Israeli Push into Gaza - OK'd By Bush?

The AP makes one or two salient points, for a change:

There were tentative signs that the current phase of fighting may be nearing an end. Most of the airstrikes targeted empty buildings and abandoned sites, suggesting Israel may be running out of targets. {most, but not all - see here - ed.}

Israeli defense officials said some 10,000 troops, including tank, artillery and special operations units, were massed on the Gaza border and prepared to invade. They said top commanders are split over whether to send in ground forces, in part because such an operation could lead to heavy casualties but also because they believe Hamas already has been dealt a heavy blow.

DEBKA provides some interesting information as well, and truth be told, for a quasi-military "scoop" sight, they have had more hits than misses over the past few years:

...in a telephone conversation with prime minister Ehud Olmert, US president George W. Bush okayed Israeli air, sea and ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He promised the US would veto a resolution condemning Israel at the UN Security Council meeting next Monday. Early Saturday morning, Jan. 3, Day 8 of Israel's Gaza operation, US and British media described the Israeli invasion as hours away.

A few more little factiods from DEBKA:

DEBKAfile's military sources list pointers to an imminent Israeli incursion:

-Hamas' conduct Friday: After 9 Grad Katyusha rockets were fired against Ashkelon, destroying two buildings and injuring five Israelis, the tempo slowed to 40 launchings the whole day - half the week's daily average. The Palestinian terrorists were evidently reserving stocks for a grand climax when Israeli tank and armored infantry crossed into Gaza.

-DEBKAfile's military sources report mass-desertions by teenagers who form the backbone of Hamas' fighting rank and file. They are going home to their parents.

- Early signs that former Palestinian security officers unaffiliated with Hamas are getting together to seize control of Gazan districts in which Hamas rule has collapsed.

-Cairo forwarded an urgent request to Hamas leaders in Damascus to make known their conditions for a ceasefire.

-The arrival in Damascus of the chairman of Iran's national security council and nuclear negotiator Said Jalili for urgent talks with Syrian president Bashar Assad and the leaders of Hamas and Jihad Islami.

Lots of interesting stuff here, especially the last one. This war is really a proxy war between the West and Iran, and the mullahs know it. The West, of course, is clueless, and in general is fighting to save Hamas when we should be rooting for their destruction.
Iran's urgent consultations with Syria are likely to involve going over the various scenarios the Israeli-Arab conflict will take from here, and how they will respond (or not). One would think that Syria is safe from Israeli wrath at the moment as clandestine talks between the two nations have been ongoing until recently. However, a Hamas/Hezbollah counterstrike from the north is not likely to sit well with the Lebanese, who are just now recovering from the 2006 war, and whose involvement in a 2009 escalation could be the final straw for Syrian influence within that nation.

Eaither way, Israel must go into Gaza and do the dirty work it needs to do to win this war once and for all. Go in strong, probe house to house, fight street to street, and rid Gaza of every terrorist, missile, weapon, and smuggling tunnel it possesses. Leave a civilian government in charge, and get out within thirty days. Obama is no friend of Israel, and that will be apparent on January 21st.

Let the PC thugs and the anti-Semites at the UN wail, gnash their teeth, pull their hair, and rend their garments. And pass useless resolutions and send angry letters, of course. Because only Israel can save the mangled corpse of the Left's beloved "peace process" now, and the only way to bring it back to life is by destroying Hamas - utterly, completely, and totally.

The next negotiating team from Gaza will be all the wiser...

UPDATE: And so it has begun:

Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza after nightfall Saturday, launching a ground offensive that the military said would be a "lengthy operation" in a widening war on Gaza's Hamas rulers.
"We have many many targets," Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN.

The AP calls this an "escalation" in their headline. Would they prefer that Israel shoot over 6,000 rockets into civilian enclaves in Gaza, a la Hamas? Proportionate response, right?