WarSclerotic

Obama calls for ‘unconditional release’ of purportedly kidnapped IDF soldier
By MICHAEL WILNER
LAST UPDATED: 08/01/2014 22:42

Let Hamas monitor the tunnels?? WTF? Oh well, at least Kerry and Co are singing a slightly different tune. – LS

US president says Hamas may be unable to deliver on cease-fire; adds that Hamas’ ability to enforce halt in fighting relies on its ability to monitor attack tunnels it has built to conduct such abductions.

AMMAN — Hamas is responsible for the bloody, swift end to a humanitarian cease-fire with Israel, US President Barack Obama said from the White House on Friday, once again vowing to pursue a temporary truce along the border of Gaza that will end the killing.

“We have unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two soldiers, and abducting a third, almost minutes after a ceasefire was announced,” Obama said. “That soldier needs to be unconditionally released, as soon as possible.”

Gazan militants emerged on Friday morning from a tunnel into Israeli territory, under deconstruction by the IDF, less than ninety minutes deep into a planned 72-hour cease-fire. One terrorist detonated a suicide vest, killing two Israeli soldiers; another abducted a third Israeli soldier, Hadar Goldin, back through the tunnel into Gaza.

While Obama suggested neither the US, nor the Israelis, are sure of exactly who perpetrated the attack– Hamas, so far, has denied holding an Israeli soldier in its custody – he said that Hamas’ ability to enforce a cease-fire relies on its ability to monitor the tunnels it has built to conduct such abductions.

“I think its going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again if Israelis, and the international community, can’t feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a cease-fire agreement,” Obama told reporters. “They’re claiming to speak for all the Palestinian factions.”

“No country can or would tolerate tunnels being dug under their land to conduct terror attacks,” he added.

The citizens of Gaza are “stuck in the crossfire,” the president noted, explaining his administration’s insistence on a ceasefire, despite Israel’s “legitimate security needs.”

Gazan civilians “have to weigh on our conscience,” he said. “And we have to do more to protect them.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry was informed of the abduction and killings while flying back to Washington from a visit to India, when an aide printed out a report and handed him the news.

Kerry quickly called Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu soon after being informed, according to reporters traveling with the secretary.

In a statement released shortly thereafter, Kerry called the incident “an outrageous violation of the ceasefire negotiated over the past several days, and of the assurances given to the United States and the United Nations.”

“Hamas, which has security control over the Gaza Strip, must immediately and unconditionally release the missing Israeli soldier,” Kerry said. “I call on those with influence over Hamas to reinforce this message.”

The chief US diplomat has been communicating with his counterparts in Qatar and Turkey, governments which support Hamas, as well as Egypt, in order to pressure the Gazan group to end its terror tactics against Israelis. Washington maintains no line of contact with Hamas itself, a terrorist organization as designated by the US and the European Union.

“We have urged them, implored them to use their influence to do whatever they can to get that soldier returned,” a senior State Department official told the traveling press. “Absent that, the risk of this continuing to escalate, leading to further loss of life is very high.”

The US, EU, Russia and United Nations, together known as the Quartet on the Middle East, has called on Hamas to renounce violence, recognize the state of Israel, respect previous agreements with its government and work with its security forces. Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of the state.

Gaza on the Water, You Tube, August 1, 2014

(It’s an idea. — DM)

Tip of the hat to Counter Jihad Report.

Somalian Human Rights Activist Gives Her Take on Israel-Hamas Conflict, Washington Free Beacon, Brent Scher, August 1, 2014

(A superb article about a young woman who has experienced the horrors of Islam. — DM)

Five points made by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on global struggle against radical Islam.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali / aei.org

“You can negotiate with fellow human beings with whom you have some kind of common ground”—that is not the case with Hamas, according to Hirsi Ali.

“Israel is investing everything it has into life on earth” while “Hamas is investing everything it has into life after death,” says Hirsi Ali.

She points to the Hamas recruiting slogan of “we love death, they love life” and their vision of a “utopia” where “the State of Israel must be completely destroyed,” “Sharia law has to be established, ideally, all over the world,” and women have to “be locked up.”

Unless the West is willing to give in to their utopia, “it is pointless to go to the negotiations table” because of Hamas’ “philosophy on life and death.”

Somalian refugee turned activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali sees the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as a microcosm of a much larger global problem, and does not believe that a peaceful solution is possible as long as radical Islam continues to exist.

In an interview with Israel Hayom’s Yael Lerner, Hirsi Ali says that groups such as Hamas that subscribe to radical Islam cannot be negotiated with because they do not value life.

Hirsi Ali has experienced first-hand the terrors of life in parts of the world controlled by these groups. She was a victim of female genital mutilation at the age of five, and later escaped a forced marriage by obtaining asylum in the Netherlands.

She became a vocal activist for women’s rights in the Muslim world, and has lived with an Islamic bounty on her head for her 2004 film Submission which focused on the treatment of women under Islamic law. The director of the film was assassinated by an extremist Muslim.

Here are five takeaways from Hirsi Ali’s interview:

Islam is no longer a religion of “peace and compassion”

Hamas supporters shout slogans against the Israeli military action in Gaza, during a demonstration in the West Bank city of Nablus / AP

Hirsi Ali argues that the West treats radical Islam as though it is a “small group of very naughty boys” that hijacked what is still a “religion of peace” and a “religion of compassion,” but that this is now far from the truth.

“This is called wishful thinking,” says Hirsi Ali. “They say that Islam is a religion of peace and compassion, but that is what we want, that is what it should be, it’s not what it is.”

Hirsi Ali learned Islam as a little girl from her grandmother and her mother, and says for them there was “no interest in politics, in government, in power,” but it “was very spiritual.”

“It was not a political movement seeking to transform the world in its own seventh century image,” recalled Hirsi Ali.

Then she moved to Saudi Arabia and saw a new type of Islam, where police in the street “command right and forbid wrong.” There was a “chop chop” square where “hands were cut off, people were flogged, people were stoned, people’s heads were cut off.”

“That is the Islam of Hamas. Back in the 1970’s it seemed to me that it was a Saudi thing, but now it has become an international thing.” 

Compromise is not possible without “true reformation of Islam” away from “doctrine of death”

AP

“You can negotiate with fellow human beings with whom you have some kind of common ground”—that is not the case with Hamas, according to Hirsi Ali.

“Israel is investing everything it has into life on earth” while “Hamas is investing everything it has into life after death,” says Hirsi Ali.

She points to the Hamas recruiting slogan of “we love death, they love life” and their vision of a “utopia” where “the State of Israel must be completely destroyed,” “Sharia law has to be established, ideally, all over the world,” and women have to “be locked up.”

Unless the West is willing to give in to their utopia, “it is pointless to go to the negotiations table” because of Hamas’ “philosophy on life and death.”

“They welcome death, death, death,” says Hirsi Ali. “In the Hamas narrative, which is also the Wahabi narrative and the Salafi narrative, you get to ecstasy and self actualization after you die, not before you die, don’t be silly. So now you have millions of people who welcome death, and that is very confusing for Westerners to understand.”

“For somebody like John Kerry it is too much to understand,” concludes Hirsi Ali.

To make her point, she compares Gaza to Spain, Italy, and Greece when they were poor following World War II.

“They built a network of tunnels, but these were tunnels built to connect the countryside to the cities or one country to another country, so there would be more trade, more contact. You look at Hamas and you think that they’ve worked so hard, spent so much money, spilled so much human blood and treasure on building these tunnels, but what is the objective? To destroy and to be destroyed. That is the philosophy of death.”

Oil money has made Hamas “very strong and very intelligent”

AP

Hamas is far from a primitive group, though they are sometimes portrayed that way in the West.

“I watch Hamas television and I see that they are not primitive. They are very strong and very intelligent,” says Hirsi Ali. Its advancement comes thanks to the wealth of oil money that is backing radical Islam.

“Back in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s, people didn’t know about the way Qatar funds Islamists. But now we are in the Google age,” she said. “There’s this big problem that is spreading across the world, with the help of oil money.”

Largely due to a misunderstanding of the Hamas “philosophy on life and death,” Westerners see Hamas as a stupid group.

“They are incredibly smart and incredibly Machiavellian,” says Hirsi Ali.

Other countries will soon wind up in same position as Israel is today

Thousands gather in Paris, France to protest against Israel / AP

Hirsi Ali believes that all the countries that are condemning Israel during the current conflict will be forced to eat their words when they find themselves in the same situation.

“It is so clear what is going to happen,” says Hirsi Ali. “All these countries that are now condemning Israel will find themselves in exactly the same position as Israel.”

As the Islamist population grows throughout Europe, countries will be forced to deal with Islamist violence.

“They will have young populations that are having many more children than they are, who are high on this doctrine of death,” warns Hirsi Ali. “They will be faced with completely revamping their ideas and ideals.”

Countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, where Hirsi Ali served in parliament, already have “Shariah triangle” neighborhoods popping up in major cities.

She uses the example of second- and third-generation European citizens “volunteering to go and fight in Syria and Iraq and then come back with their citizen passports and cause mayhem.” 

Benjamin Netanyahu deserves a Nobel Peace Prize

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogizes three Israeli teens who were abducted and killed in the West Bank / AP

Hirsi Ali admires Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and thinks that “in a fair world” he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

“He is under so much pressure, from so many sources, and yet he does what is best for the people of Israel, he does his duty,” says Hirsi Ali.

Israel deals with radical Islam on its border, and does not have the option of treating it as anything other than what it really is.

“You are living in a hornets’ nest. Israelis cannot pretend for too long, if you have tunnels being dug under you and rockets flying above you.”

Hirsi Ali believes that President Barack Obama was awarded his Nobel Peace Prize before he even did anything.

“He got it before the performance, not after,” Hirsi Ali said. “He doesn’t have to play, he already received his Oscar.”

Let’s have twelve Muslim awareness months every year, Dan Miller’s Blog, August 1, 2014

Improved awareness of the “Religion of Peace” is needed.

It has been claimed that President Obama recently decreed a Muslim Awareness Month. According to Snopes, He has not done that. Yet. He should, while there is still time despite multiple fund raisers, photo ops, vacations and golf outings. It would require only a simple stroke of His mighty pen. Should He find the time in His exhausting schedule, a joint photo op with Iranian President Rouhani and even His Esteemed Holiness Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, would be appropriate. Due to His unwavering efforts in the Iran Scam to help them in their quest for Iran to get (or keep) “The Bomb,” they should be happy to oblige.

Hang tough Iranians and be cool like President Obama.

President Obama recently praised Muslims:

In the United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.

In view of what has been happening on President Obama’s watch, including the drastic weakening of our military, He may well consider our military emasculation to be part of His role in destroying building the “very fabric of our nation and weakening strengthening the core of our democracy” for which He praised Islam and as to which He promised to stand with them.

An independent panel appointed by the Pentagon and Congress said Thursday that President Obama’s strategy for sizing the armed services is too weak for today’s global threats.

It also said the shrinking U.S. armed forces, which are being downsized to fit that strategy and budget cuts, is a “serious strategic misstep on the part of the United States.” The forces’ numbers spelled out in Mr. Obama’s QDR are “inadequate given the future strategic and operational environment.” [Emphasis added.]

The warning comes as Mr. Obama is under criticism from many Republicans and some Democrats for his standoff policy toward Syria and his limited response to a June offensive by an al Qaeda offshoot that has gobbled up swaths of territory in Iraq.

. . . .

The experts said both the Navy and the Air Force are too small.

“The Air Force now fields the smallest and oldest force of combat aircraft in its history yet needs a global surveillance and strike force able to rapidly deploy to theaters of operation to deter, defeat or punish multiple aggressors simultaneously,” the review group said. [Emphasis added.]

Cuts in the numbers of Army soldiers “go too far,” the panel said.

Tea Party Terrorists as well as Bitter Clingers, haters and other “racists” most likely reject President Obama’s quest for the ultimate fairness of submission to third world nations and terrorist groups through restraint, equality and proportionality.

However, proportionality and equality are the current trend and President Obama likes to seem modern. According to the UN “Human Rights” Council, there is a “strong possibility” that Israel committed war crimes by, among other things, not sharing its Iron Dome missile defense systems with Hamas:

Among the UN’s long bill of particulars against the beleaguered Jewish state comes the almost unbelievable accusation that Israel’s refusal to share its Iron Dome ballistic missile defense shield with the “governing authority” of Gaza – i.e. Hamas, the terror group created to pursue the extermination of the Jewish state and now waging a terrorist war against it – constitutes a war crime against the civilians of Gaza. [Emphasis added.]

It seems like satire, but it’s not. I suggested similar requirements for Israeli humanity, proportionality and fairness in a satirical piece titled Israel’s response to Hamas missiles has been inhumane and disproportionate. President Obama has not been reached for comment.

On with the honest discussion of Islam

Here, in the spirit of honest discussion, much touted by President Obama and His Attorney General, are a few videos that will contribute to a really honest discussion about Islam. First, here are three politically incorrect pundits who lack multicultural awareness appreciation of and empathy with Islamist perceptions of honor.

Next, some videos by Pat Condell, a Brit who explains the Religion of Peace:

We now pause for this message from Bill Whittle about Islam’s favorite enemy, Israel.

Back to Pat Condell.

In the interest of impartiality and fairness, here’s a video from the Islamist perspective. Who, more than Islamists, needs and therefore deserves nukes?

We all need to be more aware of the beauties of Islam described above. Surely, President Obama and General Holder must approve because of their sincere outreaches for honest discussions. Right? Wrong.

Tip ‘o the hat to BPI Random Tweets.

Father of kidnapped soldier confident IDF will ‘do everything’ to bring him home | The Times of Israel.

Pillay’s dastardly ‘doublethink’, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, August 1, 2014

George Orwell would not have been the least bit surprised.

On Thursday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused Israel of “deliberate defiance” of its obligations under international law. Referring not only to the current operation in Gaza, but to past confrontations, Pillay said that Israel has repeatedly ignored calls to respect the laws of war.

“The same pattern of attacks is occurring now on homes, schools, hospitals, U.N. premises,” she said, alluding to previous instances of what she considers to be Israeli aggression.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Pillay added, “None of this appears to me to be accidental.” In other words, what the world’s human rights chief — and ostensible champion — was implying was that Israel has been targeting innocent civilians in Gaza, particularly the weak and infirm.

This is but one of many times over the years that Pillay has ripped into the only democracy in the Middle East for crimes it did not commit, while siding with its enemies, whose human rights abuses are as well-documented as they are indigenous to their societies.

Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council in April, for example, she dusted off an old accusation lodged against Israel in 2005 by then-U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Yakin Erturk. According Erturk, and subsequently Pillay — two reputed feminists — Israel is at fault for the fact that Palestinian men are abusive to women. This is due, you see, to the “occupation,” which robs Palestinians of their manhood. Feeling castrated by Israel, these poor emasculated males necessarily take out their frustration on their wives and daughters.

Delusional? Yes, but no more so than Pillay’s criticism on Thursday of the United States: “They have not only provided the heavy weaponry which is now being used by Israel in Gaza. But they’ve also provided almost $1 billion in providing the Iron Domes [sic] to protect the Israelis from rocket attacks; [yet] no such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling.”

What she failed to mention was the reason for both the weaponry and the Iron Dome interception system: namely, the ongoing war against Israel by its terrorist neighbors who pose a threat to Western democracy and — dare one remind her? — human rights. Even worse was her going beyond a moral equivocation of Israel and Hamas, to present the former as guilty of employing all means to keep its citizens safe from missile, mortar, rocket and drone attacks originating in Gaza.

Nor did she bring up the matter of the massive tunnel infrastructure built by Hamas with billions in foreign aid, including from the U.S. and Europe, whose entire purpose is to kidnap and kill Jews. That the money has been spent solely on death traps for innocent Israelis seems to have eluded her completely.

Never mind that Hamas members who surrendered to Israeli troops told their interrogators that they had been planning to carry out a mega-attack on Israeli civilians during the Jewish high holiday of Rosh Hashanah in September. Neither that nor the fact that this was going to be made possible by the tunnels, laden with weapons, handcuffs, IDF uniforms and syringes filled with anesthetics.

The argument that she and the rest of the disingenuous U.N. have been making is that the residents of Gaza are the true innocent civilians, wantonly killed in Israeli air strikes. Though this may be true, it is Hamas that is behind the deaths, not Israel.

Not only does the Israeli Air Force drop leaflets warning Gazans of imminent shelling in specific areas, but pilots who spot women and children in their crosshairs abort their missions. In addition, the only reason that civilian areas need to be bombed in the first place is that Hamas has strategically placed all of its weapons and explosives under homes, hospitals and mosques. Oh, and under U.N. schools, as well as embedded in the walls of U.N. hospitals.

In the meantime, while Israel set up a field hospital at the Erez border crossing to treat wounded Gazans, Hamas not only fired mortar rounds at the clinic, but beat up anyone attempting to seek help there. So, too, did Hamas brutally prevent civilians from evacuating danger zones, in order to incur as many and as bloody civilian casualties as possible.

Yet not a word from Pillay about Hamas’ human-shield policy, not even a minor retraction of blame placed on Israel for damage caused to a Gaza power plant by Hamas rockets falling short of their mark.

“It is completely unconscionable that the proportionality and precaution that international law requires is being ignored,” Pillay declared. “We cannot allow impunity. We cannot allow this lack of accountability to go on.”

Indeed.

Had she said the above about Hamas, she would have been doing her job. Instead, the person charged with promoting and policing global human rights has been actively abetting global jihad. Go figure.

But George Orwell would not have been the least bit surprised.

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation,” he wrote in his prescient novel, 1984. “These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.”

Two soldiers killed in Hamas attack in which officer feared captured. Gaza 72-hour truce folds.

Debka

Missing Israeli Givati officer 1st Lt. Hadar Goldin

Israel has withdrawn from the 72-hour truce in the Gaza Strip in the wake of gross Hamas violations just two hours after the lull went into effect Friday at 8 a.m.

The IDF spokesmen said that an Israeli soldier was feared kidnapped by Hamas while dealing with a tunnel in Rafah. He has been identified as Givati officer, 1st Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba. Deputy head of the Hamas politburo Mussa Abu Marzuk claimed in Cairo that “an Israeli officer was taken prisoner.” Military sources said later the abduction was not certain, placing the Hamas claim in doubt in the absence of evidence. His family has been informed. Israel forces are scouring the area for the missing officer.
The apparent abducton occurred when a team of Israeli soldiers working on a terror tunnel in Rafah came under Hamas and Islamic Jihad fire and a suicide terrorist jumped out of the tunnel and blew himself up.

Firday, southern Israel was back on high alert from the early hours of the ceasefire as Hamas let loose with more than a score of rockets and mortar shells.

IDF tanks, artillery, air force and special forces retaliated with heavy artillery fire and air strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Rafah sector of southern Gaza. The Palestinians report many dead and casualties.

Israel has informed the US, UN and Egypt it is suspending its consent to the 72-hour truce in the Gaza Strip and participation in the Cairo talks in the wake of gross Hamas violations just two hours after the lull went into effect Friday at 8 a.m.
They peaked in an attack on an IDF tunnel team in Rafah in which two soldiers were killed and Israeli Givati officer, 1st Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba, was abducted. The IDF reported two Israeli soldiers killed in the same Hamas attack in which an Israeli soldier was feared captured while disarming a tunnel in Rafah. The missing officer was identified as Givati officer, 1st Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba.

Deputy head of the Hamas politburo Mussa Abu Marzuk confirmed in Cairo that “an Israeli officer was taken prisoner.” Military sources said later the abduction was not certain, placing the Hamas claim in doubt. His family has been informed that the officer is missing.
The two soldiers were killed when Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacked the IDF team working on the terror tunnel, after the truce went into effect. A suicide terrorist jumped out of the tunnel and blew himself up.

Southern Israel is back on high alert since in the early hours of the ceasefire, since when Hamas has let loose a score of rockets and mortar shells.

IDF tanks, artillery, air force and special forces retaliated with heavy fire against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Rafah sector of southern Gaza. The Palestinians report 90 dead and many wounded.

A senior Israeli officer warned that the on-again off-again truces place Israeli servicemen in harm’s way..
The Israeli cabinet has scheduled a special session for 5.30 p.m.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu briefed US Secretary of State John Kerry on the violations of the humanitarian ceasefire by Hamas and other terrorist organizations and vowed they would pay dear for their actions.

The White House condemned the Hamas attack in the course of an agreed truce as “barbaric.”

debkafile reported Thursday night:

The 72-hour hour unconditional, humanitarian ceasefire announced by the US and UN, was scheduled to begin at 8 pm local time Friday. The US State Department said that military forces will stay in place. The US and UN said they had assurances that all parties to the conflict had agreed to an unconditional cease-fire during which there would be negotiations on a more durable truce.

This was confirmed early Friday by a source in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. The Paletinian Hamas and Jihad Islami also confirmed acceptance of the ceasefire, following which they fired two rockets into Israel.

Israeli and Palestinian delegations will “immediately” be going to Cairo for negotiations with the Egyptian government to try at reach a more permanent cease-fire, the State Department said.

“During this period, civilians in Gaza will receive urgently needed humanitarian relief, and the opportunity to carry out vital functions, including burying the dead, taking care of the injured, and restocking food supplies. Overdue repairs on essential water and energy infrastructure could also continue during this period.”

During the cease-fire,  Israel will be able to continue its defense operations to destroy tunnels that are behind its territorial lines.

“We hope this moment can be grabbed by both parties, but no one can force them to do that,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said.

The Palestinian delegation is expected to include members of Hamas, which the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization and cannot be negotiated with directly. So if the Israelis and Palestinians meet face to face, the Hamas members will not participate in those talks. The Egyptians will be the go-between for all of this and will help coordinate, a senior State Department official said.

IDF Spokesman details how Hamas abduction of IDF soldier occured – YouTube.

–

By Gary Varvel