Channel 2 News on Monday.“I think there won’t be a choice… we’ll need to enter Gaza soon,” Baram, the commander of the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, said in the interview.Baram said that, in his opinion, the IDF may need to “enter Gaza again” and that its fighters may “have to go in, house by house” in order to maintain deterrence in the Strip.Deterrence is strong now, Baram explained. “The other side [Gaza's Hamas leadership] knows it [a ground incursion] isn’t in their interest, but as an army, we must be ready for a fight within a built-up area, or in a crowded area,” he said.Since Israel’s last ground incursion into Gaza in Operation Cast Lead in the winter of 2008-2009, southern communities have faced persistent but usually non-fatal rocket attacks from the Strip.At the start of October, Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists fired more than 30 rockets and mortars — with some Israeli media outlets reporting over 50 rockets — into southern Israel within a 24-hour span. The air force responded to the upsurge in rocket fire by targeting and killing Gaza terrorist leaders.

Netanyahu ‘Answers’ EU with More Yesha Homes

Netanyahu appears in Gilo to make it clear to the EU Israel will continue to build there. Foreign Ministry: 700 new homes.First Publish: 10/23/2012, 4:25 PM

Gilo construction (file)
Gilo construction (file)-Israel news photo: Flash 90
The Housing Ministry has invited tenders for 700 new homes in Maaleh Adumim and United Jerusalem Tuesday, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appeared in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo to make it clear to Western critics that Israel will continue to build there.“I came to express clearly our policy that we will build in Jerusalem and will continue to build in Jerusalem. That is the right thing to do,” he said. "United Jerusalem is Israel's eternal capital.”Last week, the European Union severely chastised Israel for the announcement that bureaucratic steps have been cleared for the construction of 800 news homes in Gilo, called a “settlement” by the Obama administration and the EU. More than 50,000 people live in the neighborhood.The Housing Ministry’s invitation for tenders was reported by AFP, which said the homes will be built in Judea and Samaria as well as in areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinian Authority.
Housing Minister Ariel Atias also said construction would not be halted in Jerusalem. "There is natural growth and demand, and construction there cannot be halted," he said in a statement.The Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, home to more than 40,000 people but also defined as a “settlement” by AFP, will gain an addition 607 residential units, according to the tender.Another 92 homes are to be built in the city of Maaleh Adumim, also a “settlement” according to foreign news services. It is located approximately 10 minutes east of Jerusalem and is on the highway leading to the Dead Sea.

MK Eldad: 'Jordan is Palestine' Israel's Best Policy Move

MK Aryeh Eldad told students Monday that his “Jordan is Palestine” campaign was Israel's best policy move at this time.By David Lev First Publish: 10/23/2012, 1:13 AM

Aryeh Eldad
Aryeh Eldad-Israel news photo: Flash 90
Opening his campaign for the Knesset as head of the Hatikvah party, MK Aryeh Eldad told students at the Ma'oz pre-military academy Monday that his “Jordan is Palestine” campaign was Israel's best policy move at this time. Recognizing the historic fact of the division of Palestine by the British into an Arab state and a territory designated for the Arabs of the Land of Israel was a positive policy move for Israel that would help frame a proper solution to the Israel-Arab dispute, he said.“The 'Jordan is Palestine' campaign is the alternative to the suicidal policy being undertaken by Israel to establish a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. In order for this program to be enacted we need a large rightwing bloc in the Knesset,” Eldad said. “Such a bloc could force the government to adopt the plan, as an alternative to the plans by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to establish a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel.”Earlier this month, Eldad announced that he was splitting from the National Union in light of the party's intention to run in the upcoming Knesset elections with the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party. Eldad said that the unified party might garner more votes, but would not be able to act as the ideological vanguard of the right that was needed.Eldad was later joined by MK Michael Ben-Ari, who said that the public was demanding a true right wing alternative to the current government, and a unified National Union-Bayit Yehudi, which would have to take into consideration numerous points of view, could not be that alternative.