WarSclerotic

Israel freezes plans for ground operation as Clinton heads to the region | The Times of Israel.

IDF continues to prepare for a Gaza incursion; ‘if the firing continues, we will have to take broader action, and we won’t hesitate to do so,’ PM says

Hillary Clinton meets Mohammed Morsi in Cairo in June. (photo credit: AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Israel has agreed not to launch a ground operation in Gaza for at least 24 hours, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed for the region to help broker a ceasefire between Jerusalem and Hamas.

“We have decided to give the diplomatic efforts a very serious chance,” a government official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told The Times of Israel Tuesday morning, a few hours after the country’s top nine ministers convened to discuss the further course of Operation Pillar of Defense.

“We’re giving a chance to diplomacy. We’re giving it time, but this time is not unlimited,” the official said, adding that “we’ll know in a day or two” whether Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Clinton and other international players currently in or traveling to Israel will be successful in achieving a ceasefire.

“I prefer a diplomatic solution,” Netanyahu told German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Tuesday morning in Jerusalem. “I hope that we can get one but if not, we have every right to defend ourselves with other means and we shall use them.”

Netanyahu also told Westerwelle that he thinks Germany can play a constructive role in the brokering of a long-term ceasefire and in preventing arms smuggling into Gaza. “As you know, we seek a diplomatic unwinding to this, through the discussions of ceasefire. But if the firing continues we will have to take broader action, and we won’t hesitate to do so.”

“The idea of a ground invasion is temporarily on hold,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel. “But the military is preparing, so if and when an order [to enter Gaza] is given it can move as quickly as possible,” the official said. In the mean time, the Israeli Air Force will continue to strike terrorist targets in Gaza, he added.

Israel’s inner cabinet of its nine most senior ministers met until nearly 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, and reportedly decided that refraining from a ground offensive, as US President and Barack Obama and other Western leaders had urged, would give Jerusalem greater legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.

Obama, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and other Western leaders expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself in light of ongoing rocket fire but urged the government not to escalate the situation by sending ground troops into Gaza.

However, the American ambassador in Tel Aviv, Dan Shapiro, told Army Radio that there is no US administration veto on an Israeli ground operation in Gaza.

President Shimon Peres welcomes German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, November 20, 2012. (photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch/Flash90).

Meanwhile, Westerwelle met with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres on Tuesday in Jerusalem. Westerwelle told both leaders that Berlin stands beside the Israeli government’s actions. “Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens, and it is the responsibility of Hamas to halt the rocket attacks on Israel,” he told Peres.

Support for Israel in the current conflict is not only the view of Germany, “but also of the European Union as reflected in statements of EU foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday,” he added.

In his meeting with Netanyahu, Westerwelle welcomed the Israeli decision to hold off on a ground invasion. “Of course we now have to consider and discuss how a ceasefire is possible. But there is one key condition for everything else, and that is the stop of the missile attacks against Israel,” Westerwelle said.

Egypt plays a central role in the negotiations for a truce but “Germany is ready to help and to support and we will do our best in the interest of our friends in Israel,” Westerwelle said. “Let’s do our best that a ceasefire is possible.”

United Nations Sectary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is currently in Egypt and scheduled to arrive in Israel on Tuesday, called on both sides to halt fire immediately.

“Further escalating the situation will put the entire region at risk,” he said Tuesday morning in Cairo, sitting next to Arab League head Nabil al-Arabi. An Israeli ground operation “would only result in further tragedy,” Ban said. He and Arabi “share a deep concern about the appalling rising cost in human lives” in Gaza,” Ban reportedly said.

Clinton, who was with Obama in Cambodia for the U.S.-ASEAN Leaders Meeting and the East Asia Summit, is scheduled to arrive in Israel late Tuesday.

It is widely expected that Clinton will engage in talks with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority officials and push for an immediate ceasefire, but she will not meet with Hamas representatives.

In the past few days, she has spoken with the foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt, France and Turkey, as well as with Jordanian King Abdullah, Qatari Prime Minister Hamid bin Jasim Al Thani and Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil.

Wartime Smuggling of Missiles from Hizbullah – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

IAF photo of Fajr site

IDF Spokesman’s Unit

Hizbullah is supplying long-range missiles to Hamas even as Israel’s Iron Dome system blows them up after launching, a Lebanese newspaper claims with pride. The claim is unsubstatiated by other sources, but if true, implies the compliance of Egypt.

The Al-Ahkbar website and newspaper, which previously published WikiLeaks material before they were released, claimed that Israel has not shut down the supply route of missiles for Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.

“A considerable amount of long-range missiles from Hizbullah” has reached Gaza terrorists in the past several days, according to Al-Akhbar.

Hizbullah sources sad they are focusing on transporting large quantities of long-range missiles, many of which they claim to have reached Gaza during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense.

It said that Iranian Revolutionary Guard units specializing in smuggling weapons from Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan, and other countries are on “high alert.”

The weapons smuggling route begins in Iranian or Syrian ports, and then continues to Sudan and the Sinai Peninsula. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels at the Gaza-Egyptian border enable easy smuggling of missiles into Gaza.

Israel left the Philadelphia Corridor on the Gaza-Egyptian border,  where the tunnels begin, as part of the “disengagement” from Gaza. This aroused fierce dispute in Israel at the time, with those opposing the move saying, as has since been proven true, that Egypt would not stop the weapons smuggling.

The ceasefire that Israel accepted after the Operation Cast Lead in January 2006 was to be accompanied with monitoring systems to prevent smuggling, but the United States and European Union did not fulfill their promises. Israeli military officials have said that Hamas has exploited the opportunity to stockpile an arsenal of weapons, which include medium range Fajr missiles that can reach Tel Aviv, as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

The Israel bombing of Fajr missile storage sites has inflicted damage on the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, and Al-Akhbar wrote, “Resistance factions are currently assessing the damage inflicted on the long-range missile arsenals Israel claims to have destroyed in the raids following the assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmad al-Jaabari.”

It added that a “large number of ‘strategic’ arsenals are still safe.”

Hizbullah’s increased ability to supply arms is a result of the establishment of the special smuggling unit of the Guards, according to the newspaper.

It said that Egyptian and Iranian governments have been an obstacle to the smuggling operations, but Hizbullah worked out a communications channel between the Guards, the Syrian army, Hizbullah and Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.

“Since 2005, the weapons transfer units have succeeded in sending numerous types of light and medium weapons, mortars, medium and long-range missiles, as well as several types of ammunition and materials that can be used to manufacture rockets and bombs,” Al-Akbar reported. In the same year, the Israeli government removed all soldiers and military posts from Gaza following the expulsion of more than 9,000 Jews from their homes, a move that gave Gaza terrorists a free hand to operate the weapons supply system.

Daniel Taub: Halting Hamas.

Daniel Taub

Israel’s Ambassador to the court of St. James’

” [Through] these cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London… He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children, that he will terrorize and cow the people of this mighty imperial city… Little does he know the spirit of the British nation, or the tough fibre of the Londoners.”

These words, spoken by prime minister Winston Churchill in September 1940, are but a distant memory to many British citizens today. And yet, they remind us of times when Londoners spent countless nights seeking cover from aerial attacks in shelters and tube stations.

In the years since Israel pulled out of Gaza, over one million Israelis have been forced to live under similar conditions, seeking refuge in bomb shelters as a result of thousands of Hamas rocket and mortar attacks. While the rockets targeting Israeli civilians – men, women, and children – do not carry as deadly a payload as that of the German bombs of World War II, their aim is equally sinister and illegitimate: to instill fear in the hearts of Israelis and undermine their right to live in a free and independent state.

In recent months, over one seventh of Israel’s population have found themselves within range of rocket fire, having to live their lives within 15-30 seconds of the closest bomb shelter in case the siren sounds. Children have been unable to attend school for extended periods, growing up experiencing the trauma of life in the danger zone. Showing remarkable courage and restraint in the face of this intolerable reality, these Israelis have tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy, while the Israeli government continued to hold out hope that a non-military resolution of the situation might be reached.

However, over time, not only have the assaults become more frequent, but the range of sophisticated rockets, smuggled in from Iran, Sudan and Libya, has increased. The Iranian-made Fajr 5 missile has a range of 75km, putting some 4.5 million people – over 50% of Israel’s population – in the kill zone.

Last week, for the third time in a month, the civilians of southern Israel came under attack from the Gaza Strip. An anti-tank missile was fired at an army jeep on the Israeli side of the border fence, injuring four IDF soldiers. Subsequently, over 120 rockets were fired at Israeli civilians.

It was only following this sharp escalation that Israel embarked upon Operation Pillar of Defence in order to end the indiscriminate rocket barrage from Gaza and to cripple Hamas’ ability to launch terror attacks on our citizens.

The need for action was clear, but any such operation is highly complex. Israel is painfully aware that Hamas not only directs its missile attacks against Israeli civilians but it also, cynically, hides its stockpiles and missile launchers behind Palestinian civilians. This creates an enormously difficult challenge for Israel, which has to defend its citizens while doing its utmost to avoid injuring the innocent Palestinians being used as shields by the terrorists. Israel devotes
enormous effort to these challenges. These efforts include using, where possible, the Israeli developed ‘Iron Dome’ technology to intercept rockets in flight, and dropping thousands of leaflets and making tens of thousands of phone calls, urging Palestinian civilians to leave areas of Hamas activity for their own safety. Moreover, refusing to ignore the plight of Gaza’s civilian population, which suffers under the yoke of Hamas rule, Israel has transferred nearly 100 trucks loaded with food and medical supplies into Gaza since the operation began and has also afforded medical treatment to 26 Gazans who are being cared for in Israeli hospitals.

To date the operation has dealt a serious blow to the Hamas terrorist organization, including successfully targeting its military leadership and putting out of action a large proportion of the long-range missiles in the arsenal of Hamas and its fellow terrorist organisations.

This is in itself a significant success. But in itself it will not be sufficient to sustain a long term ceasefire and restore normal life to the citizens for Israel. For this to happen, Hamas itself must recognise that terrorising Israelis will no longer be tolerated, by Israel or the international community.

Alan Dershowitz: Hamas’ Tactic: Require Israel to Cause Civilian Casualties.

As the rockets continue to fall in Israel and Gaza, it is important to understand Hamas’s tactic and how the international community and the media are encouraging it. Hamas’s tactic is as simple as it is criminal and brutal. Its leaders know that by repeatedly firing rockets at Israeli civilian areas, they will give Israel no choice but to respond. Israel’s response will target the rockets and those sending them. In order to maximize their own civilian casualties, and thereby earn the sympathy of the international community and media, Hamas leaders deliberately fire their rockets from densely populated civilian areas. The Hamas fighters hide in underground bunkers but Hamas refuses to provide any shelter for its own civilians, who they use as “human shields.” This unlawful tactic puts Israel to a tragic choice: simply allow Hamas rockets to continue to target Israeli cities and towns; or respond to the rockets, with inevitable civilian casualties among the Palestinian “human shields.”

Every democracy would choose the latter option if presented with a similar choice. Although Israel goes to great efforts to reduce civilian casualties, the Hamas tactic is designed to maximize them. The international community and the media must understand this and begin to blame Hamas, rather than Israel, for the Palestinian civilians who are killed by Israeli rockets but whose deaths are clearly part of the Hamas tactic.

Every reasonable commentator has agreed with President Obama that Hamas started this battle by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. Every reasonable commentator also agrees with President Obama that Israel has the right to defend its citizens. But many commentators fault Israel for causing Palestinian civilian casualties. But what is Israel’s option, other than to simply allow rockets to be aimed at its own women and children. As President Obama observed when he went to Sderot as a candidate:

“The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. And so I can assure you that if…somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

Israel should continue to make every effort to reduce civilian casualties, both because that is the humane thing to do and because it serves their interests. But so long as Hamas continues to fire rockets from densely populated civilian areas, rather than from the many open areas outside of Gaza City, this cynical tactic–which constitutes a double war crime–will guarantee that some Palestinian women and children will be killed. And the Hamas leadership prepares for this gruesome certainty by arranging for the dead babies to be paraded in front of the international media. In one such case, the Palestinian radicals posted a video of a dead baby who turned out to have been reportedly killed in Syria by the Assad government, and in another case, they displayed the body of a baby who had been killed by a Hamas rocket that misfired, falsely claiming that it had been the victim of an Israeli rocket.

As Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan has said, the Israeli Army does “more to safeguard civilians than any Army in the history of warfare.” This includes dropping leaflets, making phone calls and providing other warnings to civilian residents of Gaza City. But Hamas refuses to provide shelter for its civilians, deliberately exposing them to the risks associated with warfare, while it shelters its own fighters in underground bunkers.

The Hamas tactic is also designed to prevent Israel from making peace with the Palestinian Authority. Even Israeli doves are concerned that if Israel ends its occupation of the West Bank, Hamas may take over that territory, as it took over Gaza shortly after Israel ended its occupation of that area. The West Bank is much closer to Israel’s major population centers than the Gaza. If Hamas were to fire rockets from the West Bank at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel would then have to respond militarily, as it has in Gaza. Once again, civilians would be killed, thus provoking international outcry against Israel.

What we are seeing in Gaza today is a replay of what happened in 2008 and 2009, when Israel went into Gaza to stop the rocket fire. The result was the Goldstone report which put the blame squarely on Israel. This benighted report–condemned by most thoughtful people, and eventually even critiqued by Goldstone himself–has encouraged Hamas to go back to the tactic that resulted in international condemnation of Israel. This tactic will persist as long as the international community and the media persist in blaming Israel for civilian deaths caused by a deliberate Hamas tactic.

Hamas rule – JPost – Opinion – Editorials.

Iran expects continued ‘construc… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

Gaza Escalation is Arm of Iran Nuclear Crisis – Op-Eds – Israel National News.

The Six-Day War in 1967 remains a constant reminder that careful planning and eternal vigilance is essential to winning any war.
In just six days, Israel was able to defeat three Arab armies and quadruple the size of its territory.
The flawless military strategy Israel used to defeat its enemies- Egypt, Syria and Jordan, was one of aerial supremacy and blitzkrieg style tank attacks.
By comparison, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was slow, clumsy, and unfocused during the three weeks of ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in Gaza Strip. As in 2006 Lebanon War, the IDF was again stalled before developing an effective tactical offensive. Counter-terror offensive were foreshortened by heavy diplomatic pressure before achieving anything, owing to the government lack of resolve.
On November 14, the IDF embarked on ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, meant to defend Israeli civilians from the incessant rocket attacks and cripple the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip.
In just a few hours, the IDF achieved more than what Cast Lead managed: the targeted killing of Hamas military wing commander Ahmed Jaabari and the rapid destruction of scores of Iranian Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets, the most potent weapons in the arsenal of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza Strip.
More than likely, the ‘Pillar of Defense’ started on October 24 with the preemptive strikes on the Yarmouk complex, manufacturing Iranian missiles in Sudan.
Ostensibly, the Sudan strike may serve as an Israeli warning and a possible dry run to pave the way to attack Iran.
Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin confirmed that the Sudan factory had housed the emergency reserve stocks of the Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip.
Indeed, Israel’s precise surgical strikes did not only kill Hamas’ leading terror strategist, but also effectively eliminated virtually a good many of the Fajr-5 rockets within minutes – stored in Gaza City.
Certainly, Israel may expect repercussions from Cairo one way or another since Jaabari, was a favorite of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and his death occurred the day after Egypt brokered a “ceasefire” in the missile offensive from Gaza.
That “ceasefire” was violated by Hamas with Grad rockets against southern Israel.
IDF sources say that military operation is underway against more Hamas leaders and its military infrastructure and rocket stocks across the Gaza Strip.
Iran Admits to Pulling Strings in Gaza
According to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence division, Quds Forces in Gaza and other Palestinian territories has been training and supervising Hamas and Islamic Jihad in setting up underground rocket facilities and launching attacks on Israel.
In addition, to its large stockpiles of chemical and microbial weapons, Iran has armed the Lebanese terrorist group Hizbullah with them.
Apparently, the escalation of the Gaza conflict was ordered by the highest authority in Iran, the source added, and rockets targeting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are in fact a warning to Israel that its Iron Dome missile defense system cannot thwart Iran’s ballistic missiles and tens of thousands of rockets and missiles in the hands of Hizbullah.
Fars News Agency, the media outlet for the Revolutionary Guards, also reported that 20,000 Basij forces are prepared to fight alongside the Hamas militants, even as Israel called up 75,000 reserves for a possible ground operation.
“If the IDF launches a wide-scale ground incursion into Gaza, it must be prepared to go all out,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman was quoted as saying.
Israel already “paid a heavy price” by yielding to diplomatic pressure when it failed to pursue its final objectives in its assault on Hamas four years ago.

So, What’s Next?
As Iran is on the threshold of being able to create weapons-grade uranium at Fordo plant, diplomats from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are calling into question an Israeli claim that Iran had slowed its nuclear time table.
Surprisingly, Iran was now technically ready within days to ramp up its production of 20 percent enriched uranium by nearly 700 centrifuges.
But the 20-percent material being produced at Fordo is of greater concern to the international community for two reasons:
First, the 20% stockpile can be turned much more easily and quickly into weapons-grade uranium of 90 percent purity— and second, Fordo’s heavily fortified underground facility means it is now impervious to conventional air attack.
Such a move would raise the stakes for Israel which is in line with the timeframe laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September at the UN General Assembly.
What does Iran expect to gain from Gaza crisis?
Iran’s vitriolic anti-Israeli sentiment in the Islamic world was more ominous than the escalation of the Gaza crisis.
As the Gaza confrontation unfolds, Iran’s masterfully contrived deception in provoking attacks from Hamas provides a welcome distraction from Iran’s ongoing economic troubles and its pursuit of nuclear capability.
Although intelligence assessment varies widely, there are lingering doubts of Egypt involvement with Hamas and Hizbullah activities directed by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Iran.
No one seemed to know for sure, but judging the exact status of Iran’s nuclear program is far more complex than playing Russian roulette.
Strikingly, the IAEA quarterly report demonstrates that the Islamic regime is continuing its headlong approach to building nuclear weapons despite stringent economic sanctions.
If the IAEA assessments were correct, Iran could have crossed the ‘red line’ in just over a few months.
There is no doubt in mind that an attack on nuclear armed Iran is far more dangerous, more complex and more costly in terms of life and treasure.
Worst case scenario: if Iran and its proxy, Hamas and Hizbullah deploy chemical and biological weapons, the less forgiving US and Israel could be forced to consider using its nuclear option.
What is also important to consider are the unintended consequences and the hidden dangers of Israel’s imminent incursion into the Gaza Strip.
Ideally, de-escalation is possible but it depends to a great extent to the willingness of the international community in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
On the other hand, with Egypt maintaining its peace treaty with Israel- has crucial role to play in reining Hamas in its own backyard.
Another consideration, though remotely possible would be for Egypt to accept further responsibility in preventing smuggling across its borders and eliminating the rocket arsenals of Hamas and other terror organizations in Gaza.
Whether this will bring peace and quiet to southern Israel, the onus entirely depends on Hamas to cease firing rockets against Israel.
Furthermore, an escalation of the Gaza conflict could probably pave the way to an early Iran strike if Israeli election is postponed in January 2013.
In the end, Israel will really have to make painful choices between Iran’s nuclear program and confronting multi-front attacks from Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria and quite possibly Egypt.

Voices from the Home Front: How Israelis Live Under Fire – YouTube.

Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 12,000 rockets into Israel in the past 12 years. Listen to a few of the Israelis who have been living with this reality for too long.

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IDF Reservists Prepare to Defend Their Homes – YouTube.

Thousands of IDF reservists were called up as Operation Pillar of Defense began. They left their jobs and families for one purpose — to defend their homes.

For more from the IDF:
http://www.idfblog.com/
http://twitter.com/idfspokesperson/
http://www.facebook.com/idfonline/
http://www.idf.il/english/

Israel Iron Dome defense: How has missile defense changed battle in Gaza – Slate Magazine.

Why Israel’s Iron Dome is a “game changer.”