WarSclerotic

Obama administration plans own version Iron Dome to protect John Kerry from Israeli criticism
By Doug Powers • July 29, 2014 10:55 AM

Brought to you by Heinz Ketchup. – LS

Maybe this administration thinks that whole “Israel being a longtime ally of the United States” era was overrated, because as Israel battles Hamas, Team Obama is shoring up its defense of… John Kerry:

The Obama administration pushed back strongly Monday at a torrent of Israeli criticism over Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest bid to secure a cease-fire with Hamas, accusing some in Israel of launching a “misinformation campaign” against the top American diplomat.

“It’s simply not the way partners and allies treat each other,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Her comments were echoed by the White House, where National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the U.S. was “dismayed” by mischaracterizations of Kerry’s efforts. Israeli media reports have cast Kerry as seeking a cease-fire that is more favorable to Hamas and being dismissive of key Israeli concerns.

To help protect John Kerry from “unfair” Israeli criticism, the Obama administration has gotten to work on plans to construct an “Iron DOHM” (Diplomatic Operation Has Mishap) that will automatically deploy when incoming verbal or written attacks are detected.

UN Condemns Israel’s Latest War Crime: Not Sharing Iron Dome with Hamas.

( I thought this was satire at first…  – JW )

The UN’s top human rights official again condemned Israel for its military actions to stop Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, accusing the Jewish state of “deliberately defying International Law… in a way that may constitute war crimes.”

Navi Pillay told reporters following yet another “emergency” meeting of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council that Israel was not doing enough to protect civilians. “There is a strong possibility,” said the known Israel critic, “that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.”

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.

The UN chairwoman criticized the U.S. for helping fund Israel’s Iron Dome system which has saved countless Israeli and Palestinian lives. “No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling,” she said.

Just because Hamas fires rockets indiscriminately aimed at Israeli civilian population centers without provocation and fires them from within its own population centers does not “absolve” Israel from its own legal violations, Pillay told reporters Thursday.

Marking the end of her contentious, six-year term as chairman of the notoriously anti-Israel UNHRC, Pillay saved her harshest condemnations for what she termed Israeli “targeting” of UN-run schools and hospitals in Gaza. She did not mention, nor was she reminded by any of the reporters present, that as of this writing, at least three UN-run schools in Gaza have been used as rocket warehouses, a gross violation of international law that clearly falls within the category of war crimes. Neither did she mention, nor was she reminded, that in at least two of the three cases cited above, the terror rockets found on UN property in Gaza were returned to Hamas by the UN.

“What I’m seeing now is a recurrence of the very acts that the Gaza fact-finding mission indicated as constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity,” she said.

The UN’s Human Rights Council has long been a source of deep embarrassment to some UN supporters all-too-conscious that the council is widely regarded as a cesspool of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred, manipulated by the world’s very worst human rights abusers to cover up their own gross abuses of human rights by scapegoating Israel.

Current members of the UN Human Rights Council include China, Russia, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Iran and North Korea have been recent active members of the body. So execrable were the actions and abuses of the UNHRC in the past that the body was in fact disbanded in 2006 after the late terrorist leader of Libya Muammar Gaddafi was elected President of the Council.

While Israel is the only country in the world that remains a standing agenda item at every session, the human rights body has to date said nothing about the recent Russian-backed shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, nor has it condemned the ongoing mass killings in Syria or South Sudan. North Korea, China, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, or Iran, all recent or current members of the council, have never been condemned by it.

The UNHRC has never formally mentioned “Hamas” by name, let alone condemned it.

From 2006 through 2012, Israel was formally condemned by the UNHRC at least 47 times.

#TerrorTunnels: Hamas Detonates Suicide Bomb, Kidnaps IDF Soldier Just 90 Mins Into Ceasefire
Posted by Andrew Marcus on Friday, August 1, 2014, 6:27 AM on Gateway Pundit Blog

All bets are off now. – LS

@IDFSpokesperson
We are conducting extensive searches in S. Gaza in order to find a missing IDF soldier. We suspect the soldier was kidnapped by Hamas today
6:00 AM – 1 Aug 2014

Just 90 minutes into the “humanitarian” “ceasefire” Hamas emerged from a terror tunnel, detonated a suicide bomb and took one Jew hostage back through the tunnel.

IDF soldier feared kidnapped

Terrorists emerged from a tunnel shaft, and a suicide bomber detonated near soldiers prior to the suspected kidnapping; the IDF says incident is ongoing and that it is in the midst of efforts to track down missing soldier.

Some of the terror tunnels are almost 2 miles long and cost upwards of $1 Million each to construct. Some of that construction money comes from American tax payers. Some of those tunnels were built with entrances INSIDE United Nations buildings, ostensibly with tacit UN approval.

Gaza conflict: British-Israeli soldier captured by Hamas – Channel 4 News.

A soldier captured alive by Hamas fighters in Gaza, is a British Israeli cousin of Israel’s defence minister, Channel 4 News understands.

Rumours began circulating about the captured soldier this morning, and at around lunchtime the Israeli military spokesman announced that they feared a soldier had indeed been taken.

The Israeli defence forces have named the captured soldier as Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba.

Channel 4 News understands that the soldier is from a family of British Jewish immigrants. It is also understand that he is a cousin – either second or third – of Israeli’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon.

THE IDF spokesman said that around 9.30am Israeli soldiers came under fire in an area around the border of the southern Gaza Strip and “there’s a fear” that during the incident a soldier “has been kidnapped by the terrorists”.

The spokesman added that the family of the soldier had been informed. The military said the situation is still evolving and that the IDF is making “big efforts, operational and intelligence, to locate the soldier”.

The 72-hour ceasefire had already broken down this morning but the reported kidnapping of the Israeli soldier will raise the stakes in the conflict to a completely different level.

Israelis were horrified when another soldier, Gilad Shalit, was previously kidnapped in the Gaza area and held by Hamas militants. He was released in October 2011 after five years and four months – but only in exchange for 1,027 Palestinains prisoners, including many linked to Hamas.

The names of four of the five Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinian mortar fire near the Gaza Strip border earlier have been released by the IDF. The number of Israeli military fatalities now stands at 61.

Gaza 72-hour truce folds after feared Hamas kidnap of Israeli soldier and gross violations, DEBKAfile, August 1, 2014

Friday, 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.

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.

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,

Fighting in Gaza continues as truce collapses, Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2014

Rocket fire into Israel resumes two hours into 72-hour cease-fire; Palestinian sources report 40 killed from IDF artillery fire.

An Israeli soldier sits atop a mobile artillery unit in a staging area outside the Gaza Strip Photo: REUTERS

The 72-hour cease-fire brokered by the United States and the United Nations ended just hours after it went into effect, as fighting resumed on both sides Friday morning.

Code Red sirens rang out in southern Israel around 10 a.m., just as Palestinian media reports of Israeli artillery fire began to surface.

At least 40 people were killed in the Israeli shelling of southern Gaza since that time, according to the local hospital in Rafah.

Palestinian news agency Ma’an also reported that three other people were shot by IDF sniper fire in the southern Gaza Strip.

An IDF spokesperson said she was looking into the incidents.

Israel Radio reported that over 15 rockets and mortars had been fired into Israel since the fighting resumed, and that seven rockets had been successfully intercepted by Iron Dome.

It was not immediately clear whether the rocket fire or the shelling came first.

Both the Israeli Foreign Ministry and an unnamed Israeli official from inside the Prime Minister’s Office blamed Hamas for breaking the cease-fire.

“Once again Hamas has broken its commitment to a cease-fire – a commitment made to John Kerry and the UN Secretary General,” said the official.

US, UN announce deal on Gaza ceasefire, Ynet News, Attila Somfalvi, Elior Levy, August 1, 2014

(There seems to be doubt as to whether Israel has agreed to the ceasefire, see Gaza crisis: Israel, Hamas agree to 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire | Fox News.  — DM)

Israel has yet to confirm the report.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, which is the de facto leader of the Palestinian Authority, has backed Hamas’ demand that the IDF withdraw forces from Gaza during any ceasefire in fighting in Gaza.

Kerry and Ban Ki-moon say unconditional humanitarian truce in Gaza has been agreed by all parties; ceasefire to start at 8 am and last for 72 hours.

The United States and United Nations are announcing that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a humanitarian cease-fire to start at 8 am on Friday morning, for 72 hours.

In a joint statement, the US and UN said they had gotten 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.

The statement was released in New Delhi, where Secretary of State John Kerry is now meeting with Indian officials.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, which is the de facto leader of the Palestinian Authority, has backed Hamas’ demand that the IDF withdraw forces from Gaza during any ceasefire in fighting in Gaza.

Earlier Thursday, Kerry said there is “no promise” of a negotiated cease-fire between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, but he said the US remains hopeful.

Mohammed Shatya, considered a close affiliate of Abbas, said the Palestinians awaited Israel’s response to the 72-hour ceasefire, which is suppose to lay the ground work for a long-term ceasefire summit in Cairo.

Israel has yet to confirm the report.

“The Egyptian side is interested in a halt in aggressions, and so are we,” Shatya said, adding that “all of the Palestinian factions have agreed, permitting a Palestinian delegation to leave for Cairo.”

However, Shatya was quick to add that “they will not permit Israel to leave its forces inside Gaza.”

Al Bracha, a member of Hamas’ political leadership, said that the Palestinian factions reached an agreement and are willing to go to Cairo for talks.

Tunnels have been at the heart of Israel’s Gaza offensive, and are currently one of the central stumbling blocks to a ceasefire, with Israel demanding forces remain in Gaza to take out the tunnel system which threatens Israel’s southern communities and army bases.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said that Operation Protective Edge will continue until the last tunnel connecting Gaza to Israel will be destroyed.

Similar comments were made earlier by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said “We have neutralized dozens of terror tunnels and we are committed to complete this mission, with or without a cease-fire.

As the extent of the tunnel warren and the lethal threat it poses became known, accusations were leveled against the government and military, which warned about the phenomenon years ago but apparently did not prepare adequate counter-measures.

Cairo talks

After an Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to advance talks for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Palestinian delegation was expected to arrive in Egypt on Thursday night, Al-Manar reported.

The Palestinian delegation includes yet unnamed representatives from both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and was set to be headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Israeli delegation includes Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and the head of the Policy and Political-Military Affairs department in the Defense Ministry Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad.

PLO official Wasel Abu-Youssef told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are “talks between Palestinian officials of the highest ranks in order to establish a three- or a five-days ceasefire, following which negotiations will be held in Cairo to reach a permanent agreement.”

He said the Palestinian leadership was working alongside the UN, Qatar, Turkey, the US, Russia and others to reach a long-term truce.

UPDATE:  Ynet News now says that

Sources in Israel’s Security Cabinet confirmed the report for Ynet.

According to the deal, IDF forces will remain in Gaza, marking a win for Israel which has been adamant in its demand it continue to destroy Gaza tunnels, regardless of whether such a deal is reached.

. . . .

Israel and Palestinian delegation are set to convene in Cairo tomorrow morning to work on a long-term ceasefire deal, the statement said. The Palestinian team is said to include representatives from both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A Hamas official accepted the deal and said that all of the “resistance factions” have accepted it as well.

. . . .

However, though forces are still on the ground it is far from certain they will be allowed to use explosives to demolish the tunnels. The statment only said Israel will be allowed “defense actions” and Ynet’s Cabinet sources refused to give further details on the issue. [Emphasis added.]