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ISRAELIS, UNLIKE PA, UNEQUIVOCALLY CONDEMN TERROR; MEANWHILE, DESPITE SETBACKS, HAMAS DIGS ATTACK TUNNELS

We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication.

 

Palestinians: The Difference Between Us and Them: Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute, Aug. 4, 2015 — I cannot count the number of times that I heard from Israeli Jews the phrases "I'm ashamed" and "I'm sorry" in response to the horrific crime that claimed the life of Palestinian toddler Ali Dawabsha in the West Bank village of Duma last week.

How’s Hamas Getting Supplies for Rockets and Tunnels? Through Israel: Avi Issacharoff, Times of Israel, July 20, 2015— The Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended on Friday, signaling the start of Eid al-Fitr celebrations for Gaza’s inhabitants.

Who Is Destroying the Palestinian Dream?: Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, Aug. 3, 2015 — The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which Palestinians hope will one day become part of a future Palestinian state, is quickly sliding toward anarchy and chaos.

Why Empower Iran?: Alex Joffe, Middle East Quarterly, Aug. 3, 2015  — Unless the US Congress votes in opposition, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal with Iran with go through. What really happened and why did it happen the way it did?

 

On Topic Links

 

Ex-Congressman Allen West Explodes Over Iran Deal During Fiery and Emotional Times Square Speech (Video): Youtube, July 23, 2015

Hamas Calls For Suicide Attacks As Israelis Express Revulsion Over Jewish Terror: IPT News, Aug. 4, 2015

The Palestinian Leadership’s Regression in the Peace Process: Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, JCPA, July 1, 2015

Gaza War One Year On: 'The World Does Not Understand the Dimensions of Israel's Conflict With Hamas': Janet Svirzenski, International Business Times, July 7, 2015

 

         

PALESTINIANS: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND THEM                                                           

Bassam Tawil                                                                                                     

Gatestone Institute, Aug. 4, 2015

 

I cannot count the number of times that I heard from Israeli Jews the phrases "I'm ashamed" and "I'm sorry" in response to the horrific crime that claimed the life of Palestinian toddler Ali Dawabsha in the West Bank village of Duma last week. The strong response of the Israeli public and leaders to the arson attack is, truthfully, somewhat comforting. The wall-to-wall Israeli condemnation of this crime has left me and other Palestinians not only ashamed, but also embarrassed — because this is not how we Palestinians have been reacting to terror attacks against Jews — even the despicable murder of Jewish children.

 

Our response has, in fact, brought feelings of disgrace and dishonor. While the Israeli prime minister, president and other officials were quick strongly to condemn the murder of Dawabsha, our leaders rarely denounce terror attacks against Jews. And when a Palestinian leader such as Mahmoud Abbas does issue a condemnation, it is often vague and equivocal.

 

Take, for example, what happened after last year's kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians in the West Bank. It not only took President Abbas four days to issue a statement condemning the terror attack, but even then, the condemnation was at best a tentative: "The Palestinian presidency… condemns the series of events that happened last week, beginning with the kidnapping of three Israeli youths." Abbas then went on to denounce Israel for arresting dozens of Hamas members after the abduction and murder of the three youths. Later in 2014, when Abbas did condemn a Palestinian terror attack that killed five Israelis in a Jerusalem synagogue, Fatah official Najat Abu Baker, a few days later, explained that Abbas's condemnation was made "within a diplomatic context… [he] is forced to speak this way to the world."

 

Abbas's condemnation of the attack at the synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood apparently came only under pressure from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who telephoned the Palestinian leader twice to demand that he speak out against the killings. Abbas's statement said that the Palestinian leadership condemns the "killing of worshippers in a synagogue and all acts of violence, regardless of their source." His statement then also called for an end to "incursions and provocations by settlers against the Aqsa Mosque." Abbas's ambiguous, half-hearted condemnations of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis are only intended for public consumption and are primarily aimed at appeasing Western donors, so that they will continue channeling funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA). In addition, his condemnations almost always seek to blame Israel for the Palestinian terror attacks — presumably an attempt to justify the killing of Jews at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.

 

In contrast, Israeli leaders who condemned the murder of the Palestinian toddler sound firm and unambiguous. Here is what Prime Minister Netanyahu said after visiting the murdered baby's parents and brother, who were wounded in the arson attack and are receiving medical treatment in Israeli hospitals: "When you stand next to the bed of this small child, and his infant brother has been so brutally murdered, we are shocked, we are outraged. We condemn this. There is zero tolerance for terrorism wherever it comes from, whatever side of the fence it comes from."

 

Netanyahu's strong and clear condemnation left me and other Palestinians wondering when was the last time we heard similar statements from our leaders. I cannot remember ever hearing Abbas or any other Palestinian leader express shock and outrage over the killing of a Jew in a Palestinian terror attack. Nor can I remember the last time we heard of a Palestinian official visiting the Israeli victims of a Palestinian terror attack.

 

The Israeli leaders' condemnation of the baby's murder is a sincere voice that reflects the views of the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public. In contrast, the Palestinian leaders' denunciations of terror attacks do not reflect the general feeling on the Palestinian street. Each time Abbas reluctantly condemns a Palestinian terror attack, he faces a wave of criticism from many Palestinians. Unlike the Israeli public, many Palestinians often rush to justify, and even welcome, terror attacks against Jews. This was the situation just a few weeks ago, when an Israeli man was shot dead near Ramallah. Several Palestinian factions and military groups applauded the murder, calling it a "natural response to Israeli crimes."

 

This is the huge difference between the way Israelis and Palestinians react to terrorism. The murder of Dawabsha saw thousands of Israelis hold anti-violence rallies to condemn the horrible crime. But has anyone ever heard of a similar rally on the Palestinian side whenever terrorists kill innocent Jewish civilians? Is there one top Palestinian official or prominent figure who dares to speak out in public against the murder of Jews, at a rally in the center of Ramallah or Gaza City? Has there ever been a Palestinian activist who dared to hold a rally in a Palestinian city to condemn suicide bombings or the murder of an entire Jewish family?…

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

                                                           

Contents                                                                                               

   

HOW’S HAMAS GETTING SUPPLIES FOR ROCKETS AND                                                 

TUNNELS? THROUGH ISRAEL

Avi Issacharoff

Times of Israel, July 20, 2015

 

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended on Friday, signaling the start of Eid al-Fitr celebrations for Gaza’s inhabitants. The faithful fasted from dawn to dusk each day for a month in the heat of June and July, not knowing what the future held for the Gaza Strip. The members of Hamas did the same. They have received only a few hundred shekels instead of their full salaries for the past four months because of Hamas’s financial hardship. Full salaries are supposed to be paid out this month due to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to resume transferring grants from Iran in light of his agreement with the P5+1.

 

Yet despite the hunger, heat and financial hardship, the hundreds of workers digging tunnels under the Israeli border, inside the Gaza Strip and on the Egyptian border, kept on with their labor. That they worked at a slower pace was not because of the fast. Hundreds of Palestinians, members of Hamas, continued building the network, including new attack tunnels to reach Israel in the next war and smuggling tunnels to Sinai. The problem they have encountered over the past few weeks, causing a slowdown in the pace of digging, is a severe shortage of some of the materials critically important for the tunnel industry.

 

Quite a few reports on these tunnels have been published recently in both Israeli and Hamas media. Some in the Israeli defense establishment have a working assumption that, a year after Operation Protective Edge, it is likely that Hamas already has one or more tunnels crossing the border fence and reaching inside Israel. Hamas’s intense focus on its tunnel project can only bolster this assumption. Hamas is putting an enormous amount of effort, personnel and money into digging with heavy engineering equipment.

 

So what has been delaying progress in the digging on the Gazan side lately? Mainly Israel’s discovery that material vital to the tunnel industry is being smuggled from Israel into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Some of it is dual-use material, some material illegal for import that was hidden in aboveboard supply deliveries.

 

Excavating tunnels requires — along with working hands and some shovels — steel cables. Tons of steel cables. And engines, pulley blocks, batteries, concrete or wooden panels, metal pallets and various chemicals. The manufacture of rockets, meanwhile, requires electrodes, explosive materials and rocket fuel, among other things. Hamas was managing to smuggle all those things into the Gaza Strip until fairly recently — not through tunnels from Sinai or by sea, but from Israel via Kerem Shalom.

 

Egypt’s intensive anti-smuggling effort on the border with Gaza and at sea off the coast of Rafah had led Hamas to search for other ways to continue supplying its military industry and its military wing in general. One of the solutions Hamas found was to smuggle in various materials and dual-use items from Israel. The items it required could seem like innocent components of civilian equipment, but could easily be repurposed for arms manufacture and for digging tunnels. So Hamas set up an entire hierarchy of funds and personnel for purchasing and acquisition in Israel and the West Bank. This apparatus receives orders from all of Hamas’s various departments: the military wing, of course, and military outposts, installations, tunnels and arms-manufacturing plants.

 

Hamas also set up a network of Palestinian merchants in Gaza to buy the goods; some know nothing of their role in the organization while others are well aware of it. Their job is to supply Hamas indirectly or directly with everything it needs: electronics and communications equipment, construction materials and anything else. This network of merchants works directly with Israeli merchants, who receive orders from them which appear completely innocent. One example is refrigerator motors, which the tunnel excavators can put to their own use. The Israeli merchants might also receive an order for wooden pallets, which were brought into Gaza in large numbers until somebody figured out that they were being used to replace the concrete walls in the tunnels.

 

A series of recent inspections and seizures at the Kerem Shalom border crossing uncovered an attempt to smuggle enough rocket fuel for 4,480 20-kilometer-range rockets. The fuel had been concealed in bags containing a different material. In another case, also at a border crossing to Gaza, one ton of “solidifying material,” an ingredient used in rocket production, was seized. The amount discovered was enough for 50 80-kilometer-range rockets.

 

Electrodes, supposedly a simple item used in industry and construction, became one of the most vital components in Hamas’s rocket-production industry. Thousands of electrodes were seized on their way to Gaza — and the source, of course, was Israel and the West Bank. In one case, Hamas used a butter-production facility in Ramallah, hiding electrodes inside butter containers bound for the Gaza Strip. Another original smuggling method was to conceal electrodes in marble slabs from Hebron’s marble industry. These, too, were discovered at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

 

The discoveries gave rise to a debate in Israel’s defense establishment: What to do? Do we stop the transfer of goods into Gaza in order to strike at Hamas’s ability to manufacture arms for use against Israel — an act that would increase the hardship in Gaza and increase the risk of a conflict? Or do we continue allowing products to flow into Gaza, with the understanding that there will be a military price to pay? For now, the transfer of goods is continuing, and at great intensity. Roughly 600 enormous trucks filled with goods from Israel enter the Gaza Strip every day. But at the same time, the defense establishment has heightened its efforts to prevent those dual-purpose materials from getting into the Strip. Wooden pallets are no longer allowed in, leading Hamas to begin chopping down trees in Gaza and taking over civilian wood factories…

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

                                                                       

Contents                                                                                      

   

WHO IS DESTROYING THE PALESTINIAN DREAM?                                                            

Khaled Abu Toameh

Gatestone Institute, Aug. 3, 2015

 

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which Palestinians hope will one day become part of a future Palestinian state, is quickly sliding toward anarchy and chaos. Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Hamas has maintained a tight grip on the area, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians. But now Hamas's totalitarian rule over the Gaza Strip seems to be nearing its end, as the Islamist movement faces increased challenges from various militias and groups in the area.

 

Some of Hamas's rivals belong to more radical terror groups such as the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda-affiliated militias created by salafi-jihadis inside the Gaza Strip. Others belong to the secular Fatah faction, whose members continue to dream of the day when they will be able to topple the Hamas regime and regain control over the Gaza Strip. The radical Islamist terror groups are seeking to overthrow Hamas because they believe that the movement is too "soft" when it comes to implementing sharia laws and fighting against Israel. The goal of these groups is to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Gaza Strip and wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

 

In a recent video posted on the Internet, the Islamic State announced that its men would soon reach the Gaza Strip and remove the Hamas "tyrants" from power. "By Allah's will, we will uproot the state of the Jews and you [Hamas] and others will vanish as the Gaza Strip will be ruled by sharia whether you like it or not," warned a masked spokesman for the Islamic State.

 

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip say that the Islamic State has managed over the past few months to recruit hundreds of young men to its ranks. According to the sources, most of the men who joined the Islamic State are former members of the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in addition to a number of disgruntled Fatah militiamen who are unhappy with the policies of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the leader of its Fatah movement, Mahmoud Abbas — especially his declared opposition to terror attacks against Israel. Late last year, a salafi-jihadi militia in the Gaza Strip pledged allegiance to Islamic State, posing yet another major challenge to Hamas.

 

Until recently, Hamas leaders used to boast about their movement's success in restoring law and order after years of anarchy and lawlessness under the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. But the "utopia" that Hamas claims to have created is facing an existential threat, as the Gaza Strip witnesses a sharp increase in internal violence. Some Palestinians are even beginning to wonder whether Hamas has already lost control over the entire Gaza Strip. The violence reached its peak last week when a series of simultaneous explosions rocked the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. The explosions targeted the cars of six senior commanders of the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. No casualties were reported.

 

The latest bombings are considered a severe blow to Hamas, particularly in light of the fact that they occurred in an area heavily guarded by its security forces. Some reports suggested that the Islamic State was behind the attacks, which came as a shock to Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in the Gaza Strip. A number of Hamas officials said they did not rule out the possibility that Fatah members were behind the explosions. The officials claim that Fatah has an interest in showing the world that Hamas is not in control of the situation in the Gaza Strip. In the past, Hamas accused Fatah of being behind another wave of bombings that also targeted its men in the Gaza Strip.

 

In public, however, Hamas leaders do not like to admit that their movement is also being challenged by supporters of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda inside the Gaza Strip. For these leaders, it is more convenient to blame "Israeli occupation" for the violence, on the pretext that Israel is the only party interested in removing Hamas from power. This claim, however, has proven to be untrue in wake of public threats by various Palestinian groups against Hamas. The attempt to lay the blame at Israel's door reflects the growing anxiety of the Hamas leadership, which has stubbornly and consistently denied the existence of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terrorists inside the Gaza Strip.

 

Here is what Ismail al-Ashqar, a top Hamas official, had to say about the latest bombings: "Gaza shall remain secure and calm and stable, and there will be no return to the previous state of anarchy as the occupation and its collaborators wish. The Israeli occupation is fully responsible for the explosions." Ashqar acknowledged that relations between his movement and Fatah were "very bad and tense," especially in the aftermath of the Palestinian Authority's recent crackdown on Hamas men in the West Bank. In recent weeks, according to Palestinian sources, PA security forces in the West Bank have arrested more than 250 Hamas men, on suspicion that they were plotting to undermine President Mahmoud Abbas's regime.

 

The confrontation between Hamas and its rivals inside the Gaza Strip is likely to escalate in the coming weeks and months. Hamas now has so many enemies inside the Gaza Strip that to combat them, it would have to step up its repressive measures. These measures, however, will only lead to more retaliatory attacks by anti-Hamas forces, and plunge the Gaza Strip into a state of increased anarchy and chaos. Many Palestinians are worried that the Gaza Strip will sooner or later fall into the hands of Islamic State or Al-Qaeda…                                                                                                                                                  

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.] 

 

Contents                                                                          

                                                             

WHY EMPOWER IRAN?                                                                                          

Alex Joffe                                                                                                                                                   

Times of Israel, Aug. 3, 2015

 

Unless the US Congress votes in opposition, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal with Iran with go through. What really happened and why did it happen the way it did? What happened is gradually becoming clear. It is revealed daily just how horrendous the deal really is. On every point — enrichment, centrifuges, stocks of fissile material, inspections, sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members and businesses, "snapback," etc. — the Obama administration caved completely.

 

Concessions on ballistic missiles and arms sales were thrown in at the last minute; the administration lied about it all, while Iran touted its victories and American capitulation. All this went on amidst a background of Iranian chants of "death to Israel" and "death to America," which entered not at all into American calculations. Iran is thus empowered; it will shortly be gigantically richer, its proxies strengthened, its nuclear program at best slowed but fundamentally unimpeded, and its missile and terror programs shifted into overdrive. But why this occurred is unclear. Clownish performance by the chief negotiator, Secretary of State John Kerry, a man driven equally by incompetence, ego, and pacifism, has long been the norm. But otherwise competent functionaries like Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz were dragged into negotiating and defending the deal. They have been no less implausible.

 

But their presence, along with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, previously the midwife of the North Korean nuclear program, suggests the process was directed from the top. In contrast, the defense establishment was written out; protests by General Martin Dempsey, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as retired leaders like Defense Intelligence Agency head General Michael Flynn and NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis, fell on deaf ears in the administration and have been ignored by a compliant media.

 

Three factors suggest why President Obama himself effectively guided the negotiations to this point. As with various other administration scandals — think the IRS targeting of conservative and pro-Israel groups, or the Justice Department's eavesdropping of reporters — it was not necessary for him to make every decision, only to set a tone that was interpreted by underlings. What then were the strategic goals that Obama established? First was American withdrawal from the Middle East and to diminish the possibility of a return to a Pax Americana. Withdrawal from Iraq was a stated campaign goal that was accomplished, and is now being slowly reversed as the threat of ISIS grows. American forces remain in Afghanistan to confront a growing Taliban threat. In both cases the number of troops will be deliberately inadequate to directly confront threats…

 

A perverse pacifism is also at work. "There is no military solution" and "Ideologies are not defeated with guns" are pacifist mantras, repeated at the very top and used to avoid use of force, or the support of others using force, in Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria. This pacifist, non-interventionist policy is nominally offset by the administration's machismo; the never ending reminders about killing Bin Laden, the continued leaks and sympathetic press accounts regarding the president's involvement in approving targets for drone attacks and special forces raids, and the much-vaunted, but little seen, "pivot to Asia." But these narratives do not offset the reality that conventional forces, of the sort necessary, say, to fight ISIS in Syria, will never deployed, no matter how many Christians and Yazidis are kidnapped or killed. And despite utterances that a military option was "on the table," it seems inconceivable that the administration ever contemplated using force against Iran.

 

But there are deeper reasons for the outreach to Iran. Some have suggested that the long-term Obama policy, from at least 2008, has been to reintegrate Iran into the Middle East, putting it on the path to becoming a "very successful regional power," as Obama put it, against an even longer term bet that moderate forces will become ascendant…

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

 

                                                                       

Contents                                                                                     

           

                                                                           

 

On Topic

                                                                                                        

Ex-Congressman Allen West Explodes Over Iran Deal During Fiery and Emotional Times Square Speech (Video): Youtube, July 23, 2015

Hamas Calls For Suicide Attacks As Israelis Express Revulsion Over Jewish Terror: IPT News, Aug. 4, 2015—Hamas is calling for the resumption of suicide bombings targeting Israelis in the wake of Friday's arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler. Israeli extremists, perhaps from a nearby illegal settlement outpost, are suspected in the attack.

The Palestinian Leadership’s Regression in the Peace Process: Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, JCPA, July 1, 2015 —Dr. Saeb Erekat, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the Palestinian negotiating team, published a new position paper on June 18 that   includes a set of recommendations for the Palestinian leadership.

Gaza War One Year On: 'The World Does Not Understand the Dimensions of Israel's Conflict With Hamas': Janet Svirzenski, International Business Times, July 7, 2015—I live in Kibbutz Nir Yizthak, four miles from the Gaza border, where I have been for 18 years and my husband for 26. When I first moved here, we used to have 25 Palestinians from Gaza working in the kibbutz as electricians or in the fields. We heard about their children and they knew ours.

 

 

                                                                      

 

              

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