Hamas: We’ll broaden rocket targets if air strikes continue.

Hamas said on Saturday it would escalate it attacks against Israel to include a wider range of targets if the IDF failed to halt its aerial assaults on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri blamed Israel for an escalation in violence. “If the Israeli escalation continues, amid international silence and complicity, the reactions by resistance factions will broaden,” he told Reuters, saying such actions would be necessary to protect Palestinians in Gaza.

On Friday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that “Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip will not be able to break the will of the Palestinian people.”

He also called for the cessation of IDF attacks in Gaza.

On Thursday night, Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip declared a unilateral cease fire some hours after it shot a school bus with an guided anti-tank missile and fired dozens of mortar shells and projectiles. The attack on the school bus left a 16-year-old in critical condition.

The IDF, however, continued to strike back at targets despite the Palestinian attempt to calm the situation.

Since then, over 20 Grad-model Katyusha rockets have been fired by Gaza-based groups into Israel. The IDF’s Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system successfuly intercepted several of the longer-range Grads. Dozens more Kassam rockets and mortar shells have exploded in Israeli territory over the weekend.

According to Palestinian reports, at least 16 Palestinians have been killed in recent days by IDF strikes aimed at Hamas and other terrorist elements in the Strip. At least 8, including a number of Hamas commanders were confirmed as being members of terrorist groups.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report April 9, 2011, 6:09 AM (GMT+02:00)

Israeli tank in action against missile firing teams in Gaza

Before dawn Saturday, April 9, Hamas inflicted its heaviest missile blitz yet on southern Israel. – acting now on guidelines from the Lebanese Hizballah. More than a dozen heavy Grad missiles were aimed at seven Israeli cities injuring 10 civilians. One exploded in the sand dunes of Palmahim, aimed at Israel’s nuclear research reactor at Nahal Soreq, More missiles landed south of Kiryat Gat, Ofakim, Beersheba and Ashkelon. Sirens sent people running for cover in Gedera and Gan Yavneh. The two Iron Dome systems deployed last week intercepted six of the Grad missiles fired at Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod. The IDF responded by targeting three senior Hamas commanders in an air strike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younes.
debkafile reported Friday night, April 8:  More than 60 Hamas and Jihad Islami mortar shells and missiles hit Israeli towns, villages and farms on the Israeli side of the Gaza border Friday April 8 and injured a civilian. This heightened Israeli fury over Hamas’s attack on a school bus Thursday, April 7, using a sophisticated Cornet anti-tank missile for the first time. A 16-year old boy was critically wounded. This attack was followed by 50 Palestinian rockets and mortar rounds, a blitz which had not abated by Friday night despite constant Israeli counteraction.

debkafile discloses a less obvious motive behind the mounting violence: Hamas is trying to establish new rules for the conflict on advice and directives coming from its Lebanese ally, Hizballah, to step up its barrage on Israel by 25 percent. The IDF is forced to respond to the resulting escalation in kind.

Our intelligence sources report that Hamas was advised by Hizballah to blitz Israel into relinquishing the 500-meter deep security strip the IDF established inside the Gaza border when Palestinian fire on Israel continued after it was temporarily reduced by the 2009 Cast Lead operation.

Hizballah leaders are telling Hamas they should be able to bring their forward and firing positions right up to the Israeli border, a convenience enjoyed by HIzballah on the Lebanese-Israeli frontier ever since 2000 when  Israel quit southern Lebanon.

The IDF is fighting to hold on to this buffer zone to keep Palestinian terrorists back from breaching the border for direct attacks in Israel. The soldiers keep Palestinian gunmen from accessing this strip of land and impose restrictions on Gazan farmers seeking to till their fields in a strip which covers 15 percent of the enclave’s arable land. (Farmers of the Eshkol district on the other side of the border are regularly targeted for attack.)

Hamas is threatening to raise the cross-border violence until Israeli troops pull back to the border. Its anti-tank missile attack on the school bus Thursday was the opening shot of its battle for the buffer zone.

The IDF’s tactics for countering Hamas aggression remain unchanged, except in scale: In the last 48 hours, Israeli helicopters, mortars, tanks and naval units have been pounding the Gaza Strip while Hamas releases barrages of dozens of missile and mortar attacks on villages and towns – practically without pause. Israeli civilians were told to stay close to bomb shelters in the days to come. Schools, road traffic, public transport and businesses will function intermittently.

Israeli military planners are still playing the familiar tit-for-tat game which never in the past stopped the aggression from Gaza. Nevertheless, debkafile‘s military sources point to some notable differences in the current round.
The Iron Dome system designed in Israel to intercept short-range rockets was experimentally deployed in the important towns of Beersheba and Ashkelon this week.  Friday, the system intercepted three missiles aimed at Ashkelon, although it caught only one of several Thursday.
The IDF importantly demonstrated it is fully capable of launching another major military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The broad scale of its land, sea and air reprisals since Thursday, April 7, was intended to remind Hamas and its allies, especially the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami, of the devastation wrought the enclave they rule by Israel’s 2009 Cast Lead operation.

A possible Cast Lead II was in the air after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday during a visit to Prague: Attacks on children cross a red line. Those who carry out such attacks should know that their blood is on their heads.”
On the other side of the ledger, the new rulers of Egypt are in the process of unraveling Hosni Mubarak’s peace relations with Israel – as debkafile has reported – and engaging in rapprochement with the Gaza and Damascus centers of the two radical Palestinian organizations.
Since the Israeli government has not adjusted its policies to the new developments, its military tactics are operating in a vacuum and will have little deterrent effect. The current upsurge of Hamas-Jihad aggression will therefore go on.

debkafile‘s military experts maintain that the tactics of massive firepower without ground operations have run their course. There is no way to wipe out the increasingly sophisticated heavy weapons arsenal Hamas has been allowed to amass from the air. So the half a million Israeli civilians of the Western Negev and the southern coastal towns must continue to live under their shadow instead of having normal lives. Often, many cannot make it to work and schools, places of business and traffic can operate only intermittently.

Since Thursday, IDF operations have been sweeping across a broad front in the Gaza Strip from the old air field at Dahaniyeh in the south up to the northern fringes of Gaza City.

In the south, Khan Younes and Deir al Balakh took the severest beating. The former went dark Thursday night after Israeli airborne and surface missiles knocked out the local electricity grid. In Deir Balakh, a Hamas base built deliberately near a hospital took an airborne rocket, a signal that all such facilities would no longer be immune from attack.

In the Gaza City region, Israeli helicopters, tanks and naval ships bombed two main Hamas military installations – Abu Jerad and Rantisi.

The Palestinians reported 10 killed, including the commander of missile operations at the Shati refugee camp, and scores wounded, thereupon loosing off 50 missiles and mortar rounds – as usual, against civilian locations. In Ashkelon, Iron Dome intercepted its first missile Thursday, but missed the rest – scoring a partial success

For the first time in three years, Hamas appealed to Cairo to broker a ceasefire. Israeli did not bother to respond since the rulers of Gaza have violated every agreed ceasefire in the past. Hamas reached out to the new Egyptian regime following its moves towards a rapprochement and a Palestinian diplomatic initiative.
debkafile‘s intelligence sources disclose that last week, the head of Egypt’s intelligence services Maj. Gen. Mourad Mowafi visited Damascus. He obtained permission from Syria’s beleaguered president Bashar Assad to meet Hamas’ political leader Khaled Meshaal and Abdullah Ramadan Salah of the Palestinian Jihad Islami and hand them an invitation to visit Cairo.

He then informed them that the new Egyptian leaders are willing to help negotiate Hamas’ reconciliation with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah on the following basis: Hamas would accept the two-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but Egypt would not press for the second part of the formula endorsed by Washington and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, namely that “the two states live alongside each other in peace and security.”

This amended formula would leave Hamas and the other radical Palestinian organizations free to continue their violent campaign of “resistance” against Israel while making peace with the rival Fatah and gaining a Palestinian state on the West Bank.

These days, Hamas is sure it is on a win-win course and has little to fear from stepping up its war on Israel until it gets what it wants.

Israel’s next war – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: Paradoxically, UN endorsement of Palestinian state may prompt outbreak of war

Yoel Meltzer

In all likelihood, the Palestinians are going to unilaterally declare statehood in Judea and Samaria within the coming year. This is not a ploy or a desperate attempt on their part but rather a clear, rational decision. By correctly gauging the stark contrast between the massive international support for their cause as opposed to the steadily increasing de-legitimization of Israel the “apartheid state,” the Palestinians have wisely decided to bypass direct negotiations since there is no point in paying for something when you can get if for free.

Thus, with country after country pledging its support, the Palestinians are going to take their case to the United Nations.

There, the Palestinians have nothing to lose for even if the Security Council rejects their bid for statehood, it will most likely be approved by the General Assembly. Although this is less significant than an endorsement by the Security Council, an approval by the General Assembly does nonetheless have some teeth. Most notably, as many commentators pointed out, there is something known as UNGA Resolution 377 that allows the General Assembly to call for sanctions or even military force against a country that fails to implement its recommendations. 

If the “civilized world” helps bring the Palestinian plan to fruition then a very likely result of such actions will be the outbreak of war. Thus, in a world turned upside down it will be the UN, a body formed to help foster peace throughout the world, which will be directly responsible for bringing the next great Arab-Israeli war to the Middle East. 

Notably, more than 60 years ago the Palestinians rejected a similar state that had been allotted to them by the UN. A few months later when Israel had the “chutzpa” to declare a state, rather than reject one, in the portion they were granted by the UN, several Arab countries attacked the new Jewish state. That was the first war of independence, a result of Arab refusal to receive anything less than 100%. 

In the following years, nothing has fundamentally changed in this respect, the only difference being that the Arabs have finally learned how to achieve their goal. Thus they’re ready to accept what they formally rejected as a means for eventually getting it all. 

Tsunami is coming

This brings us to today and the quickly approaching second war of independence. Unlike 60 years ago, this time around nearly the entire international community will be aligned with the Palestinians against Israel, making Israel the sole villain. 

The war will not break out immediately, but rather, it will slowly escalate. First there will be calls for sanctions against Israel for failing to immediately remove its military and citizens from the new Arab state in Judea and Samaria. Then there will be the predictable eruption of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, making life hell for the Jews living there. The attacks will then spill over into the rest of Israel, bringing back memories of the horror of a decade ago. Next up will be rocket attacks from Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north. Thanks to a porous border with Egypt as well as other regional changes, Iran will have no problem constantly rearming its proxies. 

As the attacks intensify, Israel will be routinely chastised for retaliating and not showing proper restraint, as such Arab attacks will be viewed as somewhat understandable in light of continued Israeli noncompliance. Moreover, Israeli reprisals will probably draw some neighboring countries into the fray as they all begin to sense Israel’s imminent downfall. 

If Israel is still obstinate following the sanctions and Arab attacks, then the UN may call for military intervention in order to enforce the will of the international community. Consequently, they will do to Israel what they will never do to Iran. After all, Israel’s continued presence in Judea and Samaria – and not Arab violence, terrorism, hatred, anti-Semitism and intransigence – will be considered, like it is today, as being the main reason that peace and harmony is lacking in the region. 

Following the isolating effect of sanctions and de-legitimization, together with incessant terrorist attacks and missile showers, the threat of military intervention will probably do the trick. Having been cowered by the cumulative effect of all the actions, Israel will be sufficiently pliable to give in on everything – the removal of all Jewish presence from Judea and Samaria, the acceptance of the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, the division and internalization of Jerusalem. Thus, the Palestinian War of Independence, the first stage in the total elimination of the State of Israel, will come to a conclusion. 

Is this scenario an exaggeration? Perhaps, although one should keep in mind that before the Gaza Disengagement there were those who warned that the Israeli pullout from Gaza would result in missiles landing in nearby Ashkelon. As expected, such voices were ridiculed and ultimately ignored. History of course showed that these “right-wing hawks” erred. They were far too conservative with their predictions as missiles not only exploded in nearby Ashkelon but even reached Beersheba, nearly 50 kilometers to the east. 

Israel, the tsunami is coming. Wake up!

Yoel Meltzer has an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and lives in Israel. His personal blog is http://yoelmeltzer.com/

Obama condemns ‘abhorrent violence’ of Syrian gov’t – Israel News, Ynetnews.

US president rebukes Bashar Assad over violent crackdown on protestors, as dozens more reported to have been killed in clashes

Reuters

President Barack Obama sternly rebuked Syria on Friday about violence there in which sources said 22 pro-democracy protesters died.

“I strongly condemn the abhorrent violence committed against peaceful protesters by the Syrian government today and over the past few weeks. I also condemn any use of violence by protesters,” the president said in a statement.

Sources said that 22 died in the southern city of Daraa during a day of pro-democracy protests across the country as demonstrations entered a fourth week of defiance of the government and against the rule of President Bashar Assad.

“I call upon the Syrian authorities to refrain from any further violence against peaceful protesters,” Obama said.

“Furthermore, the arbitrary arrests, detention, and torture of prisoners that has been reported must end now, and the free flow of information must be permitted so that there can be independent verification of events on the ground,” he said.

Obama added: “Violence and detention are not the answer to the grievances of the Syrian people. It is time for the Syrian government to stop repressing its citizens and to listen to the voices of the Syrian people calling for meaningful political and economic reforms. ”

Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to this report

Coming soon: Jewish ‘al-Jazeera’ – Israel Culture, Ynetnews.

(About time! – JW)

Dr. Alexander Mashkevich announces plan to form pro-Israel international news network. ‘It won’t be a propaganda channel, but will simply tell the truth,’ he tells Ynet during Jewish leaders conference

Liron Nagler-Cohen

WASHINGTON – Dr. Alexander Mashkevich, president of the United Israel Appeal’s annual conference of Jewish leaders in Washington, has announced his plan to form a pro-Israel international news network, similar to al-Jazeera and the BBC.

This year’s conference focused on attempts to deal with the de-legitimization campaign against Israel, and was attended by some 200 Jewish community leaders and key philanthropists.

Al-Jazeera studio in Washington (Photo: MCT)

An announcement on the creation of the international news network was made at the end of the conference, with the aim of dealing with anti-Israel defamation in the media and influence public opinion.

Mashkevich, who also serves as president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, said that the network would offer programs in English, French, Arabic and Spanish, focusing on news only.

“My intention is not to create a propaganda channel,” he told Ynet, “but simply a channel telling the truth.

“Unfortunately, in the current situation most channels simply don’t tell the truth about Israel,” he explained. “Every day that passes we lose the battle for Israel’s image. I am sure that Goldstone is a decent person, who didn’t want to damage Israel consciously and intentionally, but if everything he gets from the media every day is anti-Israel propaganda, I assume it’s hard to make the right decisions.”

Presentation within 3-4 months

Mashkevich, whose fortune is estimated at some $3.7 billion, plans to recruit other philanthropists and senior businesspeople for the mission. “The international de-legitimization has become a huge risk for Israel,” he adds.

Anchor Anderson Cooper. ‘We’ll get talents from everywhere’ (Photo: AP)

“It’s unthinkable that Israel has no television network like the channels operated by countries such as the United States, Britain and Russia. The creation of such a channel is necessary, and does not require something out of nothing, as there are existing models we can work according to.”

The channel is in the thinking stages, without a target date for the launching or even a revelation of the other names behind it. All Mashkevich agreed to say was that it would be a private, independent channel.

“We are preparing a work program, and in about three-four months we’ll hold a presentation in Israel. We’ll purchase talents from all other channels,” he promised. “From BBC, CNN – everyone.”

‘If we don’t fight back, we’ll be in trouble’

The conference was also attended by outgoing Israeli Ambassador to Britain and newly appointed Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who analyzed the anti-Israeli incitement on international media.

Student protest in UK (Photo: Leon Ferri)

“We deal with creating awareness,” said Prosor. “Today there isn’t one university campus in Britain which I, as an Israeli ambassador, can enter without facing horrible protests. If we don’t fight back – we’ll be in trouble.

“The current situation is that Jewish students in Britain feel uncomfortable in their own campuses. What I saw in Britain could definitely be seen here, in the United States, in the coming years,” he warned the Jewish community leaders.Prosor told Ynet that the organizations behind the de-legitimization must be exposed, denounced and suffer a counter attack. “We have no choice but to strike back at them, to give a ‘price tag’ to those who demonize Israel. Too much is at stake here. We are all at the front, but if we coordinate, we’ll be able to win the battle.”

‘Situation like in 1947’

“It’s time for us to stop complaining about how bad Israel’s PR is,” added Hoenlein. “It’s not just Israel that’s in danger – but all of us. The entire Jewish people are under attack, and this is about the future of all the Jewish people.

Hoenlein with Peres. ‘World recognizes Jewish power, Jews don’t’ (Photo: Avi Hayun)

“Those who undermine Israel’s right to self-defense – hurt the entire Jewish people’s right to self-defense. We are not talking about a situation like in 1967, but like in 1947 – about the entire Jewish people’s right to exist.

“If we unite, others will join us too. So we must launch a well-coordinated campaign. It’s unthinkable that according to research we’ve conducted, the European governments are more committed to Israel than the public opinion in those countries. These are the enemies rising to destroy us – from the inside and the outside.

“Jews today have power, and the entire world recognizes it – apart from the Jews. We can make a difference, if only we remember that it’s a battlefield. We must educate our children from an early age – know what to answer.”

Hoenlein believes the establishment of a news network like al-Jazeera is vital. “People are influenced by it,” he says, revealing that he has already held several meetings in a bid to strike a collaboration with media organizations and Israeli governmental bodies.

Mashkevich lives in Britain and has an Israeli citizenship as well. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish oligarchs in the world, and a “warm Jew” who donates in many fields close to his heart. He built seven synagogues in different countries, named “Beit Rachel” after his mother, and donated 17 Torah scrolls. He also participates in the bringing in of each new Torah scroll.

“I still remember as a child, how difficult it was for me to get to the synagogue, which was far away and crowded,” he said.

His parents fled the Nazis and gave him “a proud Jewish education”. His childhood in Kyrgyzstan contributed to shaping his Jewish awareness as well. “In Soviet Russia people would never let me forget I was a Jew, not for one day,” he said.

“I feel the persecution of Jews on my skin. We can’t just be indifferent. Every year the situation gets worse, and we monitor it. People tend to think that the American Congress members know the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it’s not true. All their information comes from the media.

“Seventy percent of what the international media reports in terms of the conflict is of anti-Israel nature. We check the ‘anti-Semitism index’ in 27 countries, and there is definitely a rise in anti-Semitism, which I believe is a direct result of what the media reports.”

Police: Santa Monica Chabad explosion was a bomb.

An explosion that hit the Santa Monica, California Chabad House Thursday morning was caused by an explosive device, Santa Monica Police said late Friday night, reversing their previous statement that the explosion was caused by a freak industrial accident.

The Santa Monica Police Department released a photograph and description of a suspect, named as 60-year-old Ron Hirsch, who it described as a transient. A police bulletin said “Hirsch should be considered extremely dangerous.”

Police added that Hirsch previously frequented synagogues and Jewish community centers in the Los Angeles area seeking charity.

The blast, which took place at a synagogue in Santa Monica sent debris crashing through the roof of the Chabad House, which sits next door.

Following the announcement, the Anti-Defamation League issued a security alert to other synagogues and Jewish institutions in southern California, according to the Los Angeles Times. It said that it had “no information regarding a specific threat,” but called on community members to be “extra vigilant.”

There were no injuries in the early Thursday morning blast that saw a four-block area around the synagogue and Chabad center evacuated. A statement from the Santa Monica Police Department several hours after had denied the presence of an “incendiary device,” saying that the explosion was caused by “a mechanical failure.”

Eiland: Consider ‘Defensive Shield’ type action in Gaza.

2 Grads, 25 mortars fired from Gaza explode in Israel.