SIMON OSTROVSKY: The Israeli military has organized a
little briefing to show off their new missile defense
system called the Iron Dome.
And the commander has actually come here to tell the
international press about their brand new toy.
So we're going to check it out.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: This latest war with Gaza was the first
time Iron Dome had been deployed against an onslaught
of this kind.
Israel and the United States decided to fund it for almost
a billion dollars each after the 2006 conflict with
Hezbollah in Lebanon.
That war saw 4,000 similarly crude rockets kill 44 people
in northern Israel.
With casualties low, public pressure on Israeli
politicians to retaliate was weak, too.
It made me wonder if targeting Hamas was a military
necessity at all.
Do you think it's less necessary for Israel to strike
in the Gaza Strip as it has been, now that people here are
protected by your very successful Iron Dome system?
-Thank you very much.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: My question was answered by the Israeli
Air Force instead, which launched a strike on the Gaza
media center at about the same time our press conference was
being held, killing a top leader in the Islamic Jihad.
So was all of this carnage necessary?
Could it have been avoided?
I met an Israeli who thought it could have been.
Gershon Baskin is the man who had negotiated with Ahmed
Jabari for the release of Gilad Shalit.
He told me that the day Jabari was killed, he was supposed to
have given an answer about a ceasefire proposal Baskin had
put forward.
If you're able to negotiate with Hamas, how come this
time, negotiations weren't able to head off this new
round of violence?
GERSHON BASKIN: The day that it happened, Jabari had seen
the proposal for an extended ceasefire.
It was for a three to month trial period that involved not
only stopping fire but taking preventive action on their
side against groups that would try to attack Israel.
Every time over the past two years we've gotten involved in
helping to negotiate a ceasefire, at the end of the
day it was Jabari who went and sent his forces out to impose
the ceasefire.
So there was more than a good indication that he would have
supported a three to six month trial period.
The prevailing wisdom amongst the Israeli military and
security forces is that what we needed to do, more than
anything else, was to create deterrence.
Make them so scared of what we will do that they
won't shoot at us.
The decision to take out Ahmed Jabari was very clear.
This guy's the head of the pyramid.
If we could get him, there's no one who has impunity.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yet, you're an Israeli who doesn't support
the fact that Ahmed Jabari was assassinated.
GERSHON BASKIN: What I'm saying is that you use force
as the very, very, very last option.
You try and exhaust every other possibility
before you use force.
And I believe that there was at least one more option to
try before going to war.
Israeli officials knew about the attempts of the ceasefire
that we were trying to develop.
They were well aware, and they didn't try it.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: We're in Rishon Lezion, a town in
central Israel.
And this building was hit by a rocket fired by Hamas about an
hour and a half ago.
We're almost 60 kilometers away from the border with the
Gaza Strip.
Hamas are trying to show the Israelis that they can hit the
country right in its center.
This part of the country hasn't been hit for 20 years.
And this has kind of been a wake up call for Israel.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: They destroyed
your house, your home.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: What do you want your country to do now?
SIMON OSTROVSKY: The next day, we heard that a bomb exploded
on a bus in Tel Aviv.
Officials didn't yet know if Hamas had planted it, but
there were already reports of injuries.
The conflict had entered a new phase.
It wasn't just rockets coming out of Gaza anymore.
There were now bombs being placed on public
transportation.
We headed south, back to Gaza in
anticipation of Israel's reaction.
It was the eighth day of open hostilities.
And Israel's troops weren't showing any sign of getting
ready to go.
[GUNSHOT]
Jesus.
Fuck.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: No filming?
OK, sorry.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: And there seems to be some
rocket fire coming in.
Because we've heard a couple of explosions just now.
There's a really big troop build up just behind these
trees over here.
And we're only about a couple of kilometers away.
So--
[GUNSHOT]
Fuck.
Jesus Christ.
Meanwhile in Egypt, mediators had finally gotten Israel and
Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.
So it's only a couple of minutes left until 9:00 when
the ceasefire is supposed to come into effect.
So far, we've seen rockets coming into Gaza, and
exploding rockets coming out of Gaza.
When the rockets have been coming in, these guys here
have been cheering.
They are not happy,
apparently, about the ceasefire.
Because they want to see Israel flatten Hamas in the
Gaza Strip.
But so far, it doesn't feel like the ceasefire is actually
coming into effect.
But we'll give it a couple more minutes.
See what happens.
[SPEAKING HEBREW]
SIMON OSTROVSKY: And then everything went quiet.
That is, aside from the celebratory gunfire in the
Gaza Strip and the muezzins calling from the mosques.
10 minutes, and you can hear soldiers in the field between
here and Gaza cheering about it.
Haven't heard any rockets explode.
Haven't heard anything come in or go out of Gaza.
So I guess this one's over.
And we'll see you in a couple of years when
the next round happens.