The Israeli-Palestinian Arms Race (Part 2/2)

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. ***. 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] ***. 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] [SPEAKING HEBREW] [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.