Would a weak Hamas or no Hamas rise in Gaza?

In a series of blows during the past 24 hours, the most severe since the Israel Defense Forces operation began in the Gaza Strip some 20 days ago, Hamas was brought very close to surrender.

It is unlikely that we will see white flags, because the group recognizes that this would have a devastating effect on its image. But the Israeli military pressure has destroyed most of the Palestinian defenses in the heart of Gaza City, a day after the group had to agree in principle to the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire a deal it is not very happy with.

At the start of the fighting, there was talk in the IDF of a Hamas division, trained and funded by Iran, ready to confront an invasion of the Gaza Strip. This division evaporated and it is doubtful whether it ever existed.

The situation as of last night was as follows: Said Sayyam and Salah Abu Shreich, two senior Hamas figures, were killed in an air strike in Jabaliya. The home of another Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, is surrounded. Infantry, armor and special forces are operating in the center of the city, very close to the Hamas “security quarter” southwest of the city, where most of the command and control centers of the group are situated.

Even in the center of the city, Hamas gunmen are opting to avoid direct encounters with the IDF. In most cases they are choosing to escape along with thousands of civilians. The Hamas announcement in Cairo two days ago began the countdown toward a cease-fire.

The head of the political-security bureau at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, delivered a positive message to Egypt regarding Cairo’s cease-fire initiative. Israel’s “kitchen-cabinet” still deliberated late into the night, where the Ehud Barak-Tzipi Livni alliance grew tighter in an effort to block the last minute warlike urge of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to continue the offensive.

Source: Haaretz

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

Will there be an end to rockets on Israel

There are almost as many pedestrians as journalists in the centre of the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

Taxi driver Eli Atiya, 35, says business has been terrible for most of the 19 days of Israel’s operation in Gaza, but has recently picked up a little.

Schools have reopened and locals have begun venturing further from the concrete shelters which protect them from the Palestinian rockets and mortars that have plagued the town in recent years.

As the Israeli military has pounded Gaza, the daily barrage fired into Israel has been reduced, but not stopped.

“If the Qassams keep coming, it was all for nothing,” says Mr Atiya.

When the operation began, about 10 rockets a day fell on the small town, but for the past week the total has been two or three.

None of the four people killed by rockets in the past three weeks have been in Sderot, but three people in the town have been injured and about 100 Qassams have caused serious damage.

Similar views

Sderot’s population is about 20,000, although no-one is sure exactly how many have left to escape the rockets. Those remaining are partly traumatised, partly resigned.

Most have similar views.

They welcomed the military operation and they had waited eight years for successive governments to act decisively against the rocket fire.

They want the Israeli military to fight on until the rockets stop completely.

They feel sorry for Palestinian civilians who are suffering, but say Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, is largely to blame for putting them in the firing line.

Accountant Shaula Hoffy, 54, is typical when she says it is “not yet” time for Israel to halt its operation.

“As long as Hamas are still firing rockets, they have not been weakened,” she says as she waits for a haircut.

Source: BBC News

Filed under: Analysis, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Israel, Kassam Rockets, Media, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Sderot, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal

The Media War in Gaza

The arrival of Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, at the Israeli border town of Sderot on Sunday caused a minor sensation among the members of the foreign press who were camped out there. Wurzelbacher, who got his first 15 minutes of fame as a prop for John McCain during last year’s U.S. election campaign, has swapped his plunger for a reporter’s notebook on a mission to cover the Gaza war for the conservative website Pajamas TV. Unable to see much of the fighting himself, Wurzelbacher — who during the election campaign warned that a vote for Barack Obama was a vote for the destruction of Israel — picked a fight of his own. Turning on his new colleagues in the foreign press corps, he groused, “You should be ashamed of yourself. You should be patriotic, protect your family and children, not report like you have been doing for the past two weeks since this war has started.” His complaint, it seemed, was that he was seeing too many reports of civilian casualties inside Gaza.

But the reality is that Western reporters have done little reporting from the front lines of this latest phase of the world’s most reported conflict. Barred by Israel from entering Gaza even before the firing started, most foreign reporters can only get near the war zone by chasing down the occasional rocket sent by Hamas into Israel. Still, the press has once again found itself caught in a different kind of cross fire: the propaganda battle, across all media platforms, between Israel and Hamas (and the supporters of each) for international sympathy. And the reason Joe the Plumber is angry is that, despite (and perhaps also because of) Israel’s overwhelming military superiority, the Jewish state is losing on the propaganda front.

The Israeli government’s media operations are the most sophisticated in the region, and its extensively planned hasbara campaign of public advocacy swung into high gear almost as soon as the current offensive began. Israel and its advocates are stressing a broad theme to frame the conflict — rocket fire from Gaza is an existential threat from which Israel has a right to defend itself, they argue — and they are seeking to limit reporting on civilian suffering in Gaza by challenging how much time or space media outlets devote to such images and by emphasizing the great care being taken by Israeli soldiers to avoid hurting the civilians behind whom Israel’s enemies are hiding.

Source: Time

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

US Afghan tribe plan ‘is risky’

Afghanistan’s ambassador to the US, Said Jawad, has said a US-backed plan to form local tribal groups to help combat the insurgency is very risky.

The US hopes groups similar to those that have had success in Iraq will counter the growing insurgency and the lack of security forces.

But Mr Jawad told the BBC the plan could backfire.

He said it could undermine state institutions and actually strengthen warlords and criminals.

Mr Jawad is the latest Afghan official to publicly raise concerns about the US-backed plan.

“In order to gain a short-term term victory we might be in danger of losing the long-term objective of building state institutions,” he said.

Mr Jawad said that Afghanistan’s traditional tribal structures had been undermined by three decades of conflict.

He said if the plan was not properly managed it could strengthen the warlords and criminals.

The plan has revived memories of the militias formed in the 1980s by Afghanistan’s Communist government. They later became involved in factional warfare.

But the US ambassador to Kabul, William Wood, said the plan, which is due to be tried out in Wardak province near Kabul, was not a re-creation of those tribal militias.

He said the groups would not be armed by the Americans, but receive training, clothing and military back-up.

The governor of Wardak says the plan is still being discussed and the groups will be involved in things such a reconstruction as well as security.

But critics say the groups will have to have weapons to be effective and are wondering where those arms will come from.

Source: BBC News

Filed under: Asia, Afghanistan, German, Kabul, Taleban, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.S.A, War

Arab world ‘deeply split’ on Gaza

Arab foreign ministers who met in Kuwait yesterday approved a draft resolution calling for an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip and warned that they would go back to the UN Security Council resolution if the aggression does not stop.

The ministers, who met to discuss the situation in Gaza, approved a proposal calling on Arab countries to “pledge financial aid for Gaza reconstruction estimated to cost $2 billion” and another $500 million of extra aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Most Arab foreign ministers attended the meeting, but several countries were represented at a lower level and Syria boycotted the meeting as its ambassador Faisal Al-Meqdad said the boycott came because the meeting was too late.

But he confirmed that President Bashar Al-Assad will attend the Arab summit scheduled in Kuwait on Monday. Assad was in Doha attending another Arab emergency summit called by Qatar.

The ministers issued a final statement which called for exerting all necessary efforts to force Israel to stop its aggression on Palestinians in Gaza Strip.

They also decided to keep the meeting open to follow up developments in Gaza, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told a press conference.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa admitted that inter-Arab relations reached a new low, insisting that “there is a big chaos in the Arab world that makes the duty of the secretary general very difficult”. “I am not optimistic about the future of Arab joint action in the coming period and this will be discussed at the Arab summit in Kuwait,” Moussa said.

He also said that the summit in Doha was held outside the umbrella of the Arab League although the League will not be against its decisions. “But this is an indication for destruction and chaos in the inter-Arab relations and this is not healthy,” said Moussa who warned that such relations could worsen further in the coming months.

The Arab foreign ministers’ meeting was expected to conclude in two hours but it continued for most of the day. The ministers reviewed actions that Arab countries should take after the Israeli rejection of the UN Security Council resolution that called for ceasefire.

Saud said that differences among Arab countries are not taking place for the first time and hoped that it will not have serious negative consequences. He also proposed the setting up of an Arab fund for the rebuilding of Gaza which has been battered by the Israeli onslaught.

Prince Saud warned that if the war in Gaza does not stop, it will have “serious and far-reaching implications” and called for supporting the Egyptian initiative for a truce..

Source: Kuwait Times

Filed under: MidEast, Arab, Egypt, Gaza, Gaza strip, Hamas, IAF, IDF, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kassam Rockets, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Middle East, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Qassam Rockets, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal

Two die in Kabul suicide attack

A suicide car bombing near an American military base in the Afghan capital Kabul has killed at least two people, including a child, officials say.

The US military initially said two soldiers had been killed, but later corrected the report to say five soldiers were among the injured.

The attack was carried out on a small road between US base Camp Eggers and the German embassy.

A fuel tanker and several cars were burning as the injured were taken away.

The BBC’s Martin Patience in Kabul says an eyewitness saw a suicide car bomber launch the attack.

The Taleban have reportedly claimed responsibility for Saturday morning’s blast in the central district of Wazir Akbar Khan.

Early reports said two US soldiers had died and four US soldiers had received non-life threatening injuries from shattered glass and debris, and that parts of the embassy had caught fire.

However, the military spokesman later said that toll was based on information which had not been verified and that no soldiers had died.

The US base is the headquarters for soldiers training Afghan police and army forces.

Dozens of armed Afghan security personnel guard the narrow street and blast walls of concrete and sand-filled mesh-wire boxes line the road.

Reuters news agency reported that relatives of the dead had gathered outside a nearby hospital.

A middle-aged woman was beating her head and screaming that her son had died and another man was crying, saying his son had also been killed.

Despite the heavy security in the district, which houses many embassies and offices of international organisations, the district has been attacked before.

In November, four Afghans died in another blast nearby, outside the American embassy.

The militants’ influence has spread from their traditional heartlands in the south and east to areas closer to the capital.

But our correspondent says that with increased police checkpoints throughout the city, there were fewer attacks inside Kabul in 2008 than in the previous year.

US President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to make Afghanistan a foreign policy priority after he comes to office on Tuesday and is expected to approve the doubling of US troops in the country from the 30,000 at present.

Source: BBC News

Filed under: Asia, Afghanistan, German, Germany, Kabul, Taleban, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.S.A, War

ICRC fear for Sri Lanka Tamil civilians

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says that intense fighting in northern Sri Lanka has caused a “massive displacement” of civilians.

It says thousands of people trapped inside rebel-held territory have had to flee several times in recent months.

An ICRC official, Paul Castella, told the BBC that fighting had stopped relief supplies being delivered to rebel-held areas for nearly a week.

He said that there were serious concerns about a lack of food.

A Sri Lankan military spokesman insisted a supply convoy had been sent to the rebel-held territory and that there were adequate stocks of food.

The ICRC said it was “extremely concerned” no safe escape route had been agreed.

“This has put at risk the lives of patients who cannot receive suitable treatment on the spot and therefore need to be transferred to Vavuniya hospital, in government-controlled territory,” the ICRC said in a statement.

It said that civilians who had already been forced to move numerous times were increasingly seeking the safety of government-controlled areas.

On Wednesday, the defence ministry said that a total of 1,707 people had crossed over to government-held areas in the first two weeks of January and were given emergency relief supplies.

“Repeated displacements, often involving the loss of their personal belongings, have taken a toll,” said Mr Castella.

The ICRC says that thousands of displaced civilians are now concentrated in an area so small that there are “serious concerns for their physical safety and living conditions, in particular in terms of hygiene”.

The organisation is one of the few international relief agencies allowed to operate in rebel-held areas.

The government said this week it was fully prepared to handle “the mass exodus of civilians” the fighting with the rebels might cause.

A massive offensive by Sri Lankan troops in recent weeks has left Tamil Tiger rebels surrounded in their last remaining stronghold – the north-eastern coastal town of Mullaitivu.

Source: 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, War

The loyalty of Israeli Arabs are towards…

“We are in a very difficult position,” the woman told me. And then she burst into tears.

We are at a political rally held in this northern city to oppose the war in Gaza. Around us protesters held banners and chanted slogans.

Nearly all of them were Israeli Arabs, including my sobbing interviewee.

“We are citizens of Israel,” she said, “but we are Palestinian. Emotionally, we are part of the people in Gaza.”

She started crying again, and then explained why she had found the past two weeks so difficult.

“At the street, or at the supermarket, people are supporting the killing of children. And we are living among these people.”

The people she lives among are, of course, Israel’s Jewish majority.

The relationship between the two communities has been under severe strain since the death toll in Gaza started climbing.

“They say there is co-existence,” another protester told me.

“But how can we co-exist when Israeli people are saying the army should carry on, no matter that people are dying?”

A young man sporting a keffiyeh, the Palestinian scarf, is one of several who goes further, and voices sympathy for Israel’s arch-enemy, Hamas.

“Hamas is struggling for the Palestinian people. I’m not supporting everything they do. But I’m supporting the struggle.”

It marks a radical departure to hear sentiments like this shouted on Israeli streets.

Security threat?

Despite the appalling history of bloodshed between Jews and Palestinians in this part of the world, very few Israeli Arabs have ever taken up arms against the state, or openly supported those who do.

Israeli Arabs have tended to work within the law here, to fight for their rights, and to improve their lives.

But conservative Israeli politicians are warning that Israeli Arabs now represent a “fifth column” that threatens the country’s security.

Source: BBC News

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