Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

Download a pdf version of today’s Isranet Daily Briefing.pdf

 

 

On Topic Links 

 

IDF Eliminates Hamas Money Man (Video): Jewish Press, Aug. 24, 2014

Calling it a Day: Marissa Newman, Times of Israel, Aug. 27, 2014

Why Hamas Must Ultimately be Destroyed: Charles Bybelezer: Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2014

Obama Faces a Back-to-Work Challenge: David Ignatius, Washington Post, Aug. 26, 2014

 

 

“As long as Hamas controls Gaza, we won’t be able to ensure the safety of Israel’s citizens in the South and we won’t be able to make a peace agreement,” —Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, on his Facebook page. A day after Israel agreed to a cease-fire seemingly putting an end to Operation Protection Edge, Liberman said that Israel must not, under any circumstances, agree to a diplomatic deal with Hamas. Liberman said Hamas was neither a partner for a diplomatic agreement nor for a security agreement. “It is impossible and forbidden to trust lowly murderers. Therefore, we are against a cease-fire that allows Hamas to rearm and wage another battle against Israel whenever it finds it comfortable,” the foreign minister said. “A real peace process and a strategic breakthrough will only be possible after we succeed in freeing the Middle East and the Palestinians from the threat of Hamas (and no one else will do so in our place), “ he wrote. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 27, 2014)

 

“We will build and upgrade our arsenal to be ready for the coming battle, the battle of full liberation,” —Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, declared, surrounded by Hamas gunmen. Zahar also promised to rebuild homes destroyed in the war and said Hamas would rearm. Large crowds gathered in Gaza City after the truce took effect at dusk, some waving the green flags of Hamas, while celebratory gunfire and fireworks erupted across the territory. (Globe & Mail, Aug. 26, 2014)   

 

“If you read the Arab press, many of the commentators do not like it but they don’t dare to say (Sisi) is pro-Israel,” —Tzvi Mazel, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. In the Gaza conflict, while Egypt and Israel may not be brothers, they are certainly cousins with a joint interest in fighting Hamas, which controls the densely populated Gaza Strip. The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire has reinforced Egypt’s central position in the Arab world as the only country able to negotiate between Israel and Hamas. It will also likely solidify the position of Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh Al-Sisi, a former army chief, who had little experience in foreign policy before he was elected. Although Egyptian media have been virulently anti-Hamas during this conflict, Sisi runs the risk of being perceived as “pro-Israel.” “The Arab world is in a difficult position. People are more afraid of the [Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, ISIS] than anything else,” added Mazel. (National Post, Aug. 26, 2014)    

 

“Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields,” —letter from several Hollywood stars slamming Hamas over the “devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza.” The reported 187 signatories, who include Mayim Bialik, Minnie Driver, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Rogen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Silverman, and Sylvester Stallone, condemn the “ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas’ charter, Article 7 of which reads, ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!’” (Times of Israel, Aug. 23, 2014)

 

“I am giving this deadline today as I am ready to be martyred and I have taken the last bath today,” —Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, the Pakistani-Canadian cleric, whose supporters have overrun the government quarter of Islamabad in a protest against corruption. Waving a burial shroud, Qadri, 63, who has twice left a quiet life of retirement near Toronto for the roiling cauldron of Pakistani politics, set a 48-hour deadline for the resignation of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister. Failing that, Qadri told thousands of supporters his own life could be the price. “I’m calling on people from across the country to come out and reject this corrupt and undemocratic government,” he told the Sunday Times. “People saw what we could do before. This time we will not stop until the government is removed,” Qadri said, referring to the march he led last year, which ended with the arrest of the previous Prime Minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Barely a year after the first transfer of power between democratically elected governments in Pakistan’s independent modern history, Pakistanis are frustrated at Sharif’s rule, his failure to conquer the energy crisis, and his pursuit of General Pervez Musharraf in what the Financial Times said “looks like a personal vendetta.” Qadri has compared the moment to the Arab Spring. With his slogan that Pakistan’s “lawmakers are lawbreakers,” he returned to Pakistan in June, publicly declaring the government would not survive. Almost immediately, police and military stormed his headquarters in a confrontation that left 12 people dead and 80 injured, one of the rare moments of outright violence in his campaign, which he calls “an intellectual and spiritual war against extremism and terrorism.” (National Post, Aug. 25, 2014)

 

“The question is, if a people without guns, without any arms, if they have nothing to defend themselves, to whom comes the duty to defend them?” —Pope Francis’ envoy to Iraq, reinforcing the Vatican’s position that military force is justified when religious minorities are being attacked by Islamic extremists, and must be defended now and given international protection so they can return home. He added that “in my opinion, this is not a war when you have two actors facing each other with the same capacities. This is defending the right of defending these poor, simple people who are unable to defend themselves.” The Vatican’s position is significant because it often opposes military intervention on the basis of its overall peace message. This case is different, however because Christians are being directly targeted because of their faith, and Christian communities, which have existed for 2,000 years in Iraq, have been emptied as a result of the extremists’ onslaught. (U.S. News, Aug. 22, 2014)

 

“Given the onset of so many other armed conflicts in this period of global destabilization, the fighting in Syria and its dreadful impact on millions of civilians has dropped off the international radar,” —United Nations human rights agency chief, Navi Pillay, bluntly criticizing Western nations, saying their inaction in the face of the slaughter had “empowered and emboldened” the killers. It is “scandalous,” she said, that the depth of the suffering in Syria no longer attracts much international attention. The fact that the crisis has been allowed to continue for so long, with no end in sight, and is now spilling into neighboring Iraq and Lebanon is “an indictment of the age we live in,” she said. “Short-term geopolitical considerations and national interest, narrowly defined, have repeatedly taken precedence over intolerable human suffering and grave breaches of — and long-term threats to — international peace and security,” Pillay told the Security Council, adding that “I firmly believe that greater responsiveness by this Council would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.” (New York Times, Aug. 22, 2014)

 

“If you come after Americans, we’re going to come after you, wherever you are,” —Benjamin J. Rhodes, U.S. President Obama’s deputy national security adviser. “We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary to deal with that threat and we’re not going to be restricted by borders.” While President Obama has long resisted being drawn into Syria’s bloody civil war, officials said recent advances by ISIS had made clear that it represents a threat to the interests of the U.S. and its allies. The beheading of American journalist James Foley has contributed to what officials called a “new context” for a challenge that has long divided the president’s team. Officials said the options include speeding up and intensifying limited American efforts to train and arm moderate Syrian rebel forces that have been fighting both ISIS as well as the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Another option would be to bolster other partners on the ground to take on ISIS, including the Syrian Kurds. An expanded intervention into Syria would represent a striking turnaround for a president who has opposed such a move before, and some administration officials therefore doubt that he will agree. From the start of the Syrian civil war, Obama’s response has been marked by a pattern of heightened public statements and indications of stepped-up involvement, followed by far less action than suggested. (New York Times, Aug. 22, 2014)

 

“I find myself compelled to write about the President’s decision to keep his scheduled golf date with a couple of friends immediately following his televised comments—a decision that revealed a complete lack of class on Mr. Obama’s part,” —Forbes columnist Rick Ungar. President Obama’s two-week vacation on Martha’s vineyard, and his hours on the golf course, have his detractors teeing up as they highlight the mounting foreign policy crises facing the United States. After delivering an angry statement last Wednesday condemning the beheading of Foley by ISIS, Obama headed straight for the greens. “What yesterday’s decision to hit the links revealed to me was that our president is, sadly, capable of showing a stunning inability to grasp the nation’s collective pain and respond accordingly,” added Ungar. (Forbes, Aug. 21, 2014)

 

“Fore! Score? And seven trillion rounds ago, our forecaddies brought forth on this continent a new playground, conceived by Robert Trent Jones, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal when it comes to spending as much time on the links as possible — even when it seems totally inappropriate, like moments after making a solemn statement condemning the grisly murder of a 40-year-old American journalist beheaded by ISIL. I know reporters didn’t get a chance to ask questions, but I had to bounce. I had a 1 p.m. tee time at Vineyard Golf Club with Alonzo Mourning and a part-owner of the Boston Celtics. Hillary and I agreed when we partied with Vernon Jordan up here, hanging out with celebrities and rich folks is fun…Yet it is altogether fitting and proper that I should get to play as much golf as I want, despite all the lame jokes about how golf is turning into “a real handicap” for my presidency and how I have to “stay the course” with ISIL. I’ve heard all the carping that I should be in the Situation Room droning and plinking the bad folks. I know some people think I should go to Ferguson. Don’t they understand that I’ve delegated the Martin Luther King Jr. thing to Eric Holder? Plus, Valerie Jarrett and Al Sharpton have it under control. I know it doesn’t look good to have pictures of me grinning in a golf cart juxtaposed with ones of James Foley’s parents crying, and a distraught David Cameron rushing back from his vacation after only one day, and the Pentagon news conference with Chuck Hagel and General Dempsey on the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Syria…” —Maureen Dowd. (New York Times, Aug. 23, 2014) 

 

Contents

 

GAZA CEASE-FIRE BETWEEN ISRAEL, HAMAS GOES INTO EFFECT (Jerusalem) —Israel accepted another cease-fire on Tuesday, for the 12th time in 50 days, with this one open-ended and brokered again by the Egyptians. Shortly after the cease-fire went into effect, Palestinians poured onto Gaza’s streets to celebrate “victory,” while in Israel government representatives spoke of a feeling of an opportunity missed, along with cautious optimism that as a result of Operation Protective Edge Hamas’s control of Gaza has been dealt a fatal blow. Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that while Hamas was not knocked out, it was delivered a severe blow that could very well be the beginning of the end of its control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas started this round with 10,000 rockets, and is now estimated to possess between 2,000 and 3,000. It started with Hamas possessing some 32 attack tunnels leading into Israel, and the army destroyed all the ones it had identified. And Hamas has had hundreds of fighters, including commanders, killed. “Hamas destroyed Gaza, harmed itself, and didn’t achieve anything,” Steinitz said. “Hamas knows the truth, they can celebrate, but they know the truth.” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 26, 2014)

 

HAMAS EXECUTES 18 SUSPECTED COLLABORATORS WITH ISRAEL IN GAZA (Gaza City) —Hamas-led gunmen in Gaza City executed 18 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel on Friday, a day after Israeli forces killed three Hamas brigade commanders. Gunmen wearing masks and dressed in black shot seven of those condemned, whose faces were covered and hands bound, in front of worshipers emerging from the Omari Mosque, in the first public executions in the Strip since the 1990s. A further 11 were killed at an abandoned police station near Gaza City, Hamas security officials said. Israeli security sources said that the 18 people executed in Gaza had been in jail for collaboration for the last two years, and Hamas took them out of jail to be executed. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 22, 2014) 

 

HAMAS MILITARY WING CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR KIDNAP-MURDER OF 3 ISRAELI TEENS (Gaza City) —A senior Hamas official has claimed that the organization’s military wing was behind the kidnapping of the three Israeli boys who were found dead in June, according to Hebrew-language reports in the Israeli media. A video captured during a conference shows Hamas official Salach Al-Aruri crediting Al-Qassam Brigades with organizing the kidnapping of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16. Al-Aruri said the Al-Qassam Brigades carried out the “heroic operation” with the broader goal of sparking a new Palestinian uprising. Prior to this statement, Hamas had denied responsibility for the kidnapping, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to allege that the organization was behind it. (Forward, Aug. 20, 2014, National Post, Aug. 22, 2014)

 

EGYPT, UAE RESPONSIBLE FOR LIBYA AIR STRIKES, U.S. OFFICIALS SAY (Cairo) —Twice in the past seven days, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have secretly teamed to launch air strikes against Islamist-allied militias battling for control of Tripoli, Libya, four senior U.S. officials said, in a major escalation between the supporters and opponents of political Islam. The U.S., the officials said, was caught by surprise: Egypt and the Emirates, both close allies and military partners, acted without informing Washington or seeking its consent, leaving the Obama administration on the sidelines. Egyptian officials explicitly denied the operation to U.S. diplomats, the officials said. Since the military ouster of the Islamist president in Egypt one year ago, the new Egyptian government, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. have formed a bloc, exerting influence in countries around the region to roll back what they see as a competing threat from Islamists. Several officials said that U.S. diplomats were fuming about the air strikes, believing they could further inflame the Libyan conflict at a time when the United Nations and Western powers are seeking a peaceful resolution. “We don’t see this as constructive at all,” one senior U.S. official said. (Globe & Mail, Aug. 25, 2014)

 

BOKO HARAM LEADER DECLARES ISLAMIC CALIPHATE IN NIGERIA (Lagos) —A northeast Nigerian town seized earlier this month by Boko Haram militants has been placed under an Islamic caliphate, the group’s leader said. “Thanks be to Allah, who gave victory to our brethren in (the town of) Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Abubakar Shekau says in a 52-minute video obtained by the Agence France-Presse. “By the grace of Allah, we will not leave the town. We have come to stay.” In the video, Mr. Shekau lauds the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere.” Boko Haram is believed to be in control of large swathes of territory in Borno state and at least one town in neighboring Yobe state, AFP reported. Experts said Boko Haram is closer than ever to achieving its goal of forming an Islamic state across northern Nigeria. (Washington Times, Aug. 24, 2014)

 

ABOUT 1,400 ABUSED IN U.K. TOWN: REPORT (Rotherham, U.K.) —More than 1,400 children were sexually abused over a period of more than 16 years by gangs of pedophiles after police and city council bosses turned a blind eye for fear of being labelled racist, a damning report has concluded. Senior officials were responsible for “blatant” failures that saw victims, some as young as 11, being treated with contempt and categorized as being “out of control” or simply ignored when they asked for help. In some cases, parents who tried to rescue their children from abusers were themselves arrested. Police officers even dismissed the rape of children by saying that sex had been consensual. Tuesday’s report concluded that by far the majority of perpetrators were Asian men, and said council officials had been unwilling to address the issue for fear of being labelled racist. The report stated several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.” (National Post, Aug. 27, 2014)

 

AMERICAN WOMAN HELD HOSTAGE BY ISIS (Beirut) —The Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is holding hostage a young American woman who was doing humanitarian aid work hostage in Syria, a family representative said Tuesday. The 26-year-old woman is the third American known to have been kidnapped by the militant group. The terrorist group is demanding US$6.6-million for her safe release. ISIS recently threatened to kill American hostages to avenge the crushing airstrikes in Iraq against militants advancing on Mount Sinjar and the Kurdish capital of Irbil. The 26-year-old woman was captured last year while working with three humanitarian groups in Syria. More than a week ago, freelance journalist James Foley of Rochester, N.H., was beheaded by ISIS, which kidnapped him in November 2012. Foley, 40, has worked in a number of conflict zones across the Mideast, including Iraq, Libya and Syria. (National Post, Aug. 26, 2014)

 

U.S. TRIED TO RESCUE JOURNALIST JAMES FOLEY FROM ISLAMIC STATE CAPTORS IN SYRIA (Damascus) —U.S. Special Operations forces mounted an unsuccessful mission inside Syria earlier this summer to try to rescue several Americans held by Islamic extremists, including the journalist who was beheaded this week, senior Obama administration officials said. President Barack Obama ordered the secret operation, the first of its kind by the U.S. inside Syrian territory since the start of the civil war, after the U.S. received intelligence the Americans were being held by the extremist group known as Islamic State at a specific facility in a sparsely populated area inside Syria. Among the group, intelligence agencies believed at the time, was Foley, the U.S. journalist whose beheading was shown in a grisly video. (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 21, 2014)

 

FATHER OF ‘JIHADI JOHN’ SUSPECT ON TRIAL FOR AL-QAIDA ATTACKS (London) —A British extremist suspected of murdering American journalist James Foley is the son of an accused al-Qaida terrorist currently awaiting trial over the bombing of two U.S. embassies that resulted in the deaths of 224 people. Adel Abdel Bary, 54, is the father of Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a 23-year-old former rapper from London who shares several physical attributes with “Jihadi John,” the man who allegedly beheaded Foley in a video released by the Islamic State last week. Bary senior, an Egyptian who was granted asylum in the U.K. in 1993, was extradited from Britain to the U.S. at the same time as the hook-handed imam Abu Hamza. He is said to have been one of Osama bin Laden’s key lieutenants in the 1990s. Bary senior is due to be tried in November over the al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He faces 213 counts of premeditated murder over the bombing in Nairobi and 11 over the attack in Dar es Salaam. (Telegraph, Aug. 26, 2014)

 

DEATH TOLL IN SYRIA ESTIMATED AT 191,000 (Damascus) — The number of dead in Syria’s civil war more than doubled in the past year to at least 191,000, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. In its third report on Syria commissioned by the United Nations, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group identified 191,369 deaths from the start of the conflict in March 2011 to April 2014, more than double the 92,901 deaths cited in the group’s last report, which covered the first two years of the conflict. The report was confined to counting individuals who had been identified by name, along with the date and location of their death, using data from five organizations that was screened to avoid duplication. It did not include nearly 52,000 deaths that were recorded but lacked sufficient detail. (New York Times, Aug. 22, 2014)

 

Contents

 

On Topic Links

IDF Eliminates Hamas Money Man (Video): Jewish Press, Aug. 24, 2014

Calling it a Day: Marissa Newman, Times of Israel, Aug. 27, 2014—After a grueling 50-day conflict, the ceasefire goes into effect and the Hebrew newspapers on Wednesday – deflated and disgruntled – sum up a campaign that exacted a heavy blow on the national morale, and left a battered and listless public in its wake.

Why Hamas Must Ultimately be Destroyed: Charles Bybelezer: Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2014—As Operation Protective Edge was winding down, I was invited along with a group of journalists to visit the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. There, hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian goods wer

Obama Faces a Back-to-Work Challenge: David Ignatius, Washington Post, Aug. 26, 2014—It’s “back to school” week for President Obama, after what a CNN analyst called “the vacation from hell.”

 

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