Within the past hour, two rockets have been fired on Israel from an area of the Sinai desert controlled by the Islamic State terror group. Both rockets fell in open areas.
The rockets landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, according to
an initial statement released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. No
injuries or damages were caused.
A Red Alert was not sounded, the statement said, due to the fact that the rockets were fired into open space.
I received the following via email, unsourced. It's spot-on.
"Israel TV have been showing the massive destruction of hundreds of
homes by the Egyptians as they create a 500 meter buffer zone with Gaza
on their side of the ...border.
1165 families have been removed as their homes are destroyed.
Isn't
it strange that this is a yawn for the Western media. Not worth a
mention. No angry street demonstrations. No condemnation by UN human
rights organizations. No criticism by the Obama Administration. Nothing.
There's no Jewish state to blame and accuse of terrible crimes.
It
has to be said that the Egyptians were uncovering Hamas tunnels as they
cleared the area, which was part of the reason for the operation.
Egypt and Israel have a common cause in eliminating this joint Islamic threat, albeit Palestinian."
Here's a comment from Jeff Jacoby on Twitter.
To wipe out "terrorist hotbeds" in Gaza, army demolishes homes, expelling thousands of civilians. The EGYPTIAN army. http://t.co/3MqWIebNql
— Jeff Jacoby (@Jeff_Jacoby) October 30, 2014
What a double standard the 'international community' has adopted. What difference does it make?
Egyptian President Abdel Fateh al-Sisi has finally had it with Hamas attacks on his territory. So he's doing what all good neighbors do: He's building a fence.
In the wake of Friday’s attack in northern Sinai, which killed 33
Egyptian soldiers, Cairo has raised the idea of a building an eight-mile
barrier along its border with Gaza to deter Islamist terrorists from
moving in and out of the Palestinian territory.
“There is a big conspiracy against us,” Egyptian President Abdel
Fatah al-Sisi said in a live, televised address Saturday, in which he
blamed “foreign powers” for the atrocity and said Egypt is locked in an
“existential war”.
Egypt, which has declared a three-month state of emergency in
northern Sinai, also cancelled its planned role as mediator between
Israel and Hamas in talks aimed at maintaining a ceasefire that has held
since the end of the summer conflict.
Friday’s sophisticated terrorist attack - which Egyptian authorities
have indicated likely came from Gaza - was launched on Egyptian troops
with devastating effect. Old tunnels that had yet to be destroyed by
Egyptian forces or newly-dug tunnels that had not been detected were
likely used in the attack that combined the use of a suicide bomber on
one hand, with rocket propelled grenades and roadside bombs on the
other.
Egypt has also closed its borders with Gaza. Will anyone care about this 'blockade'? Will countries like Norway and Turkey send ferries to run Egypt's 'blockade' and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza?
Following Friday’s attack, the Rafah crossing between southern Gaza
and Egypt was closed immediately and will reportedly remain closed
indefinitely. Hamas leaders have reportedly stated that Gaza will
“explode” if the Rafah crossing is not re-opened quickly.
While the southern crossing into Egypt is closed, other border
crossings with Israel remain open. Humanitarian and trade supplies are
being delivered by Israel to the more than 1.8 million residents of Gaza
whose Hamas government fought a 50-day war against them this summer.
The war cost the lives of a reported 2,000 Gazans, according to Hamas
government figures, and 70 Israelis. Recent independent analysis of the
Gazan dead suggests that as many as half were terrorist combatants.
By the way, that article is Fox News - not Arutz Sheva.
Egyptian military sources revealed details on the plan to the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency on
Tuesday, divulging that all homes and farmland up to a depth of 500
meters (over 1,640 feet) into Gaza from the Sinai border will be seized
and evacuated, other than Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid.
The expulsion will take place to that depth all along the 13 kilometer (over eight mile) border. Additionally, a channel with a depth and width of 20 meters (over 65 feet) will be dug along the Gaza border.
The military source added that residents faced with evacuation are
being offered compensation for abandoning their homes, and around 200
families have already accepted the financial package to vacate.
There are still 680 more families in the area faced with impending expulsion.
Egypt's buffer zone plans are expected to be completed by the end of the year....
Here's betting that the United Nations, the US State Department and the European Union will all have nothing to say about this. After all, what difference does it make?
Citing Israeli officials who have confirmed fresh details that have come
to light, Army Radio says that the incident appears to have been borne
out of a misunderstanding between the two men who brokered the
cease-fire – US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon – and the Israeli government.
Israel and the US accused Hamas of violating the cease-fire.
For his part, Hamas diplomatic bureau chief Khaled Mashaal claimed that
there was no violation of the truce, since Hamas never agreed to hold
its fire against IDF soldiers who were operating on Gazan soil in search
of tunnels.
Israeli officials confirmed to Army Radio that in
retrospect Mashaal and Hamas never committed to a truce deal whereby it
pledged not to act against IDF troops in Gaza even though Washington led
the Israeli government to believe that Hamas did in fact promise to do
just that.
“We
demanded two things from the Americans,” a diplomatic source in
Jerusalem is quoted as telling Army Radio. “We wanted a cease-fire, and
we wanted complete freedom of operation against the tunnels, without the
threat of coming under fire from Hamas.”
“We demanded it in
writing, that Hamas accepts these conditions,” the official said. “There
were also the statements to the press.”
Kerry broke the news of
the three-day, unconditional truce in a statement to the media. A UN
spokesperson also confirmed that as part of the cease-fire, IDF troops
would be permitted to remain in place, where they would have a free hand
to ferret out more tunnels. In other words, the perception in Israel
was that Hamas had agreed to hold their fire while the IDF searched for
tunnels in Gaza, what in hindsight turned out to be incorrect.
Report: IAF destroys 7-story building in Rafah in 'change of tactics' (wth attack video and pictures)
For the second time in less than 24 hours, the IDF destroyed a large building that housed Hamas command and control centers in Gaza. This time, it happened in Rafah.
For the second time in two days, Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on
Sunday reduced a tall building to rubble, signaling a change of tactics
under which any structure used by Hamas can be put on Israel’s target
list.
Sunday’s early-morning strikes hit a seven-story office building in
the southern town of Rafah, leveling it and badly damaging an adjacent
shopping mall. A day earlier, a 12-story apartment tower in Gaza City
was destroyed, showering the area with smashed masonry.
Let's go to the videotape.
And here's another picture of how it looked this morning.
'Shopping mall'? They have 'shopping malls' in the 'impoverished' Gaza Strip? Oh yes, they do....
Oh and by the way, when will this 'change of tactics' mean that we go after the Hamas leadership hiding underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City? They have to be worried about that....
Pallywood in action: How Hamas set up the attack inside the Rafah UNRWA schoolyard UPDATED
Lenny Ben David puts together a series of five tweets of pictures from Sunday's 'attack' on an UNRWA school in Rafah that shows how in a touch of Pallywood, Hamas set the whole thing up. The victims were all dragged into the schoolyard so that it would look like Israel had attacked an UNRWA school that was sheltering civilians.
Here are the five tweets:
Propagan Scandal at Rafah UN school 1. #Israeli attack took place OUTSIDE school, vics dragged inside. see drag marks pic.twitter.com/s48UVUciG5
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) August 4, 2014
Propag Scandal at Rafah UN school 2. Pic of vics arranged inside school. All 4 men of military age. See drag marks pic.twitter.com/1ZsDtPkJ5y
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) August 4, 2014
Propag Scandal at Rafah UN school 3. Need a child in pic. Striped shirt man brings her. #Israel claimed hit PIJ men pic.twitter.com/hWWBZdSyIC
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) August 4, 2014
Propag Scandal at Rafah UN school 4. Striped shirt arranges her pathetic body next to PIJ men. Photogs ate it up pic.twitter.com/KTEgM3qgAd
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) August 4, 2014
Prop Scandal at Rafah UN school 5. Poor girl's final act. Run w her for cameras. Note water to wash away drag marks pic.twitter.com/5f5k6D602o
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) August 4, 2014
I wonder whether @APDiploWriter (Matt Lee) can play Show and Tell at the State Department later today.
UPDATE 2:45 PM
And here's some video of the little girl posted by Elder.
Let's go to the videotape.
I don't know whether she's alive or dead, but isn't it a little strange that no one seemed too interested in getting her to a hospital?
But that's not quite what happened. From what I can piece together (the IDF has not yet commented), Hamas terrorists were firing on IDF forces from right outside the school. An IDF air strike targeted the gunmen's car as they fled.
UNRWA has now admitted that the IDF targeted people outside the school, and that those who were hit were 'around the gate.'
@UNRWA official: those killed and injured were apparently around the gate of UN school. not a direct hit inside the school compound
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) August 3, 2014
In other words, Hamas terrorists used people sheltering at an UNRWA school as human shields. They got themselves killed (I'm guessing those deaths are 3-5 of the 10 deaths being reported at the school) and they got some of the human shields killed too, racking up some propaganda points for civilian casualties for Hamas.
All in all, just another fine day at the office for Hamas.
Hamas has spent five years preparing this strategic threat; the IDF wrecked 31 tunnels in two weeks. By Sunday, all of the tunnels the IDF knew about, or discovered during the offensive, will be destroyed. A few tunnels that Israel doesn't know about may remain intact.
Many of the underground passages were designed to send heavily armed murder squads into Israeli villages for killing sprees, and attack army positions from behind. They were filled with weapons, explosives, and equipment, enabling terrorists dressed in civilian clothing to disappear into a shaft in Gaza, and emerge in Israel, disguised as IDF soldiers and fully equipped to carry out a mass casualty attack. The IDF has discovered motorcycles in some of the tunnels, which were earmarked by Hamas for rapid raids into Israel and subsequent retreats back into Gaza.
Currently, inside the Strip, the army has gained good control of the areas it is maneuvering in. Despite very difficult fighting that has raged on the ground, which included heavy RPG, anti-tank, and automatic fire by Hamas cells, and despite the painful price Israel has paid thus far, the army is very close to achieving this key goal of its offensive.
In the big majority of cases where the IDF clashed with Hamas, the battle ended with the terrorists being killed, wounded, or with their surrender.
...
Only a ground offensive could provide the military with the needed tools to destroy the tunnels; air power alone could not achieve this goal.
The number of clashes between the IDF and Hamas cells has dropped dramatically in recent hours, an indication of the army's firm control of the areas it holds. Exceptions to this include sporadic mortar and sniper fire.
Meanwhile, Hamas's stockpile of medium-range rockets, of the kind it uses to target greater Tel Aviv, is becoming depleted. As a result, Hamas has lowered the number of of medium-range rockets it fires, to pace itself for a drawn-out conflict. On the weekend, Hamas has focused on firing on short-range rockets attacks on the south.
The IDF is in the process of reorganizing its ground forces. It is preparing for further instructions from the security cabinet. Ground forces remain active in three areas across Gaza, as the last of the tunnels are destroyed. The remainder of the ground units have taken up positions in staging areas, and some will remain in Gaza, to protect Israeli villages from attempts by Hamas to exploit gaps in the border fence to stage further attacks.
But not everyone is happy that the IDF is leaving Gaza. Hadar Goldin, an IDF officer from Kfar Sava, was kidnapped on Friday, and his father told the media tonight that he feels that the IDF is abandoning his son.
Speaking to a throng of reporters in front of their Kfar Sava home, the Goldin family said “the army knows how to bring” their son home.
“I was a battalion commander, and I served as a reservist until the age of 50,” Dr. Simcha Goldin, Hadar’s father, said. “It is inconceivable that the army will withdraw from Gaza while leaving a soldier in the field. That’s my message to the army.”
Ayelet Goldin, Hadar’s older sister, fought back tears as she demanded that the IDF remain in the Gaza Strip until it rescues the captive officer.
“My baby brother embarked to defend the south,” she said. “It is inconceivable that he will stay there [in Gaza]. If we leave Gaza with an IDF soldier staying there, it’s a failure.”
An initial investigation into the attack during which Second
Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was abducted on Friday reveals that terrorists
in Rafah launched a concerted attack on a Givati Brigade force yesterday
morning before kidnapping the soldier.
The attacked killed two soldiers in Goldin's unit, and included
fierce gunfire and at least one suicide bomber, according to
investigators. Reinforcements arrived, saw terrorists' bodies at the
scene, and realized that the platoon leader was absent from the carnage -
and that a terror tunnel was beneath the battle site.
The Deputy Platoon Leader investigated the terror tunnel himself in
an effort to locate Goldin, but did not manage to find any sign of the
soldier nor of his kidnappers, according to the report.
Afterwards, the rest of the reinforcements managed to piece together a
map of the tunnel and established that it leads to a Hamas headquarters
and mosque.
The IDF has stormed the area in order to find Goldin and his abductors, and the battle rages even 24 hours later.
Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said "our
understanding is that the force was attacked by a suicide bomber, (but
it) seems there were several other gunmen who carried out this attack,"
and that Goldin had been "snatched into a tunnel."
Hamas is still denying that it has Goldin. At this point, if they have him, I doubt they will admit it before the IDF withdraws from Gaza.
Turkey and Qatar share Hamas’ goal of having it gain—meaning that the
fighting ends, the siege of Gaza is lifted and no safeguards are
adopted on materials going into the Strip that would inhibit Hamas’
ability to reconstitute its military infrastructure of rockets and
tunnels. It is not just Israel that cannot accept that outcome. Neither
can the Egyptians, Saudis or their regional allies. And, truth be told,
it is still Egypt that matters. Egypt controls the crossing point at
Rafah, the southern entrance to Gaza, and it is closed. Today,
ironically, the only crossing points into Gaza that function at all are
the Israeli ones. So when this conflict ends, Egypt can have a huge
impact on what and who can move in and out of Gaza.
That gives Egypt leverage. Its relationship with Israel
matters, and Israeli confidence that Egypt shares its interest in not
allowing Hamas to reconstitute its military capabilities means that
Egypt can influence Israel’s position. Ultimately, Egypt can also
influence Hamas because, at a minimum, Hamas needs Rafah to be open at
the end of the conflict—even if Egypt, as is likely, will insist that
the Palestinian Authority is positioned in the Rafah crossing point. To
be sure, it is possible that to end the conflict, Egypt may also
acquiesce in allowing Qatar to pay the Hamas salaries and to allow that
money to pass through Rafah. But Egypt’s approach toward Hamas, which it
sees as contributing to the threats it faces in Sinai, is to keep it
contained and, the Egyptians will have that as a goal in any cease-fire
they broker.
The point is that the conflict is going to end. It
can end through a negotiated outcome in which we focus on Egypt and not
Turkey or Qatar. Or it will end when Israel has destroyed the tunnels
and Hamas sees that its arsenal of rockets is running too low and that
the price within Gaza has become too high. Kerry, to his credit,
envisioned the cease-fire he was trying to arrange as one in which
fighting would stop but Israel could finish destroying the tunnels. It
has not worked yet, but if the United States works exclusively through
the Egyptians, it may yet happen.
There is a larger point for the Obama administration to
consider, too. It needs to read the new strategic landscape in the
region and act accordingly. That landscape should shape our calculus as
we approach the larger questions of Israeli-Palestinian peace, Syria,
Iraq and Iran. In its remaining two and half years, the administration
needs to approach the Middle East with a broader goal and judge how its
day-to-day policies support or detract from that goal: How can it ensure
that U.S. friends in the region are stronger in January 2017, and their
adversaries (and ours) are weaker? Ultimately, President Obama and
Secretary Kerry would be wise to approach the current conflict, and its
end, with that objective in mind.
A Hamas rocket 'accidentally' hit the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Saturday night, wounding an Egyptian soldier.
A rocket probably fired from the Gaza hit Egypt's Rafah border crossing with the embattled Palestinian enclave on Saturday, wounding a soldier, a security official told AFP.
The rocket "was most likely fired from Gaza and fell into Egyptian territory by mistake," the official said.
Hamas rejected a proposal for a cease fire that had been proposed by Egypt and accepted by Israel last week. Media reports indicate that Hamas wants Turkey and Qatar to take the lead in negotiating a 'cease fire' but that Israel is boxing Qatar out of the picture.
Hamas furious at Egyptian apartheid buffer zone in Rafah
Hamas is furious because Egypt is creating a buffer zone in Rafah between itself and Gaza, which will make smuggling tunnels much harder to dig and operate.
Ehab Ghissin, spokesman for the Hamas government, said that there
should be no buffer zones “between brothers and friendly
countries.”
Ghissin expressed hope that the Egyptian move would not
“solidify the blockade” and increase the suffering of the people in the Gaza
Strip.
He called for establishing a free trade area instead of a buffer
zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Egyptian
newspapers quoted Palestinian sources as saying that 90 percent of the smuggling
tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip have stopped functioning as a
result of Egypt’s security measures.
The sources said that the Egyptian
army was waging an “unprecedented” campaign to destroy houses and
tunnels.
According to the sources, the planned buffer zone would be
between 25 and 500 meters wide and 10 kilometers long.
Meanwhile, dozens
of Egyptian families demonstrated on the Egyptian side of the border in protest
against the demolition of their homes by the army.
The protesters said
that the Egyptian army has notified many families living close to the border
with the Gaza Strip of its intention to demolish their homes as part of its
effort to create a buffer zone in the area.
That's what they get for allying themselves with the Muslim Brotherhood for the last two years. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
At least 25 Egyptian soldiers/policemen killed in Rafah ambush
At least 25 Egyptian soldiers or policemen (the reportsvary) have been killed in an ambush in Rafah, along the border between Egypt and Gaza. This is from the 'Palestinian' Maan News.
At least 25 Egyptian soldiers were killed by militants in an ambush on two buses in north Sinai on Monday.
The
soldiers were reportedly executed by militants after being ordered to
leave the buses. The armed gunmen forced the soldiers to lie on the
ground before shooting them, security officials told Ma'an.
Three other Egyptian servicemen were injured in the attack.
Military helicopters are transferring the bodies of the dead soldiers to Cairo.
The soldiers were part of a central security unit deployed along the Israel-Egypt border and around Rafah, officials added.
In Monday's incident, security sources said four armed men had stopped
the police buses and forced the passengers to get out before shooting
them.
Forgive me, but you have two buses full of soldiers or policemen, who are presumably armed, they get stopped by four armed men, and they end up getting executed gangland style? Something is missing here.
Egypt shuts Gaza border indefinitely, world silent
Egypt has indefinitely shut the Rafah border crossing that provides the only exit from the strip for Gazans, stranding 'hundreds' of Gazans on the other side in the process. Of course, since it's not Israel that's doing this, the world is silent.
The move could mark a dramatic escalation in
the closures faced by Gaza’s residents. Rafah is the Gaza Strip’s only
exit point not controlled by Israel, which has imposed a blockade on its
own border with Gaza in an effort to curtail arms smuggling by the
territory’s Hamas rulers.
Egyptian authorities have closed the border
crossing intermittently since the military deposed president Mohammed
Morsi on July 3. It was closed last week over the Eid al-Fitr holiday,
and the terminal’s operating hours have been sharply curtailed since
July, when they were shortened from nine hours a day to just four.
According to Egyptian officials, the restrictions led to a drop in the
number of people crossing each day from about 1,200 to just 150.
Egyptian forces have also worked to shut down
the large network of smuggling tunnels between the Strip and Sinai,
leading to severe shortages inside the Palestinian territory, according
to Gazans and UN officials.
Thousands of workers in Gaza have also been
laid off over the past month due to the closures, while some of the tens
of thousands of Palestinians studying and working in Egypt are keeping a
low profile for fear being targeted in an anti-Hamas backlash. Hamas is
an affiliate and ally of the Muslim Brotherhood and has been vocal in
its criticism of Morsi’s overthrow.
The latest closure, which is not time-limited,
has left hundreds of Palestinians stranded on either side of the
crossing, according to AFP.
The Egyptian move comes as part of the
military’s efforts to curtail violence and terror attacks in the Sinai
Peninsula, which spiked in the wake of Morsi’s ouster, with authorities
in Cairo saying that many of the fighters in the peninsula came from
Gaza.
Boo. Hoo. Maybe Egypt will consider retaking the Strip and throwing Hamas out. Given that Israel is no longer in Gaza, Egyptian rule looks like a better alternative than Hamas.
It seems that some impoverished Gazan 'Palestinians' managed to travel abroad, and now they cannot get back to Gaza because Egypt closed the Rafah crossing point and does not want them in Egypt.
Palestinian travelers are stranded in Arab and international airports as
Rafah crossing is closed for the fourth day in a row due to unrest in
Egypt, officials said Monday.
Travelers said Egyptian airlines
were refusing to let Palestinians board due to the inability to continue
traveling to Gaza through Rafah, which is controlled by Egyptian
security authorities.
Maher Abu Sabha, general director of
crossings, told Ma’an that the crossing was closed on both sides for the
fourth day in a row. He said communication at the highest level were
ongoing to reopen it.
Maher Abu Sabha, director of border crossings in Gaza says Egypt told Hamas of the indefinite closure.
The
Egyptian director of the Rafah terminal, Sami al-Mitwali, said the
crossing was closed due to security unrest, Palestinian news agency
Ma'an reported.
Nilesat an Egyptian company, that controls a
series of Egyptian communications satellites, removed Hamas TV al Quds
from the air in recent days.
The closure comes after Islamist
gunmen staged multiple attacks on security forces in Egypt's troubled
Sinai Peninsula early Friday, two days after the army overthrew elected
Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, security sources and state television
reported.
Isn't it amazing what the Egyptian government can do when they want to do it?
So far we haven't seen any flotillas with European 'activists' trying to enter Gaza through El-Arish or Sinai. I wonder why. The Egyptians are doing a better job of shutting down Gaza's smuggling tunnels than anyone else has done since Israel left the Strip in 2005.
Palestinians involved in the tunnel business say that the campaign,
which began in March and has included flooding of underground passages,
was ramped up in the past two weeks before a wave of opposition-led
protests in Egypt expected to start on June 30.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has come under political fire at
home over a strong challenge to his authority by militant Islamists in
the Sinai who have attacked Egyptian security forces in the peninsula.
Egypt's
military, struggling to fill a security vacuum in the Sinai since
autocrat Hosni Mubarak was swept from power in 2011, has pledged to shut
all tunnels under the Gaza border, saying they are used by militants on
both sides to smuggle activists and weapons.
The moves against
the tunnels have dashed the hopes of many Palestinians that Morsi, a
member of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Hamas was born, would
significantly ease Egyptian border restrictions on Gaza, which is also
subjected to blockade by Israel.
"Business is clinically dead,"
said Abu Bassam, who employs 40 workers in a Palestinian tunnel network
in Rafah, a town on the border. "Tunnels are almost shut down
completely."
Only 50 to 70 tunnels, out of hundreds that have
provided a commercial lifeline for the Gaza Strip, are still open and in
partial operation, owners said. Other tunnels are used to smuggle in
weapons for militants from Hamas and other groups.
The Egyptian
army has sternly warned residents in Sinai not to approach the fence
with Gaza and to stop trading through tunnels or face punishment,
according to Palestinian tunnel owners who learned about the order from
Egyptian counterparts.
"Today we have to pay extra money to
convince an Egyptian driver to bring goods to us...resulting in rising
prices of basic materials here," said Abu Ali, another tunnel owner,
standing beside the shaft of his deserted tunnel.
The price of
cement in Gaza has soared from NIS 350 ($95) a ton to NIS 800 ($217).
Palestinians who bought relatively cheap petrol smuggled from Egypt now
have to pay for fuel imported from Israel selling for double the price.
Boo. Hoo.
But why aren't all the 'human rights activists' attacking Egypt? Because they don't care unless the blockading is being done by Jews.
We’re all shocked by the horrifying pictures of Corrie lying on the ground, broken and bleeding. But has anyone ever asked what kind of ghoul would snap pictures rather than rush to her aid or run to get help?
Numerous pictures of Corrie standing defiantly in front of an Israeli bulldozer appeared in the media, but upon investigation it transpired that not a single one was from the incident that killed her. Some were taken hours before the fatal incident with a different bulldozer; others were sloppy photoshopped forgeries. Why were there photos after she was injured and not before?
Corrie was not the only member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was nearly crushed beneath the bulldozer’s maw that day. Indeed, at least two – “Will and Jenny” – were pulled away by their colleagues at the last second.
Immediately after Corrie’s death, several leaders of ISM were interviewed. They didn’t express horror or even sorrow. They spoke of peace soldiers’ sacrifices in battle and the PR benefits of an American woman dying at hands of Israel’s army.
The ghoulish photographer was an ISM member who went by the name of “Joe Smith.” His real name: Joseph Carr, a self-proclaimed anarchist who apparently used aliases to travel in and out of Israel and anti-American hotspots like Fallujah, Iraq. His March 17 affidavit immediately after Corrie’s death suggests a narcissist who speaks more about his trauma than Corrie’s death, and an agitprop specialist who had all of the press contacts and numbers readily at hand to launch a press campaign just 30 minutes after her death.
But Smith/Carr may not have been the only culprit.
Why would the “internationals” risk their lives in such a way? And was Corrie a partner to this treacherous game? Reporter Joshua Hammer explained that on that fateful day the ISM members decided to take their confrontation with the IDF up a notch. They needed to prove themselves to the local population:
An anonymous letter was circulating which referred to Corrie and the other expatriate women in Rafah as “nasty foreign bitches” whom “our Palestinian young men are following around.”
That morning [of Corrie’s death], the ISM team tried to devise a strategy to counteract the letter’s effects. “We all had a feeling that our role was too passive,” said one ISM member. “We talked about how to engage the Israeli military.” That morning, team members made a number of proposals that seemed designed only to aggravate the problem. …“The idea was to more directly challenge the Israeli military dominance using our international status,” said the ISMer.
One of the ISM founders, Thom Saffold, admitted to The Washington Post the day after Corrie’s death that “it’s possible they [the protesters] were not as disciplined as we would have liked.”
Saffold continued with astounding callousness: “But we’re like a peace army. Generals send young men and women off to operations, and some die.”
That wasn’t the only statement indicating that Corrie was cannon fodder for the ISM. Another of ISM’s founders, George Rishmawi, told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2004:
When Palestinians get shot by Israeli soldiers, no one is interested anymore. But if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.
Another ISMer in Gaza committed to writing similar sentiments in a letter home in February 2003:
You just can’t imagine it unless you see it, and even then you are always well aware that your experience is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli Army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen.”(emphasis added)
The author was Rachel Corrie, one month before she died. Did she believe that she should be that unarmed US citizen? Did the Gaza ISM cadre believe that they had to prove to the Palestinian locals that they were as committed to the cause as the Palestinian shihads blowing themselves up on Israeli buses?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
