No obvious alternative to Hamas in Gaza, says top Israeli general
One of Israel’s most senior military officers has said there is no obvious alternative to Hamas’s rule in Gaza and that deposing the Islamist group in the coastal strip cannot be achieved quickly .
The comments by Maj Gen Sami Turgeman, the head of Israel’s southern command, were an apparent rebuke to remarks from rightwing Israeli politicians both during and after last year’s Gaza war that military operations were stopped too soon and that the Palestinian territory should have been retaken by force.
Turgeman, one of the commanders during the war, is stepping down from his post in two months. He used a meeting with community leaders from around Israel to insist that even if Hamas could eventually be defeated there was no obvious alternative to run Gaza.
“It’s not bang and we’re done,” he said. “Most of the citizens in the Strip see Hamas as the only solution to their problems.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/12/idf-no-alternative-to-hamas-in-gaza-top-israeli-general-turgeman-war
