The unfair fight by Hamas

Hamas shows indifference to any ‘rules’ of war. And reportage has failed to keep pace with the Islamists’ innovation.

Amid all the international criticism of Israel’s fighting tactics in Gaza these past few days, from the gentle to the hysterical, from the supercilious chiding about disproportionate response to the vicious Nazi comparisons, one prominent aspect has curiously escaped marked comment.

Israel is bombing mosques in Gaza. Six of them and counting.

In recent years, the purported disrespect for Islam displayed in the writings of authors such as Salman Rushdie has been sufficient to provoke death sentences and mass rallies. The dissemination of Danish cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad, one of which showed the prophet with a bomb in his headdress in an artistic critique of the hijacking of Islam by extremists, prompted violent demonstrations around the world that rather underlined the cartoonists’ point.

But today, with Gaza mosque after mosque targeted by the Israel Air Force, this unprecedented assault on Islamic places of worship has passed without particular hysteria.

Part of the reason is that critics and protesters are focusing on Israel’s broader “crime” of trying to defend its civilians against ever deeper and more devastating Hamas rocket attacks. But still, the repeated direction of Jewish fire-power into Islam’s places of worship, one might have assumed, would inflame the Arab world and its supporters into an orgy of anti-Israel fury.

As of this writing, that hasn’t happened.

And it hasn’t happened because the Islamists know they’ve been found out.

In a terrible incident on Tuesday, Israel hit an UNRWA school, and in the subsequent explosions a reported 40-plus people were killed, many of them civilians.

Source: By David Horovitz Jerusalem Post

Filed under: Analysis, Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Lebanon, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

The Ordeal of Gaza survivors

Sameh, aged three, and Ahmad, 18 months, cry all the time.

As she sits on the bed in al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, their mother Fatima al-Shamouny, 36, tries to comfort them.

But as she tells their – and her own – story, she sobs too.

The boys were found on Wednesday, with their dead father and unconscious mother nearby, four days after the emergency services said they began trying to reach the neighbourhood.

They were among 30 people Palestinian Red Crescent workers said they evacuated from Zeitoun, a south-eastern suburb of Gaza City, on Wednesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the paramedics found “shocking” scenes of wounded people huddled together in houses among dead bodies, weak after having had no food or water for several days.
Map

In one home, the agency said, four small children were found sitting close to their dead mothers, “too weak to stand on their own”.

It is not clear if Sameh and Ahmad were in that particular house – it may be that the unconscious Fatima was initially thought to be dead – but she says she and her toddlers were among those who had a long wait for help.

Survivors’ accounts

The ICRC has accused the Israeli military of failing to live up to its obligations under international law to facilitate the evacuation or to care for the wounded.

The agency said it had been requesting safe passage for its ambulances to access the neighbourhood since 3 January, but only received permission to do so from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) four days later.

Source: By Rushdie Aboualaf BBC News

Filed under: Voice, Aid, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

Obama is ‘prepared to talk to Hamas’

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush’s doctrine of isolating Hamas by initiating contact with the terror organization, The Guardian quoted sources close to the transition team as saying.

“This is going to be an administration that is committed to negotiating with critical parties on critical issues,” one source reportedly said.

The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the report.

On Friday, the British newspaper reported that three people with knowledge of discussions held in the Obama camp said that while the president-elect will not approve direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, his advisers are urging him to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, in light of the growing recognition in Washington that ostracizing the terror group is counter-productive policy.

The US state department designated Hamas a terrorist organization, and in 2006 Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group. Therefore, if the US opens contacts with Hamas under the Obama administration, it would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency’s ostracizing of the terror group.

The US intelligence services could initiate clandestine contacts with Hamas, similarly to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.

“Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches. The total isolation of Hamas that we promulgated under Bush is going to end,” Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, was quoted as saying.

“You could do something through the Europeans. You could invent a structure that is multilateral. It is going to be hard for the neocons to swallow,” he said. “I think it is going to happen.”

Source: Jerusalem Post

Filed under: Analysis, Barack Obama, Ceasefire, Gaza strip, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, The Terror Journal, U.S.A

Aggressive tactics in Gaza to save soldiers

The incident in which some 40 Palestinian civilians were killed when Israel Defense Forces mortar shells hit an UNRWA school in the Jabalya refugee camp Tuesday surprised no one who has been following events in Gaza in recent days. Senior officers admit that the IDF has been using enormous firepower.

“For us, being cautious means being aggressive,” explained one. “From the minute we entered, we’ve acted like we’re at war. That creates enormous damage on the ground … I just hope those who have fled the area of Gaza City in which we are operating will describe the shock. Maybe someone there will sober up before it continues.”

What the officer did not say explicitly was that this is deliberate policy. Following the trauma of the war in Lebanon in 2006, the army realized that heavy IDF casualties would erode public (and especially political) support for the war and limit its ability to achieve its goals. Therefore, it is using aggressive tactics to save soldiers’ lives. And the cabinet took this into account when it approved the ground operation last Friday, so it has no reason to change its mind now.

Nor is it likely that Tuesday’s incident, with its large number of civilian deaths, will result in an immediate cease-fire. Civilian deaths increase international pressure for a cease-fire and so the incident will probably bring the end of the war closer. Nevertheless, the Second Lebanon War continued for weeks following a similar incident at Kana.

Source: By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Haaretz

Filed under: Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Lebanon, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

The anti-Israel lobby

Foreign Policy’s website editors have decided to have Prof. Stephen Walt – of the notoriously-miserable book The Israel Lobby – come on as a regular blogger. For those expecting Walt to dive immediately into the one topic that makes him tick – his distaste for Israel – the professor didn’t disappoint. In a ridiculous “thought experiment” Walt opened his blog by trying to prove, yet again, that U.S.’s Israel-policy is hypocritical and harmful:

Imagine that Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had won the Six Day War, leading to a massive exodus of Jews from the territory of Israel. Imagine that the victorious Arab states had eventually decided to permit the Palestinians to establish a state of their own on the territory of the former Jewish state. (That’s unlikely, of course, but this is a thought experiment). Imagine that a million or so Jews had ended up as stateless refugees confined to that narrow enclave known as the Gaza Strip. Then imagine that a group of hardline Orthodox Jews took over control of that territory and organized a resistance movement.

We already know from his book, co-authored with John Mearsheimer, that Walt has an active imagination. Luckily, Foreign Policy also has other writers capable of refuting Walt’s obsessive hostility and mocking his resourceful fixation on Israel as the country where most of the world’s problems originate. David Rothkopf does just that, responding to Walt’s “thought experiment” with one of his own:

You want a thought experiment? What if Palestinian “freedom fighters” indiscriminately launched missiles into Israel, failing to kill hundreds or thousands of innocent people only through ineptitude, and then they rushed back into densely populated civilian areas and hid behind women and children for cover? Of course, my thought experiment is even more worth thinking about for reasons that should starkly apparent to everyone, regardless of which lobby they may support.

Source: Shmuel Rosner Jerusalem Post

Filed under: Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.S.A, War

Is the end near for Sri Lanka’s LTTE?

The Sri Lankan army’s capture of Elephant Pass, the strategic causeway linking the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland, is arguably one of the military’s greatest successes over the past two decades of war.

It follows last week’s fall of the town of Kilinochchi – the rebel’s political and administrative centre – providing the government with two significant military and strategic breakthroughs within a fortnight.

It can also bask in the propaganda value of the army’s latest advance. Elephant Pass has already been described by those close to the government as “symbolic of the unity that exists between the north and the south of our country”.

The army can now re-supply its troops in the north by land instead of carrying out expensive and sometimes dangerous air and sea operations to avoid rebel territory.

On the face of it, President Mahindra Rajapaksa has fulfilled his election promise to defeat the Tamil Tigers and end their military campaign for a separate homeland in the north and east of the country for good.

But dig a little deeper and the matters become much more complicated.

Although the Tamil Tigers are unquestionably on the back foot, it would be dangerous to discount them as a spent force. They have proved time and time again over the past 20 years that they are a disciplined, organised and at times ruthless guerrilla outfit.

“The rebels began their separatist campaign in the late 1970s as a separatist guerrilla group so defeat on the battleground means that in many respects they are returning to their roots,” says Saroj Pathirana of the BBC Sinhala service.

Source: By Alastair Lawson BBC News

Filed under: Asia, Colombo, Elephant Pass, Guerrilla Group, Guerrilla war, LTTE, Mahindra Rajapaksa, Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka, Tamil, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.S.A, UK

Israel learned from its mistakes in Lebanon

At a Hanukkah candle-lighting at the Shin Bet security services headquarters two weeks ago, Yuval Diskin spoke with former heads of departments about the organization’s preparedness to confront Hamas. The head of the Shin Bet sounded quite cautious. Perhaps even he was surprised by the quality of the intelligence that he and his people had succeeded in providing the Israel Defense Forces during the months of planning that preceded Operation Cast Lead and in the days prior to its launch.

Even those who object to the war in the Gaza Strip will find it hard not to agree that this time around, the intelligence community mostly succeeded in delivering the goods. Seen in the light of the Second Lebanon War failures, these achievements are particularly impressive. Back in 2006, the strategic data provided by the intelligence community was deemed sound, as it allowed the air force to within 34 minutes destroy most of Hezbollah’s hideouts for its long-range rockets. But there were many shortcomings at the level of tactical intelligence, especially field intelligence. Even if Military Intelligence had had information about Hezbollah bunkers or outposts, this intel did not always succeed in reaching the forces in the field.

The Israel Defense Forces drew lessons from its failures, and this time, the fighters were better prepared. They are equipped with good intelligence measures and also have access to reliable information while in the field. The dissemination of intelligence is made possible by Shin Bet case officers, who work out of IDF command centers.

Source: By Yossi Melman Haaretz

Filed under: Analysis, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Lebanon, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War

Operation Cast Lead enters third week

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip for a 15th straight day on Saturday and militants from Hamas fired rockets back at Israel, both sides defying international efforts to put a stop to the conflict.

Eight Palestinians were killed by an Israeli tank shell in Jabalya in the north of the Gaza Strip, and an air strike on a house in nearby Beit Lahiya killed a woman, Palestinian medics said.

Concerned about the deepening impact of the war on Gaza’s 1.5 million people, more than half of whom depend on U.N. food assistance, the United Nations said it was hoping to resume full aid distribution on Saturday after receiving Israeli assurances that its staff would not be harmed.

Despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and Egyptian-European mediation efforts, Israel appeared set on pressing on with its offensive, designed to stop Hamas rocket fire. In response, Hamas fired more rockets.

“Israel is determined to deal with this matter until its positive conclusion, so that there is no terrorism in Gaza against Israel,” Rafi Eitan, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, told Israel Radio.

Senior Palestinian officials are in Egypt for talks on how to end the Gaza conflict, which began two weeks ago.

On the ground, Israeli troops are reported to have moved closer to the edge of Gaza City, though they have yet to go into the most densely populated areas.

Hamas fired more rockets at Israel on Saturday, a day after launching more than 30 of the missiles from Gaza, the Israeli military said. Two Israelis were injured by rockets in the Israeli town of Ashkelon.

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Friday some incidents reported during the fighting in Gaza might warrant prosecutions for war crimes.

“The vicious cycle of provocation and retribution must be brought to an end,” she told the human rights council.

Source:  Reuters/BBC

Filed under: MidEast, Aid, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Sderot, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, War

Hamas hits IAF base 27km from Tel Aviv

Hamas claims it hit an Israel Air Force base 27km from Tel Aviv

Hamas claimed on Friday that rockets it fired from the Gaza Strip struck the Israel Air Force base in Tel Nof.

Hamas’ military wing published comments on its Web site and aired statements on its Al-Aqsa television station saying they succeeded in striking their furthest target yet – the base of Tel Nof.

Tel Nof is located 27 kilometers from Tel Aviv, between Rehovot and Gdera, and serves as a squadron base for fighter jets and helicopters.

The Hamas report did not elaborate on the alleged attack.

Source: Haaretz

Filed under: MidEast, Aid, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Breaking News, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Katyusha Rockets, Middle East, News, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Sderot, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, War, World News

Palestinian media attacked by Israel in Gaza

Israeli air and artillery strikes continued in northern Gaza into the late evening, further targeting the homes and workplaces of several media outlets.

At eleven thirty Israeli tank fire destroyed the home of Palestinian journalist Ala Mortijar, killing him and injuring several others.

Earlier in the day an Israeli airstrike took out a building complex in Gaza city that housed the media and production studios of more than 20 media organizations including several international news agencies.

Shortly before midnight Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry Muawiyah Hassanain said that the death toll over two weeks of the Israeli offensive in Gaza was 801 with more than 3,500 injured.

The overnight some Gazans hoped a ceasefire would not be long off as the Arab League and Mahmoud Abbas worked in New York to push through a Security Council Resolution. The resolution passed but less than twelve hours the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza was passed another 29 Palestinians were confirmed dead as a result of the Israeli air and artillery strikes.

By mid-afternoon the Israeli cabinet adjourned and announced that the operation in Gaza would be “widened.”

Source: Maan News Agency

Filed under: MidEast, Aid, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, IAF, IDF, Israel, Middle East, News, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, War