WarSclerotic

Analysis: What the Gaza war means for Iran, Long War Journal, Behnam Ben Taleblu, August 1, 2014

“Peace [be] upon my dear brothers, the political leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all resistance groups,” said Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force (IRGC-QF,) in a recent letter about the Gaza conflict. As expected, the war between Hamas and Israel has provided great ideological fodder for Iran. And it is no surprise that Iran’s revolutionary leadership, best characterized by Ayatollah Khamenei, has been vocal on the issue.

When viewed from Tehran, the war has the added benefit of temporarily occupying the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), while allowing the Islamic Republic’s strategists to watch, wait, and learn from the operations. Moreover, Iran’s political, religious, and military classes are afforded the opportunity to strut their stuff, tying in their respective areas of impact with the conflict.

In his July 31 letter, Suleimani proudly proclaimed: “We tell all that we love martyrdom. Martyrdom in the path of Palestine and martyrdom because of Jerusalem [Quds] is not only a wish that any noble Muslim wishes for ….” The IRGC-QF Commander additionally asked of God to “damn” numerous entities, “especially America, which is at the head of oppression and cruelty in the world.”

Suleimani’s letter has already elicited a positive response from Palestinian groups, specifically from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Ziad al-Nakhla, the Deputy Secretary of PIJ reportedly stated on July 31 that “[t]he message of Qassem Suleimani has much meaning for us,” and that “[i]f the resistance did not have help from Iran, it would not have been able to confront the Zionist enemy at this level.”

Only two weeks earlier, on July 15, another PIJ member, Khalid al Batash, was mentioned in the Persian media as discussing Iranian support for the PIJ. In his comments, al Batash made sure to single out Iran’s backing and contribution to the group, amid a host of other “brothers.”

Iran is also seeking to solidify its bonds with Hamas, which were severely strained during the Arab Spring due to differences over the future of Syria and the Assad regime. PIJ on the other hand has long been backed by Iran, and at one point in its history even “received training from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.” It is thus conceivable that the seized shipment of arms from the Klos-C in March 2014 may have been destined for PIJ.

Political, strategic, and ideological perspectives

In a broader sense, Operation Protective Edge and the wider Hamas-Israel War can be viewed from several perspectives when defining its value to Iran — first, domestic Iranian politics and factional divides; second, strategic considerations that take into account Iran’s regional rivalries; and finally, the notion of ideological purity, which arguably has the greatest effect on Iranian behavior and motivations thus far.

With respect to Iranian internal politics, as was reported by Al Monitor in late June, several established reformist newspapers became the target of conservative news agencies over, as was described in the article title, “lackluster Gaza coverage.”

And in the aftermath of Suleimani’s dispatch, Mohsen Rezaie, the former Commander of the IRGC, penned a letter to President Rouhani, warning him of regional developments and blowback which could be linked to the outcomes of the Gaza conflict. He noted: “It appears that the Zionist regime committed and commits these crimes with two covers.” Rezaie explained that “[t]he first cover, is the political and economic support of European countries and America” and “[t]he second cover, is the presence of illegal and illegitimate nuclear and chemical weapons in the stocks of this occupying regime ….”

While there is no doubt regarding Rezaie’s convictions, his presenting them in this medium helps argue for an amplification of the Islamic Republic’s regional policies. It may be too soon to tell, but there could be a ripple effect by some in Iran (like Rezaie, who campaigned against Rouhani in 2013) who wish to use an intensification of Iran’s regional behavior as a way to limit nuclear concessions at the negotiating table. This would undercut the very-reversible concessions Rouhani has agreed to under the Joint-Plan of Action (JPOA). Hence, it is worth remembering that due to Rouhani’s focus on nuclear diplomacy, Iran’s regional policies have remained in the hands of the hardest of hardliners.Syria is the best example of this.

When considering the Islamic Republic’s regional competition, Iranian news outlets and political personalities have not shied away from poking at the traditional Sunni-Arab bloc’s response to the Gaza crisis. These states are best typified by Saudi Arabia, which has its own strategic, ideological, and economic grievances with Iran. For example, on Aug. 1, Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi of Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution advertised regarding the war, “The Zionists have easily confessed that this has been accompanied with the support of all Arab regimes except Syria and Iraq ….” He also proudly proclaimed : “Everyone knows that if it wasn’t for the help of the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad wouldn’t have been able to resist this much in previous wars and this war ….”

In an article from Aug. 1, Fars News Agency ran a headline reading, “The King of Saudi Criticized ‘Silence’ Towards Developments in Gaza!” The article served to highlight the irony of the Saudi leadership, who until recently, had been quiet on the matter. To that effect, The New York Times ran a piece a few days ago noting that “Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.”

At this juncture, Iran may not simply be imagining things. Indeed, Khamenei’s continued ecumenical appeals, such as the one on July 29, may be aimed at blunting the possibility of a tactical and/or covert Israeli-Saudi alliance if it does not exist already. He stated : “Our clear message to Islamic governments is this, come help the oppressed [and let’s] stand-up and show that the world of Islam will not sit calmly against oppression and cruelty.”

After all, despite Iran’s hostility toward its Sunni-Arab neighbors that are Western-aligned, Israel still reigns supreme in the mind of Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Lastly, on an ideological note, Iranian officials have managed to maintain the level of rhetoric bequeathed to them by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic, when it comes to anti-Israeli sloganeering. At Friday prayers held in Tehran on Aug. 1, Ayatollah Movahedi-Kermani in referencing Israel proclaimed that “these criminals [should] await the day of revenge.” He also threatened that “Israel must know that the conscience of humanity is tolerant unto a limit, and if this tolerance spills over, [these] consciences will move against it, and [at] that time, this occupying regime must wish for death.”

Sentiments such as those unfortunately continue to guide Iran’s policies toward Israel. As the conflict between Hamas and Israel grinds on, it is worth keeping in mind that during the last Gaza War (Operation Pillar of Defense) in 2012, Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker, Ali Larijani, bragged that “[t]he Zionist regime needs to realize that Palestinian military power comes from Iranian military power.” Two years later, it can be seen that Iranian clout is magnified when prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians are at their bleakest.

Since the two state solution for Israel is moribund, here are some other ideas, Dan Miller’s Blog, August 2, 2014

(Regular site visitors will have seen some of the videos presented below. I thought I should put them together. — DM)

It has been claimed, correctly for now, that the “two state” solution for Israel’s problems with Islamists is dead.

The general feeling seems to be that as long as Hamas remains in power in Gaza, the “two state” solution, much praised by the Obama Administration and many others, won’t work. It won’t, because Hamas (Nancy Pelosi and her friends in Qatar to the contrary notwithstanding) has long been and remains a terror organization devoted to the obliteration of Israel.

Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey and Qatar favor Hamas’ objectives. Israel disagrees with them. Unlike Islamists, Israel prefers life to death.

Three years ago, Andrew Klavan suggested a one state solution. Here is his plan:

Unfortunately, Mr. Klavan’s plan won’t work either: the Islamist nations surrounding Israel wouldn’t allow it even to get a start, because they want to remain sovereign and generally independent. Leaving that obstacle aside however, Israel is the region’s only free and democratic nation. Since all would become citizens of Israel and have the right to vote, Israeli politics and Judaism would be overwhelmed by Islamists. They would easily override Jewish objections and impose Shari law along with all of its anti-freedom and misogynist religious doctrines on Israel. That would be fatal for Israel, but less bad for her Islamic neighbors.

Here’s a better idea, but it won’t work either:

Perhaps the Palestinians could simply be shipped to Honduras, given refugee status and flown to the United States. They wouldn’t even to leave their prayer rugs behind at the border.

During the Obama family vacation this month, many of them could live in the White House and, when it returns to Washington, the Obama family could reside in the Blair House. Perhaps the rest of Hamas could be housed, fed and supported by former House Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues in appreciation of their humanitarian services. They would fit right into Obama’s America.

The Vanishing Two-State Solution, Algemeiner, Ben Cohen, August 1, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is greeted by Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority in the eventually collapsed American-brokered Israel-Palestinian peace talks, before a meeting in Amman, Jordan, on June 28, 2013. Photo: JNS.

JNS.org – Speaking to a British television network this week, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron bemoaned that “facts on the ground” were on the verge of wrecking the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Cameron, it should be said, has consistently supported Israel’s right to defend itself from the stream of rocket attacks launched from Hamas-ruled Gaza. At the same time, he believes that there is no substitute for a robust, lasting political solution.

That is why his anxiety about the two-state solution is likely shared by other world leaders. What’s so frustrating, the international community reasons, is that everyone knows what a final settlement will look like, yet no one is willing to take the steps necessary to get us there.

Insofar as a negotiated two-state solution is essentially a pipe dream at the present time, I think Cameron is correct to be worried. One of the reasons it’s a pipe dream is because, especially on the Palestinian side, the consensus behind it isn’t nearly as strong as Cameron and others would like us to think. Hamas rejects it outright, of course, as its goal—as CBS’s Charlie Rose confirmed when he recently interviewed Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal—is the elimination of the Jewish state.

The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is formally committed to a two-state solution, but its continued backing of the “right of return” for the descendants of Palestinian refugees, as well as its pursuit of unilateral recognition in international bodies, has left Israelis skeptical.

As for the Israeli government, it’s no secret that any willingness there may have been to make territorial concessions to the PA has been badly eroded by both the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank and the renewed missile attacks from Gaza—after, remember, Fatah and Hamas formed a unity government of sorts.

In this grim context, appeals for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire in Gaza—a stance shared by the Obama administration, the U.N., and the Europeans—seem rather fanciful. Examined from the Israeli perspective, this demand is actually counter-productive. For if world leaders seriously think that the Israelis will return, when it comes to Gaza, to the status quo ante, then they either don’t understand or don’t care about Israel’s strategic calculus.

There are two big decisions facing Israel right now. The first one concerns the end goals of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The second one concerns its future relations with the U.S. Both are closely related, but all indications suggest that Jerusalem regards the first as more pressing than the second.

A growing chorus of influential voices in Israel, from right-wing Jewish Home party leader Minister Naftali Bennett to the respected historian Benny Morris, is arguing that Israel needs to finish the job in Gaza. What that means, ultimately, is the defeat of Hamas militarily and politically. The Israel Defense Forces is reported to have made good progress in destroying the network of attack tunnels constructed by Hamas beneath the ground in Gaza (at the same time, as much of the Hebrew press has recently noted, as the general realization dawned that successive Israeli governments had misread the strategic threat posed by these below-the-surface corridors).

Egypt, too, has joined the Israeli efforts to choke Hamas, destroying tunnels connecting the Sinai and Gaza. In these circumstances, it is hardly sensible to allow Hamas the breathing space that a cease-fire would afford. Instead of permitting Hamas to regroup and rebuild, the logic goes, strike the killer blow in the coming days.

This is not a conclusion that the Obama administration wants Israel to reach—and that, ironically, provides another reason for the Israelis to bring Hamas rule in Gaza to an end. Given that this administration has over two years left in office, Israel wants to avoid another Gazan firestorm, say six months from now, that would lead to yet more demands from Washington for an immediate cease-fire and more opprobrium against the IDF’s field operations.

With Hamas out of the picture, Israel is in a much better position to talk about peace and Palestinian statehood. Moreover, there will be an understandable desire among the battered Gazan population for a new authority to fill the vacuum left by Hamas, and that outcome can’t be secured without Israel’s consent.

I don’t believe that much diplomatic progress will be made while President Barack Obama remains in the White House. Trust between the Israeli and American governments has declined sharply, to the point where questions are being raised about Secretary of State John Kerry’s personal commitment to the alliance with Israel. All I’ll say for now is that there is reason to doubt Kerry’s commitment—he hasn’t taken Israeli concerns over Iran sanctions at all seriously, he has warned apocalyptically that Israel faces boycotts and isolation, and he was amiably cooking up a cease-fire proposal with the Turkish foreign minister just days after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that Israel was worse than Hitler.

Three to five years from now, the twin absences of the Hamas military threat and Obama’s bungling diplomacy may propel genuinely meaningful negotiations. In large part that will depend on who is in the White House. For now, though, Israel’s first priority is its national security. That is how it should be.

***********

(How about a one state solution? Nah, that won’t work either.– DM)

IDF to complete destruction of Hamas tunnels by Sunday; Troops begin withdrawal, Jerusalem Post, Yaakov Lappin, August 2, 2014

ANALYSIS: In two weeks, IDF destroyed tunnel network which took Hamas five years to build; Army discovers motorcycles in some tunnels, earmarked by Hamas for rapid raids into Israel.

(It’s good that the IDF has found and destroyed most of the tunnels. Will sufficient forces remain to finish the job, and not only with any remaining tunnels? If not, why not?– DM)

Gaza border, July 18 Photo: BEN HARTMAN

The IDF is in the process of reorganizing its ground forces. It is preparing for further instructions from the security cabinet. Ground forces remain active in three areas across Gaza, as the last of the tunnels are destroyed. The remainder of the ground units have taken up positions in staging areas, and some will remain in Gaza, to protect Israeli villages from attempts by Hamas to exploit gaps in the border fence to stage further attacks.

The IDF has destroyed Hamas’s flagship terrorism project; its network of cross-border tunnels that snuck under the border into Israel. The military also began to pull its forces out of the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening.

Hamas has spent five years preparing this strategic threat; the IDF wrecked 31 tunnels in two weeks. By Sunday, all of the tunnels the IDF knew about, or discovered during the offensive, will be destroyed. A few tunnels that Israel doesn’t know about may remain intact.

Many of the underground passages were designed to send heavily armed murder squads into Israeli villages for killing sprees, and attack army positions from behind. They were filled with weapons, explosives, and equipment, enabling terrorists dressed in civilian clothing to disappear into a shaft in Gaza, and emerge in Israel, disguised as IDF soldiers and fully equipped to carry out a mass casualty attack. The IDF has discovered motorcycles in some of the tunnels, which were earmarked by Hamas for rapid raids into Israel and subsequent retreats back into Gaza.

Currently, inside the Strip, the army has gained good control of the areas it is maneuvering in. Despite very difficult fighting that has raged on the ground, which included heavy RPG, anti-tank, and automatic fire by Hamas cells, and despite the painful price Israel has paid thus far, the army is very close to achieving this key goal of its offensive.

In the big majority of cases where the IDF clashed with Hamas, the battle ended with the terrorists being killed, wounded, or with their surrender.

No one in the army expected the fighting to be easy, or one-way. And no one expected all of the battles to end without painful losses on the Israeli side, when tens of thousands of soldiers clashed with Hamas’s battalions of guerrillas.

Similarly, the intelligence available to the ground forces has been superb, but it is unrealistic to expect a 100% success rate. Planned ambushes, such as the one carried out by Hamas in Rafah on Friday, which led to the kidnapping of an officer, were part of the known threats facing the army in Gaza. Not all threats can be dealt with successfully on the battlefield. Such is the nature of war.

Only a ground offensive could provide the military with the needed tools to destroy the tunnels; air power alone could not achieve this goal.

The number of clashes between the IDF and Hamas cells has dropped dramatically in recent hours, an indication of the army’s firm control of the areas it holds. Exceptions to this include sporadic mortar and sniper fire.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s stockpile of medium-range rockets, of the kind it uses to target greater Tel Aviv, is becoming depleted. As a result, Hamas has lowered the number of of medium-range rockets it fires, to pace itself for a drawn-out conflict. On the weekend, Hamas has focused on firing on short-range rockets attacks on the south.

The IDF is in the process of reorganizing its ground forces. It is preparing for further instructions from the security cabinet. Ground forces remain active in three areas across Gaza, as the last of the tunnels are destroyed. The remainder of the ground units have taken up positions in staging areas, and some will remain in Gaza, to protect Israeli villages from attempts by Hamas to exploit gaps in the border fence to stage further attacks.

Some in the defense establishment believe that when Hamas’s leaders emerge from their bunkers, and see how years of tunnelling turned into wreckage, they may think again before investing so many resources into rebuilding a subterranean network. Nothing can stop Israel re-entering Gaza in the future to destroy newly built tunnels. this may lead Hamas to abandon the program.

Israel is continuing to search for a tunnel alert system, and has researched every known technology designed to deal with this threat.

According to the defense establishment, none have so far been found to be effective or operational. None would allow security chiefs to sleep soundly and expect to know, in real time, when Hamas’s diggers begin tunnelling towards Israel again.

A tale of two hospitals: One in Israel, one in Gaza, The Washington Times, Sen. Ted Cruz, July 30, 2014

Israel saves its enemies; Hamas endangers its friends

The contrast in this tale of two hospitals could not be more clear: Hamas exploits their medical facilities as a human shield to launch terrorist operations against Israel, while Israel uses theirs to provide cutting-edge medical care to people whose government’s avowed goal is to destroy the Jewish state. Hamas’ actions are a war crime. Israel’s are one of the great, unsung humanitarian missions on the planet.

If you want to judge a nation, look at how it treats its most vulnerable civilians. Hospitals are a good place to start.

Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, is housed in a converted British army barracks. Some 126 miles north is Israel’s Ziv Medical Center in Zefat.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, is using the civilian population as human shields. The terrorist group has placed its missiles in schools and mosques and, even more deplorably, burrowed its command center underneath the al-Shifa hospital.

Hamas‘ activities are taking place in plain sight. Just two weeks ago, The Washington Post described al-Shifa as “a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders.” These terrorist facilities are of course well known not only to the foreign journalists who interview Hamas fighters there, but also to the Israelis, who would by necessity consider such a location a legitimate target for any action against Hamas. However, the terrorist group has tried to immunize their headquarters by digging it under a hospital, leaving Israel no option but to target al-Shifa if they want to get rid of the Hamas terrorist leadership.

Hamas sees no downside in this arrangement. Knowing that Israel prioritizes protecting civilians, the terrorists can be reasonably confident that al-Shifa will not be targeted, and they can continue their murderous activities undisturbed. If the Israelis finally decide that these activities are intolerable and that to destroy Hamas they must target their headquarters, Hamas will have pictures of the quintessentially innocent martyrs — hospital patients unable to flee — to plaster across international media in their ongoing propaganda war to demonize the Jewish state.

The medical care and even survival of the Gazan people are of no concern to these terrorists, for whom casualties are not an unintended consequence of war, but rather a deliberate objective. Like the rest of the population stationed around the many civilian institutions militarized by Hamas, they must either make do with a substandard medical facility being exploited by a terrorist organization, or die in the service of that organization’s savage campaign to destroy Israel.

Meanwhile in Israel, Ziv is a center for pediatric and orthopedic medicine. Given its proximity to Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria, Ziv has seen its share of violence, but despite taking direct rocket fire during the 2006 Lebanon war, it has remained in continuous operation.

During the past three years of the Syrian civil war, Ziv has treated more than 1,000 Syrians injured in that conflict — all free of charge.

In a visit to Ziv this spring, I met the social worker whose job it is to explain to the patients who wake up grievously injured and surrounded by Israelis that they are not in hell, but that the people who they have been told from birth are the devil are, in fact, working very hard to heal them.

I met a Syrian child who had lost three limbs but has been fitted with revolutionary prosthetics and will, God willing, walk again.

All of this means that many of Ziv’s hospital beds and a substantial portion of its funding are not available for Israelis, but the staff has concluded it is worth it if their work can start to reverse the intractable hate that has been relentlessly leveled at Israel by its neighbors.

The contrast in this tale of two hospitals could not be more clear: Hamas exploits their medical facilities as a human shield to launch terrorist operations against Israel, while Israel uses theirs to provide cutting-edge medical care to people whose government’s avowed goal is to destroy the Jewish state. Hamas‘ actions are a war crime. Israel’s are one of the great, unsung humanitarian missions on the planet.

Why is the West so afraid of Islam? The Week, Michael Brendan Dougherty, July 31, 2014

(President Obama, in The Audacity of Hope, wrote that he would stand with the Muslims “should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” Has he ever said anything comparable about Judaism or Christianity? — DM)

Don’t expect much support. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

In perhaps the only sign of action from the West to the increased intensity of Christian persecution, France has opened itself up to refugees from Iraq, who are being driven out under pain of death by ISIS. This is a welcome reversion to form for France, which ever since the Middle Ages has periodically found ways to protect Christian minorities abroad. This is a great beginning — but it is such a small response to the magnitude of Christian persecution, happening not just in Iraq and Syria, but in Nigeria and Egypt as well.

Why hasn’t there been a greater response from the once-Christian West to the plight of Christians? It’s not for lack of outrageous events. The International Society for Human Rights estimates that 80 percent of acts of religious discrimination in the world have Christians as their victims. And these are starting to poke through the headlines. The purge in Mosul attracted some attention, the kidnapping and threatened murder of mostly Christian girls by Boko Haram even more. But much less is said about the fate of Syrian Christians or Copts. Still less is said about even more obscure religious minorities like Yazidi and Druze who face discrimination from ISIS.

One reason for our silence, suggested by John Allen Jr. in his book The Global War on Christians, is that the modern humanitarian West has difficulty seeing Christians as “native” to third-world nations. Their imagination of “global” Christianity is one of a religion implanted by Europeans and Americans through a violent, racist, and discredited colonialism. Of course this isn’t true in these cases, as there were Christians in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt long before there were any in Britannia or Biloxi. Allen also cited French philosopher Regis Debray’s view that in Christian persecution the victims are “‘too Christian’ to excite the Left, and ‘too foreign’ to excite the Right.”

But Ernesto Galli della Loggia, the lead editorial writer for Corriere Della Sera, offered one provocative suggestion for Europe’s unwillingness to get involved: fear of Islam. In an editorial titled “The Indifference That Kills,” he writes (translated here) that Europe fears what he calls “Arab Islam” and its ability to commit economic blackmail. He writes:

At the same time, and above all, it fears the ruthless terrorism, the many guerrillas that claim to be inspired by Islam, their cruel barbarity, as well as the movements of revolt that periodically deeply stir the masses of that world, always permeated by a sensibility that is extremely easy to light up and to break loose in violent xenophobia. [Corriere Della Sera]

There is something to this. Consider: When Pope Benedict XVI, in an academic setting, merely quoted a medieval critique of Islam, the result was riots across the Islamic world, including the murder of Christian nuns. There was similar rioting and threats over satirical cartoons in a Danish newspaper that if made about Christianity would elicit almost no reaction beyond a letter or a few digital comments.

Europe has seen debates about hate-speech laws passed under the banner of diversity that would function in ways barely distinguishable from anti-blasphemy laws in the Islamic world, singling out Islam and Muslims for special protections from critique and insult. America’s own State Department pleads with a yokel who plans on burning the Koran. Try pissing on some rosary beads and see if John Kerry denounces you in public for tearing at our fragile relations with Malta and the Vatican. (Though Rudy Giuliani might get involved.)

As comedian Penn Jillette elegantly pointed out, the way people avoid giving offense to Islam amounts to a damning condemnation in itself. It is perhaps the worst Western insult offered to Islamic people in the Middle East that we almost universally assume there’s not much point in asking them to recognize the human rights of Christians.

We don’t even expect polite reciprocity. Italy is expected to welcome one of the largest mosques in the world, funded by Saudi Arabia. But no one can build even a modest church in Saudi Arabia. In Egypt, Christians can’t even repair a wall in a church without explicit permission from the sovereign. Qatar has laws that punish people who convert from Islam to Christianity with death, but there’s no planned boycott of their upcoming World Cup because of it. We watch ISIS blow up what many consider the tomb of the prophet Jonah and just sigh, helplessly.

If silence permits Islamist persecution to grow and criticism only enflames its violent zeal, France’s gesture of solidarity with Iraq’s Christians has to be joined by many more countries in the West. It might as well start with the United States, which has played such a large role across this region over the last three decades while taking so little responsibility for the results.

Iran’s New Strategy Of Diversion: Persuading The Sunni Camp To Fight Israel, Not Iran – Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), A. Savyon and Y. Carmon, August 1, 2014

(Our nuclear “peace partners” in the Iran Scam are persistent and have long term objectives. P5 including the US? Not so much. — DM)

Introduction

Recently, the Iranian regime has launched a campaign for arming the Palestinians in West Bank and Israel’s Arab citizens; the campaign is being led by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

On July 23, 2014, on the eve of Iran’s Qods (Jerusalem) Day, Khamenei said that “the only solution [for Israel] is its annihilation and liquidation. Of course, until that time [when this happens], the determined and armed Palestinian resistance, and its spread to the West Bank, are the only way to deal with that bestial regime… Therefore, it is my belief that the West Bank should be armed just like Gaza. Anyone who cares about the fate of Palestine, and who is capable of doing something, should act in this matter in order to reduce the suffering and torment of the Palestinian people by means of their strong hand…”[1]

This campaign played a role in Iran’s strategy, in two vital areas that are completely unconnected to the war in Gaza or to the Palestinian cause: a) It serves the Iranian regime in its struggle against the Sunni world, which has ratcheted up its pressure on Iran, and b) it serves the Iranian regime in its struggle against the opposition, i.e. the pragmatic camp, at home, that has recently escalated its attacks on the ideological camp (see MEMRI series on The Struggle Between Khamenei And Rafsanjani Over The Iranian Leadership).

While the policy of annihilating Israel is one thing that the ideological and the pragmatic camps in Iran have in common, as it is a founding tenet of the regime, the move to arm the West Bank Palestinians and Israel’s Arab citizens is a new element that the regime is stressing in recent days, and by all possible means. In every major speech and announcement, regime spokesmen emphasize the need for the Sunni world to stop fighting Shi’ites and join Iran in its fight against Israel.[2] The regime also is highlighting the need for unity at home, which is actually a demand that the pragmatic camp accept the authority of the ideological camp.

It should be noted that on the internal level, this tactic has been successful, as expected; the pragmatic camp has hastened to stand with the regime on this matter.[3]

July 23, 2014 Facebook announcement by Khamenei’s office (Source: Facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir)

However, the effort to divert the Sunni camp from its struggle with Iran and the Shi’ites has as of yet yielded no results. Apparently, the Sunni world understands Iran’s gambit and is not going along with it; it is also stepping up its pressure on the Shi’ites in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.[4]

It should be clarified that this strategy of diversion is not just talk – the Iranian regime is working to implement it in coordination with the leaders of Hizbullah and of the Palestinian factions. But the main importance of this effort for Iran is that it serves both Iran’s existential interest against the external Sunni threat and also the interest of the Iranian regime at home against the opposition.

This paper will review statements by senior members of the Iranian leadership calling on the Sunni world to forget about its fight against the Shi’ites and about the Sunni-Shi’ite schism and to instead unite with the Shi’ites against Israel.

Khamenei: “The Islamic World Should Set Aside All Differences… Let Us Unite And Carry Out Our Religious And Human Duty In Order To Help The People In Gaza”

In a July 29, 2014 speech to Muslim countries’ ambassadors in Iran, Khamenei stressed the need for the Islamic world – that is, both Sunnis and Shi’ites – to unite and act together against Israel: “The Islamic world should set aside all differences, and use all its capabilities to meet the needs of the people in Gaza while fighting against the shameful crimes of the Zionists, and while despising and renouncing their supporters, particularly America and Britain.

“Unfortunately, and contrary to the instructions of Islam, the Islamic ummah is today in a schism, because of politics and power-seeking. The leaders of the Islamic countries must set aside such  motives and establish a united, strong, and mighty nation. If power-seeking, dependence [on the West], and corruption cannot divide the Islamic world, no arrogant power [i.e. the U.S. and the West] will dare attack the Islamic states, to extort their governments…

“In order to realize this goal, all the Islamic governments must abandon the political and non-political disputes among themselves, and everyone together must hasten to the aid of the oppressed who are palpitating in the claws of the bloodletting Zionist wolf… Let us unite and carry out our religious and human duty in order to help the people in Gaza overcome the obstacles that the Zionists are setting [before them]. Fighting the perpetrators of the historic oppression in Gaza is the second duty of the Islamic world…”[5]

President Rohani: “In Order To Solve These Difficult Problems” Of “The Suppurating Tumor[s]” Of IS And The Zionist Regime, “We Have No Option Except To Unify The Islamic World”

At the same July 29 meeting with the ambassadors of Muslim countries, Iranian President Hassan Rohani compared the “suppurating tumor” of the Islamic State (IS, formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS) – that is, the murder of Shi’ites by Sunnis in Iraq – to the “Zionist suppurating tumor.” He stated that they have shared roots, and stressed that the only thing that could solve this problem was Sunni-Shi’ite unity:

“In order to solve these difficult problems, we have no option except to unify the Islamic world, explain the merciful [kind of] Islam, and distance ourselves from stagnation and fixation [in the Shi’ite-Sunni dispute]. The global strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is peace and justice, and in the Islamic world [the Iranian strategy is] brotherhood and unity, and the establishment of a single Islamic ummah.

“Those who dream of weakening Islam and the Muslims will take that aspiration to their grave. The Islamic Republic of Iran is mobilizing all its strength and all its means, for establishing stability and security, and for preventing massacres and bloodshed and creating peace and justice in the region. The Islamic world will triumph by virtue of the [Islamic] awakening, vigilance, and unity, with God’s help.”[6]

Also on July 29, at a government meeting for ‘Eid Al-Fitr, Rohani said: “The leaders of the regime have gone into action with all their might on the issue of Palestine and Gaza; we see this as part of our religious and human duty… I hope that all the Muslims in the world will fulfill their human and Islamic duty, in light of the savage attacks of the Zionist regime.”[7]

Other Regime Spokesmen Call For Arming The West Bank And Israel’s Arab Citizens

On July 26, Ahmad Vahidi, former defense minister under president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former commander of the Qods Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said: “Arming the West Bank is the strategic policy of the Leader [Khamenei], and its implementation will change the arena of the developments in Palestine. The arming of the West Bank will be a golden card in the hands of the resistance of the Palestinian people. The Islamic governments and the supporters of the Palestinian people must use all their efforts for the sake of arming the West Bank, and even the region occupied in 1948. As the Leader [Khamenei] said, Iran supports Palestine with all its might and in all dimensions; it is expected that the required effort will be carried out in order to implement [Khamenei’s] policy on the arming of the West Bank.”[8]

On July 28, a number of officials made similar statements in interviews with the Fars news agency, among them Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam, head of the Committee for the Support of the Palestinian and advisor to Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani; Hossein Kna’ani-Moqadam, former top IRGC official; and Fathollah Hosseini, Majlis National Security Committee member.[9]Also, the July 25 editorial of the daily Kayhan, which is affiliated with Khamenei, was titled “Resistance In Gaza, Intifada In The West Bank.”

Amir Mousavi, former advisor to the Iranian defense minister, said in a July 25 interview with Al-Mayadeen TV that Iran had discovered more efficient routes for transferring weapons to the Palestinians, including via Jordan and the Golan Heights, as a result of the Shi’ites’ fight against the takfiri organizations. He added that because of the West Bank’s proximity to Tel Aviv and Haifa, short-range missiles would be sufficient (see MEMRI TV Clip. No. 4377).

On July 24, Majlis National Security Committee member Ismail Kowsari made similar statements to Fars in an interview, and on the same day the Basij released a communique calling on the government to urgently submit a bill to the Majlis on arming the Palestinians in the West Bank in accordance with Khamenei’s statements.[10]

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[1] Khamenei.ir, July 23, 2014.

[2] See, for example, statements by a Hamas member to the Lebanese daily Al-Safir aimed at motivating Hizbullah to join the struggle against Israel; he said that now there is an opportunity for the resistance axis to triumph against the attempts to create sectarian fitna and to stop the marginal wars and begin to act to rebuild the axis. Al-Safir, Lebanon, July 31, 2014.

[3] In effect, the leaders of the pragmatic camp rushed to express extreme anti-Israel sentiment to prove their loyalty to the goals of Iran’s Islamic Revolution – even before the ideological camp demanded such statements from them. See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No.1107, Qods Day In Iran: Tehran Calls For Annihilation Of Israel And For Arming The West Bank, July 25, 2014.

[4] See Daoud Al-Basri’s article on Elaph.com, July 26, 2014.

[5] Leader.ir, July 29, 2014.

[6] Leader.ir, July 29, 2014.

[7] President.ir, July 29, 2014.

[8] Tasnimnews.com, July 26, 2014.

[9] Fars, July 28, 2014.

[10] YJC.ir, July 24, 2014.

Destroy HAMAS! – From Bar-Ilan to Boston, You Tube, August 1, 2014

Hat tip to The Counter Jihad Report for the video.

Israel will not attend Gaza truce talks in Cairo, official says, Jerusalem Post, August 2, 2014

“Hamas is not interested in an accommodation,” official says on condition of anonymity; Fatah delegation set to fly to Cairo for talks; following breakdown of Friday truce, Hamas officials from Gaza will not attend.

Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi looks on as he delivers a speech in Cairo. Photo: REUTERS

Israel will not send envoys to Gaza truce negotiations in Egypt on Saturday as planned, an Israeli official said, accusing Hamas of misleading international mediators.

“Hamas is not interested in an accommodation,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on Friday broke down within hours on Friday.

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 capturing 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.

Egypt’s President Sisi says delays complicate Gaza cease-fire efforts

Egypt’s President said on Saturday the ceasefire plan proposed by his country offered the chance to end the Gaza conflict, but warned that lost time further complicated matters.

“The Egyptian initiative is a real chance to find a real solution to the crisis taking place in the Gaza Strip,” Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a joint press conference in Cairo with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

“Lost time …complicates the situation more and more.”

A Fatah delegation led by senior official Azzam Al-Ahmed will fly into Cairo from Jordan for talks, a Palestinian official in Ramallah said. Exiled officials from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group will also join the negotiations.

But following a breakdown of the Friday truce, Hamas officials in Gaza will not attend.

Gaza officials say at least 1,654 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the Israeli offensive started on July 8. Sixty-three Israeli soldiers have died, and three civilians have been killed by Palestinian rockets in Israel.

Hamas leaders have said any Egypt-brokered deal must include an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza and called for Cairo to ease curbs at its Rafah crossing with Gaza imposed after the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist, a year ago.