WarSclerotic

Time to thank Amir Peretz – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: Former defense minister insisted on developing Iron Dome system despite senior defense officials’ objection. His decision is now saving many Israeli lives on a daily basis

Avi Shushan

When Ehud Olmert appointed him defense minister, people said he was forsaking Israel‘s security. When he spoke with senior officials, they humiliated him and disregarded his opinions, claiming he should not interfere in things he knows nothing about. When he toured the northern border, he was given binoculars with the caps still on and was made a laughing stock all over the world. When he left office shamefacedly, people said that Israel’s security had been restored and that the appointment of a citizen for such a position would never happen again.

He was laughed at, disrespected and turned into an irrelevant product. But now, five years after he left the defense minister’s bureau, one thing is clear: Amir Peretz was one of the most important and influential defense ministers the State of Israel ever had, if only for one important decision he made during his short term – developing the Iron Dome defense system, which changed the rules of the game and is saving the lives of many Israeli citizens as we speak.

Iron Dome system in action (Photo: Avi Roccah)

Peretz made a decision which appeared almost imaginary at the time. People said that he was pouring money he didn’t have into a technological adventure, that he was ignoring the opinions of senior officers who rejected this “absurd idea” taken from Star Trek, that he should stop presenting the army with creative ideas but rather invest the money in the familiar combat doctrines.

But Peretz, specifically because he was an outsider, saw what all those well-informed people didn’t see: A horizon. As a resident of the rocket-battered city of Sderot, he realized that the State must do everything in its power to provide the home front with a defensive shield, that residents must not be allowed to continue going like lambs to the slaughter and that you can’t threaten offense without thinking about defense.

Character assassination

Looking back, Amir Peretz was the right person in the perfect timing. He introduced creativity, imagination, inspiration and new solutions to a large, well-oiled and some would say cumbersome system. But all that did not help him. The Second Lebanon War was considered a huge failure at the time and was not appreciated as a successful and important battle as it is today. The Winograd Commission was appointed and the public was looking for blood.

Peretz’s blood dripped the most: A not particularly articulate Moroccan with a peasant’s mustache, who was not part of “the clique”. The Labor Partyoverthrew him, the public believed that he had asked for the job to boost his ego, and the media subjected him to an unprecedented character assassination.

Amir Peretz left the Defense Ministry shamefacedly, leaving behind “scorched earth” with a megalomaniac project no one knew what to do with. Upon his departure, there were even those who said that the huge amount of money spent on the Iron Dome system should be written off from the defense establishment’s budget.

We all know what happened in the end. The Iron Dome system saves the lives of dozens and perhaps hundreds of citizens on a daily basis. Its ability to identify the missile in one thousandth of a second, know if it will hit an open or constructed area and intercept the missile if necessary – is absolutely fantastic. The system has an interception success rate of 86%, and as we speak it is preventing many Israelis from getting hurt.

In special media broadcasts these days, presenters and commentators are regularly praising the system and its developers. They have forgotten to thank the one person who decided to give the system a chance against the majority of defense officials – Amir Peretz.

Now, as the Iron Dome system is raising global interest and is expected to become one of the most successful and highly esteemed Israeli developments in the world, we must thank Amir Peretz and apologize to him for the character assassination he suffered. History has done him injustice, and now is the time to thank him.

Iron Dome intercepts two rockets over Tel Aviv – JPost – Defense.

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Iron Dome shoots down rockets over Tel Aviv | The Times of Israel.

Dan region threatened for second time on Sunday; Obama says ‘preferable’ if escalation can be avoided but backs Israeli defense; Egypt’s Morsi said to be working on brokering a ceasefire, but Netanyahu says operation to be expanded

An Iron Dome missile intercepting a Hamas rocket over Tel Aviv Sunday (screenshot: Channel 2)

For the fourth day in a row, Tel Aviv is the target of Hamas attacks, and Iron Dome carries out successful interceptions. Amid rumors of a halt to fighting, Israeli officials tell The Times of Israel that Jerusalem is not currently interested in a ceasefire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the IDF’s campaign will be expanded, hinting at a looming ground operation. The IAF, in the meantime, is targeting key Hamas personnel, and killed the chief of Hamas’s rocket program.

Since the start of Operation Pillar of Defense on Wednesday, the IDF has hit some 1,000 targets in the Gaza Strip, with Palestinians reporting 52 dead. Gazan terrorists have fired some 750 rockets at Israel and Iron Dome has shot down nearly 270, including three aimed at Tel Aviv. Israel’s death toll stands at three, with dozens more injured, including two badly hurt in Ofakim and three in Ashkelon on Sunday. The Times of Israel is live blogging developments. Press “Refresh” for latest updates.

IAF assassinates Hamas’s rocket chief in Gaza … JPost – Defense.

Photo: Suhaib Salem / Reuters

Obama supports Israeli right to defend itself amid Gaza truce talk.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

The U.S. president said the “precipitating event” of the Gaza crisis was a string of extremist rocket attacks on Israeli territory. (AFP)

By AFP

Obama Gives Yellow Light to Ground Operation – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Barack Obama

White House

Britain warned Israel Sunday against launching a ground operation in Gaza, but the United States appeared to leave the decision to Israel.

On a visit to the Far East, President Barack H. Obama said that the U.S. is, and will remain, “fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.”

“There is no country in the world that would be prepared to tolerate” the rain of missiles on its citizens that Israel is, and the U.S. understands and supports Israel’s position. Obama added that “it would be better to prevent the rocket attacks without further escalating the conflict in Gaza.”

It would be better if Israel avoided a ground action, Obama said; If Israel could solve its security problem “without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable, not just for the people of Gaza. It’s preferable for the Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza they are much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded,” he said.

“We’re going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours,” Obama added, “but what I’ve said to [Egyptian] President Morsi and [Turkish] Prime Minister Erdogan is that those who champion the cause of the Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza than the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future.”

Speaking more explicitly earlier Sunday was British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who specifically warned Israel against embarking on a ground operation. Such an operation, he said, would cause Israel to lose much international sympathy and support.

“It’s much more difficult to restrict and avoid civilian casualties during a ground invasion and a large ground operation would threaten to prolong the conflict,” Hague said. “So we have made our views very clear on that with Israel, just as we have made very clear our view that the barrage of rockets from Gaza onto southern Israel is an intolerable situation for the Israelis and it’s not surprising they have responded to that. A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international community to sympathize with or support — including the United Kingdom,” he added.

Obama backs Israel’s right of self defense vs missiles. The next 24-48 hours crucial.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 18, 2012, 4:34 PM (GMT+02:00)

Barack Obama in Bangkok

We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians,” said President Barack Obama Sunday, Nov. 18 in Bangkok.

“And we will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Speaking at a joint conference with Thai Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the US president said, “there is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.” If that can be stopped “without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable, not just for the people of Gaza. It’s preferable for the Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza they are much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded.”
He went on to say after talking to would-mediators in Cairo, “if we’re serious about wanting to resolve this situation and create a genuine peace process, it starts with no more missiles being fired into Israel’s territory and that then gives us the space to try and deal with these long-standing conflicts that exist.”
“We’re going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours, but what I’ve said to [Egyptian] President Morsi and [Turkish] Prime Minister Erdogan is that those who champion the cause of the Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza than the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future.”
The US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro joined Defense Minister Ehud Barak on a visit to an Iron Dome battery Sunday shortly before he flies out to brief the White House on the Gaza crisis.

Barak thanked President Obama and all those Americans who past and present contributed to the financing and development of the Iron Dome missile interception system. This defensive weapon has intercepted a total of 300 incoming Palestinian missiles, nearly 90 percent of the rockets threatening Israeli towns, he said. Its performance “made it possible for us to prepare the next stages of Operation Pillar of Cloud which may be even tougher. There is no better symbol of the close US-Israeli military cooperation.

debkafile reported earlier Sunday:   Israeli air and naval forces launched heavy assaults in Gaza before dawn Sunday, Nov. 18 – Day 5 of the IDF’s Gaza operation – after daylong bargaining Saturday among Washington, Jerusalem, Cairo and Gaza, failed to produce an Israel-Hamas truce accord.  When Egyptian and Turkish middlemen suggested a ceasefire was close, Israel accused them of pushing Hamas’s terms which were fashioned to present the Palestinian radicals as the victor in the contest. The trio leading the Israeli war, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, countered by intensifying the IDF’s Gaza offensive – though not as yet sending ground troops in.

A Western source said it would take some days to determine if a ceasefire was feasible.
Egyptian intelligence meanwhile smuggled Hamas Prime Minister Islmail Haniyeh out of Gaza and over to El Arish in northern Sinai in the convoy of visiting Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafiq Abdessalem when he departed Gaza Saturday, debkafile reports.

Friday night, Israel bombers struck government headquarters in Gaza City.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi decided that Haniyeh must be continuously available at the end of a phone to lead the Hamas side in the ceasefire negotiations. This was not possible so long as the Hamas prime minister remained in Gaza. All of Hamas leaders have gone to ground for fear of targeted assassination by Israel. They have switched off their phones and electronic communications to avoid giving away their locations to Israeli surveillance. Haniyeh was even afraid to communicate with Cairo through the Egyptian military mission in Gaza.

In these circumstances, Morsi and Erdogan’s were prevented from get their ceasefire mediation bid off the ground. Moving Haniyeh to El Arish put a Hamas negotiator in place to lead the give-and-take for a truce. Our sources have not discovered if he is still there or has moved back to Gaza.
The Turkish prime minister brought a secret passenger in the plane bringing him to Cairo Saturday. He is Saleh Aruri, formerly of the Hamas military wing.  Aruri had spent 15 years in an Israeli prison for terrorism and murder until he was released on Oct. 18, 2011 in the prisoner exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit on condition he went into exile.

Turkey granted him asylum and its intelligence agency MIT gave him free rein to set up an operational command in Istanbul for Hamas terrorist networks on the West Bank.

On arrival in Cairo, the Turkish prime minister put Aruri in charge of the contacts with Haniyeh.

At a news conference in Cairo Saturday night, the Egyptian president and Turkish prime minister reported “some indications that there could be a ceasefire soon” although “there were still no guarantees.”
The guarantees issue has become a pivotal bargaining point.

Israel, backed by the United States, insists that a ceasefire be signed between the US, Egypt, Turkey and Israel, and exclude Hamas, which would be bound by a separate agreement with Cairo.
Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman are asking the United States to act as guarantor for a ceasefire. Erdogan has countered by inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to join US President Barack Obama as victor.
Hamas has rejected all of Israel’s terms.

During the night, Israel denied reports circulating in Cairo that an Israeli negotiator was heading for the Egyptian capital to get down to the specifics of an emerging truce deal. The three Israeli war leaders decided not to fall into the trap laid by Morsi and Erdogan. Instead, they told the IDF to press ahead with the operation until its objectives were attained – hence the launching of a fresh air and sea assault before daybreak Sunday.

OC Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Tal Rousso defined those objectives to reporters Saturday night as “eliminating the war arsenals of Hamas and terrorist organizations and restoring peace and normality to the population of southern Israel.”

The ground operation is meanwhile delayed, in accordance with Netanyahu’s promise to President Obama in their conversation early Saturday, that a full-scale ground invasion would not go forward so long as there was a chance of a ceasefire – unless there was escalation from Hamas or a strike that caused significant casualties.

A western source in Cairo familiar with the truce negotiations reported that Obama has not yet decided whether he wants to be directly involved in any ceasefire deal, which in any case has not reached the concluding stage. “The cake dough is still being kneaded and not yet ready to for the oven,” he said.

Obama: Preferable to avoid Gaza ground operati… JPost – Defense.

Car hit in Ofakim; 5 wounded – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Five people, including couple and their baby, sustain light to moderate wounds after Grad hits vehicle in Ofakim. Meanwhile, IAF kills head of Hamas’ rocket unit in Gaza

Ynet reporters

Five people were injured when a Grad rocket hit a vehicle at the entrance to the city of Ofakim on Sunday. The wounded include a couple and their 2-year-old daughter who were in the car, a man in his 50s and a young man.

They were rushed to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Earlier, a Grad hit a house in Ofakim. A woman was lightly injured, and several people suffered from anxiety.

Meanwhile, the Air Force bombed the house of Yahia Abia, the head of Hamas‘ rocket unit. Abia was killed in the attack and the Palestinians are reporting that four other people were also killed, including three women.

Abia was responsible for the major part of the rocket fire directed at Israel in the past few days. He was killed roughly an hour after a heavy rocket barrage hit Israel’s south. The strike was part of the IDF’s expanded activity in Gaza.

At least 18 rockets were fired from Gaza within minutes at Israel’s southern communities Sunday afternoon. At least two rockets exploded in Ashdod and caused damage to cars. A number of residents suffered from anxiety. There were no immediate reports of injury or damage. Residential buildings in Ashdod, Beersheba and Ofakim sustained direct hits.

קרדיט: דובר צה”ל

IDF hits rocket launchers (Video: IDF)

Shortly after 2 pm sirens sounded in a large number of southern communities from Ashdod to Beersheba.  Some 70 rockets have been fired at Israel on Sunday. The Iron Dome system intercepted at least 17 of them.

Earlier, two rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists toward Beersheba exploded in close proximity to residential buildings. There were no reports of injury, but several apartments were damaged. The Iron Dome system intercepted additional rockets that were fired toward the city. Meanwhile, a house in Sderot sustained a direct hit, but it was empty at the time of the attack.

Also Sunday, a rescue service worker in his 20s sustained moderate head wounds when a mortar fired from Gaza landed in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. Earlier Sunday, two rockets launched from Gaza landed in Ashkelon. One of the projectiles hit a four-storey building. Two people sustained light shrapnel wounds in the attack, and five others suffered from anxiety. The rocket penetrated the building through its roof.

צילום: ערוץ 10

Rocket intercepted over Ashdod

At approximately 10:30 am the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza toward the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. There were no immediate reports of injury, but a vehicle in the Holon area was damaged by shrapnel.

Early Sunday, the military carried out dozens of attacks on rocket-launching sites, a major training base and the two media centers. Israeli gunboats also fired on terrorist sites on the Gaza shore line, the military said without elaborating.

Grad hits Ofakim house (Photo: Eliad Levy)

Seven Palestinian civilians were killed in airstrikes Sunday, including five children ranging in age from one to 11, according to Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health official.

Two of the children, a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy, were from the same family and were killed by an airstrike on the three-story home in the town of Beit Lahiya. Hamas security officials said three missiles struck the house, owned by a Gaza family with links to militants’ rocket squads. It was not known if any terrorists were in or near the house at the time of the strike.

Another strike targeted a Hamas terrorist in his car outside his home in the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, but also killed an 11-year-old girl passing by at the time, al-Kidra said.

The deaths bring to 53 the number of Palestinians killed since the operation began on Wednesday. Twenty of the dead were civilians, and more than 400 civilians have been wounded, al-Kidra said. On the Israeli side, three civilians have been killed and more than 50 wounded by rocket fire.

Ilana Curiel, Neri Brenner, Yoav Zitun and Elior Levy contributed to this report