WarSclerotic

Hungary: Far-right leader demands lists of Jews – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Straight out of the annals of the third Reich.  – JW )

Far-right politician urges government to draw up lists of Jews who pose ‘national security risk’, stirring outrage among Jewish leaders

Reuters

A Hungarian far-right politician urged the government to draw up lists of Jews who pose a “national security risk”, stirring outrage among Jewish leaders who saw echoes of fascist policies that led to the Holocaust.

Marton Gyongyosi, leader of Hungary’s third-strongest political party Jobbik, said the list was necessary because of heightened tensions following the brief conflict in Gaza and should include members of parliament.

Opponents have condemned frequent anti-Semitic slurs and tough rhetoric against the Roma minority by Gyongyosi’s party as populist point scoring ahead of elections in 2014.

But Jobbik has never called publicly for lists of Jews.

“I am a Holocaust survivor,” said Gusztav Zoltai, executive director of the Hungarian Jewish Congregations’ Association. “For people like me this generates raw fear, even though it is clear that this only serves political ends. This is the shame of Europe, the shame of the world.”

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust, according to the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest. According to some accounts, one in three Jews killed in Auschwitz were Hungarian nationals.

Gyongyosi’s call came after Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth said Budapest favoured a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as benefiting both Israelis with Hungarian ancestry, Hungarian Jews and Palestinians in Hungary.

Gyongyosi told Parliament: “I know how many people with Hungarian ancestry live in Israel, and how many Israeli Jews live in Hungary,” according to a video posted on Jobbik’s website late on Monday.

“I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary.”

Apology

The government released a terse condemnation of the remarks.

“The government strictly rejects extremist, racist, anti-Semitic voices of any kind and does everything to suppress such voices,” the government spokesman’s office said.

Gyongyosi sought to play down his comments on Tuesday, saying he was referring to citizens with dual Israeli-Hungarian citizenship.

“I apologize to my Jewish compatriots for my declarations that could be misunderstood,” he said on Jobbik’s website.

Jobbik’s anti-Semitic discourse often evokes a centuries-old blood libel – the accusation that Jews used Christians’ blood in religious rituals.

“Jobbik has moved from representing medieval superstition (of the blood libel) to openly Nazi ideologies,” wrote Slomo Koves, chief rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation.

Jobbik registered as a political party in 2003, and gained increasing influence as it radicalized gradually, vilifying Jews and the country’s 700,000 Roma.

The group gained notoriety after founding the Hungarian Guard, an unarmed vigilante group reminiscent of World War Two-era far-right groups. It entered Parliament at the 2010 elections and holds 44 of 386 seats.

Hungary has been among European states worst hit by the recent economic crisis and the center-right government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has struggled to exit recession.

Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. This piece is reprinted with permission and can be found on Abrams’ blog “Pressure Points.”

The success of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system is one of the great stories to emerge from the Gaza Strip conflict, but its importance may still have been underestimated.

First, even enthusiasts tend to exaggerate Iron Dome’s variable costs. It is often said that Hamas can make rockets and mortars very cheaply, while each interceptor rocket fired by Iron Dome costs as much as $50,000. But a recent column in the Jerusalem Post points out that such figures include the system’s development costs to date. Procurement of future interceptors will cost far less and economies of scale will soon be reflected. The per unit cost may fall to $5,000 or far less.

Meanwhile, the estimated cost to Iran and Hamas of the Fajr rockets they fired at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv often does not include the cost of smuggling them from Iran to Sudan to Egypt to Gaza, including all the expenses and bribes along the way.

Second, Iron Dome is only one part of Israel’s fast-developing missile defenses. Iron Dome itself is constantly being improved as new generations of radars come into use. Another system entirely, David’s Sling, was tested successfully last week in the Negev Desert. An article in Defense News reported this:

“Known here as Magic Wand, the [David’s Sling weapon system] is planned as the second layer in Israel’s multitiered national missile defense network, tasked with intercepting threats eluding Israel’s first layer — the Iron Dome — as well as ballistic missiles leaking through the protective envelope of the U.S.-Israel Arrow. Future plans call for expanding the capabilities into a full multi-role system, capable of intercepting not only rockets and missiles, but aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles.”

Preventing attacks on Israel by Iranian weapons is a central goal of the Israeli government and involves more than defensive systems. That is why Israel in January 2009 appears to have attacked a truck caravan of Iranian weapons traversing Sudan and headed for Gaza, and why on Oct. 23 a warehouse full of Iranian weapons was destroyed in Khartoum. By way of background, the website Now Lebanon tells the story of a “comprehensive network seeking to provide Palestinians with all kinds of weapons,” and involving Iran, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime. That story mentions two individuals involved in this network, Syrian general and Special Presidential Adviser for Arms Procurement and Strategic Weapons Muhammad Suleiman, and Imad Mughniyah, who was the leader of Hezbollah’s terrorist operations. Both men are now dead. Both assassinations have been attributed in the press to Israel, and if that is right, it is further evidence of Israel’s determination to prevent Hamas from acquiring advanced weaponry that can threaten Israel’s major population centers.

I can remember analyses and stories five or 10 years ago speculating that because of the missile and rocket threat, Israel would soon find it impossible to defend itself, but it seems that technology may be able to defeat terror. For the U.S., which maintains scores of military bases overseas and in dangerous locations, that is good news, indeed.

Reprinted with permission from the Council on Foreign Relations.

via Israel Hayom | Technology and terror.

Stop the Re-Arming Of the Gaza Terrorists.

President Obama pushed Israel into accepting a ceasefire arrangement with Hamas, which was engineered by Hamas’s Muslim Brotherhood patron, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel is supposed to negotiate, through Egyptian intermediaries, an easing of border restrictions between Gaza and Israel. This would be the same Egyptian government that had sent its prime minister to Gaza to express solidarity with Hamas during the fighting.  Hamas, on the other hand, is not required to give up its remaining stockpile of Iranian-supplied weapons, nor to commit to cease all further imports of Iranian missiles or missile parts.  In short, the ceasefire is a sham. Only a Gaza Strip without re-armed terrorists can truly stop the fire in the long run.

Obama reportedly praised Morsi for his pragmatism in putting ideology aside in order to get the ceasefire deal done.  Morsi wasted no time in exploiting the glow of praise radiating so brightly from Obama and the international community for his role in bringing about the ceasefire. He issued an edict the next day exempting all his decisions from judicial review and giving himself the power to do pretty much anything he deemed necessary to keep the “revolution” alive.

Morsi was able to get Hamas to agree to a ceasefire because he knows that Hamas will simply follow the path of Hezbollah, which has used its own ceasefire with Israel in Lebanon to re-arm itself to the teeth with sophisticated weapons it obtains from Iran and Syria. Morsi no doubt followed the time-honored Islamist tradition of lying in the service of Islam, known as taqiyya, regarding any representations he may have made on Hamas’s behalf to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the negotiations.

How was Obama able to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire before the military operation had achieved all of its objectives?  According to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Netanyahu might well have succumbed to threats by the Obama administration that it would cut off or delay shipments of vital parts for F-16s and other military assets unless Israel acceded.

There is also an unconfirmed report by DEBKAfile that Obama secured Netanyahu’s agreement to the ceasefire after he “personally pledged to start deploying US troops in Egyptian Sinai” within a week. This follows another DEBKAfile report of a U.S. project to construct electronic security fences along the Suez Canal and northern Sinai. The kicker, however, is that Morsi has to consent to the fences and the entry of U.S. forces into Sinai to take action against Iranian arms smuggling networks.

Meanwhile, Hamas is wasting no time. The rocket firings may have ceased for the time being, but not the re-arming. Israeli spy satellites have reportedly detected rockets and other weapons being loaded into a cargo vessel at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, which is the location of the main base of the Iranian Navy.  Israeli intelligence officials believe that the vessel will be following a well-established sea route from Bandar Abbas to the Port of Sudan, from which arms are then smuggled through Sudan and Egypt via the Sinai Peninsula to Gaza.

Iran uses Sudan regularly as part of its terrorist arming campaign, leveraging a defense pact the two countries signed in 2008.

An arms factory in Sudan, reportedly used by Iran to manufacture arms for transit to Hamas, exploded last month as a result of what may have been an Israeli air strike.  But the Iranian-Sudanese terrorist arms venture continues on.  Libya has become another source of weapons smuggled to Gaza.  An Iranian Navy ship, carrying weapons, was allowed by Egyptian authorities to pass through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean last August – in other words, by the same government that is supposed to help maintain the ceasefire between Iran’s client Hamas and Israel.

Israel should not ease any current land and sea restrictions without ironclad, enforceable measures to stop all terrorist re-arming in its tracks. Enforceable does not mean by UN peacekeeping troops.  They have proved to be worthless in stopping the smuggling of arms across the Syrian border to Hezbollah, as was called for in Security Council Resolution 1701.

However, assuming that the DEBKAfile report is true and Morsi somehow consents to a limited U.S. troop presence in the Sinai to snuff out the smuggling operations – a questionable assumption –  that is only a start. Moreover, the United States should not have to act alone. If European countries and Turkey, as well as the United States – all members of NATO – want Israel to ease the land and sea restrictions, then NATO needs to step up.  This means committing the resources required to inspect all cargo before it enters Gaza from whatever location, and to interdict all arms and weapons components wherever they are found, before they reach Hamas.  If this includes intercepting Iranian ships, which are believed to be carrying arms shipments, before they reach Sudan and other transit points, so be it. NATO would be simply enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1747, which prohibits Iran from supplying, selling, or transferring directly or indirectly “any arms or related material.”

President Obama also needs to significantly increase the U.S. government’s financial support for Israel’s anti-missile defense systems, including Iron Dome (for short-range rockets),  David’s Sling (for medium- to long-range rockets) and Arrow (for long-range conventional ballistic missiles and high-altitude nuclear warheads). These defense systems are based on Israeli-developed technology, which has proven to be far superior to U.S. technology in this area.  Our financial investment in its success will not only help our ally Israel defend itself, but will provide us with highly effective systems for our own use against the terrorists who mean to do us harm.

The United States has budgeted approximately $2 billion for these systems’ development, manufacture and deployment in Israel since 2006.  The Obama administration needs to up the ante and provide Israel with the money needed to allow the rapid manufacture and deployment of enough of these systems to protect every civilian population center in Israel against short, medium and long-range missile attack from any direction.

In the final analysis, these tactical measures are necessary but not sufficient to deal with the source of the threat not only to Israel, but to all Western democracies. The Islamist regime in Iran will have to be confronted, sooner rather than later.  As Winston Churchill once said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.”

Mowing the lawn – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Learning from its mistakes, for Operation Pillar of Defense the IDF set itself modest, achievable military goals. The first, tactical, was to deplete Hamas’ stores of rockets and weapons systems.

The second, strategic, was to recreate a comprehensive deterrence capability that would cause terrorists in the coastal enclave to hesitate before renewing rocket salvoes against Israel’s south.

According to the IDF, during the course of the eight-day operation, Israel targeted:

• 30 senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists
• 19 high-level command centers
• 980 underground rocket launchers
• 140 smuggling tunnels
• 66 tunnels used for terrorist operations
• 42 operation rooms and bases owned by Hamas
• 26 weapons manufacturing and storage facilities

To add a little bit of context, the IDF launched far more airstrikes in Gaza during the first few days of Operation Pillar of Defense than during the same initial period of Operation Cast Lead of 2008-2009. The recent operation decimated Hamas’ and other terrorist organizations’ stores of Qassam rockets and mortars, while all but completely obliterating their Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles.

On the diplomatic front, if Israel secures Egyptian cooperation over weapons smuggling into Gaza, Hamas could find it exceedingly difficult to resupply and rearm. These represent incontestable tactical scores for the IDF, and could be considered, ipso facto, justification for Operation Pillar of Defense.

Rocket damage in Ashdod (Photo: Ido Erez)

Which leads us to the IDF’s deterrence capabilities: The IDF displayed the effectiveness of its budding UAV program, dubbed “Canopy of Fire,” or hupat esh in Hebrew. The program is comprised of constant aerial surveillance of terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Buzzing drones flying kilometers above the enclave use high-resolution cameras to monitor individual terrorists conducting military operations, at times allowing the IAF to conduct rapid pinpoint strikes against the operatives. The program is increasingly successful, and will eventually threaten terrorists’ ability to fire rockets into Israel without being targeted by an IAF strike.

Of course, the success of the operation will ultimately be judged in the coming weeks and months based on the stability of the ceasefire deal. If Israel has in fact managed to renegotiate the “rules of the game” to prohibit rocket fire on Israel’s south, the operation will be deemed a success.

But be clear, there are very few within the IDF, if any, who believe that Operation Pillar of Defense is a long-term solution to Palestinian rocket fire. Most expect the ceasefire to break down eventually, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, within “nine days, nine weeks, or more.”

Far from being a regional game-changer, the operation was viewed as a tactical necessity, one which has frustrated the increasingly brazen terrorist attacks emanating from Gaza, and which will have to be repeated in weeks, months, or years down the line.

It is viewed as both a sequel to Operation Cast Lead and a prequel to what will invariably be the next IDF operation in the Strip, and the next, until a diplomatic solution can be found.

In IDF slang, the process is known as “mowing the lawn.” Only time will tell when the weeds will grow back.

Yoni holds a BA degree in Psychology with a minor in Political Science, from the University of British Columbia. He is currently working as a journalist in Israel, and his expertise lies in policy, conflict and Middle East affairs. Yoni was called up for reserve duty in the IDF’s Strategic Division at the start of Operation Pillar of Defense.

US-led NATO intervention begins in Syria war. Patriots in Turkey.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 27, 2012, 9:47 AM (GMT+02:00)

Patriot anti-missile batteries for Turkey

Tuesday, Nov. 27, the Middle East military spotlight swung around from Gaza to the Syrian war with steps for the start of US and NATO intervention in that conflict. Without spelling this out, a game changer began unfolding when a joint Turkish-NATO team began making a site survey  for the deployment of Patriot Air and Missile Defense Systems, manned by American military teams. The team, said the statement from Ankara, will assess where to station the missiles and how many would be needed. It reiterated that the system is “for defensive purposes” and not for a “no-fly zone or offensive operations,” but just for use “against an air or missile threat from Syria.”
However, the Patriots in combination with already installed elements of the missile shield, will command an area beyond the Turkish-Syrian border – all of northern Syria up to and including the embattled towns of Aleppo and Homs, debkafile’s military sources report.
Their presence will impede the operations of Assad’s most effective and lethal means of war against the rebels in that region – air force bombardment.
The positioning of US anti-missile missiles in Turkey coincides with the rebels’ success in destroying the Assad regime’s key air and radar stations in southern Syria and along the Jordanian border. The two thrusts add up to a coordinated military effort in northern and southern Syria to seize control of the skies in both regions from Assad’s control and push his forces back into central Syria.
A part of the US-Turkish plan affects Israel. Monday, debkafile reported exclusively that in a resounding blow to Bashar Assad’s ability to fight external enemies, Syrian rebels had destroyed the Assad regime’s most important electronic warning radar station facing Israel – M-1 – Monday, Nov. 26.

This Russian-built station monitored Israeli warplanes’ takeoff and landing activities at air bases in the Negev and Hatzerim in the south and tracked them up to the Syrian border. The facility was designed to guide Syrian missiles targeting any point on the Israeli map, in sync with air defense facilities south of Damascus and on the Golan Heights. The radar’s range also covered naval movements in Mediterranean waters off the shores of Israel and Lebanon.
Western military sources told debkafile that the destruction of this vital facility has blinded the two eyes which Syrian air, air defense and missile forces had trained on Israel. It has therefore crippled, though not completely dismantled, Bashar Assad’s ability to got to war against Israel, Jordan or Saudi Arabia.
M-1 radar also swept all parts of Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia where the important Tabuk air base is situated. Deployed there in addition to the Saudi Air Force are French fighter-bombers ready to go to war against Syria.
M-1 also relayed current data on Israeli military movements to Hizballah and would have been a vital source of intelligence in a potential Lebanese Shiites offensive against the Jewish state.
The Syrian ruler and his spokesmen have frequently threatened since the eruption of the popular insurrection that if Assad had his back to the wall, the entire Middle East would go up in flames, especially Israel.

In the last two days, the Syrian rebels have made additional gains: They were able to capture areas abutting on the Jordanian border, excepting only the Ramtha border crossing. They also seized the Marj al-Sultan military air field southeast of Damascus and adjoining Syrian Army 4th Brigade bases.
Most of the men of the 82nd Infantry Brigade guarding M-1 were killed in the fighting, fled or were taken prisoner.
Our military sources notes that after M-1, the Assad regime still retains two key radar stations: M-2 in Shanshar south of Homs, which covers central and northern Syria; and M-3 near Latakia which keeps an eye on the northern region up to the Turkish border and the eastern Mediterranean up to Cyprus.
All three radar stations were linked to the Syrian general staff, air force, air defense, missile and navy operations rooms and fed them the essential real-time intelligence data needed for decision-making at the highest level. However, the loss of M-1 seriously hampers the Syria army’s capacity to take on Israel or Jordan.

Israeli-Americans sue Clinton over PA aid money – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Group claims State Department ignored transparency requirements attached to US aid to Palestinians, allowed money to fund terrorist organizations

Adi Gold

Dual US-Israeli citizens filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and the State Department claiming that the US administration provided the Palestinian Authority with billions of dollars in aid moneywhich were used to fund terrorist groups such as Hamas instead of supporting humanitarian causes, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

According to the lawsuit, the State Department ignored congressional safeguards and transparency requirements attached to US aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The White House, it was claimed, did not comply with the regulations and reporting obligations governing presidential waivers which facilitate emergency funding to the Palestinians.

Evidence collected by the plaintiffs indicates that the PA directly funds terrorist organizations and that some PA officials also serve organizations which the US considers terrorist groups.

The plaintiffs’ attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center said that the US government did not adhere to the law and harmed US citizens.

“Once handed over, US funding of the PA and UNRWA is difficult to trace and the State Department has been lax in requiring the Palestinians to utilize bank accounts and other transfer methods that ensure transparency,” she said.

“Elements of the US Government, particularly the State Department and USAID, are breaking the law and must cease all funding of the PA immediately. US aid to the Palestinians is killing innocent people,” she added.

Articles: Some Tentative Achievements Israel Scored with Pillar of Defense.

By Dov Fischer

There is room for doubt regarding the “ceasefire” that has been announced in Israel’s effort to eradicate the Hamas terrorist infrastructure.  Israel may well have been better-served to have continued doing what it was doing, and the depiction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as peacemakers, while murderers dance in the streets of Gaza, is no cause for joy.  On the other hand, an Israeli ground incursion would have added peril for many of her boys, and we have no right sitting in America to criticize Israel for choosing not to imperil her boys.  Furthermore, the question — whose honest answer we never will know — is: “What were Israel’s military objectives in this battle?”

If the objective was to put Hamas out of business once and for all, then this operation was a failure for Israel.  Likewise, if the goal was to make it impossible for Hamas to continuing to launch rockets into Southern Israel, then this operation would seem to have been pointless.  Hamas will continue shooting rockets into Sderot.  They still are doing so, albeit sporadically, even at the time of this writing.  However, if Israel had other objectives, under a smokescreen of putting Hamas out of business, then Israel may have achieved its goals effectively.  To wit:

Israel may have succeeded in completely knocking out all long-range Fajr-5 missiles, capable of reaching Tel Aviv, that Hamas had smuggled in from Iran these past few years.  This would reduce the number of Israelis subject to missile fire from 3.5 million people to under 1 million.  It also would protect the nation’s most vital infrastructure from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Israel may have succeeded completely in testing the effectiveness of her Iron Dome defensive batteries in actual wartime conditions for the purpose of upgrading perceived flaws, thereby better understanding how to protect cities in her south like Ashkelon and Ashdod and points north to Jerusalem.  In addition, Israel may have used this real-time combat testing to influence and augment how she further develops the “Chetz” (“Arrow”) and “David’s Sling” defense systems she now is refining and constructing to defend against middle-range and long-range rockets.  These systems parallel the Iron Dome’s efforts aimed at defending against shorter-range rockets.

Israel may have succeeded completely, in advance of a possible future attack against Iranian nuclear capabilities, in testing theories that (i) for all its bluster, Egypt will not join a military conflagration that could result in military disaster for Egypt and thereby in an outraged and humiliated Egyptian Army leadership conducting a coup to seize political control from the Muslim Brotherhood civilian leadership that supplanted them; and (ii) for all its bluster, Hezb’allah may not be poised presently to attack Israel.

Israel may have succeeded completely in sending a message to Iran that Israel is capable of striking and ready to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities if necessary, and — at least for the next two years — Iran no longer can rely on Hamas and Egypt on Israel’s western front to step up with sufficient support in a military conflict with Iran that would divert Israeli air power and defenses from focusing on Iran.

Israel may have cut a deal secretly with Clinton and Obama that includes our country now gaining access to strategic military lessons learned by Israel from this conflagration, and Israel gaining significant new funding towards (i) placing several more Iron Dome batteries into operation to blanket Israel’s skies more thoroughly, (ii) enhancing the research and development of “Chetz” and “David’s Sling,” and possibly (iii) offsetting some or much of Israel’s costs in prosecuting this eight-day “weed-cutting” operation, including the $50,000 that each Iron Dome surface-to-air interceptor missile costs.

By striking swiftly at some 1,500 pre-planned strategic targets and avoiding a subsequent extended ground incursion, thereby limiting Gaza “civilian” casualties and achieving some valuable goals before the anti-Israel lobby could gather political steam, Israel may have deterred certain European Union countries from voting in the United Nations at this time in favor of upgrading “Palestinian” status in the U.N.  There may have been a secret quid-pro-quo to the effect that Israel cease fire and the EU stand down.  Maybe.  What is certain is that, for the first time in decades, Israel has prosecuted a major weed-cutting operation before the political left could mount an international counter-propaganda effort aimed at delegitimizing Israel’s right to protect her citizens and national existence from murderers.  Hamas are based among a population that freely elected these murderers to lead them and be their surrogates, while stockpiling weapons and stationing rockets and launchers in hospitals, mosques, school buildings and playgrounds, and residential apartment buildings.  Despite the left’s knee-jerk tradition of siding with terrorists and murderers against civilized societies that fight back to protect themselves from annihilation, Israel eviscerated hundreds of strategic targets before the left could mobilize its haters to act.

The Netanyahu government may have succeeded completely in sending a message to those within Israel, and outside, who want to see Israel accept a “Two-State Solution” that would see an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) that would parallel Israel’s prior withdrawals from Gaza and southern Lebanon.  The eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense has demonstrated that any Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria will transform Tel Aviv and Jerusalem forevermore from exciting Western cities and repositories of culture and civilization to the equivalent of targets in a shooting arcade.  Thus, this operation may have proven that old political slogans and equations no longer make any sense, and that it no longer is conceivable for Israel to withdraw from post-1967 Judea and Samaria — even as it is unfathomable and utterly impracticable to uproot 350,000 Jews and more from their homes.

So maybe, in the final analysis, this was a successful, purposeful operation for Israel.

Dov Fischer, a legal affairs consultant and adjunct professor of the law of civil procedure and advanced torts, is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County.  He was formerly chief articles editor of UCLA Law Review and writes extensively on political, cultural, and religious issues.  He is author of two books and blogs at http://www.rabbidov.com.

Articles: Some Tentative Achievements Israel Scored with Pillar of Defense.

Articles: Some Tentative Achievements Israel Scored with Pillar of Defense.

By Dov Fischer

There is room for doubt regarding the “ceasefire” that has been announced in Israel’s effort to eradicate the Hamas terrorist infrastructure.  Israel may well have been better-served to have continued doing what it was doing, and the depiction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as peacemakers, while murderers dance in the streets of Gaza, is no cause for joy.  On the other hand, an Israeli ground incursion would have added peril for many of her boys, and we have no right sitting in America to criticize Israel for choosing not to imperil her boys.  Furthermore, the question — whose honest answer we never will know — is: “What were Israel’s military objectives in this battle?”

If the objective was to put Hamas out of business once and for all, then this operation was a failure for Israel.  Likewise, if the goal was to make it impossible for Hamas to continuing to launch rockets into Southern Israel, then this operation would seem to have been pointless.  Hamas will continue shooting rockets into Sderot.  They still are doing so, albeit sporadically, even at the time of this writing.  However, if Israel had other objectives, under a smokescreen of putting Hamas out of business, then Israel may have achieved its goals effectively.  To wit:

Israel may have succeeded in completely knocking out all long-range Fajr-5 missiles, capable of reaching Tel Aviv, that Hamas had smuggled in from Iran these past few years.  This would reduce the number of Israelis subject to missile fire from 3.5 million people to under 1 million.  It also would protect the nation’s most vital infrastructure from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Israel may have succeeded completely in testing the effectiveness of her Iron Dome defensive batteries in actual wartime conditions for the purpose of upgrading perceived flaws, thereby better understanding how to protect cities in her south like Ashkelon and Ashdod and points north to Jerusalem.  In addition, Israel may have used this real-time combat testing to influence and augment how she further develops the “Chetz” (“Arrow”) and “David’s Sling” defense systems she now is refining and constructing to defend against middle-range and long-range rockets.  These systems parallel the Iron Dome’s efforts aimed at defending against shorter-range rockets.

Israel may have succeeded completely, in advance of a possible future attack against Iranian nuclear capabilities, in testing theories that (i) for all its bluster, Egypt will not join a military conflagration that could result in military disaster for Egypt and thereby in an outraged and humiliated Egyptian Army leadership conducting a coup to seize political control from the Muslim Brotherhood civilian leadership that supplanted them; and (ii) for all its bluster, Hezb’allah may not be poised presently to attack Israel.

Israel may have succeeded completely in sending a message to Iran that Israel is capable of striking and ready to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities if necessary, and — at least for the next two years — Iran no longer can rely on Hamas and Egypt on Israel’s western front to step up with sufficient support in a military conflict with Iran that would divert Israeli air power and defenses from focusing on Iran.

Israel may have cut a deal secretly with Clinton and Obama that includes our country now gaining access to strategic military lessons learned by Israel from this conflagration, and Israel gaining significant new funding towards (i) placing several more Iron Dome batteries into operation to blanket Israel’s skies more thoroughly, (ii) enhancing the research and development of “Chetz” and “David’s Sling,” and possibly (iii) offsetting some or much of Israel’s costs in prosecuting this eight-day “weed-cutting” operation, including the $50,000 that each Iron Dome surface-to-air interceptor missile costs.

By striking swiftly at some 1,500 pre-planned strategic targets and avoiding a subsequent extended ground incursion, thereby limiting Gaza “civilian” casualties and achieving some valuable goals before the anti-Israel lobby could gather political steam, Israel may have deterred certain European Union countries from voting in the United Nations at this time in favor of upgrading “Palestinian” status in the U.N.  There may have been a secret quid-pro-quo to the effect that Israel cease fire and the EU stand down.  Maybe.  What is certain is that, for the first time in decades, Israel has prosecuted a major weed-cutting operation before the political left could mount an international counter-propaganda effort aimed at delegitimizing Israel’s right to protect her citizens and national existence from murderers.  Hamas are based among a population that freely elected these murderers to lead them and be their surrogates, while stockpiling weapons and stationing rockets and launchers in hospitals, mosques, school buildings and playgrounds, and residential apartment buildings.  Despite the left’s knee-jerk tradition of siding with terrorists and murderers against civilized societies that fight back to protect themselves from annihilation, Israel eviscerated hundreds of strategic targets before the left could mobilize its haters to act.

The Netanyahu government may have succeeded completely in sending a message to those within Israel, and outside, who want to see Israel accept a “Two-State Solution” that would see an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) that would parallel Israel’s prior withdrawals from Gaza and southern Lebanon.  The eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense has demonstrated that any Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria will transform Tel Aviv and Jerusalem forevermore from exciting Western cities and repositories of culture and civilization to the equivalent of targets in a shooting arcade.  Thus, this operation may have proven that old political slogans and equations no longer make any sense, and that it no longer is conceivable for Israel to withdraw from post-1967 Judea and Samaria — even as it is unfathomable and utterly impracticable to uproot 350,000 Jews and more from their homes.

So maybe, in the final analysis, this was a successful, purposeful operation for Israel.

Dov Fischer, a legal affairs consultant and adjunct professor of the law of civil procedure and advanced torts, is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County.  He was formerly chief articles editor of UCLA Law Review and writes extensively on political, cultural, and religious issues.  He is author of two books and blogs at http://www.rabbidov.com.

‘Shame on Anyone Who Thought Morsi Was a Moderate’ – Jeffrey Goldberg – The Atlantic.

Strong words from Eric Trager, a Muslim Brotherhood expert:
Washington ought to have known by now that “democratic dialogue” is virtually impossible with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now mobilizing throughout Egypt to defend Morsi’s edict. The reason is that it is not a “democratic party” at all. Rather, it is a cultish organization that was never likely to moderate once it had grasped power.

‘(T)he process through which one becomes a Muslim Brother is designed to weed out moderates. It begins when specially designated Brotherhood recruiters, who work at mosques and universities across Egypt, identify pious young men and begin engaging them in social activities to assess their suitability for the organization. The Brotherhood’s ideological brainwashing begins a few months later, as new recruits are incorporated into Brotherhood cells (known as “families”) and introduced to the organization’s curriculum, which emphasizes Qur’anic memorization and the writings of founder Hassan al-Banna, among others. Then, over a five-to-eight-year period, a team of three senior Muslim Brothers monitors each recruit as he advances through five different ranks of Brotherhood membership–muhib, muayyad, muntasib, muntazim, and finally ach amal, or “active brother.”

Throughout this process, rising Muslim Brothers are continually vetted for their embrace of the Brotherhood’s ideology, commitment to its cause, and–most importantly–willingness to follow orders from the Brotherhood’s senior leadership. As a result, Muslim Brothers come to see themselves as foot soldiers in service of the organization’s theocratic credo: “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.” Meanwhile, those dissenting with the organization’s aims or tactics are eliminated at various stages during the five-to-eight-year vetting period.

Syrian rebels destroy Assad’s radar station facing Israel.

( Thank you, boys.  Take a while to rebuild that. Heh! – JW )

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 26, 2012, 9:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

Syrian rebels captured Marj al-Sultan miitary base

In a resounding blow to the combat capabilities of Bashar Assad’s army against external enemies, Syrian rebels destroyed their most important electronic warning radar station facing Israel – M-1 – Monday, Nov. 26, debkafile reports exclusively from its military sources.

This Russian-built station monitored Israeli warplanes’ takeoff and landing activities at air bases in the Negev and Hatzerim in the south and tracked them up to the Syrian border. The facility was designed to guide Syrian missiles targeting any point on the Israeli map, in sync with air defense facilities south of Damascus and on the Golan Heights. The radar’s range also covered naval movements in Mediterranean waters off the shores of Israel and Lebanon.
Western military sources told debkafile that the destruction of this vital facility has blinded the two eyes which Syrian air, air defense and missile forces had trained on Israel. It has therefore crippled, though not completely dismantled, Bashar Assad’s ability to got to war against Israel, Jordan or Saudi Arabia.
M-1 radar also swept all parts of Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia where the important Tabuk air base is situated. Deployed there in addition to the Saudi Air Force are French fighter-bombers ready to go to war against Syria.
M-1 also relayed current data on Israeli military movements to Hizballah and would have been a vital source of intelligence in a potential Lebanese Shiites offensive against the Jewish state.
The Syrian ruler and his spokesmen have frequently threatened since the eruption of the popular insurrection that if Assad had his back to the wall, the entire Middle East would go up in flames, especially Israel.

In the last two days, the Syrian rebels have made additional gains: They were able to capture areas abutting on the Jordanian border, excepting only the Ramtha border crossing. They also seized the Marj al-Sultan military air field southeast of Damascus and adjoining Syrian Army 4^th Brigade bases.
Most of the men of the 82^nd Infantry Brigade guarding M-1 were killed in the fighting, fled or were taken prisoner.
Our military sources notes that after M-1, the Assad regime still retains two key radar stations: M-2 in Shanshar south of Homs, which covers central and northern Syria; and M-3 near Latakia which keeps an eye on the northern region up to the Turkish border and the eastern Mediterranean up to Cyprus.
All three radar stations were linked to the Syrian general staff, air force, air defense, missile and navy operations rooms and fed them the essential real-time intelligence data needed for decision-making at the highest level. However, the loss of M-1 seriously hampers the Syria army’s capacity to take on Israel or Jordan.