IDF Armored Vehicles Left Unguarded on Gaza Border

As predicted, Olmert and company have gone back to not defending the country after the Lebanon War revealed an utter neglect of Israel's defense. A reporter was able to drive one of 17 Israeli armored fighting vehicles sitting unguarded next to the Gaza border.

A Jerusalem Post reporter was able to climb into one of 17 armored fighting vehicles left unguarded barely half a kilometer from a Gaza suburb and half that distance from the border fence - with ammunition and various other military equipment inside - start the engine and move it a few meters without being interrupted on Thursday.

The AFVs, which had taken part in the IDF operations in the northern Gaza Strip, spent the day not in a secret staging area but rather in an open field, in clear view of the main road running opposite Kibbutz Mefalsim and next to the Col. Nabi Meri monument.

The IDF had concentrated large armored forces in the field four months ago, immediately following the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, and had invited the press to photograph the hundreds of soldiers preparing to enter the Strip.

The incursion, like most everything in the Olmert playbook, was primarily political theater, not a serious security maneuver.

On Thursday, the place was deserted. No one was there to prevent anyone from entering the AFVs, starting their engines and driving away....The vehicles were fueled up and there was no need of a key to enter one or start it up.

This reporter, an Ahzarit driver during his military service, climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine and moved the Ahzarit a few meters forward and back. Despite the engine's loud noise, no one from the small IDF reconnaissance post nearby or the police firing range at the edge of the field came to inquire about why the vehicle was being moved.