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"Continued combat in Gaza will bring an escalation beyond what we have seen so far, before we reach a period of calm," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.Barak was touring the northern brigade of the IDF's Gaza Division. With him were IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen Yoav Galant and OC Gaza Division Brig.-Gen. Moshe Tamir."We are not in a state of calm with Hamas, we are in ongoing activity meant to stop Kassam fire," he said. "There is no change in what we are doing. What awaits us here is further operations and the soldiers will need to be prepared again for action in order to win this issue."Barak cast doubts on the prospects of current peace negotiation with the Palestinian Authority, and lay the blame on the Palestinians."We are not on the verge of an accord with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas despite making supreme efforts. I don't know if there will be a deal, but if there isn't, it won't be because Israel wasn't willing to make peace with the Palestinians, but because there isn't a willingness on the Palestinian side to make difficult decisions for their people,"he said."There isn't an ability,so far,to establish a law enforcement system,a government,security and a will to succeed in fighting terror."Referring to a possible attack by Hizbullah in retaliation for Israel's alleged involvement in the killing of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in February, Barak said "we are still the most powerful country in a 1,500 kilometer radius from Jerusalem and we are...prepared on all fronts. We can definitely expect that some will try to hurt Israel on that front."As in the days of Noah....
