Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

Media-ocrity of the Week: “…That peace is not an option for Israel was made abundantly clear by its swift escalation of the violence stemming from the abduction and murder of the three teenagers. Israel reacted to the June 12 abduction by immediately blaming Hamas, the militant group that had recently formed a unity government with Abbas’s Fatah party. Despite Israeli opposition, the U.S. supported the coalition, hoping that it would help return Israel to the peace table. Hamas has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murders…Ample evidence exists that Israeli authorities knew the three boys were dead within hours of their abduction…There is also evidence that Israeli intelligence knew by June 13 the identities of the killers, but kept the information secret so no one would question the claim that Hamas was responsible for the murders.”—William Marsden (Postmedia News, July 10, 2014)

IRAN: THE REGIONAL POWER BEHIND THE HAMAS WAR EFFORT

Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall

JCPA, July 15, 2014

Since the calm that was achieved after Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, Iran has been investing heavily in improving the quantity and quality of the rockets in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) arsenals. The breaching of the land border between Gaza and Sinai during Mohamed Morsi’s one year rule in Egypt (2012-2013) made it relatively easy for Iran to transfer advanced rockets and other weapons to the Gaza terror organizations overland (through Sudan and Sinai), through the ramified tunnel enterprise, and by sea. One such delivery by Iran – which included long-range Syrian-made M-302 rockets, the kind fired at Hadera and Haifa during Operation Protective Edge – was intercepted by the Israeli navy last March on the Klos-C ship. The Victoria, captured on 15 March 2011, also carried advanced weapons including shore-to-sea missiles.  Advanced Kornet anti-tank missiles have been smuggled in, as well.

Although the crisis in Syria indeed fostered tensions between Iran and Hamas, it did not end their contacts through various channels. In Iran’s view, the struggle against Israel transcends ongoing squabbles with Palestinian organizations. In the aftermath of the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense, Turkey and Egypt took most of the credit for aiding the Palestinians; this left Iran frustrated, but still determined to keep assisting the Palestinians in its own way, via military assistance. The aim was to preserve Hamas’s tie to Iran even in a time of crisis.

Iran made a critical and decisive contribution to Hamas’ technical knowledge by producing rockets of different kinds and sophisticated explosive charges. Iran also aided in the rehabilitation of the infrastructure damaged during Operations Cast Lead (2008) and Pillar of Defense, and they will most likely do the same following Operation Protective Edge. Unlike in the past, Iran did not try to hide the fact that it was helping Hamas and Islamic Jihad develop and advance their rocket arsenals and launching capabilities during the Pillar of Defense operation. The PIJ spokesmen indeed said, “The whole world knows that the main source of the weapons serving the resistance is Iran.”…                             

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

WEEKLY QUOTES

“Hamas chose to continue fighting and will pay the price for that decision,” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an evening address on Israeli TV. Netanyahu said that after Hamas’ rejection of a cease-fire, proposed by Egypt this week, Israel had “no choice” but to respond more forcefully. “When there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire,” he added. (National Post, July 15, 2014)

“The indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there is no justification. It is evident that Hamas is deliberately using human shields to further terror in the region,” —Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “Failure by the international community to condemn these reprehensible actions would encourage these terrorists to continue their appalling actions…Canada reiterates its call for the Palestinian government to disarm Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups operating in Gaza, including the Iranian proxy, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.” (Weekly Standard, July 13, 2014)

“We aren’t leading our people today to destruction. We are leading them to death.” —Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri. (Jewish Press, July 15, 2014)

“It is the Palestinians who are losing with every minute that this war continues,” —PA President Mahmoud Abbas, describing the victims in Gaza as “fuel to those who trade in war…I oppose these traders, on both sides,” he said. Abbas has blasted the Hamas leadership on two occasions this week for what he considers to be its irresponsible rocket attacks on Israel. The attacks, he said Friday night on a Hezbollah-connected television channel, incite Israel to fire on Gaza, killing innocent Palestinian civilians in the process. Hamas leaders denounced Abbas for his remarks, and tensions between the two sides, who three months ago agreed to a unity government after a seven-year rift, are said to be rising. (Globe & Mail, July 12, 2014)

“What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?” —Abbas, on Palestine TV. “We prefer to fight with wisdom and politics…It’s not important who wins or loses,” Abbas said. “What’s important is to end this bloodshed.” Abbas delivered his appeal to end the bloodshed just hours after Israel disclosed it was mobilizing 20,000 soldiers for a possible ground invasion. (National Post, July 10, 2014)

“If they launch a ground war, they will be shortening the path for us to kidnap many soldiers in order to make a deal to end the bloodshed and release the detainees as happened in the past,” —Fawzeh Barhoom, a Hamas spokesman, referring to the 2006 kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was held in Gaza for five years before his release in 2011 in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. (Telegraph, July 11, 2014)

“With utter disregard for international law, Israel continues to terrorize the region, and no country but us tells it to stop,” —Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, to members of his ruling AK Party at a speech in parliament on Tuesday. “No tyranny is everlasting, sooner or later every tyrant has to pay the price…This tyranny will not remain unaccounted for,” he added. Ankara was formerly Israel’s closest strategic ally in the region, but Erdogan has been increasingly vociferous in his criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in recent years. The rhetoric plays well with his largely conservative Sunni Muslim voter base, particularly as he campaigns to become Turkey’s first directly elected president in an Aug. 10 vote. (Yahoo, July 15, 2014)

“The media loves to count the dead bodies on each side of a conflict.  It’s much easier to count that to explain.  Hamas knows this.  That’s why they employ what has come to be known as “the dead baby strategy”… Here’s the way it works: Hamas deliberately fires its rockets from densely populated civilian areas, using hospitals, disability centers, mosques and schools as launching sites.  This puts Israel to the tragic choice of either allowing the rockets to endanger its civilians or to destroy the rocket launchers, thereby risking civilian casualties among Hamas’ human shields…Hamas could easily reduce the death and injury toll among its civilians, by simply allowing them to go underground into tunnels and shelters which abound throughout Gaza.  But Hamas has a deliberate policy of refusing to allow civilians to enter the tunnels or shelters.  They reserve these places of refuge for their fighters and commanders, which explains why so few Hamas fighters have been killed,” —Alan Dershowitz, retired law professor and frequent commentator on the Arab-Israeli conflict. (Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2014)   

“The effectiveness of Iron Dome is very, very high,” —Brig.-Gen. (res.) Dr. Danny Gold, who helped developed the Iron Dome defence system. “I’m not surprised, because if you study the system, you foresee a very high rate of success. I’ve put the numbers very high, and it reached the goal and got even better. And I don’t see any physical barriers to getting even better.” Iron Dome is already capable of intercepting almost all enemy rockets fired at Israel, and will continue to improve its accuracy, Gold said Monday. Iron Dome has become a crucial factor in Operation Protective Edge, as it was able to shoot down dozens of rockets from Gaza that would have otherwise fallen on inhabited areas. On Sunday alone, Iron Dome downed 22 missiles out of more than 130 launched in Israel’s direction. Originally said to address short to mid-range threats, described as between four and 70 kilometers, the system has since clearly expanded its range. (Times of Israel, July 14, 2014)

“Thank you Netanyahu and may God give us more [people] like you to destroy Hamas!” —Azza Sami, in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. Sisi’s Egypt has not forgiven Hamas for its alliance with Muslim Brotherhood and its involvement in terrorist attacks against Egyptian civilians and soldiers over the past year. The Egyptians today understand that Hamas and other radical Islamist groups pose a serious threat to their national security. That is why the Egyptian authorities have, over the past year, been taking tough security measures not only against Hamas, but also the entire population of the Gaza Strip. These measures include the destruction of dozens of smuggling tunnels along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization. (Jewish Press, July 13, 2014)

“Once, I was able to run into a shelter. But the second time, there was nothing around. I just threw myself on the grass, and covered my head,” —Naomi, 30, a resident of Sderot, a city in the southern district of Israel. As a social worker, Naomi sees many people – some of them teenagers – suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after years-long exposure to rockets and sirens. “My daughter is too scared to take a shower alone,” she says. Sderot is well known as the city of rockets, due to its proximity to the Gaza strip – its residents have suffered from hundreds of missiles launched in recent years. (Telegraph, July 9, 2014)

“I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at his Friday press conference. The priority right now, Netanyahu stressed, was to “take care of Hamas.” But the wider lesson of the current escalation was that Israel had to ensure that “we don’t get another Gaza in Judea and Samaria…If we were to pull out of Judea and Samaria, like they tell us to,” Netanyahu said, adding “there’d be a possibility of thousands of tunnels” being dug by terrorists to attack Israel. Naming both US Secretary of State John Kerry and his security adviser Gen. John Allen — who was charged by the secretary to draw up security proposals that the US argued could enable Israel to withdraw from most of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley — Netanyahu hammered home the point: Never mind what the outsiders recommend, “I told John Kerry and General Allen, the Americans’ expert, ‘We live here, I live here, I know what we need to ensure the security of Israel’s people.’” (Times of Israel, July 13, 2014)

SHORT TAKES

FIRST ISRAELI DEATH OF GAZA OPERATION AFTER HAMAS REJECTS CEASEFIRE (Jerusalem) —An attempt by Israel to enter into an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Hamas collapsed on Tuesday when Gazan terrorists continued to fire rocket barrages on the South, Center, and North. A fragment from a mortar shell killed an Israeli man, Dror Chanin, 37, of Beit Ariyeh at the Erez crossing to the northern Gaza Strip in the evening. Chanin had come as a civilian volunteer to distribute food to soldiers at Erez. He is the first Israeli to be killed by enemy fire during Operation Protective Edge. Many rockets targeted central and southern Israeli communities in the evening, setting off air raid sirens. Iron Dome air defense batteries intercepted projectiles headed for build-up areas. More than 105 rockets struck Israel throughout the day, and Iron Dome intercepted 25 that were targeting residential areas. In response, the IDF resumed air strikes on Hamas targets across the Strip, hitting some 30 targets in the span of minutes. (Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2014)

NETANYAHU FIRES DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER DANON FOR ATTACKING HIM (Jerusalem) —Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday attempted to silence his critics on the Right by firing his deputy defense minister, Danny Danon, from his own Likud Party. The decision came after Netanyahu was attacked all day long for his decision to accept an Egyptian- brokered cease-fire with Hamas. In addition to Danon, he faced sharp criticism from Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett, and other politicians inside the Likud. But Netanyahu’s associates said Danon had crossed a redline by saying on a visit to the South that Hamas had humiliated Israel and was once again setting conditions for Israel’s policies. (Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2014)

ISRAEL SHOOTS DOWN HAMAS DRONE (Tel Aviv) —Israel’s military said it shot down a drone along the country’s southern coast on Monday, marking the first time Hamas used such an aircraft in their weeklong confrontation with Israel. The drone took off from the Gaza Strip and was downed by a Patriot surface-to-air missile near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, the military said. “We had it in our sights the moment it took off, and we chose where to intercept it,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said. The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the drone and said it would continue its “surprises.” (Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2014)  

US SENATE ALLOCATES $351 MILLION FOR IRON DOME (Washington) —The Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee backed the Israeli Government request for $621.6 million in 2015 for Israeli missile defense programs in general, including $351 million allocated specifically for Iron Dome. The anti-missile defense system has been responsible for intercepting Hamas rockets fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel’s two largest cities, along with other cities in southern Israel. The Israeli army reports that as of July 15, since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge on July 7 more than a thousand rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. Iron Dome intercepted more than 145 rockets aimed at populated areas. (I24 News, July 15, 2014)

ISRAEL CHARGES SUSPECTED KILLERS OF PALESTINIAN TEEN (Jerusalem) — Israel charged three Jews Monday with the kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager, whose death sparked days of violent protests in Arab areas of Jerusalem and northern Israel. A Police spokesman  said the three suspects — a 29-year-old man and a pair of 17-year-olds — appeared before a court Monday and admitted to abducting 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Israel’s Shin Bet security service on Monday released the findings of its investigation into Abu Khdeir’s murder. During the investigation, the three admitted to abducting Abu Khdeir and setting him on fire, according to the security agency. (Fox News, July 14, 2014)

VIOLENT ANTI-JEWISH RIOTS ROCK PARIS (Paris) —Violent anti-Jewish riots in Paris on Sunday, sparked by Israel’s ongoing operation in Gaza, left Jews in the French capital fearing for their lives. One French Jewish activist warned: “French Jews are in serious danger.” An anti-Israel demonstration at the city’s Bastille Square quickly turned violent with protesters seeking out and attacking Jewish targets and screaming “death to the Jews” and “Hitler was right.” Signs in support of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood were on display, as well as a replica of a Palestinian rocket similar to those launched from Gaza at Israel in recent weeks. Hundreds of Parisian Jews were trapped in a synagogue while rioters threw stones and bricks. The group was initially thought to be held hostage and was freed to leave the center only after police intervention at 9 pm. A Jewish owned store on rue de la Roquette was trashed by 50 men with iron bars and a young man was hospitalized nearby. (Algemeiner, July 13, 2014)

AIRSTRIKE IN EASTERN UKRAINE KILLS 11 CIVILIANS (Snizhne) —An airstrike in eastern Ukraine sent an apartment building crumpling to the ground Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and adding to the steadily mounting civilian death toll from the fighting between government forces and pro-Russian insurgents. Rebels pinned the attack on the Ukrainian air force. The government swiftly denied blame but was not immediately able to offer an alternative explanation. The bombing in the rebel-held town of Snizhne demonstrated how airstrikes and heavy rocket fire are becoming increasingly common as the conflict drags into its fourth month. The attack comes one day after a Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down in disputed circumstances. No reliable official recent death toll has been produced, but hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed so far in the conflict. Authorities said Tuesday that 258 servicemen have been killed in fighting and 922 injured. (Washington Post, July 15, 2014)

SUICIDE CAR BOMBING AT AFGHANISTAN MARKET KILLS AT LEAST 89 (Paktika) —At least 89 people were killed and more than 40 were wounded Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a busy market and a mosque in the eastern part of the country. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing was the first major attack since a weekend deal between the two Afghan presidential contenders averted a dangerous rift in the troubled country. One of the two, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, told The Associated Press on Monday that he would meet his rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, on Tuesday to begin working out the framework for the next government. But violence has continued unabated in Afghanistan. The Paktika bombing took place hours after a roadside bomb ripped through a minivan carrying employees of the presidential palace in eastern Kabul, killing two passengers. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for that attack. (Fox News, July 15, 2014)

MILITARY UNABLE TO RETAKE TIKRIT AFTER RENEWED OFFENSIVE (Baghdad) —Iraqi forces have withdrawn from the Islamist-held northern Iraqi city of Tikrit after a new push to retake the city met heavy resistance. Government troops and allied Shia volunteer fighters were forced to retreat just before sunset on Tuesday to a base four kilometres south after coming under heavy mortar shelling and sniper fire, sources said. The attempt to retake Tikrit, which fell on June 12 to Sunni insurgents led by the militant Islamic State group, began two-and-a-half weeks ago. Tikrit lies 160 kilometres north of Baghdad. It is a stronghold of loyalists of the late dictator Saddam Hussein and ex-army officers who joined forces with Islamic State to take over large parts of north and west Iraq last month. (CBC, July 16, 2014)

HAMAS HACKERS TAKE OVER ISRAELI DOMINO’S PIZZA FACEBOOK PAGE (Jerusalem) —On Sunday, Hamas managed to take over a major Israeli website: Domino’s Pizza’s Facebook page. The hackers put up statuses such as “Today will strike deep in Israel, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Ashdod more than 2000 rockets. We’ll start at 7. Counting back towards the end of Israel … Be warned!” Responses included “Hey, please reserve a missile for me with jalapenos, green olives, extra cheese, and mushrooms. You have my address. Tell the delivery boy to activate the alarm when it is arriving, so I know to put my pants on.” (Algemeiner, July 13, 2014)

Rob Coles, Publications Editor, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research/L’institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme,   www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284. mailto:ber@isranet.wpsitie.com