Day 14 The 2014 Gaza War

As Israel enters Day 14 of its operation aimed at halting Hamas from firing rockets and tunneling into its territory, the apparent mastermind behind the group's "military" wing Izz ad-Din al-Kassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, remains as shadowy a figure as ever.

I do not know if the subterranean cities throughout Gaza are his idea or part of Iranian and Hezbollah doctrine carried to fruition by Hamas.

While satellite news stations such as CNN, SKY and others show pictures of dazed civilians and injured children and terribly tragic scenes of death and mayhem – no camera is allowed to show Hamas gunmen.

Only Hamas's mild-mannered, fire-breathing, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri appears before the cameras.

Hamas's political leadership is in hiding as is its "military" echelon. 

They are in tunnels running underneath apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, UN compounds, and mosques --  equipped with electricity and running water. 

Some tunnels are used internally for communication, others lead to bunkers – such as one under Shifa Hospital where senior Hamas leaders are believed to be holed up.

Ambulances are available when they need to move from point to point.

Still other tunnels are dug from within homes on the Gaza side into Israel. These are intended – as we've in recent days – to be used for infiltration into Israel.

Hamas desperately wants to carry out a major terrorist strike before the current round of fighting ends. This could be a mass slaughter of Israelis or a kidnapping.

Hamas claimed a kidnapping overnight. Whether this was a communications glitch by them or part psychological warfare, I do not know.

The current round of fighting is tied to the Hamas kidnapping of three teenagers in Gush Etzion. Recall Hamas had been calling for such a kidnapping. It praised the kidnapping. The kidnapper/murderers are affiliated with Hamas and obviously their ability to avoid capture all this time reflects support from the Hebron Hamas branch. Officially, Hamas claims it did not directly order the operation.

As a guerrilla/terrorist strategist, Deif has taken a multi-pronged approach to the conflict: shooting rockets at Israel with a special effort made at hitting metropolitan Tel Aviv (for the emotional impact). He's used rudimentary drones. Sent commandos by sea. Dispatched (repeatedly) squads of terrorists via tunnels.

Anything to kill Jews -- anywhere in Israeli-occupied "Palestine."

Hamas has ordered Gaza's civilians to ignore Israeli warnings (by phone, leaflet, radio and text) and insisted they stay in the neighborhoods where its rocket launchers and tunnels are located – to protect these vital assets. 

The civilians serve a double purpose: they protect and camouflage rocket launchers and arsenals. And when they are killed in the process they provide fodder for Palestinian propagandists and their "useful idiots" in the media.

     

Deif was born in 1965 in the Gaza Strip. He became active in the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent organization of Hamas—in 1989, soon joined Hamas and then Izz ad-Din al-Kassam Brigades.

He was an acolyte of Yahya Ayyash, one year his senior, known as the Engineer. 

Ayyash was liquidated in 1995. 

Keep in mind that this was after Yitzhak Rabin had installed Yasser Arafat in the West Bank and Gaza. He'd been exiled in Tunisia after being allowed to escape from Beirut (under pressure from Ronald Reagan).

Deif, Ayyash's understudy, moved up in the ranks after Imad Akel, Izz al-Din al-Kassam commander, was killed in 1993.

Again, it is important to emphasize that Hamas grew popular and potent precisely when Israel offered massive concessions to the Palestinians under the Oslo agreements.

The PLO (under Arafat and now under Mahmoud Abbas) have pursued the phased plan for the destruction of Israel. They are prepared to sign deals and accept whatever territory Israel will fully abandon. Obviously, not even Abbas will recognize the right of the Jewish people to a national home anywhere in the Middle East. But he is willing to think in the long term and "accept" Israel for now.

Hamas opposes such half measures.

Deif became the top Hamas military commander in the wake of the targeted killing of Salah Shehade in 2002.

Since the Engineer was killed, though, Deif has played a role in just about every major Hamas operation against Israel -- from the kidnapping and murder of IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman in 1994 to a string of heinous bus bombings, to the development of Hamas rocket capabilities.

Naturally, Israel tried repeatedly to assassinate him. 

For instance, in 2002, he lost an eye in such an attempt. In 2006, another try left him wheelchair bound with a spinal injury.

When Ahmed Jabari met his demise in 2012 Deif  resumed his role (if he ever really gave it up) as the organization's top strategist. 

Now, as Israel begins to bury its fallen soldiers – and we can anticipate more funerals in the days ahead – it is clear that Hamas has taken a major hit.

What we don't want is a premature ceasefire.  

Regrettably, US Secretary of State John Kerry (Poof, as I call him) is on the way to the region right now with just that in mind.

Like the administration he is part of, Kerry is a "soft" friend of Israel. His heart is not in it.

Israel needs time to degrade Hamas. Now that Egypt is not allowing weapons into Gaza – which it did through the Mubarak years – we stand a chance at "demilitarizing" the Strip.

But this will take time.

It is clear that Hamas wants to keep fighting because it continues to unleash barrages of rockets at Israel.  It has nothing to lose -- except dead Gazans which is of no importance to its fanatics.

The more launchers and rockets and tunnels the IDF can destroy, meanwhile, the better.

The more Hamas assets can be killed -- the better.

Afterwards, the IDF must move in and out of Gaza as needed just as it does in Judea & Samaria. It is time to stop making a fetish about operating in Gaza. I myself have been guilty of this thinking. But now I see that we need freedom of operation in Gaza.

Israel does not want to rule over the Strip, and does not want – not now anyway – to topple Hamas. The alternative to Hamas is the feckless Mahmoud Abbas (who lost the territory to Hamas in a violent ouster) or the even more fanatical Salafis and company.

What the IDF can do in Gaza is not in the realm of slam dunk – you know, like the US in Iraq. 

This is an ongoing problem -- the result not of disengagement but of Oslo --  that Israeli policymakers must not again allow to get so out of hand.

##ENDS

  

Triumvirate of Netanyahu, Ya'alon, and Ganz Oversees Israel's Gaza Campaign Trying to Repair Problem Dating Back to 1993 Oslo Deal

Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon just told Israel Radio that Hamas will rue the day it started the latest round of fighting with the Jewish state.

We can only hope so.

That depends on Israel keeping up the pressure on Hamas without being drawn into a premature land operations.

Ya'alon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and IDF Chief of Staff Binyamin "Benny" Gantz are the triumvirate who are conducting Israel's Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza.

By law, Netanyahu must also consult with a six-member security cabinet which he expanded to eight participants.

The security panel has met at least once daily since the conflict began on July 8^th. The members are Netanyahu, Ya'alon, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, and Communications Minister Gilad Erdan.

The security cabinet must authorize military operations.

Netanyahu has also occasionally invited other cabinet members including Yuval Steinitz, a former strategic affairs minister and Yaakov Perry, a former Shin Bet chief to participate in the deliberations.

Military and intelligence officials brief the security cabinet, usually Gen. Aviv Kochavi, chief of the military intelligence, Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen, and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo.

Netanyahu has also taken pains to brief the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and the heads of the main opposition factions, including the official opposition leader, Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog.

At the July 13 meeting of the full cabinet, Netanyahu defined the goal of Operation Protective Edge as "the restoration of quiet for a long period while inflicting a significant blow on Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip."

The Gaza Strip was turned over to the Palestinian Authority as part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1993. Arafat arrived in Gaza in 1994. While Israel withdrew from most of the Strip in 1994, it retained security control and a string of civilian settlements until 2005 when premier Ariel Sharon unilaterally pulled out of the territory.

Rockets began slamming into Gaza's Jewish settlements from PLO-controlled Gaza long before the disengagement. 

In other words, even under the PLO -- the area was not demilitarized.

In August 2007, Hamas ousted Arafat's successor Mahmoud Abbas from the Strip. According to its http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp charter, the Islamic Resistance Movement is committed to the destruction of Israel.

Muslim-on-Muslim -- Arab on Arab -- bloodletting: Sunni Jihadis in Iraq Carry Out Biggest Atrocity in Recent Memory Against Shiites

In what may be the worse expression of Muslim-on-Muslim -- Arab on Arab -- bloodletting that has wracked the Middle East in recent years, Sunni extremists in Iraq say they have massacred 1,700 unarmed Shiite soldiers, The New York Times reported.  

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) carried out the slaughter in Tikrit— Saddam Hussein's former base— posting photographs on its Twitter feed and warning that more killing was to come.

Saddam was Sunni ruling over a majority Shiite population.

The mass murder could unleash a wave of Shiite reprisals against Sunni civilians elsewhere in Iraq.

Twitter is now blocked in Iraq and people are largely unaware of what happened in Tikrit.

ISIS has taunted the U.S. to come to the aid of the Shiites "Soon we will face you, and we are waiting for this day," the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said in a statement aimed at Washington.

The Sunni jihadis captioned photos of the atrocities they committed to ridicule Shiites: "The filthy Shiites are killed in the hundreds," read one. "Look at them walking to death on their own feet," read another. A third said: "The liquidation of the Shiites who ran away from their military bases." Yet another warned: "This is the destiny of Maliki's Shiites."

Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is the Iraqi prime minister.

None of the pictures posted showed more than 60 victims in a frame and the 1,700 figure is unconfirmed.

The BBC reported that some photographs showed large numbers of Shiite men being transported "away" in trucks.

Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had previously called his followers to arms to block ISIS but instructed them to "exert the highest possible level of self-restraint" – presumably a message not to engage in the wholesale slaughter of Sunni non-combatants, according to the Times. 

The Shiite-led Iraqi security establishment has played down reports of the atrocity or denied it altogether, the Times reported. But one senior government official said, "I don't doubt they are real, but 1,700 is a big number. We are trying to control the reaction."

ISIS aims to create a Sunni caliphate across the entire Middle East in part by inflaming sectarian tensions. The group was inspired by al-Qaida but Baghdadi no longer accepts the authority of al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, The Daily Telegraph reported. 

Who stands in the way of ISIS? The Islamist Persian regime in Iran which espouses its own brand of Shiite extremist Island and the Arab Shiites in Iraq.

It would be a mistake to see the concurrence of interests between Tehran and Washington to stop ISIS as a channel to find common ground. 

Naturally, we can expect President Barack Obama to get this wrong.

But the US remains the Great Satan to Iran even if the ISIS is the near term threat to their hegemonic regional designs.

This will not end well. Netanyahu: Hamas has Kidnapped Three Teens in the Gush Etzion Area

Israel Mobilizing Reserves as Fears Grow for Missing Teens

After an extraordinary government cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it was ordering a partial call-up of reserves. 

The troops will augment units that have been shifted from their regular duties to "Operation Return Our Sons," the intensive search for three Israeli high school students kidnapped by Palestinian Arab terrorists late Thursday night, Israel Radio reported.

One of the missing boys is believed to have dual Israeli and American citizenship.

Israeli authorities have placed the onus for the kidnapping on Hamas.

"Those who carried out the abduction of our boys were members of Hamas," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"This will have severe consequences," he added.

The boys, Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were taken captive while hitchhiking in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank just south of Jerusalem, The Times of Israel reported.

Given erratic public transportation connecting Jewish communities in the West Bank hitchhiking is a way of life for many young people.

Hamas recently joined a Palestinian Authority unity government headed by Mahmoud Abbas. While Netanyahu did not mention the Obama administration by name, he did denounce "elements" in the "international community" that continued to back Abbas despite his coalition with Hamas.

Israeli security officials say that the Palestinian Authority is now cooperating in the search for the missing youths, according to Israel Radio.

No one is suggesting that Abbas wanted this to happen. The kidnapping complicates his position. But his so-called unity government has boosted Hamas and covers the expenses for Hamas employees in the West Bank. It also helps the legitimacy of the group which openly calls for Israel's destruction --whereas more moderate Arab groups are prepared to see Israel destroyed in step-by-step phases.

No Palestinian Arab group from the most moderate to the most extreme recognizes the right of the Jewish people to a national homeland anywhere in the Middle East -- within any boundaries. 

By early Sunday morning, Israeli security forces in the West Bank had arrested 80 Palestinians among them senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

Most of these are "political" as opposed to "military" operatives.

Claims by several jihadi groups that they—and not Hamas— carried out the kidnappings have apparently been discounted by Israeli authorities.

Israel is sealing off the West Bank from Jordan and from Gaza to ensure the boys are not moved out of the country,  the Times reported.

By Sunday afternoon, the search had narrowed to a number of "villages" south of Hebron.

Security in Judea and Samaria -- or the West Bank -- has steadily deteriorated. 

Under U.S. and European Union pressure all internal checkpoints in the territory have long been abandoned to ease Palestinian civilian life and to strengthen the political standing of Abbas.

Israeli analysts say that a series of prisoner releases has contributed to insecurity and strengthened radical Palestinian groups.

In October 2011, Israel released 1,027 convicted prisoners in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit. More recently, over 100 convicts were set free to entice Abbas to the negotiating table.

Both releases were carried out by the Netanyahu government.

A hunger strike by some of the 200 Hamas and PFLP prisoners being held under administrative detention has been the focus of recent West Bank demonstrations.  

These are dangerous men who have not been formerly tried but whose imprisonment has been reviewed by several levels of the Israeli justice apparatus. 

The post-Zionist Haaretz newspaper has championed their release.

Israel Channel 2's Arab affairs reporter Ehud Ya'ari said that Hamas operations in the West Bank are now being coordinated from Istanbul, Turkey, by one of the prisoners released in the Shalit deal.

News of the kidnappings was welcomed by many Palestinians with some women handing out sweet pastries to celebrate.

Meanwhile, in protest to the kidnappings, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have told Palestinian employees not to report for work until further notice.

Special prayers were offered at synagogues throughout Israel on Saturday and at many Orthodox schools on Sunday.

There is mounting concern that the boys may already have been murdered.

Security sources tell journalists they expect to solve the case in a matter of days but that does not necessarily mean there will be good news at the endgame.

Incidentally, Netanyahu has cancelled most of his scheduled Sunday appointments except a memorial for those killed by Haganah forces on orders of David Ben-Gurion in their attack on the Irgun boat Altelana (see for details on that tragedy http://elliotjager.blogspot.com.tr/2011/06/altalena-irgun-and-ben-gurion.html)

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Memorial Day May 5 - Israel's 66th Independence Day May 7

The State of Israel began a somber Memorial Day at sundown Sunday night with a one-minute nationwide siren at 8 PM that ushered in a nationally-televised memorial service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. 

President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Ganz were the featured speakers.

The audience was comprised mostly of the loved ones of the fallen.

The wall is a remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by Roman legionnaires in 70 A.D.

During the following 24 hour period most restaurants and places of entertainment are closed. Israeli television and radio stations will broadcast mostly solemn music and programming, including documentaries about the pre-state underground fighters, Israel Defense Forces soldiers, and intelligence operatives who died for their country. Civilians who lost their lives at the hands of terrorists are also remembered.

On Monday at 11 AM a second siren will blast for two minutes commencing a memorial ceremony at the main military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Over a million and a half Israelis are expected to pay their respects at military cemeteries across the country.

Israeli newspapers devoted the front pages of their Sunday editions to Memorial Day coverage.

Since the birth of the founder of modern political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, in 1860, some 23,169 fighters have fallen in creating and defending the Jewish state.

The country makes an abrupt transition from mourning to celebration at sundown on Monday with 24 hours of festivities marking 66 years of independence. 

The highlights include the awarding of the annual Israel prizes and a youth bible contest.

On the eve of Independence Day, Israel's bureau of statistics announced that the country now has 8.2 million residents of whom 75 percent, or 6.1 million, are Jewish and 21 percent, or 1.7 million are Arabs. 

This figure does not include the Palestinian Arab population in the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, whose numbers are in dispute. Palestinian officials absurdly claim 2.72 http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Palestinian-population-in-W-Bank-Gaza-about-45-million-319569 million Arabs live in the disputed territory while some Israelis put the number as low http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.532703 as 1 million.