Egyptian FM tells Al-Jazeera that preparations are already underway to permanently open Rafah border crossing, which would allow goods and people in and out of Gaza with no Israeli supervision.
Choose the best answer. The real reason the IHH postponed its Gaza flotilla is because:
A) The IHH doesn’t want controversy disrupting Turkey’s June 12 parliamentary elections.
B) Macho Islamists know IDF commandos will be armed with more than paintball guns.
C) Organizers are having a hard time recruiting crew members and humanitarian ringers. Others who already signed up are backing out.
D) Ship owners aren’t loaning out vessels, fearful Israel will confiscate them.
E) Flotillista fundraising to purchase ships is simply floundering.
G) All of the above, though I wish it was because they’d realize that there’s no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Palestinian officials from the rival Fatah and Hamas movements say they have reached an initial agreement on ending a four-year-old rift that has left them divided between rival governments in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The officials say the plan calls for the formation of a single caretaker government in the coming days, and preparations to hold presidential and legislative elections a year from now.
"The two sides signed initial letters on an agreement. All points of differences have been overcome," Taher Al-Nono, the Hamas government spokesman in Gaza, told Reuters. He added that Cairo would shortly invite both sides to a signing ceremony.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a recorded video message in response to the announcement on Wednesday saying that the "Palestinian Authority needs to choose between peace with the people of Israel and peace with Hamas. You cannot have peace with both, because Hamas aspires to destroy the State of Israel, and I'll say it openly."
According to Netanyahu, "Hamas fires rockets at our cities and anti-tank missiles at our children. I think the mere idea of reconciliation demonstrates the Palestinian Authority's weakness, and brings up the question of whether Hamas will take over Judea and Samaria as it did Gaza."
Netanyahu added: "I hope the PA makes the right choice – to choose peace with Israel. The choice is hers."
State officials told Ynet that the new agreement sends a message that in the absence of a peace process and amid Mideast unrest, the PA can also walk the road of radicalization.
"The details of the agreement must be examined. The PA is sending a message which can be problematic for Israel and is aimed at stressing that without a peace process, the Palestinians have other options that are not necessarily in Israel's interest," one state official said.
In unusually blunt remarks to Newsweek, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas lashes out at US president over his handling of peace process with Israel, attitude to Egypt's Mubarak
Editorial published in Hamas' newspaper al-Risalah claims organization 'taking advantage of relative calm in south to plan more abductions in order to improve bargaining position'
While the Shalit family marked the fifth Passover without their son, Kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, Hamas threatened to kidnap more Israelis in order to improve their bargaining position in prisoner exchange negotiations.
Hamas' weekly newspaper al-Risalah reported on Sunday that the organization is taking advantage of the relative calm in the south to "plan more kidnappings in the near future."
Group of 15 Breslev hassidim hit with gunfire from PA policeman as they leave Joseph's Tomb prayers; group didn't coordinate visit with IDF.
Since the disengagement and takeover of Gaza, Hamas has become a modest organization thriving financial corporation has billions of dollars a year. That's how it works
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Channel 10 reported that Hezbollah are planning to attack Israelis living abroad these days - in revenge for the death of Imad Mughniyeh. According to the report, the organization hopes to do that will not lead to war
A racy allusion in a Friday prayer sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati has become the talk of Iran.
He invoked a well-known poem about an intimate coupling between a maidservant and a donkey to issue a warning to opposition supporters.
"The foe always try to use psychological warfare against the Islamic regime to tarnish the image of the system inside and outside the country," he said (Persian link). "Therefore, I tell them, the enemies, to go and study the story of the pumpkin."
The "pumpkin" refers to a famous story by the 13th century mystical poet Rumi, "The Importance of Gourdcrafting," in which a resourceful maidservant who sleeps with a donkey uses a pumpkin as a marital aid.
When the lady of the house catches on, she decides to follow suit. But rather than consulting the maidservant she sends her away without obtaining the secret of the pumpkin, and is killed by the donkey.
The story is intended as a parable about the dangers of immoderation. At the end of the poem, the maidservant returns and chides the dead woman for her arrogance. "You opened your shop before a master taught you the craft," the poem reads.
Jannati's message to the opposition seems to be "Don't take on more than you can handle."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today condemned the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian national who was abducted in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.
Mr. Ban extended his condolences to the family of Mr. Arrigoni, who media reports say was a pro-Palestinian activist who arrived in Gaza on a ship that broke through the Israeli naval blockade more than two years ago.
A radical Islamist group has reportedly claimed responsibility for kidnapping the 36-year-old, who was found hanged in a house in Gaza City.
“This crime was committed against a person who lived and worked among the Palestinian people in Gaza,” noted a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.
“The Secretary-General calls for the perpetrators of this appalling crime to be brought to justice as soon as possible,” the statement added.
President tells UN chief his organization is employing double standards towards Israel, Hamas
During the House Homeland Security hearing last month on the topic of radicalization in the American Muslim community, one exchange between L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca and Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN) concerned the relationship between the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Hamas terrorist front the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Sheriff Baca told the congressman:
We don’t play around with criminals in my world. If CAIR is an organization that is a quote “criminal organization,” prosecute them. Hold them accountable and bring them to trial.
But according to a high-ranking source within the Department of Justice, who spoke exclusively to Pajamas Media on the condition of anonymity, Sheriff Baca, a long-time supporter of CAIR, was probably already in on the joke.
The joke is that a number of leaders of Islamic organizations (all of whom publicly opposed the King hearings on Muslim radicalization) were about to be indicted on terror finance support charges by the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas, which had been investigating the case for most of the past decade.
But those indictments were scuttled last year at the direction of top-level political appointees within the Department of Justice (DOJ) — and possibly even the White House.
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Opposition figures say the list of agreement points from a meeting of top Syrian officials is proof of the government's crafty cruelty.
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* PA TV: PA teachers must be honored for being "main agitators for the Intifada" (Dec. 21, 2010 )
* Advisor to Abbas: "The weapons must be turned towards the main enemy [Israel]" (Mar. 10, 2011 )
* Abbas gives terrorist's family $2000 (Jan. 25, 2011 )
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The legal justification for the Israeli attack is unclear. The laws of war require that a target be identified as a military objective before being attacked. In case of doubt, the people targeted must be assumed to be civilians. Further investigation is needed to determine whether all feasible precautions were taken prior to the attack and whether the tank crew failed to discriminate between combatants and civilians in serious violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said.
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PM was scheduled to host pop star at his Jerusalem office; taking advantage of the PR situation, Netanyahu's advisers' invited group of kids from communities near Gaza border to attend.
From Ma'an:
For the sixth day in a row crossings into the Gaza Strip were closed by Israeli forces maintaining a blockade on the coastal enclave, who told Palestinian liaison officers that the closure was for "security reasons."
Closures began on Tuesday, two days ahead of spike in border violence which saw 18 killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza -- including at least six civilians -- and two injured in Israel. The closure continues despite an announced ceasefire deal that went into place before midnight on Sunday.
Perhaps the continued closure is related to this small story out of the Islamic Jihad Saraya website:
At 6 o'clock Sunday morning 4/10/2011, the artillery unit of the Al-Quds Brigades shot 4 80 mm mortar shells toward the site "Karm Abu Salem," [Kerem Shalom] located east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where shells hit their targets precisely, leading to the interruption of electricity to most parts of the site and spreading a state of confusion the soldiers present inside.
Kerem Shalom is one of the major goods crossings into Gaza, and Islamic Jihad was bragging about targeting it.
Hamas' military wing releases videos showing Qassam rockets being fired from residential areas confirming IDF claims
Firas Press quotes Maariv as reporting that Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi said that Gaza armed groups have a right to fire rockets at Israel - her country.
She said, "Those who live under siege and hardship will do everything for their freedom and Israel understands that."
Zoabi was on the flotilla that included the Mavi Marmara last summer.
Would any democracy in the world tolerate a member of their parliament publicly supporting war against their own country?
Military sources believe relative truce in south will be followed by wide-scale confrontation. 'Hamas has been busy rebuilding its forces for the past two years, and this can only mean we're facing an all-out clash,' says senior officer
While Israel is used to being vilified in the United Nations, there is far more to be unraveled in the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict than just Richard Goldstone’s retraction on April 1, 2011. The secrets behind the story are revealed in my new book, Boycotting Peace (http://www.BoycottingPeace.com) and here is a behind-the-scenes peek at what the Palestinians and United Nations do not want you to know.
There is a Harvard educated U.S. law professor who has been a consultant to Yassir Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the official name of the Palestinian Authority, and who created the Goldstone Commission from behind the scenes.
After convincing Yassir Arafat to reject the Palestinian state offered to him by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, U.S. legal counsel to Yassir Arafat proposed a campaign vilifying Israel with war-crimes claims, the exact conclusion of the Goldstone commission, but Arafat rejected the idea so he put it aside for later. This was the same legal counsel who had previously created the divest-from-Israel campaign in his official PA/PLO capacity.
Since the PA is signatory to the Arab boycott of Israel, this makes the divestment campaign an illegal foreign boycott as defined by the US Import Export Amendments of 1977, which created the Office of Antiboycott Compliance under Office of Industry and Security in the U.S. Department of Commerce. While the law predates the Internet and has therefore remained focused on shipments, it clearly applies to BDS.
The Gaza vilification plan was re-introduced by the very same professor after Arafat’s death. Since the same consultant has spoken before the United Nations General Assembly, he was able to use his idea to work behind the scenes to create the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, and interestingly enough, one of his colleagues was on the commission. Not surprisingly, therefore, some of his writings were included in the final report almost verbatim.
These are not coincidences which can be ignored. I believe and documented how the PA/PLO’s lawyer not only had a direct influence on the Goldstone commission, but was its ideological father. Goldstone was a pawn of the PLO and while it took him more than a year to admit his conclusions were wrong, he still has not revealed the people behind his false report. I did in Boycotting Peace, long before his retraction.
Israel is right in demanding a retraction of the Goldstone report, but severe damage from the report has already been done, all with the intent to demonize Israel. The purpose of the divest-from-Israel campaign is to build a generation of college students, a future adult population, which believes boycotting Israel is both moral and just. They have built that partly on the false Goldstone claims, lies which will live on for years.
When I debated Noura Erakat on Al-Jazeera television February 14, 2009, three months after the release of the Goldstone commission report, she immediately went to these false claims, attempting to justify BDS with the Goldstone report. The Goldstone commission was designed to be an after the fact justification to bolster BDS campaigns, and that is exactly what it did. On campuses world-wide, the Palestinians have used the Goldstone commission findings to recruit non-Arabs to assist their campaign against Israel under false pretenses, and still use it despite the retraction.
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It might have been easy to miss this detail in the report of the Hamas attack on an Israeli school bus on 7 April, in which a 13-year-old boy and the bus driver were injured (the boy severely). Hamas used a state-of-the-art Russian-design antitank missile, the 9M133 Kornet (NATO designation AT-14 SPRIGGAN), to attack the bus. Israeli officials confirmed that the hit on the school bus was achieved using laser guidance, and that the missile was launched from two miles away.
The account of the attack indicates that the bus was stopped (and had just offloaded most of its 50 schoolchildren, which was why more of them weren’t injured). So Hamas wasn’t attempting to hit a moving target. But the ability to accurately target a bus from a distance of two miles, with an effective modern weapon, is a game-changer in the Hamas campaign to target civilians.
With older weapons and planted-bomb tactics, the effects Hamas could produce were more random and less predictable. Lobbing rockets indiscriminately into southern Israel is certainly evidence of evil intentions, but the probability of achieving specific or catastrophic damage with any individual round was low. Mortars can be delivered with useful accuracy, but they are not missiles capable of guided flight toward a target, which amplifies the destructive effect that can be achieved for the same amount of explosive. Bomb planting requires extensive advance planning and is not a pursuit tactic; it doesn’t adapt to changing conditions, but rather is tied to a place, and a tactical objective that is at least hours old when the bomb detonates, and usually something more like weeks old.
The difference the Kornet antitank guided missile (ATGM) makes, particularly with the laser guidance package, is that it puts accuracy, effectiveness, tactical adaptability, and standoff distance behind the vicious intentions which perennially characterize Hamas.
Implications of the Kornet ATGM
The conventional military applications are obvious. In December 2010, the IDF chief briefed the Knesset that an Israeli Merkava III tank in southern Israel had been hit by a Kornet ATGM fired from Gaza, which appears to be the first reported instance of the weapon’s use by Hamas. Hezbollah used the Kornet extensively in the Lebanon war in 2006, and Israel is fitting its tanks with the Trophy Active Protection System (APS) to combat the growing ATGM threat. This report, citing IDF sources, indicates that a Trophy-equipped Merkava IV defeated an ATGM (of unspecified type, but probably a Kornet) launched from Gaza in March 2011.
But the threat to the civilian population can’t be mitigated in this way. An ATGM is not the kind of weapon Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system can counter; Iron Dome is designed to intercept short-range rockets and battlefield ballistic missiles with higher trajectories.
Iron Dome works too: second IDF “first” in the space of a few weeks
Which it did yesterday, achieving a historic first by intercepting its first rocket during the 3-hour barrage from Gaza. (Worth another post in itself.) The rocket-and-mortar threat remains highly active; it was reactivated in the last few weeks with a barrage level not seen since before Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December 2008-January 2009. In a repetition of a common terrorist practice, observed from the Gaza border to Afghanistan, the Hamas artillery detachment made sure to subject the paramedics working at the scene of the bus attack to mortar fire as well.
But the introduction of the Kornet ATGM represents an even harder-to-defend threat to the civilian population. Israel enforces a 300-meter buffer zone along the border inside Gaza, but the maximum range of the Kornet is 5500 meters. This situation will become unsustainable at some point.
The converging campaigns Israel faces
A flashpoint may be helped along by the convergence of other anti-Israel plans: an organized call for a “Third Intifada” this spring (see here and here for a sample of posts on the campaign to get the Facebook page taken down) and the next Gaza flotilla being organized by the Turkish terrorist group IHH. Both are intended to occur in May 2011; the “Third Intifada” is billed as being launched with a “march to Palestine” starting 15 May.
I would emphasize that these are separate plans by multiple groups; there may be an element of competition in their execution, which would complicate Israel’s defense strategy. Hamas is aligned with Iran, and the planning for the Gaza flotilla is developing along much the same lines as last year’s, which featured extensive participation by Hamas associates in Europe. (See here, here, and here for sample documentation of the usual suspects; see also the website of this US group, which is planning to deploy the M/V Audacity of Hope.)
Turkey’s IHH group, recognized by foreign intelligence agencies as having terror ties, is deeply involved with the upcoming Gaza flotilla, as it was with the one in 2010. Besides its extensive ties to Hamas, IHH endorses and supports radical extremists among former (and self-described current) members of Fatah, like this one.
Fatah, which leads the PA, has its own vision for a “Palestinian” end-state, one that does not include a leadership role for Hamas or Iran. There is no obvious overt-sponsorship connection between Fatah and the “Third Intifada” effort, which is apparently Sunni Arab in origin. Indeed, many politically active Arabs view Fatah and the PA as corrupt and ineffective. But there is a substantial Arabist contingent across the Middle East that may approve of Hamas trying to weaken Israel, but opposes the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas nexus.
The PA’s plan, meanwhile, is to directly seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state in 2011. Only a fool would suppose that a condition of such recognition by the UN General Assembly will be good behavior on the part of Fatah (or Hamas or Iran, for that matter) in the interim.
The bottom line for Israel, as things look today, is that there are multiple groups pursuing different but converging campaigns. That situation will be harder to deal with than one in which there is a more unified enemy. Hamas’s particular objective appears to be drawing Israel into concerted military action – perhaps an operation in Gaza like Cast Lead. With Hamas now able to target civilians with lethal accuracy from beyond the 300-meter buffer zone, the stakes and the opportunities for provocation have escalated significantly.
Initial report suggests anti-tank fired from Gaza Strip hit bus driving near Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council; 16-year-old boy critically injured, another man sustains leg wounds
State Department clarifies administration never saw evidence Israel intentionally targeted civilians during Gaza war
The U.S. has quietly frozen weapon shipments to Lebanon's armed forces following the collapse of the country's pro-Western government in January, underlining growing concerns about Hezbollah's role there.
The suspension, part of a broader review of U.S. security assistance to Lebanon, offers a cautionary tale about the uncertain course of secular revolts sweeping the Middle East, and Washington's limited ability to influence them. Lebanon's Cedar Revolution of 2005 started with a wave of popular protests that stirred pro-democracy hopes in the West, much like the revolts now sweeping the region. But, to the chagrin of the U.S. and its allies, Hezbollah has emerged stronger rather than chastened.
Source close to South African judge claims he initially approached liberal publication to print his letter of regret – and was rejected. New York Times says in response it does not comment on editorial process
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad addressed the nation from the parliament on Wednesday in what appeared to be a carefully staged production, with huge rallies of support and wild applause.
Legislators chanted as he entered, “God, Syria and Bashar only!” and “Our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Bashar.”
Estimates of how many people have died to date in clashes between protesters and government security forces since a government crackdown began March 18 vary greatly.
Activists on social networking sites claim that more than 130 people have been killed. Human rights groups have told reporters that more than 60 have died. The government estimate stands at 30. But at least 200 have been wounded in recent demonstrations.
Deflect Attention to Israeli Conspiracy, PA 'Cause'
One of Assad's first moves was to express the hope that Arab unrest across the region would bear fruit in the Palestinian Authority's fight against Israel, while carefully distancing Syrian citizenry from the PA sector.
Head of UN probe into alleged war crimes carried out by Israel, Hamas during 2008 Gaza conflict laments his criticism of Israel in article published by Washington Post; claims Goldstone Report would have been a different document 'if I had known then what I know now'
Air Force fires missile at vehicle carrying terrorists in southern Gaza Strip early Saturday; army says terror cell planning to abduct Israelis ahead of upcoming Passover holiday targeted in joint IDF-Shin Bet operation
J-Street suffered a humiliating defeat yesterday on Capitol Hill -- which means Israel scored an important victory.
The George Soros-funded "pro-Israel" group inexplicably mobilized its machinery to oppose a bipartisan letter that merely called on President Obama to pressure the Palestinian Authority to end its longstanding practice of inciting its people to commit terrorism against the Jewish state.
Even in a town where tin-eared stupidity is commonplace, essentially protecting the PA's ability to encourage violence against its Jewish neighbors is jaw-dropping.
The straightforward letter, authored by Reps. Steve Rothman (D-NJ) and Steve Austria (R-OH), asks Obama to pressure PA President Mahmoud Abbas to "fully renounce any and all Palestinian incitement against Israel and the Jewish people."
Given how uncontroversial it really was, the letter unsurprisingly garnered support from over two-thirds of the members of the two key committees that actually handle foreign policy. There are only a few more Republicans signed on than Democrats, making it truly bipartisan.
Even some of the Congressmen who are considered the strongest supporters of J-Street signed the Rothman-Austria letter, including unabashed leftist Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.
More important, every single subcommittee chairman from the Foreign Affairs Committee signed the letter, signaling support from the most influential lawmakers. (As a matter of custom, the chair and ranking member don't usually sign on to letters relating to their committee's purview.)
As a practical matter, the letter won't impact policy - at least not right away. But with the overwhelming majority of the members of Foreign Affairs and most of its leaders pressing the administration to end Palestinian incitement, there undoubtedly will be legislative action if PA incitement continues.
Considering how much direct and indirect support the U.S. provides to the Palestinians each year, Congress could take decisive action to at least ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not funding incitement against Israel.
The letter's two authors, Reps. Rothman and Austria, are both on the Foreign Operations subcommittee of Appropriations, an 11-member panel responsible for all spending on the State Department and foreign aid.
Rep. Rothman, who could not be reached for comment, has a long history of using his perch on the highly influential committee to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding terrorist groups or their propaganda.
In 2007, for example, he helped close loopholes exploited by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to give financial and other assistance to the Hamas-controlled Islamic University in Gaza, among other terror-tied entities. But he didn't stop there. His efforts ultimately led to the creation of the Partner Vetting System, which finally forced State and other agencies to screen foreign aid recipients against terrorist watch lists.
In other words, J-Street picked the wrong guy with whom to fight. (J-Street refused comment for this story.)
Urging Congressmen not to sign the Rothman-Austria letter, a J-Street memo circulated on March 18 claimed that it was "beneath reasonable standards of accuracy and objectivity" because it failed to talk about Israel's misdeeds and all the positive actions from the PA. That mentality is what defines J-Street: Israel's negatives must always be highlighted, while the PA should be put in the best possible light.
While J-Street complained that the letter didn't give credit to the PA for increasing security cooperation with Israel, the "pro-peace" outfit neglected the repeated instances captured by Palestinian Media Watch of Abbas and his officials--including "man of peace" Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad--honoring and glorifying "martyrs."
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