WarSclerotic

Susan Rice: Gaza death toll ‘alarming’
By JONATHAN TOPAZ | 7/28/14 1:46 PM EDT

​ (I could have included a photo of Ms. Rice but felt this to be more appropriate.-LS)

National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Monday said the civilian death toll in Gaza is “alarming.”

Appearing on MSNBC, the top White House adviser first said that the Obama administration “fully supports” Israel’s right to defend itself against threats like those from Hamas.

“It’s the U.S. view, as well, that the death toll and the civilian toll in Gaza is rising in an alarming pace,” Rice continued. “It’s a concern that is grave and deepening on the part of the United States, the American people and the entire international community.”

Rice proceeded to call for “an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire,” echoing what President Barack Obama and his top officials have said in recent days.

Her comments come amid reports of increased tensions between the administration and the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama spoke with Netanyahu on the phone Sunday to push for a cease-fire, but the prime minister has not signaled an immediate embrace of the idea, saying on the Sunday talk shows that Hamas has not been a willing partner in previous cease-fires and will only abide by them when it is in its strategic advantage. The Financial Times reported that the Israeli government was particularly upset with Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to set up a peace deal.

Rice insisted on Monday that the White House and Netanyahu were on the same page in calling for a cease-fire. “That is what Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly told the president he seeks. So we are together in trying to achieve that objective,” she told host Andrea Mitchell.

The lopsided death toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has come under increased scrutiny as the conflict has worn on. The Associated Press reported Saturday night that 1,047 Palestinians had died since the conflict began, with more than 6,000 wounded, compared with fewer than 50 Israelis. The United Nations estimated last week that 75 percent of those Palestinians who had been killed were civilians.

High IDF death toll in Hamas upsurge of violence on “ceasefire” day. Israel expands Gaza counter-offensive, DEBKAfile, July 28, 2014

Netanyahu, Ya’alon and Gantz in the IDF war room

The 24-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” was the stage for a major escalation in violence as Hamas strutted its stuff, fully confident of its ability to stand up to the next stage of the IDF operation. Will Israel’s war planners finally show undivided resolve to win this momentous struggle against an expansionist Islamist terror movement?

In the past 48 hours, Israel was pressured to accept its fifth “humanitarian” ceasefire in Gaza by President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came close to folding, whereas Hamas saw the truce as applying only to Israel and therefore used it as a call to arms.

The slogan Israel broadcast: Quiet will be met with quiet and fire with fire, was seen by Hamas as a sign of Israel weakening.

This impression was confirmed on Sunday when the order went out to Israel troops to exercise restraint in the face of sporadic Hamas rocket fire, so as to give the truce a chance.

The Palestinian Islamists used it as a welcome respite for getting organized for the next stage of their onslaught.

Neither Israelis, Americans or Egyptians anticipated the radical Hamas launching an escalated assault on the first day of the Eid el-Fitr festival. In fact, by coordinating rocket, mortar and tunnel terror attacks, they inflicted on Israel one of the worst days of the three-week Operation Defensive Shield, claiming the lives of ten servicemen.

A grim omen of the deadly attacks ahead cam from a surge of rocket fire Monday noon, after a relatively quiet night. It targeted Gaza’s closest neighbors as well as Ashkelon and was followed by a salvo against the Lachish District and the towns of Netivot and Ofakim.

At around 4:30 p.m. Israel time, Hamas thought to give Israel a nasty surprise by sending one of its heavy Iranian Fajr-5 missiles (range 75 km) smashing into Tel Aviv. Instead of taking to the air, the missile plummeted to the ground in the nearby Shifa Hospital compound and exploded. Ten people were killed in the blast.

Half an hour later, Hamas directed mortar fire at the Eshkol District, where a group of soldiers was meeting. One hit its mark, killing four men and injuring nine.

The mortar attack was coordinated with another rocket barrage, this one directed at Ofakim and Mt. Carmel.

At around 6 p.m., a band of 5 Hamas terrorists came out of a tunnel near Kibbutz Nahal Oz They shot dead five defenders and were killed themselves in a firefight with the soldiers.

The tenth soldier was shot dead by Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip Monday morning

Their deaths raised to a total of 53 the IDF toll in the three-week counter-terror operation in the Gaza Strip.

Monday night, Israeli troops appeared to have started expanding the operation to the west. The inhabitants of Jebalya and Zeitun were told to leave their homes and, soon after, Israel artillery began shelling Ain Bureij.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz made a joint TV appearance Monday, offering a pledge to continue the campaign against Hamas until all goals were achieved, however long it takes.

Netanyahu said: “Today we suffered terrorism from above and below.” The destruction of terror tunnels, he said, was an essential step towards the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, which offered the only path to real peace.

Ya’alon said Israel would no longer a tolerate dialogue through terror tunnels and rockets. Hamas had been punished and would continue to be, he said, until it understood that Israel will never be brought to surrender.

Gen. Gantz: “As a human being, it is hard for me to accept civilian deaths,” he said, – unlike Hamas, which is solely responsible for 10 deaths at Shifa hospital, in whose grounds a missile aimed at Tel Aviv exploded prematurely.

The 24-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” was the stage for a major escalation in violence as Hamas strutted its stuff, fully confident of its ability to stand up to the next stage of the IDF operation. Will Israel’s war planners finally show iundivided resolve to win this momentous struggle against an expansionist Islamist terror movement?

Kerry’s really lost the plot!, Times of Israel Ops and Blogs, Paul Alster, July 28, 2014

(Has he been listening to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who seems to have had a epiphany? — DM)

[T]his evening . . . Kerry issued a statement revealing a stunning and cringingly embarrassing 180 degrees U-turn, distancing himself from the Qatari initiative and apparently returning to adopt the only sensible option on the table; the ceasefire terms presented by Egypt.

In his statement Kerry said, “Any process to resolve the crisis in Gaza… must lead to the disarmament of Hamas”, a very different position from his reported offer to Israel less than two days before in which there had been no mention of disarming Hamas.

Poor old John Kerry. The shame of it. The utter shame of it.

On Saturday, Israel’s cabinet and government as a whole was furious at the news that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, under pressure it would seem from his international terror sponsor friends in Qatar, had reportedly been persuaded to adopt a farcical, lop-sided ceasefire agreement drafted by the oil-rich nation, the most dishonest broker in the whole Middle East.

That all changed this evening when Kerry issued a statement revealing a stunning and cringingly embarrassing 180 degrees U-turn, distancing himself from the Qatari initiative and apparently returning to adopt the only sensible option on the table; the ceasefire terms presented by Egypt.

In his statement Kerry said, “Any process to resolve the crisis in Gaza… must lead to the disarmament of Hamas”, a very different position from his reported offer to Israel less than two days before in which there had been no mention of disarming Hamas.

“We are trying to work hard to see if these issues can be clarified in a way that allows Israel and the Palestinian Authority and… the other countries involved, working through the Egyptian initiative, to be able to find a way to silence the weapons long enough to be able to negotiate” the Secretary of State added.

Why is Kerry so trusting of the Qataris when time and again they have proved to be a duplicitous, manipulative entity, acting consistently against U.S and western interests? 

Even as Kerry sat down with other international diplomatic colleagues in Paris this weekend to consider Qatar’s plan, the U.S. was evacuating staff from its embassy in Libya which had once again come under threat from Islamist rebels. Those rebels are allegedly backed by Qatar, long accused of meddling in Libya’s internal affairs, as it does in so many other countries in the region.

Qatar, owners of the Al Jazeera network, was the main financial backer and promoter of the now fallen Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, a government endorsed by both Kerry and President Obama. Qatar provides funding for many of the ISIS terror groups in Iraq, vicious terrorists who force local Christians to convert to Islam or be beheaded and also mercilessly kill thousands of other Moslems; Qatari-backed rebels have also killed tens of thousands in Syria and continue their fight to fully establish the Sunni caliphate across Syria and Iraq; the Tuareg Islamist rebels, financed by Qatar, continue to cause chaos, plundering and murdering in the name of Islam in Mali; Qatar, according to Saturday’s Telegraph in the UK, has reportedly signed a deal with North Korea to acquire “missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel”; and, of course, Hamas, financed these days to a great extent by Qatar, continues to fire thousands of indiscriminate rockets into Israel and has its own people of Gaza in a terror stranglehold.

Five ceasefire agreements have been systematically broken by Hamas, who, according to statements given by captured fighters, had been planning the mass murder of hundreds of Israelis during the forthcoming Jewish New Year holiday by emerging from the hidden tunnels and slaughtering innocent civilians. Nice then of Mr Kerry to suggest giving Hamas’ terror cells a break to celebrate their Ramadan festival of Eid at the expense of Israel continuing to neutralise its tunnel and rocket facilities.

Despite all the evidence clearly implicating Qatar in all manner of nasty goings-on, this week the U.S., in its wisdom, sold $11 billion of state-of-the-art Apache attack helicopters and Patriot and Javelin air-defence systems to Qatar!

What hold does Qatar have on the U.S. that allows it to brazenly evade being exposed for the international terrorist sponsor it clearly is?

Many in Israel have long been concerned that the Obama administration, and in particular John Kerry, have failed to grasp the enormity of the fight against terror that Israel is waging, whether it be against Hamas and Islamic jihad in Gaza, against Hezbollah and its 100,000 warheads facing Israel from south Lebanon, or from Al Qaeda affiliates in Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, and even to some extent, in the Palestinian Authority-governed West Bank.

Why is America giving Qatar and its blustering buddy Turkey free rein to portray themselves as peace mediators when nothing could be further from the truth?

“Qatar obviously cannot be a mediator since it has no contacts with Israel since severing its relationship with us in 2009” Yigal Palmor, chief spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry told me last week.

“Basically the only game in town is the Egyptian ceasefire plan. Egypt has contacts with all relevant parties and a presence on the ground” Palmor added, advice that Kerry might now well wish he had heeded.

Could it be because Qatar hosts the strategically significant US air base on its territory at Al Udeid that Kerry chooses to turn a blind eye to its sponsorship of international Sunni Muslim terror? Could it be for economic reasons? U.S. companies such Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Philips, and many others, have a mass of highly lucrative deals with Qatar, even though Qatar was the country that hosted a number of 9/11 terrorists, allowed a Taliban office to open in its capital Doha, and has granted sanctuary to a series of high-profile Islamist terror figures, including Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, without being brought to book.

On March 14 this year, David Cohen, the U.S Treasury undersecretary, stated publicly, “Qatar, a long-time U.S. ally, has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability.  Press reports indicate that the Qatari government is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria.  To say the least, this threatens to aggravate an already volatile situation in a particularly dangerous and unwelcome manner.”

Yet Kerry was still prepared to toddle along with the Qatari-Turkish – let’s just call it Hamas – ceasefire proposal, until pressure from Israel, and doubtless elsewhere, forced his shamefaced U-turn today.

To some extent what lies ahead in this latest Gazan war is unpredictable. The only thing cast-iron and apparently beyond argument, is that in the eyes of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and others, any lingering credibility John Kerry had before the debacle of the last few days has well and truly gone beyond recall.

He’s an embarrassment.

Did someone awaken Senate Majority Leader Reid? You Tube, July 28, 2014

Or did someone hypnotize him?

Will President Obama hear him? Will Secretary Kerry? Or will love for the Muslim Brotherhood and its friends in Iran, Qatar and Turkey prevail?

Four Israelis killed in Eshkol by Hamas mortar. Hamas Fajr-5 blows up prematurely outside Shifa hospital
DEBKAfile Special Report July 28, 2014, 6:36 PM (IDT)

Palestinian mortar fire Monday evening, July 28, killed 4 Israels in the Eshkol District and injured six others, four seriously.

In Gaza City, there are first reports of a huge explosion at Hamas’ command and control headquarters which is located in a bunker near the Shifa hospital. The entire block at the heart of the city is wreathed in black smoke. Sources in Gaza report 10 fatalities and 50 people injured. The IDF does not confirm an attack on the hospital compound. debkafile’s military sources report the suspicion that Hamas attempted to launch one of its Iranian Fajr-5 missiles at Tel Aviv. It went off prematurely in a playground in the hospital compound and may have also triggered an explosion in an ammunition store.

Confirmation of a Hamas attempt to shoot a Fajr-5 missile at Tel Aviv would be the death blow to all the efforts of the last 48 hours for a pause in the hostilities in Gaza. The latest truce supposed to go into effect Monday for 24 hours was in any case blatantly violated by Hamas with more than a dozen rockets fired at Israel thus far.

The Humanitarian Pause — Again, American Thinker, Dan Gordon, July 28, 2014

(The article provides a fascinating account of Hamas’ responses to Israel’s humanitarian cease fires and opening of the border to allow humanitarian relief for Gaza in 2009 — DM)

Precisely at 1:00 Israel ceased its fire, opened the Kerem Shalom crossing and as the first of the trucks began moving forward, Hamas launched a mortar and rocket attack against the crossing point. I pointed to the shelter and they [a BBC news crew] took off running. Fastest Brits I have seen since watching Chariots of Fire.

When I was a little kid, my brother, of blessed memory, who was six years older than me, took inordinate pleasure giving me what were then called “Noogies.” He was unmerciful and unrelenting in his “Noogie” attacks on my head. I would beg him to stop and he would say “ No”.

I would ask him, beg him, really to stop, “Just for a little while”

And after a bit more Noogiing, if he was feeling merciful, after a while, he would stop.

Looking back on it, that is what I would call, in retrospect a “Humanitarian Pause.” I was suffering, asked him to stop, and for a while he would.

It didn’t mean the unending war between older and younger sibling had ended. It was a pause, asked for and granted and honored.

We didn’t need the UN or the EU or any other international body to monitor it. I asked for mercy and he gave it. He would say something like “I’ll count to thirty” and for those thirty seconds, The Humanitarian Pause was in effect and sacrosanct.

Thus when I next heard the phrase over a half century later, in 2009, to be exact, Hamas once again claimed the mantle of victimhood while carrying out unceasing rocket attacks against Israel. Their people were suffering genocide, they shouted to one and all, and their amen corner of sympathizers, apologists, enablers , and many people who simply saw suffering, and without understanding the context joined the chorus and said, “ Yes, end the suffering now.”  Never mind that all that Hamas had to do to end the suffering was to stop trying to kill us. That fact seemed, and seems until this day, too difficult to grasp for some.

“We need medicine,” they cried plaintively, “And baby formula, and food and water and blankets. We are dying! They are murdering us! This is genocide. They are doing to the Palestinians worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews!”

Let us just put a pin in that part for a moment, shall we? If the Nazis had treated the Jews the way Israel treats the Palestinians, there would be six million more Jews in the world today, and all their descendants. The total number of Palestinians killed by Israel since 2000, is, by most estimates, somewhere between six and eight thousand people. That includes the figures from the second Intifada, the 2009, 2012 and present conflict combined.

That’s not genocide. That’s less than have been killed in Syria, in the last several months. But people only seem to care about Moslem Arabs being killed when it is in a war with Jews. Then it’s genocide.

To get back to 2009, Hamas, claiming that Israel was committing innumerable war crimes and was also depriving them of humanitarian aid. Thus the idea of “A Humanitarian Pause” was born.

Every day between 1:00 and 3:00 pm, if I recall correctly, Israel would unilaterally cease fire, and open the border crossing at Kerem Shalom, in order to allow hundreds of truck loads of humanitarian aide to flow unhindered into Gaza to relieve the suffering of the civilian population.

And every afternoon at 1:00 PM Hamas would begin shelling the Kerem Shalom Crossing with mortar fire and rocket attacks, to prevent the transfer of humanitarian aid to their own people, in order to say that the Jews were withholding humanitarian aid!

I told that to an unbelieving BBC crew and offered to take them there so they could witness it first hand. But first I told them to make sure they had their running shoes on because mortars give no warning. They just fall and explode and if you’re in the wrong place they kill you. I brought them down at 12:30 and they set up their cameras, ready to film the convoy of trucks on the Israeli side of the border as they crossed into Gaza. I pointed out the bomb shelter to them. They scoffed knowingly. Precisely at 1:00 Israel ceased its fire, opened the Kerem Shalom crossing and as the first of the trucks began moving forward, Hamas launched a mortar and rocket attack against the crossing point. I pointed to the shelter and they took off running. Fastest Brits I have seen since watching Chariots of Fire.

Later when I went into Gaza myself, the paratroopers I was with were stopped by a Palestinian farmer. “Why don’t you kill them all?” he demanded.

“Who?”

“Hamas!” he said. He pointed to a field from which Hamas launched dozens of rocket attacks against Israel. The field had once been his, he said, He grew sunflowers, and it supported his family with honor. Hamas came and took it over and now it only sprouted rockets.” How do I feed my children with rockets?” he demanded.

Through a translator I asked about the humanitarian aid, because some of it had gotten through each day despite the shellings. He told us that Hamas took all the goods, jacked up the prices, and then sold the goods to the populace.

So Saturday night during the current unpleasantness, at the urging of the UN Israel extended by four hours what was supposed to be a twelve hour “Humanitarian Pause” for the feast of Id al Fatir, the end of Ramadan, and to allow people to stock up on goods. Hamas rejected the extension and opened up with a rocket and mortar barrage. Despite that, at the urging of the international community, Israel agreed to extend the Humanitarian Pause for another 24 hours. Israel would not fire a single shot, but would continue blowing up the terrorist tunnels during the next 24 hours, in order to provide a period of relief for the civilian population.

Hamas answered that gesture with another series of rocket and mortar attacks.

A number of those mortar rounds fell in the civilian farming community where I had spent Shabbat. In a previous article I described Rachel and Menashe, who had opened their home up to the soldiers as had the entire village because those soldiers, they knew, “would  and well may, lay down their lives,” in order to protect them.

And last night that is exactly what happened to one of the boys who only two days ago celebrated the Sabbath with us. A mortar round landed, seriously wounding two of those soldiers who were there protecting that farming village.

I was notified a few hours ago that one of them died of his wounds Sunday morning. His name not yet been released as far as I know. We had celebrated the Peace of Sabbath only two days ago.

May his memory be a blessing.

Palestinian gunmen infiltrate Israeli village near Gaza: TV | Reuters.

Live video of IDF’s assault on Gaza city.  Commentary by Lefty European in English.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jehadels/theater

Wide view:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/10970066/Watch-live-Gaza-city-skyline.html

BREAKING Fierce clashes between Palestinian resistance and Israeli occupation in Johr Al-Deek the central distict of #Gaza Strip.

BREAKING: IDF confirms 9 IDF soldiers killed today – 5 in Gaza, 4 by Hamas mortar fire on border, Total 48 soldiers dead, 3 civilians.

Reports of massive attacks from all directions towards central Gaza.   – JW

Update:  Reports now of waves of jets. Massive airstrikes

Update:  Israel: Despite killing 5 Gaza terrorists who breached Israeli border, several Israeli casualties reported, others may still be on the loose

Reuters) – Palestinian gunmen slipped into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Monday and penetrated a village near the border before being repelled by the army, Israeli television said, adding that five militants had been killed.

Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists said in a statement their fighters had killed 10 Israeli soldiers in the incident before returning home safely.

From a trusted source…

– JW

Kerry stumbles again, Israel Hayom, Prof. Ron Breiman, July 28, 2014

(Regardless of whether Hamas, et al, are insane, they are rationally pursuing courses that can lead to the demise of Israel. That, as they acknowledge, is what they want. Israel objects. The Obama Administration? What it wants is not entirely clear, but to the extent that it is aligned with Hamas, et al, it is not unreasonable to assume that their goals are similar. Please see also Obama’s peace processors: Brotherhood love — DM)

Kerry expects both sides in Gaza to show sanity, which is to say he is putting Israel and a terrorist organization on an equal plane, as if they are two countries, rather than a victim and an aggressor.

Like a blind person groping for the ladder to climb down from the roof but instead falling down the chimney, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the government he represents have not missed an opportunity to step in all the Middle Eastern potholes along their way. Kerry is imbued with good will, but this is not enough. Kerry and U.S. President Barack Obama suffer from a misunderstanding of reality in our region, as well as in other parts of the world.

Over the years, the policy of our best friend, the U.S., toward us has been characterized more by important common values — of which there are many — than by recognition of shared interests between the large superpower and its small ally. Hence the differences: Sometimes the U.S. treats Israel as a giant aircraft carrier representing democracy in a problematic region of the world, while other times it treats us as its “concubine in the Middle East,” as the late Professor Ezra Zohar put it. In practice, the U.S. has stolen victory from Israel’s hands every time it has been on the verge of decisively defeating its enemies on the battlefield. This was the case in the War of Independence, Sinai Campaign, Six-Day War, War of Attrition and Yom Kippur War, among others. It appears this will also be the case in Operation Protective Edge.

Kerry has traveled here time and time again over the past two years, in an attempt to find an impossible solution to an existential struggle that has gone on for a century already. There will be no solution in our generation, certainly not along the Oslo path, which is nothing but repeatedly banging our heads against the wall of reality on the basis of false premises and turning a blind eye to the risks involved. This brings to mind Professor Albert Einstein’s insightful definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Kerry expects both sides in Gaza to show sanity, which is to say he is putting Israel and a terrorist organization on an equal plane, as if they are two countries, rather than a victim and an aggressor. By doing so, Kerry is mimicking Israelis who acted similarly two decades ago, putting Israel and the PLO terrorist group on an equal plane.

Making peace between a victim and a totalitarian aggressor has proved historically to be unachievable and disastrous. Ask Neville Chamberlain about the “peace” he brought back from Munich in 1938. The West has apparently not learned from its past mistakes and it is repeating them, at Israel’s expense. And, of course, those who are not willing to learn from history are destined to experience the same mistakes again and again.

It is not enough to make statements about Israel’s right to defend itself (which are correct) if the demand of the international community (a code phrase for those who regret the establishment of a Jewish state) is that Israel operate with its hands tied. Jewish minds created the Iron Dome, but Israel cannot win with its hands tied. Israel is not asking foreign armies to fight its battles. Israel just wants to be left alone as it acts to achieve its goals. Israel’s success will also serve the naive West, which is currently being taken over by a reverse “reconquista” (the reconquest of Spain by Christians from Muslims) process.

Israel aside, the U.S. is hurting its own interests with its policy. America’s status as the world’s sole superpower is eroding, and sometimes it merely looks like a tired reflection of the leader of the free world. Russia is returning to the arena as a re-emerging superpower, Iran is laughing all the way to a nuclear bomb, Syria is “dismantling” its chemical weapons (who knows how many remain in its warehouses?), Egypt is being hurt repeatedly by America’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and Israel is suffering from the support given to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas by naive Washington.

Obama’s peace processors: Brotherhood love, Israel Hayom, Richard Baehr, July 28, 2014

Much as Obama facilitated a more prominent role for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and welcomed its subsequent electoral victory there, its cozy relations with Turkey and Qatar, Hamas’ closest allies, show how far American policy has shifted in the region. Nations that are aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood are America’s favorites. This new approach mirrors the American attempt over five years to begin a new strategic relationship with Iran that will enable that regime to continue to process uranium, and to get sanctions relief in exchange for sacrificing nothing from its nuclear program that cannot be quickly reversed.

The American administration has discovered new peace partners (the “neutral parties”) to help end the Gaza conflict: Turkey and Qatar. Egypt is not on the list (though it was thrown a bone by being nominated to host cease-fire talks). Egypt, of course, borders both Israel and Gaza, and made a serious cease-fire proposal a week back that Israel accepted and Hamas rejected, apparently on the advice of Turkey and Qatar.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with officials from Turkey and Qatar in Paris this week and the three countries seem to be on the same page in pushing cease-fire terms that could have been drafted by Hamas.

Today comes news of Turkish approval of a new flotilla, the so-called “Freedom Flotilla II” that will sail to Gaza to provide “humanitarian” assistance with support from the Turkish navy. The organizers of the flotilla are the IHH, the same group that sailed to the shores of Gaza in 2010 in the “Free Gaza Flotilla” armed with pipes, sticks and guns and ready to rumble with the Israel Defense Forces as part of their “humanitarian mission.”

If the new flotilla sails, Turkey may have to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and itself.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan burnished his credentials as a peacemaker this week blasting Israel for “barbarism worse than Hitler.” Erdogan also added: “Since [Israel’s creation] in 1948, we have been witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every day and every month. But above all, we are witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every Ramadan.”

In other words, Israel attempts systematic genocide every day for 66 years, but particularly during Ramadan. Erdogan’s comments seemed to echo the insights of Dean Wormer in “Animal House,” inventor of something called “double secret probation,” probably also in effect systematically every Ramadan.

Turkey’s government also saw fit to encourage wild mobs to congregate outside Israel’s embassy and consular facilities, in direct contravention of diplomatic rules, with members of Erdogan’s party leading the charge in some cases.

Kerry and President Barack Obama seem to believe that Turkey’s record since the current conflict began demonstrates the wisdom, skill, fairness, leadership, diplomatic ability and even-handedness necessary to work with both parties and help move a cease-fire forward.

Turkey’s new role should be no surprise since Obama has repeatedly praised Erodgan and applauded his “democratic”Islamic state

“When the two leaders met at the Seoul, South Korea, Nuclear Security Summit in March of 2012, Obama called Erdogan his ‘friend and colleague. … We find ourselves in frequent agreement upon a wide range of issues.’ Not content with this level of praise, Obama added that he considered Erdogan ‘an outstanding partner and an outstanding friend’ who has displayed ‘outstanding leadership.'”

Presumably that outstanding leadership included Erdogan’s calling Zionism “a crime against humanity,” another mark in his favor in the Obama playbook as a peacemaker for Gaza.

And then there is Qatar, which, this week signed an $11 billion dollar arms deal with the United States. Is it possible that some of the money that will be secured by arms manufacturers in the United States from the deal may find its way back to Democratic Party super PACs in time for the 2014 midterms? Would Obama be so cynical as to approve an arms deal seeking to achieve such a spin-off effect?

Qatar, which owns the Al Jazeera network that bought Al Gore’s Current network (presumably a deal made easier by Gore’s appreciation of Qatar’s history of green energy initiatives), has played a major role in funding and supplying arms to Hamas.

Former President Shimon Peres, hardly Israel’s leading hawk, bitterly condemned Qatar’s role.

“Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians,” the outgoing statesman told U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem. “Their funding of terror must stop. If they want to build then they should, but they must not be allowed to destroy.”

The Kerry cease-fire approach, unanimously rejected by Israel’s cabinet, amounts to American acceptance of Hamas’ demands:

“A) Establish a humanitarian cease-fire, ending all hostilities in and from the Gaza Strip, beginning in 48 hours, and lasting for a period of seven days.

“B) Build on the Cairo cease-fire understandings of November 2012 [that were reached, through American and Egyptian mediation, following Operation Pillar of Defense].

“C) Convene in Cairo, at the invitation of Egypt, within 48 hours to negotiate resolution of all issues necessary to achieve a sustainable cease-fire and enduring solution to the crisis in Gaza, including arrangements to secure the opening of crossings, allow the entry of goods and people and ensure the social and economic livelihood of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, transfer funds to Gaza for the payment of salaries for public employees, and address all security issues.”

Section C, of course is the critical section. First, send in the money to pay the bureaucrats (or to have the money stolen by Hamas officials).

Nothing in Section C specifically addresses any of Israel’s security concerns: the over 2,000 rockets launched at the Jewish state just in this latest encounter, the tens of thousands of rockets that remain under Hamas’ control, or the tunnels that were to be used for a Rosh Hashanah massacre. There is no mention of the need to demilitarize Gaza, the only step that would enable any cease-fire to be more than short-term. As long as Hamas remains in charge, and keeps its weapons, expiration of the next negotiated cease-fire will be at Hamas’ choosing, as has always been the case.

The implementation of a cease-fire on the terms in Kerry’s letter would lead to the passage of Hamas fighters into Sinai, and the passage of more weapons-making materials into Gaza. The so-called “blockade of Gaza” that Hamas is working so hard to end seems to have failed, based on the number of rockets and weapons that have been delivered to Hamas, or manufactured in Gaza with smuggled materials. The tunnels, built under the border between Gaza and Israel and Gaza and Egypt and under all of Gaza itself, also required enormous amounts of concrete.

An IDF summary suggests that 350 truckloads of building materials are required for each of the cross-border tunnels at a cost of about $3 million for each of the tunnels so far discovered (more than 30). What Hamas really wants is to facilitate the transfer of goods so as to bring down the cost of its weaponization program, and have it paid for by the West.

Much as Obama facilitated a more prominent role for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and welcomed its subsequent electoral victory there, its cozy relations with Turkey and Qatar, Hamas’ closest allies, show how far American policy has shifted in the region. Nations that are aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood are America’s favorites. This new approach mirrors the American attempt over five years to begin a new strategic relationship with Iran that will enable that regime to continue to process uranium, and to get sanctions relief in exchange for sacrificing nothing from its nuclear program that cannot be quickly reversed.

Just as the Obama administration gave a cold shoulder to Iran’s green revolution and to long-time ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israel has become an obstacle standing in the way of America’s new plan for the Middle East. It is certainly no longer an ally. The Obama team seems to be invested in Islamists, whether Sunni or Shiite, and has empowered these regimes, while signaling it has more important things to do than commit any more resources to the region than Kerry’s pathetic fly-arounds doing Hamas’ bidding.

The Obama team is certainly under pressure from Turkey and Qatar to ensure that Hamas is not soundly defeated, and its military threat incapacitated. But in reality, the Obama team might prefer that the war continue for a while. For if the Gaza war disappeared from the news, its other grand successes on the international stage — in Iraq,Afghanistan, Libya,  and the “Russian reset” — might receive the ridicule and scorn they deserve.

Take your pick for why the administration has wound up in its current posture — incompetence, consciously seeking to weaken ties with long-term allies, and build up new ones that better fit the president’s worldview (favoring Islamists), attempting to separate his political party from its historic ties with the Jewish state, ideological naivete, or all of the above. In any case, Israel has taken its measure of Barack Obama and John Kerry, and it knows it is on its own.