#CHANGE Time for an Israeli victory
It's the last day of Chanuka, so I couldn't resist the graphic.
Some 2,300 years after the Hasmonean's Chanuka military victory (caused by some miracles from God), Daniel Pipes argues it's time for
another Jewish victory.
I propose an Israeli victory and a Palestinian defeat. That is to
say, Washington should encourage Israelis to take steps that cause
Mahmoud Abbas, Khaled Mashal, Saed Erekat, Hanan Ashrawi, and the rest
of that crew to realize that the gig is up, that no matter how many U.N.
resolutions are passed, their foul dream of eliminating the Jewish
state is defunct, that Israel is permanent, strong, and tough. After the
leadership recognizes this reality, the Palestinian population at large
will follow, as will eventually other Arab and Muslim states, leading
to a resolution of the conflict. Palestinians will gain by finally being
released from a cult of death to focus instead on building their own
policy, society, economy, and culture.
While the incoming Trump administration’s Middle East policies remain
obscure, President-elect Trump himself vociferously opposed Resolution
2334 and has signaled (for example, by his choice of David M. Friedman
as ambassador to Israel) that he is open to a dramatically new approach
to the conflict, one far more favorable to Israel than Barack Obama’s.
With his lifelong pursuit of winning (“We will have so much winning if I
get elected that you may get bored with winning”), Trump would probably
be drawn to an approach that has our side win and the other side lose.
Victory also suits the current mood of Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin
Netanyahu. He’s not just furious at being abandoned in the United
Nations, he has an ambitious vision of Israel’s global importance.
Further, his being photographed recently carrying a copy of historian
John David Lewis’s Nothing Less than Victory: Decisive Wars and the
Lessons of History signals that he is explicitly thinking in terms of
victory in war: Lewis in his book looks at six case studies, concluding
that in each of them “the tide of war turned when one side tasted defeat
and its will to continue, rather than stiffening, collapsed.”
Finally, the moment is right in terms of the larger trends of
regional politics. That the Obama administration effectively became an
ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran scared Sunni Arab states, Saudi
Arabia at the fore, into being far more realistic than ever before;
needing Israel for the first time, the “Palestine” issue has lost some
of its salience, and Arab conceits about Israel as the arch enemy have
been to some extent abandoned, creating an unprecedented potential
flexibility.
Sounds like a plan.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Chanuka, Donald Trump, Hanan Ashrawi, Khaled Meshaal, Saeb Erekat
#ThanksObama Highly confident of sanctions being lifted, Iran ups funding to Hezbullah and Hamas
Given the very lax standards to which Iran is apparently not being held, it is not surprising that the Mullahcracy is highly confident that sanctions against it will be officially lifted by the December 15 deadline for doing so. Iran has already started to spend its windfall on its favorite terrorist organizations:
Hezbullah and Hamas (Hat Tip:
Memeorandum).
Since the deal was signed, Iran has
significantly increased its financial support for two of the largest
terror groups in the region that have become political players, Hamas
and Hezbollah. In the years before the deal was signed, the crippling
sanctions limited this support, which had significantly diminished along
with Iran’s economy. But Tehran’s belief that tens, or hundreds, of
billions of dollars will flow into the country in the coming years as a
result of sanctions relief has led to a decision to boost the cash flow
to these terror organizations.
This support, for example, has enabled
Hezbollah to obtain highly developed new armaments, including advanced
technologies that many militaries around the world would envy. Al-Rai, a
Kuwaiti newspaper, reported Saturday that Hezbollah has received all
the advanced weaponry that Syria has obtained from the Russians. The
report cited a security source involved in the fighting in Zabadani, on
the Syria-Lebanon border, where Hezbollah is fighting the al-Nusra
Front, the Islamic State, and other groups. It is evidently the growing
Iranian financial support that is enabling the Lebanese Shiite militia
to purchase advanced weapons, including ones that were hitherto outside
of its reach.
The increased Iranian financial support for
Hezbollah in the wake of the deal is not unrelated to other political
developments in the region. The growing sense of security in Iran with
regard to its political status has also been bolstered by a Russian
decision to increase its involvement in Syria, and may be what drove
Iran to send hundreds of members of its Revolutionary Guard Corps to
play an active role in the Syria fighting. Iran, along with Hezbollah
and Moscow, has decided to dispatch sizable forces to the Syrian front
in the past few weeks to prevent the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime.
...
Today, Iran is the main, and likely only,
power attempting to build terror cells to fight Israel on the Syrian
Golan Heights, in areas under Assad’s control. This does not mean that
the Syrian president is aware of these attempts or green-lighted them.
But for Israel, that does not matter. Tehran is investing more effort
and money after the nuclear deal to carry out attacks against Israel
from the Golan, even under Assad’s nose.
As regards the Palestinians, in the past two
months, Iran has sent suitcases of cash – literally – to Hamas’s
military wing in Gaza. Not everyone is happy about this, including some
Hamas officials. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who was always the man who
controlled the money, has found himself outside the circle of Iranian
funding over the summer. Tehran, which was none too pleased by his visit
to Saudi Arabia and meeting with King Salman, decided to take revenge
on him in an original way. It bypassed Mashaal and has handed over the
suitcases, by way of couriers, directly to the leaders of the group’s
military wing in the Gaza Strip.
As you might recall, Meshaal is not in Gaza - he's in Qatar.
So Israel is facing new and improved terror organizations on both its northern and southern fronts, thanks to the 'most pro-Israel administration evah.' #ThanksObama. And thanks to the Senate Democrats who prevented even a resolution of disapproval from coming to a vote. May you all rot in hell.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Khaled Meshaal, Syrian uprising, United States Senate
Hamas commander Saleh Arouri goes Poof! - why didn't the US demand his extradition?
Some of you may recall that for the last two years or so, Turkey has been
sheltering Saleh Arouri, a Hamas terror leader who was responsible for, among other things, the
kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers in June 2014.
Now, it seems that Arouri has disappeared from Turkey - apparently
under pressure from the United States.
“[Saleh] al-Arouri is not in Turkey at the moment,” sources from the
Turkish Foreign Ministry told Hürriyet Daily News. The same sources,
nonetheless, declined to elaborate on whether al-Arouri had ever resided
in Turkey, as Israeli officials have claimed, and whether he was
recently deported, as news reports have suggested.
The
explanation by Turkish officials following months-long silence on the
issue came only days after Israeli Channel 10 reported last week Turkey
had bowed to pressure by the United States and ordered al-Arouri, who Israel has accused of organizing terrorist attacks in the West Bank, to leave the country.
Channel
10 suggested the Turkish government agreed to al-Arouri’s ouster
because it was one of the prerequisites for Turkey’s entry into the
Western coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL).
The explanation by senior Foreign Ministry sources came
on the same day when Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’ political
bureau, was scheduled to arrive in Turkey for a meeting with President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, amid the flurry of regional contacts made by
Hamas, which have intensified since the recent nuclear deal between Iran and Western powers.
I believe that Naftali Frenkel HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) was a US citizen, and I have to wonder why the United States did not demand Arouri's extradition to face charges in the US. I'm sure Frenkel's family is wondering the same thing.
Here's hoping the Mossad finds Arouri soon and deals with him the way Israel knows how to deal with terrorists.
Labels: Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, kidnapping, murder, Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian terrorists, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saleh al-Arouri, Turkey
Jimmy Carter's peacemaker
Yes, Jimmy Carter
really said that (graphics from
here).
The [former] president, who has been visiting Israel
and the West Bank, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas Saturday but didn’t meet with Netanyahu or President Reuven
Rivlin.
He told reporters that he didn’t ask to meet
with Netanyahu or his government, and never has, because it would be a
“waste of time.” He told Channel 2 in an interview broadcast Saturday
that he requested to meet Rivlin, but the president’s office declined.
Israel officials said last week that Netanyahu
and Rivlin had refused invitations to meet with Carter, who was
described by an Israeli diplomatic source as “a disaster for Israel,”
who holds “anti-Israel positions.”
...
“I don’t believe that he’s a terrorist. He’s
strongly in favor of the peace process,” Carter said of Hamas politburo
chief Khaled Mashaal. He said Mashaal expressed interest in the Saudis
hosting a “peace meeting” and that the Doha-based Hamas leader would
recognize Israel’s right to exist based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
Netanyahu, on the other hand, wasn’t “in favor
of a two-state solution,” said the former president, who orchestrated
the peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1979.
“I don’t see that deep commitment on the part
of Netanyahu to make concessions which [former prime minister] Menachem
Begin did to find peace with his potential enemies,” Carter told Channel
2.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it will take for Barack Hussein Obama to make similar statements soon after January 20, 2017? #AskHillary!
Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Khaled Meshaal, Ruby Rivlin
Iran financing Gaza tunnel reconstruction
Moadim l'Simcha, a happy holiday to all of you, and a reminder that because I am in Israel, today is an intermediate day of the holiday, on which being on the computer is allowed.
Iran is certainly acting in the spirit of its newly-inked deal with Barack Hussein Obama, who declined to deter Iran's support of terror worldwide: Iran is
financing the reconstruction of Hamas terror tunnels destroyed by Israel during last summer's war.
It is also funding new missile supplies to
replenish stocks used to bombard residential neighbourhoods in Israel
during the war, code-named Operation Protective Edge by Israel.
The renewed funding is a sign that the two old allies are putting behind them
a rift caused by the conflict in Syria, where Shia Iran is backing President Bashar al-Assad against Hamas’s mainly Sunni allies.
Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshaal, who left Damascus for Qatar after
falling out with the Assad regime, has often fought with Hamas’s
military wing over the strength of the Iranian connection.
However, with the Sunni Arab world joining forces against Iran, led by
Saudi Arabia and President Abdelfattah el-Sisi of Egypt, who are both
hostile to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group has been left little
option but to accept the Iranian largesse.
At the same time,
Iran’s overseas operations arm, the Al-Quds force, led by its
charismatic general Qassem Suleimani, has been consolidating a broad
hold over the Middle East.
It is backing the Shia Houthi rebels
fighting the internationally recognised government in Yemen, and
actively supporting the Shia-dominated Iraqi government’s attempts to
recapture the northern city of Tikrit, the former stronghold of Sunni
dictator Saddam Hussein, from Islamic State (Isil) fighters.
However, Iran may have been forced to pull back, at least in the latter
case, senior diplomats say, adding there is growing evidence that the
Iranians are overplaying their hand.
No one should be surprised at this: The Obama administration has essentially given Iran a green light to become the dominant force in the Middle East. Israel will have to act alone (possibly with behind the scenes support from the Gulf States) to stop Iran.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, al-Qaeda, Barack Hussein Obama, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Iran, Iranian nuclear threat, Khaled Meshaal, Saudi Arabia, terror tunnels, Yemen
And you thought the 'Palestinian Authority' was corrupt....
So is Hamas.
Labels: corruption, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal
Qatar auction: buy the Ferrari and you will help Gaza
Fiamma Nirenstein - a former EU legislator who lives in Israel - emailed me this English translation of her Tuesday column in Italy's
Il Giornale.
One may think that the situation in the Middle East is no laughing matter. Yesterday, in his speech to the UN, Netanyahu gave a concerned list: there is ISIS, which wants to achieve a worldwide caliphate by chopping people’s heads off; there is Iran, which is trying to do the same thing by building the atomic bomb; and there are other terrorist groups as well, which are thriving also among us, despite the international effort... Not an amusing picture at all.
But, as it seems, there still is a humorist around, and it is Qatar, the same old tightrope walker, house of thousands oil wells (eighty thousand barrels per day), financial backer of all the Arab springs, but also of FIFA, father of Al Jazeera, sympathizer and host of the Muslim Brotherhood and of Hamas, until it kicked both of them off in order to join Obama’s coalition.
But as Qatar is so nice, it organized a lovely initiative to help the poor residents of Gaza after the war: the “Red Crescent Movement” held a fundraising event, selling what princes and their buddies had to spare, namely a Lamborghini 2013 (pretty aged, isn’t it?), two Ferraris, one MacLaren and some other modest trifles. Three million dollars, but don’t mention it, it’s peanuts...all in the line of duty, sir.
Qatar is truly amazing: some say it financially supported ISIS too, and now it fights it. Also, it threw the Muslim Brotherhood out, but let its leader, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, speak at that charity car auction.
It is kicking Khaled Mashaal out too (so they say), while sending its luxury leftovers to the Palestinian children. Maybe, in this respect, it could have economized before, when it was providing money for Hamas’ weapons. This is too funny. If we can say so.
If Meshaal is kicked out of Qatar, it will be for not being radical enough.
Labels: financing terror, Gaza, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar
Indicted for war crimes!
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal is accused of war crimes in a criminal indictment filed by the Israeli organization Shurat HaDin with the International Criminal Court. No, he hasn't been indicted for shooting rockets at Jews or attempting to kidnap and murder Jews using underground terror tunnels. Rather, he's been accused of
murdering 'Palestinian' 'collaborators' with Israel without trials.
Shurat Hadin, which prosecutes international terrorist groups and
their supporters, said the indictment was in response to the summary
execution of 38 Palestinians in Gaza during the final days of Operation
Protective Edge. Such executions without any legal due process is a
clear violations of international humanitarian law, the NGO pointed out.
The men were shot dead - some of them publicly - after being accused of cooperating with Israel, following the assassination of three senior Hamas military leaders and the attempted assassination of the terrorist group's military chief Mohammed Deif.
But rights groups say the charges of "collaboration" with Israel were
simply used as an excuse for Hamas to kill off several high-profile
political opponents, including members of Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.
The indictment noted that Mashaal run's Hamas's "murderous rule" of
Gaza, and thereby is responsible for the executions. Indeed, Mashaal is
Hamas's most senior political figure, and as chief of the group's
"political beurou" has direct control over affairs in the Gaza Strip.
Shurat Hadin founder and chairwoman attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner
noted that Mashaal is a Jordanian citizen, and can therefore be
prosecuted by the ICC because Jordan is a party to the Rome Statute.
Despite that, Jordan has never requested Mashaal's extradition from his
base in Qatar, nor has it sought to fulfill its legal obligations to
prosecute other Hamas leaders with Jordanian citizenship over war crimes
or terrorism charges.
Hamas proudly took responsibility for the executions, and celebrated them as a "victory for the resistance". Footage aired by CNN shows Hamas executioners publicly reading out the verdict against some of the condemned men in a Gaza mosque.
I doubt that Meshaal will ever face any kind of punishment, but a ruling against him could mean that he cannot travel anywhere outside the Arab-Muslim world (which we already know
ignores the court's rulings when they're against its own) without fear of arrest. I can't see the likes of Britain, France of Germany, let alone the US, allowing him entry into their countries if he's a fugitive from justice for war crimes.
What could go wrong?
Labels: collaborators, Gaza, Hamas, International Criminal Court, Khaled Meshaal, Shurat HaDin, war crimes
Hamas leaders at odds over 'cease fire'
The
split between Hamas' leadership in Gaza and its political leaders in Qatar that manifested itself during Operation Protective Edge is continuing (Hat Tip:
Honest Reporting).
Unlike the Gaza leader and former Hamas Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh, Mashaal has not welcomed the cease-fire and according to
some reports he has been telling his associates that the cease-fire
underscored a colossal failure on the part of Hamas. Mashaal's deputy,
Moussa Abu Marzouk, who is close to the Egyptian regime, has sided with
Haniyeh in the ongoing internal feud.
Only several thousand Palestinians attended a
Hamas rally celebrating the cease-fire on Wednesday, a significant drop
compared to the celebration following other rounds of hostilities. "The
Palestinian resistance, its courage and determination surprised the
Zionist occupation forces," Haniyeh told the Gazan crowds. "No words can
truly capture the scope of the victory; it is beyond time and space,"
he continued. "This campaign is not like any war we have seen in this
conflict with our enemy," he said.
This was the first time Haniyeh appeared in
public in more than 50 days, having chosen to lay low during Operation
Protective Edge. According to unverified reports, Haniyeh was admitted
to a Gaza hospital on Wednesday.
A senior Gazan official told the Arab media outlets
Wednesday that in light of significant damage to schools, there was a
real possibility that the start of the school year would be delayed. He
said many schools had been damaged and those that have remained in tact
were now occupied by displaced Gazans. A senior Palestinian official
told Israel Hayom on Tuesday that it would take at least 10 to 15 years
to rebuild the Gaza Strip.
The rumor is that Haniyeh had a heart attack and is back in Shifa where he's been for the last seven weeks. Poetic justice.
Labels: cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Operation Protective Edge
'Club Med for terrorists'
In the New York Times, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, refers to Doha, Qatar as '
Club Med for terrorists.'
Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has dragged us into
three rounds of major assaults, and more than 14,800 rockets have been
fired into Israel by the group or its proxies. The discovery of dozens
of tunnels packed with explosives, tranquilizers and handcuffs that end
at the doorsteps of Israeli communities should be enough to convince
anyone that Hamas has no interest in bringing quiet to Gaza or residing
alongside Israel in peace.
It says a great deal that Hamas’s
former Arab backers, which historically have included Egypt, Syria and
Saudi Arabia, long ago abandoned the terrorist group. Only a few nations
still stand by Hamas. Among the most prominent is the tiny Persian Gulf
emirate Qatar.
In recent years, the sheikhs of Doha, Qatar’s capital, have
funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza. Every one of Hamas’s
tunnels and rockets might as well have had a sign that read “Made
possible through a kind donation from the emir of Qatar.”
...
This hasn’t stopped the Persian Gulf monarchy from serving
as a Club Med for terrorists. It harbors leading Islamist radicals like
the spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, who issued a religious fatwa endorsing suicide attacks, and the Doha-based history professor Abdul Rahman Omeir al-Naimi, whom the United States Department of Treasury has named as a “terrorist financier” for Al Qaeda. Qatar also funds a life of luxury for Khaled Meshal, the fugitive leader of Hamas.
Mr.
Meshal’s uncompromising stance — he has vowed never to recognize Israel
— has long been an obstacle to reaching a peace deal. But behind Hamas,
Qatar is pulling the strings. According to a report last week in the
pan-Arab daily newspaper Al Hayat, Qatar even threatened to expel Mr.
Meshal if Hamas accepted Egyptian proposals for a long-term cease-fire
in Gaza. All because Doha wants a starring role in any cease-fire
agreement between Hamas and Israel.
It is time for the
world to wake up and smell the gas fumes. Qatar has spared no cost to
dress up its country as a liberal, progressive society, yet at its core,
the micro monarchy is aggressively financing radical Islamist
movements. In light of the emirate’s unabashed support for terrorism,
one has to question FIFA’s decision to reward Qatar with the 2022 World
Cup.
Qatar’s continued sponsorship of Hamas all but guarantees that, whatever
happens in this round of hostilities, the terrorist group will rearm
and renew hostilities with Israel. The only way forward is to isolate
Hamas’s last major backer. Given Qatar’s considerable affluence and
influence, this is an uncomfortable prospect for many Western nations,
yet they must recognize that Qatar is not a part of the solution but a
significant part of the problem. To bring about a sustained calm, the
message to Qatar should be clear: Stop financing Hamas.
Indeed.
Labels: Emir of Qatar, FIFA, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Qatar, Ron Prosor, World Cup
Idiocy: Lapid issues veiled threat to Meshaal, Marzouk
In 1997, during Prime Minister Netanyahu's first term in office, the Mossad attempted to poison Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' politburo chief. Unfortunately, because the operation was carried out in Jordan, with which Israel had a treaty, and because the agents who attempted to kill Meshaal were caught, Netanyahu was forced to send an antidote to Jordan and to release Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' spiritual leader. Yassin was killed in an Israeli airstrike seven years later.
On Sunday, Finance Minister Yair Lapid issued a veiled threat against Meshaal's life. Meshaal is now in Qatar, a country with which Israel has no relations, so the situation is very different from 1997.
But....
Security Cabinet member and Finance Minister Yair Lapid has warned
that Hamas's political leadership - including those based abroad - are
not "immune" from bearing the consequences of continued rocket and
mortar fire against Israeli civilians.
Speaking just before a Security Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Lapid
referred to the murder of four-year Daniel Turgeman in a mortar attack
on southern Israel, saying Israel "would not tolerate" the targeting of
its children by Islamist terrorists.
...
"Those responsible for his death will pay the price," Lapid vowed. "Hamas's
leaders need to know that we will pursue them, and we will cause them
to pay the price for what is happening in the south of the State of
Israel."
"No one is immune - not the political leadership, and not the leadership abroad," he said.
Until now Israel has largely avoided targeting Hamas's
"political" leadership, focusing on commanders and personnel from its
"military wing", the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. On Thursday, Israel succeeded in killing three of its "most wanted" Hamas terrorists in a strike targeting senior al-Qassam Brigades commanders.
A previous strike targeted the Brigades' commander, Mohammed Deif,
but Hamas claimed this elusive terrorist mastermind had survived -
though it gave no word on his precise condition.
Hamas's most senior political leader is Khaled Meshaal, currently
based in Doha, Qatar. Other senior Hamas leaders are also based abroad -
including one of the suspected masterminds of the kidnap and murder of
three Israeli teens in June, Salah al-Aruri.
Lapid is a moron. Everyone knows that Israel is
capable of striking Hamas terrorists
abroad. Keep your mouth shut and just do it.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Dubai, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Jordan, Khaled Meshaal, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, targeted killings
Report: 3 Hamas commanders were in a tunnel 30 meters underground when they were killed
If you have any doubts that Thursday's hit of three senior Hamas commanders in Gaza indicates that Israeli intelligence has
penetrated to the highest levels of the Hamas command, read the article below in conjunction with the tweet above from Khaled Abu Toameh.
This was not just another strike, not just
another assassination. The killing of the three constituted an
indication that something in the intelligence discipline at the very top
of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades has cracked.
The Shin Bet, as the intelligence behind the
strike, and the IDF, as the operational arm, targeted the trio in a
building in a crowded Rafah neighborhood on one of the heaviest days of
fighting thus far. Thus this was a very different strike from the one at
the start of the Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 when the
Hamas military commander, Ahmed Jabari, was assassinated in a surprise
attack that marked the beginning of that operation. Given that the
fighting had re-escalated since Tuesday, and that Israel was known to be
trying to hit the Hamas military leadership, the three had taken every
possible precaution to evade Israeli intelligence. Those precautions
simply were not good enough.
It can be assumed that whether or not Muhammad
Deif is still alive, those members of the Hamas military leadership who
have survived are now desperately trying to figure out what went wrong.
How could it be that after long weeks in which Israel was unable to get
to any of the heads of the military wing, now, within 48 hours, the
Shin Bet located one of Deif’s hideouts and killed three other members
of the Hamas general staff?
It should be stressed again: Two of the three
were not mere senior commanders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Muhammad Abu Shamala, the “head of the southern command” and Raed
al-Attar, the commander of the Rafah area, were part of the founding
generation of the Hamas military wing — along with Deif and several
others who are no longer with us, including Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh and Emad
Akel. They were among Deif’s closest brothers-in-arms — long-term
veterans with experience and knowledge that cannot be easily replaced.
Abu Shamala and al-Attar are tied to almost
every major attack in and from the Rafah area since 2001. These include
the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit on a tunnel raid into Israel in which two
other soldiers were killed, and even the killing of 16 Egyptian
soldiers on the Gaza-Sinai-Israel border two years ago. Thus the two had
tangled not only with Israel, but also with Egypt, which knew of their
ties to terrorist organizations in the Sinai.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Gaza, Hamas, intelligence, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Mohammed Deif
Meshaal exposed Deif?
A phone call from Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal to top military commander Mohammed Deif may have
exposed Deif's hideout on Tuesday night, allowing the IDF to take a shot at him.
The reports say that the phone conversation took place shortly after a
meeting in Doha, Qatar, between Mashaal and Palestinian Authority (PA)
head Mahmoud Abbas. A senior Palestinian source said that Mashaal was
under pressure to accept the Egyptian ceasefire proposal and wanted to
consult with Deif.
Possibly due to the pressure he was under, Mashaal broke the rules of
secrecy that help keep Deif's location secret and called him, thus
making it possible for Israeli intelligence to pinpoint Deif's
whereabouts and bomb the building he was in.
...
Hard hit by the IDF, Hamas's military wing in Gaza has reportedly
been pressing the political leadership to accept a ceasefire, but
Mashaal, who operates from Qatar, has been refusing to do so.
A senior member of Palestnian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's
Fatah faction said Wednesday Hamas's choice to forego the Egyptian
truce proposal and return to its rocket war on Israel was due to Qatari
pressure.
We're lucky to have such enemies. The Emir of Qatar is so self-centered that he will not agree to a deal just because Egypt negotiated it.
The Fatah source, quoted in the Arabic Al-Hayat and cited by Yedioth Aharonoth, noted that Egypt
refused to allow Qatar to play a role in the Cairo ceasefire talks,
stipulating that Qatar apologize for its policies towards the Nile State
since Muslim Brotherhood member and former Egyptian President Mohammed
Morsi was deposed last July 3. Qatar is the leading sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian offshoot.
Meshaal is willing to fight to the last Gazan to maintain his own standing in Qatar. And Deif cannot even take basic precautions like not answering the phone.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
P.S. It's still not 100% clear whether or not we got Deif on Tuesday night.
Labels: Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Khaled Meshaal, Mohammed Deif, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, targeted killings
One-Man Demonstration in Gaza: Instead of Going to Qatar, Hamas Leaders Should Come to Die Here
I wonder if Khaled Meshaal has seen this. If he has, I wonder how long this guy has to live. Note that for the first minute he pretty much parrots the party line, but after that his frustration at being made into cannon fodder while the Hamas 'leadership' protects itself just boils over.
Let's go to the videotape.
Labels: civilian casualties, Gaza, Hamas, human shields, IDF, Khaled Meshaal, Lebanon, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar
Report: Kerry's friends in Qatar threatened to expel Meshaal if he accepted the cease fire
If we didn't have enough reasons to bar US Secretary John FN Kerry from interfering with our affairs until now, we may have a huge one. As you might recall, Kerry pushed to
replace Egypt with Qatar and Turkey as the intermediaries between Israel and Hamas. Now, it turns out that Qatar may have brought about the resumption of Hamas rocket fire on Israel by
threatening Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal with expulsion from the country if he agreed to Egypt's cease fire proposal.
The Fatah source added that Qatar threatened to expel
Qatar-based Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, saying it would "force
him to leave," if Hamas agreed to the Egyptian truce proposal in its current structure.
Indeed Hamas rejected the proposal last week, with Mashaal saying "we want serious negotiations that lead to an end of the aggression on Gaza and granting the Palestinian demands."
The new revelation would appear to lend credence to reports
Tuesday that the breach of the ceasefire was in fact orchestrated by
none other than Mashaal.
An unnamed security source told Walla! the initial rocket
salvo on Be'er Sheva was ordered directly by Mashaal, who reportedly
bypassed Hamas's "military wing", the Al-Qassam Brigades, and ordered a
specially-assigned unit of Hamas operatives answerable directly to him
to launch the attack.
The source claimed Mashaal was aiming to sabotage negotiations for a long-term truce in Cairo, which were not going his way.
A senior Hamas source last week urged a different nation to replace Egypt as intermediary in the talks, labeling Egypt "the basic delaying source preventing an agreement."
Hamas may have envisioned Qatar as the replacement, given that
the source called for a new third-party that would help achieve the
terror group's demands, including terrorists releases and a Gaza sea and
airport.
This also puts a very different - and harsher - light on
last week's visit to Qatar by three MK's from the Balad party.
It is worth noting that three Arab-nationalist Balad MKs recently traveled to Qatar,
where they reportedly met the traitor ex-MK Azmi Bishara, who founded
their party before fleeing Israel after passing information to direct
Hezbollah rockets on Israeli citizens.
Kerry, Zoabi and Zahalka should all be exiled together to a desert island. Maybe Bishara would like to join them.
Labels: Azmi Bishara, Balad, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, Hanin Zoabi, IDF, Jamal Zahalka, John Kerry, Khaled Meshaal, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar
Coup? What coup?
'
Moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen may be taking reports of an attempted Hamas coup
seriously, but that's not stopping him from going to Doha on Wednesday to pay homage to Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal and to Meshaal's patron,
the Emir of Qatar.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will travel to Doha on Wednesday and hold talks the next day with the emir of Qatar and Hamas exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, the Palestinian ambassador in Qatar told AFP Tuesday.
Abbas's visit to Qatar was initially announced for Monday by Palestinian officials who are in Cairo for indirect talks with Israel on a lasting truce in Gaza.
Abbas will on Thursday discuss separately with Meshaal and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani latest developments in the negotiations in Cairo and "aid and reconstruction" in Gaza, Palestinian ambassador Monir Ghannam told AFP.
From Doha, Ghannam said Tuesday, Abbas will travel on to Cairo as part of contacts the Palestinian leadership is staging "with all the parties concerned" in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The meeting follows both the last-minute extension of a 5-day
ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - and rumors of Israel agreeing to
some of Hamas's unprecedented demands for a lasting truce - and the
revelation that Hamas recently staged a coup in Judea-Samaria.
This sounds like Abu Bluff's self-preservation instinct kicking in. Otherwise, it makes no sense for him to meet with these people. Abu Bluff was among those who was
furious at John Kerry for bringing Qatar into the negotiations last month.
Or is Kerry perhaps responsible for the necessity for holding this meeting. Has Kerry made Qatar indispensable for the 'Palestinian Authority'? If yes, great job America! /sarc
Labels: Abu Mazen, cease fire, Emir of Qatar, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Khaled Meshaal, Operation Protective Edge, Palestinian Authority, Qatar
Gaza airport not a new issue - concrete from runways was used to construct terror tunnels
Supporting the claim that Israel, Egypt and the 'Palestinian Authority' are
pressuring Hamas to accept the Egyptian cease fire proposal Haaretz reports on the
pressure coming out of Ramallah.
A senior Palestinian official told Haaretz that Ramallah is pushing
for acceptance of the Egyptian initiative even if it does not
immediately answer Palestinian demands. The official said any
international resolution would be weak and Israel would evade it, as has
happened with UN resolutions.
“Only an agreement mediated by
Egypt that has international support can achieve positive results in the
short term,” the official said, adding that Israel’s proposals did not
come close to the Palestinians’ minimum demands.
Under Egypt’s
proposal, Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza commit not to take any
action against the other by “sea, air or land,” while the Palestinians
promise not to dig tunnels into Israel, Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk
reported Friday.
Haaretz also reports that the 'Palestinians' don't think that Israel should be making such a big deal out of Gaza having an airport and seaport.
According to Palestinian officials, Israel is depicting the airport and
safe-passage issues as if they were new. An airport operated in Gaza
from 1998 to 2001.
Not exactly
until 2001....
The airline was grounded in October 2000 following the start of
the Al-Aqsa Intifada and was forced to move to El Arish
International Airport in December 2001, after destruction by
Israeli military forces. of the runway at its previous base,
Yasser Arafat International Airport, where it operated limited
services.
...
On December 12th 2001 GZA was bombed by the Israeli army, which
warplanes hit the control tower. In January 10th 2002, the 60
million USD runway was competely destroyed by the Israeli army,
shattering hopes for the resumption of flights to the airport in
the forseeable future.
Umm....
Not exactly....
ONE ISRAELI KILLED, ONE INJURED BY PALESTINIAN GUNFIRE IN GAZA
Noa Dahan, 25, of Mivtachim, was killed and her Nephew, Oz
Parishta, 18, was wounded, when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on
their vehicle near the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip,
YEDIOT
AHARONOT ON-LINE reported.
The two were driving from the Kerem Shalom checkpoint to the
Rafiah border passage when they were ambushed by at least three Palestinian gunmen. Dahan, who was hit in the head, died
instantly. In response to the attack, the Israel Defense Forces
closed the Rafiah crossing terminal to Egypt. The Palestinian
airport in Dahaniya was also shut down. The airport was reopened
on Tuesday under an agreement with the Palestinians, after having
been closed last month as a result of a Palestinian ambush attack
on an Israeli bus, wounding ten people.
I have a vague memory that Dahan actually worked at the airport, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Maybe what I'm remembering is that the bus in that story was carrying airport workers? (The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs site only lists incidents in which people were killed.
And then there's the little matter of how the 'Palestinians' used the airport. This is from the same link.
IDF Chief-of-Staff
Maj.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz told the Knesset’s Committee on Security
and Diplomatic Affairs on Tuesday that the Palestinians are using
Arafat’s private plane to smuggle weapons into the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip.
And of course that's exactly why the 'Palestinians' are pushing to
have the airport reopened.
One of the main sticking points is the
Hamas terrorist group’s demands to be allowed to build a seaport and
airport, in their words, to offer “more freedom for the Palestinian
people who are stuck in Gaza.”
But Israel and the west knows that any type of port of this nature,
controlled by terrorists whose charter calls for the destruction of the
state of Israel and its inhabitants, would be nothing more than a way to
import weapons to use in its armed struggle against the Jewish State.
Oh - and one other thing the media is forgetting to tell you about the airport. Here's an al-Jazeera English video from August 2010.
Hey - you don't think they used all that concrete to construct terror tunnels - do you? That would be another reason not to rebuild the airport, wouldn't it? 'Scavengers,' eh?
Labels: Egypt, Gaza, Gaza Airport, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Palestinian Authority, Saeb Erekat, weapons acquisition
Hamas rejects Egyptian cease fire, says Israel must accept its demands or else, Meshaal thinks he's DeGaulle
From his luxury accommodations in Qatar, Hamas politburo leader Khaled Meshaal is once again ready to
send Gazans to their deaths.
Hamas has sounded a belligerent tone as negotiations for a long-term truce continue in Cairo.
In a message posted on his Facebook page, Hamas's "foreign affairs"
chief Osama Hamdan said the Islamist terror group rejects the current
Egyptian proposal, and pledged a "long war" of attrition against Israel.
"Israel must accept the demands of the Palestinian people or face a long war," he said.
Other Hamas officials issued similar statements over the course of Saturday.
Hamdan's Facebook message was posted not long before a message
on the Twitter account of the "military wing" of Hamas, the Ezzedine
al-Qassam Brigades, in which the group vowed to continue its armed
"struggle".
Here's a lengthy interview with Khaled Meshaal in which - what else - he blames Israel for the conflict.
Let's go to the videotape. Meshaal's comparing himself to DeGaulle is around the 10:15 mark.
I wish the interviewer had been tougher. She didn't throw him softball questions, but she did let him get away without really answering most of them.
Labels: cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, two-state solution
Report: Khaled Meshaal willing to fight Israel to the last Gazan
Nobody elected him. He lives hundreds of miles away in a luxury hotel in Qatar. So why should anyone be surprised that Hamas politburo chief
Khaled Meshaal is the main force behind Hamas' refusal to agree to a long-term truce?
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has been the central force preventing a long-term truce between Israel and the Palestinians to halt more than a month of hostilities on the Gaza front, Channel 2 quoted an Israeli diplomatic source as saying on Thursday.
The leader of the Palestinian delegation to cease-fire talks, Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed, announced on Wednesday just before midnight that a 72-hour truce would be extended for five additional days to give the sides more time to work out a long-term agreement.
The Palestinians reportedly had asked for a 72-hour extension of the truce, but Israel had insisted on a five day extension to prevent the cease-fire from ending on the Sabbath.
According to the Israeli official quoted by Channel 2, a long term deal could have already been reached, but Mashaal "was and remains the source of friction that is torpedoing a deal."
Mashaal, who resides abroad in Qatar, is enmeshed in a disagreement with the local Hamas leadership in Gaza, the report added.
If I were a Gazan, I'd be outraged at this. Meshaal has no idea what conditions are like on the ground (for that matter, for a long time, neither did the Hamas leadership in Gaza, which has been hiding out under Shifa Hospital). But being ruled from afar like that is outrageous. Talk about
colonialism....
Labels: cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Khaled Meshaal, Operation Protective Edge
Best case scenario: Hamas is looking for a hudna
Reports out of Egypt indicate that the Hamas leadership is torn between agreeing to a hudna to plan the next battle and
continuing to fight.
Hamas's "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, released a statement presenting its position on the ongoing talks in Egypt.
"The warriors in Gaza are waiting with Allah's help to renew the
fighting, or to return to planning the next campaign. There's no escape.
Either jihad or planning (for the next jihad)," declared the statement.
The remarks leave no doubts that even in the case of a truce, from
Hamas's perspective the lull in fighting would only be an opportunity to
rearm for the next terror war on the Jewish state. This facet is
particularly concerning in light of reports of Israel agreeing to
finance Hamas's officials in Gaza as part of an agreement.
Slamming this proposal, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) stated Monday "this is political protection money: you pay us, then we'll shoot you later; you don't pay us, then we'll shoot you right now. ...It is impossible to fight our enemy with one hand and to fund it with the other."
...
Another senior official from the PA delegation told Walla! that there are estimations that the current ceasefire may be extended by an additional 72-hour period.
Revealing Hamas's position on the talks, the official commented
"I'm still not sure that there's a decision by Hamas to end this war."
"There's a great disagreement now between the Hamas leadership
in Qatar headed by Khaled Mashaal, and between the senior members of the
organization in Gaza. Doha (Qatar's capital - ed.) is urging Mashaal
all the time not to agree to Egypt as an intermediary," disclosed the
official.
For those who have forgotten, here's a discussion of what a hudna is and how Islamic terrorists use it.
Political Islam finds a number of examples in the life of Prophet
Muhammad that sanction the use of treaties as a tactical necessity. In
explaining why he signed the Oslo Accord, Yasser Arafat cited a truce
signed by Prophet Muhammad with the Meccan tribe Quraish at Hudaybiyah
in 628 C.E. According to the PLO leader, Prophet
Muhammad had signed the truce when he was not strong enough to win a
war and it was to last for ten years. But when, within two years of the
signing, the Muslims felt that they have gained enough strength to
defeat the Quraish, they broke the truce, attacked the Quraish and
captured Mecca.
A prominent Saudi sheikh, 'Abd Al-Muhsin
Al-'Obikan, also referred to the same treaty while condemning
Hezbollah's actions in Lebanon. He issued the edict against Hezbollah's
actions not because he considered them wrong but because in his view
Muslims, at the moment, are not strong enough to defeat Israel. He said
that since the Muslims have no chance of winning this campaign against
the Jews, a temporary solution is necessary - a truce similar to the
temporary truce of Hudaybiyya.
According to the Saudi Sheikh, Islamic
laws (Shari'a) also "place preconditions and constraints on the
declaring of jihad, which must be considered in order to ensure the
greatest gain for the nation and spare it loss - [that is,] in order to ensure the minimum possible damage and avoid greater damage.
One
of the preconditions regarding jihad [states] that the [the jihad
fighters] must have [sufficient] capability to inflict harm on the enemy
and to repulse its evil, so as to ensure the lives, the property, and
the honor of the Muslims and to safeguard them from aggression or harm,
that is, [from] destruction of property, from violation of honor, and
from bloodshed."
Those who understand the Islamist ethos know that for political Islam, disengagement, a cease-fire, or a pull back on the part of the "enemy" is a sign of its weakness. No one has more experience with this treacherous mindset than the Israelis.
And we keep agreeing to 'cease fires'.... What could go wrong?
Labels: Gaza, Hamas, hudna, IDF, jihad, Khaled Meshaal, Operation Protective Edge
