WarSclerotic

Passivity turned the tables, Israel Hayom, Nadav Shragai, July 8, 2014

(Israeli passivity toward Hamas et al seems to have ended. That’s good. Will passivity soon return? — DM)

The Arabs of the State of Israel are running wild, residents of the country’s south are sitting in bomb shelters — and what remains above all else is the policy of passivity. Wrong. Misleading. Misplaced. We are confused: Opinions, even marginal ones, and words, even difficult ones — we can accept. Violence — however mild — must not be accepted. Passivity conveys weakness and helplessness. It is the opposite of deterrence. Passivity allows Hamas and its derivatives to continue firing rockets and missiles over Sderot, Ashkelon, Ofakim and Beersheba. Passivity asks for quiet at any price, while laying the foundation for the next escalation. Passivity may not quite be the policy of Peace Now, but it is certainly the policy of “Quiet Now.”

Passivity breeds passivity. Today, we are paying the price of past passivity, and tomorrow, we will pay the price of today’s passivity. If we do not come to our senses, the price will only go up.

What a passive country. We were passive about the “price-tag” attacks and the attempted arson of mosques — and we ended up with a young Arab burned to death. We were passive about 100 attempts to kidnap Jews — and we ended up with the abduction and murder of three teenaged boys. We have been passive about Arab violence for years, as well as the attacks of Jews throughout the streets of Jerusalem (on the Temple Mount, on Mount Scopus, on the Mount of Olives, in the City of David, in the Old City), and here we are, facing a sort of Jerusalemite intifada and the de facto division of the city. We were passive about the sovereign and governmental vacuum in east Jerusalem, and today we are faced with anarchy — from both sides.

And now, we continue to be passive. The Arabs of the State of Israel are running wild, residents of the country’s south are sitting in bomb shelters — and what remains above all else is the policy of passivity. Wrong. Misleading. Misplaced. We are confused: Opinions, even marginal ones, and words, even difficult ones — we can accept. Violence — however mild — must not be accepted. Passivity conveys weakness and helplessness. It is the opposite of deterrence. Passivity allows Hamas and its derivatives to continue firing rockets and missiles over Sderot, Ashkelon, Ofakim and Beersheba. Passivity asks for quiet at any price, while laying the foundation for the next escalation. Passivity may not quite be the policy of Peace Now, but it is certainly the policy of “Quiet Now.”

We continue to accept the present at the expense of the future, paying a price that will only keep on growing. In the south, passivity continues to allow terror and hate to systematically accrue power in Hamastan to our south, and to create more and more long-range missiles, which at the end of the day will fall on Tel Aviv and its neighbors. Passivity allows the enemy to continue building “Underground Gaza” — the underground tunnel system where murderers hide, where death lurks in the form of lethal weapons. Passivity also weakens the Israeli homefront, planting the seeds of depression and demoralization.

Now, we are also accepting the hatred and the violence of the residents of the Triangle region and the evil and the hatred of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. We are accepting the ongoing disruption of daily life in the south. The hundreds suffering from panic and anxiety, the world’s hypocritical indifference and weakness, and our great friend the United States that has lost its way.

Did we elect a passive government? Have the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police turned into the state’s forces of passivity? There are many tools to use in the political and military toolbox before the invasion of Gaza. The toolbox includes, among other options, sanctions against the Palestinian population, which is dependant upon us for its electricity, water, gas, food and money.

Passivity, you should know, is what turned the tables here. It gradually changed the homefront to a front that arms itself against all odds, when it is the IDF that should be fighting on the front, to ensure that our homefront does not become a battlefield. That is their job. That is what they were created for. That is what they were trained for.

Passivity breeds passivity. Today, we are paying the price of past passivity, and tomorrow, we will pay the price of today’s passivity. If we do not come to our senses, the price will only go up.

Hamas decides to go for broke | The Times of Israel.

Struggling to maintain the banner of ‘resistance’, the Gazan terror group is firing at Israel in the hope Ramallah and Cairo will hear its plea for help

Palestinian militants of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, carry the body of militant Mohammed Obied during his funeral in the town of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on June 30, 2014 (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

IDF chief Gantz asks for call-up of 40,000 reserves amid Operation Protective Edge | JPost | Israel News.

( Finally!  Israel gets serious… – JW )

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, HERB KEINON

07/08/2014 15:43

Gantz requests call-up in order to replace conscripted forces in the West Bank, and enable their deployment to the Gaza border; some 100 targets in Gaza have been struck by the IAF on Tuesday.

IDF chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz requested the call-up of 40,000 reserves in order to replace conscripted forces in the West Bank, and enable their deployment to the Gaza border.

The Prime Minister’s Office would not confirm reports that the security cabinet approved the request which was made hours after Operation Protective Edge was launched in an effort to quell rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

The IDF had previously called up 1,500 reserves on Monday.

Operation Defensive Shield, which has seen the IAF strike some 100 terror targets in the Gaza Strip, came after more than 250 rockets were fired into southern Israel in recent weeks.

The rocket fire continued on Tuesday, with at least 30 rockets fired into Israel, including some which targeted Beersheba and Ashdod.

Following high level security deliberations Tuesday morning Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided to expand the military operation in Gaza, including beginning preparations for a ground operation.

No time limit was put on the operation but senior diplomatic officials said it could be “for a long time.”

The objective of the operation, according to the officials, is to return quiet to the South, but the equation that “quiet would be met with quiet” was no longer the operative principle.

During the day Netanyahu expected to talk to a number of world leaders to explain Israel’s position and another security cabinet meeting will be held later in the afternoon if necessary.

Israel Hayom | Khamenei: US and Israel playing ‘good cop, bad cop’.

Five Hamas chiefs killed as IDF Gaza operation gets underway. Nine Israelis injured by Palestinian rockets.

Israeli air strikes singled out Hamas chiefs Tuesday, July 8, at the onset of the IDF’s Operational Solid Rock. Hamas Naval Commando chief Mahmoud Shaaban, 24, and three passengers were killed when their car was hit from the air. Another airborne raid bombed the Rafah home of Abdul Rahman Juda which served as a command and control center. Thirty Palestinians were injured. Magen David Adom has treated nine people for minor injuries and anxiety attacks from emergency call centers in the southern and central Israeli regions under rocket attack.
The high-density rocket barrage from Gaza – 50 by Tuesday mid-afternoon – has seriously disrupted normal life for millions of Israelis in the rocket-blasted regions – especially within a 40km radius from Gaza. Ashdod port has stopped working, major transport routes like the Ashkelon-Sderot railway halted, end-of-term exams in colleges postponed, children sent home from summer camps and social events called off.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to broaden its Gaza operation.
debkafile reported earlier Tuesday: Israeli finally launched its military operation Solid Rock against Hamas Monday night, July 7, after the Palestinians directed a steady stream of 100 rockets from Gaza to expanded targets as far as Rehovot, 50 km away. Most of the 50 IDF strikes were conducted from the air and two from the sea. Ten destroyed Hamas infrastructure facilities plus 4 private buildings which, according to the Palestinians, included the homes of the Hamas commander and a Democratic Front operative in Khan Younes, after Israel gave them advance warning. Hamas reported 17 injured – but kept on shooting rockets through the night and early Tuesday, threatening to further expand the range of their rocket fire.

The government and the IDF have billed the operation as a long-term, staged offensive to destroy Hamas’ logistical and strategic infrastructure, to be escalated stage by stage as needed, up to a limited ground incursion, which would require additional reserve call-ups, as well targeted assassinations. This progression will be adjusted to the enemy’s response and how quickly “quiet is restored to the South.”

The population has been forewarned that the contest may be protracted and asked to refrain from public events within a 40km radius from Gaza.

Iron Dome batteries are in place.

Israel’s security cabinet and the IDF command are counting on the prospect of losing its infrastructure deterring Hamas and persuading it to halt its rocket war on Israel.

But Hamas has its own game book and is unlikely to play by the rules dictated by Israel.

Both sides have therefore entered a dark corridor in which the two adversaries will try and outdo each other in damage. Israel began by limiting itself to air strikes. Hamas hit back with a mighty barrage of 100 missiles and expanding its range of targets.
The rules of Operation Solid Rock now require Israel to scale its response up to the next stage, in response to which Hamas will no doubt go for Tel Aviv. No one seems to know how this tit-for-tat duel will end.

The inherent weakness of the thinking behind Israeli military operation is that it requires the IDF to catch up with and undo the damage caused by Israel’s passivity after the three boys, Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach, were kidnapped and murdered on July 12. The IDF’s campaign against its facilities on the West Bank left Hamas more confident than ever. In the space of a month, the Palestinian Islamists have maneuvered Israel into launching not one but two major operations – Brother’s Keeper to find the kidnapped boys and their abductors (who are still at large) and now Solid Rock – and they still hold the initiative against Israel, as well as the whip hand in the Palestinian movement.

They certainly owe their advantage in part to the atrocious murder by a handful of Israelis of the Palestinian boy Muhammad Abu Khdeir from Shuafat, Jerusalem. This was a gift which Hamas had never dreamed of. The Islamists have been able to assert control over and calibrate Palestinian fury across the board, in Gaza, the West Bank and the Israeli Arab community – a second front against Israel.
With all these cards stacked against Solid Rock, the IDF will have its work cut out to repair the damage and bring its operation to a successful conclusion.
On the diplomatic front, Israel suffered another letdown when Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi disappointed the hopes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had vested in him to intercede powerfully with Hamas for a ceasefire. El-Sisi decided that the Israeli-Hamas conflict was a minor episode in regional terms and no real threat to Egypt’s national interests and dropped his role as peace broker.

This was a bitter disappointment to Jerusalem. It left Israel facing the Palestinian aggressor alone, but for the Europeans. They are willing to assume this role, but they are seeking the restoration of the short-lived Palestinian reconciliation and a unity government, which is the direct opposite of Netanyahu’s most fervent objective.

Escalation | Jerusalem Post – Blogs.

Ira Shrkansky

hings have escalated in the south to the point where the IDF is now pursuing an “operation.” The Hebrew, צוק איתן, touches more buttons than the official English translation, “Protective edge.” Alternative translations that might touch different buttons, are “Strong rock” “Impregnable rock,” or “Impregnable fortress.” 

With 50 strikes, the IDF launches Operation Solid Rock after Hamas’ 100-rocket blitz. Hamas keeps going.

Netanyahu: The time has come to ‘take the gloves off’ against Hamas | JPost | Israel News.

 07/08/2014 11:25

Ahead of security consultation on Operation Protective Edge, prime minister says “Hamas chose to escalate the situation and it will pay a heavy price for doing so”; Special situation declared in 40 km. radius around Gaza.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the time had come to “take off the gloves” against Hamas.

Netanyahu was speaking ahead of military consultations that he was holding with security officials at the Kirya Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv.

“Hamas chose to escalate the situation and it will pay a heavy price for doing so,” the prime minister said.

Following the launching of Operation Protective Edge to extinguish Hamas rocket fire, Israel declared a “special situation” in all areas of the South within 40 kilometers of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning.

A special situation is a legal decree that allows various authorities to safeguard public safety through a variety of means reserved for times of conflict.

The decision came after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon completed a security evaluation meeting with the Home Front Commander, Maj.-Gen. Eyal Eizenberg, as well as other civil defense chiefs, in which they examined the latest developments in the clash with Hamas.

“We are prepared for a campaign against Hamas, which will not end within days. Hamas is leading the current confrontation to a place in which it seeks to exact a heavy price from our home front. There is a need for patience,” Ya’alon said at the end of the meeting.

The defense minister called on the public to behave in accordance with Home Front Command safety instructions, adding that it is vital that the Israeli home front not sustain casualties.

“In recent hours, we have struck with force and hit dozens of Hamas assets. The IDF is continuing with the offensive effort, in a manner that will exact a very heavy price from Hamas. We will not tolerate missile and rocket fire on Israel, and we are prepared to expand the campaign through all of the means available to us, to continue striking Hamas,” he continued.

“I’d like to send my support to residents of the South and to local government leaders there, who are displaying leadership and responsibility, and are allowing us to continue with the offensive efforts,” Ya’alon added.

Hamas gets its first taste of Israel’s retaliation on Gaza – YouTube.

Retaliation for the 100 + rockets fired at Israel’s civilians yesterday.

Iran nuke talks make little progress, diplomats say | The Times of Israel.

As negotiations deadline approaches, supreme leader rejects West’s attempt to curb Tehran’s uranium enrichment

By George Jahn July 8, 2014, 5:33 am

VIENNA (AP) — Talks over Iran’s nuclear program are making little headway, with Tehran resisting US-led efforts to crimp activities that could be turned toward making weapons, diplomats said Monday.