WarSclerotic

Abbas is a charlatan, Israel Hayom, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, August 7, 2014

As the cease-fire takes effect, there is more talk about how now is the time to strengthen Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and trust him to bring about a solution to Gaza, meaning to demilitarize it. A cold, hard look shows that nothing is more dangerous for us than depending on this charlatan.

First, the Palestinian Authority is incapable of preventing a military coup like the one Hamas carried out in Gaza in 2007. The only reason its people were not assassinated by their “unity” government partners was that the IDF was watching over them day and night. Here the PA shares mutual interests with Israel, which constantly eliminates militarization attempts and the buildup of terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. We also hear enthusiasm for cooperation with Israel on security, but that stems from their own survival instinct and not because they have suddenly joined the Zionist movement. So the PA will not disarm terrorist organizations in Gaza, even if it promises to.

Secondly, the moderate Arab countries currently have mutual interests other than Abbas, and sometimes even preclude supporting him. Their mutual interest with Israel comes from the fact that they have recognized that they might well need Israel’s military assistance against ideological enemies like Iran or the Islamic State group. It would be exciting to see an Islamic State member, in front of his black flag, spitting and trampling on a Palestine Liberation Organization flag and cursing the PA because an Arab caliphate opposes its ideology. Jordan understands that it will need our help when the Islamic State reaches its eastern border, whether Israel dismantles the PA or builds it a state.

Third, empowering Abbas is dangerous because of his ideology, which he hides in his contact with Israel and the Western world. In an interview with Palestinian television, his son Yasser made it unequivocally clear, despite what his father says, that they would “return to Safed, Palestine.” He even called upon his son Nader to say the same thing to prove what he taught his children. All of Abbas’ actions are intended to use the Palestinian charter and the PA school system to teach the next generation that we have to be expelled through force, even though he survives on the IDF’s coattails.

Fourth, the PA has already violated its commitment to demilitarize. Operation Defensive Shield was enough of a lesson in what will happen to us if there is a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

What’s more, there is a fair chance that the PA regime will fall once we hand over Judea and Samaria. It could happen because of internecine Palestinian fighting or because it is taken over by a group like the Islamic State. Terror tunnels that lead to the heart of Jerusalem, Kfar Saba, or Ben-Gurion International Airport, combined with occasional mortar shelling and rocket fire, would force Israel to invade a sovereign nation. The damage such a violation of international law would cause to Israel’s security and diplomatic standing would be enormous.

Abbas does not work for us. So not only is he not a solution, he is the problem.

WARNING GRAPHIC, RAW PHOTOS — ISIS on Christians: ‘There is nothing to give them but the sword’

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Gaza archbishop says rockets were fired from church,Times of Israel, August 7, 2014

Clergyman admits Greek Orthodox compound, which sheltered hundreds of Palestinians during shelling, used by Hamas as launching site.

Displaced Palestinians sleep on the floor inside Gaza City’s Greek Orthodox church on July 23, 2014 (photo credit: AFP/Marco Longari)

Gaza City’s Greek Orthodox church compound, a site which sheltered hundreds of Palestinians who fled their homes during IDF shelling in the area, was used by members of Hamas as a launching pad for rockets fired at Israeli territory, a prominent Christian leader in the Strip said Wednesday.

When the Israeli army expanded its offensive in the Palestinian enclave several weeks ago, Archbishop Alexios of the Saint Porphyrios church made the decision to open the holy site’s doors in a show of interfaith solidarity, offering food, drink and shelter to all Gazans, regardless of their religion, according to AFP.

But now, as both the IDF and Hamas have held their fire for over two days in compliance with an Egypt-brokered 72-hour ceasefire, a frightened Alexios claimed that even with Palestinians crowding the church, Islamist fighters had set up a rocket launching site in the compound, CBN News reported. Alexios went on to point out to CBN News reporters a roof terrace outside his office where he claimed rocket launchers had been set up. Citing security concerns, the archbishop refused to disclose any further details regarding Hamas activity in the area.

On July 21, five or six Israeli shells slammed into the church compound, as well as a nearby mosque, apparently in response to rocket fire from the site.

A Palestinian woman carrying an infant is pictured at the entrance of Gaza City’s Greek Orthodox church compound on July 23, 2014 where around 600 people, mostly women and children, are sheltering (photo credit: AFP/Marco Longari)

Alexios stressed that he did not wish to choose sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, adding that he only sought to offer help to the people of Gaza, CBN reported.

“We are disciples of Jesus, we must give love to everyone without condition,” he said.

“There’s a lot of anger on the street. We need forgiveness and love to flow,” added Alexios.

Gaza’s once thriving Christian community has dwindled in number to around 1,500, most of them Greek Orthodox, out of a predominantly Sunni Muslim population of over 1.7 million. The Christian community in the Mediterranean seafront city, like their counterparts elsewhere in the Middle East, has been shrinking due to both conflict and unemployment.

Nearly half a million Palestinians out of Gaza’s 1.8 million people were displaced by Israeli bombardment, and many are still sheltering in schools after their homes were flattened in the offensive. Some residential neighborhoods were particularly hard hit by the Israeli army because of the Hamas practice of placing rocket launchers among homes, schools, hospitals and mosques, according to Israeli officials.

eTyranny: Islamic State Has The Perfect Match For You, Jonathan Turley, August 7, 2014

(It would be funny were it not so sad. However, I have found no answer to this important question: Will there be enough virgins for Allah to give to successful jihadists if JihadDate is successful?– DM)

Islamic State jihadists have worked hard to establish the image of murderous extremists who slaughter innocent people and destroy ancient religious temples and shrines. However, various newspapers are reporting, the group appears to be eager to show on social media that they are also domesticated as well as hip in recruiting new followers. Appearing across social media are images of Islam Yaken, a young Egyptian law student who left his affluent family in Cairo to become a soldier for Islamic State with signature sword and slaughterous slogans. At the same time, the ladies of Islamic State are recruiting Western and European women to come and hook up with jihadi in a bizarre version of eHarmony or JDate. JihadDate is a bit different. It promises to watch your loved one martyr himself — I kid you not.

Yaken is a product of the best schools in Egypt and lived what seems a Westernized life, which makes his emergence as an extremist all the more unnerving. The “hipster jihadi” was educated at the French Lycée in Heliopolis and speaks English and French as well as Arabic. He then went on to the prestigious Ain Shams University to study law. He was then obsessed with his body and, while a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, seemed largely secular in his outlook. After graduating law school, he appears to have taken a turn that none of his friends now understand. The student who once loved Western music and posting about how many calories are consumed by kissing is now trumping the “Caliphate” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and posting gory pictures that Islamic State seems to relish of its victims. In one posting, Yakin showed two heads in a basket and jokingly compared to the heads of sheep that can be ordered for the table in some Egyptian restaurants.

He has been trying to convince his family to come to Raqqa, a city in Syria that the Islamic State has controlled and cleansed according to its view of Islam. When he told her that she could stay in this flat on the Euphrates and eat and drink and study,” he says she responded: “My son, what would happen if the owners of the flat came back? What will you do then?” Yaken then told her “not to worry – they are dead and gone.”

Mothers are not the only people being recruited. Islamic State women are trying to recruit Western and European women and girls — apparently at the request of Islamic State men. Notably, these social websites targeting women do not show the signature gore of the Islamic State of hacked off body parts and corpses. That apparently is a turn-off for JihadDate. Instead it describes the paradise for women to be married to Jihadi and to be part of the community of “sisters” within Islamic State. They are told that they are not excepted to be martyrs but mothers. The “Bird of Jannah” explains: “Women are not equal to men. It can never be. Men are the leaders & women are [so] special that Allah has given them entire chapter in the Qur’an.”

One supposed English woman named Umm Layth gushes with delight about how “I will never be able to do justice with words as to how this place makes me feel.” She adds “Allahu Akbar, there’s no way to describe the feeling of sitting with the Akhawat [sisters] waiting on news of whose Husband has attained Shahadah [martyrdom].” The pitches have succeeded. Two teenage girls, 15 and 16, from Austria have gone to Syria for Jihadi marriages as did two 16-year-old British twins.

Just as a tip, girls, homicidal hunks like Yaken appear to prefer decapitating swords as gifts and their favorite subject is the Caliphate followed closely by the slaughtering of non-believers.

Iran to Unveil its Own ‘Iron Dome’ Style Defense System
By Adam Kredo August 6, 2014 11:40 am

(It’s obvious to me that if Tehran truly has the technology to build such a system, then it stands to reason that they have the technology and the means to build a nuke. Notice I said ‘IF’.-LS)

New missile defense systems set to go online in September

Iranian military leaders announced on Wednesday that Tehran is readying new mid-range and long-range missile defense systems reminiscent of Israel’s Iron Dome system, which destroys rockets in mid-air before they strike the ground.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli, commander of Iran’s Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base, said on Wednesday that the latest defense systems will go online on September 22, according to comments made Wednesday to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

The missile defense announcement comes as the successes of Israel’s Iron Dome system are featured prominently in Western media outlets. Israeli officials have hailed the highly advanced system for protecting lives during the most recent conflict with Hamas by knocking many of the terror group’s attacks off course.

Esmayeeli, who did not reveal many technical details about the new equipment, said that the mid-range and long-range defense systems will be connected to Iran’s larger military apparatus.

“These missile systems will include combined systems, artillery, and radar systems, other new systems,” he was quoted as saying by Fars.” The long-range missiles to go on display on September 22 are the ones which have been optimized by Iranian weapons experts and specialists.”

As the Obama administration continues nuclear talks with Iran through November, Tehran’s military forces have continued to build up their cache of advanced weaponry, including drones and sophisticated missiles.

Esmayeeli revealed that the construction of new drones and war planes had been fully authorized and paid for by the Iranian government, which is set to see another $2.8 billion cash infusion over the next several months as part of the deal reached last month to extend talks.

The construction of “new [manned] planes and pilotless drones” also is in the works, according to Esmayeeli.

Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq for the George W. Bush administration, said Iran has made “great strides” in its missile technology, though it is unlikely Tehran could rival the technology employed in Iron Dome.

“Could they build their own Iron Dome? Why not? Espionage goes both way,” Rubin told the Washington Free Beacon. “And even if they seek a completely indigenous system, we often forget that adversaries can learn as much from failed experiments as from successful ones. Time is not on our side. Every month that passes narrows the gap between a resurgent Iran and a stagnant West.”

When it comes to Iran’s ballistic missile system for instance, Tehran has made “great strides,” Rubin said. ”And, when it comes to nuclear weapons, they are on the verge of becoming the next North Korea. Heck, some Iranian negotiators have actually described North Korea as a model to emulate rather than a country to condemn.”

The announcement of these new missile defense systems and other weapons speaks to Iran’s desire to flex its military muscle in region, and even the world, Rubin said.

“No one in the White House should underestimate the Iranian leadership and its determination,” he said. “We may call Iran a ‘regional power’ but in its own rhetoric, Iranian officials describes themselves as a pan-regional power. Some of the regime’s ideologues actually believe they could be a global power and so they seek to match if not better whatever any competitor has.”

Gantz: Hamas leaders are hiding, we will hit them when we want
by Lilach Shoval and Yoav Limor August 7, 2014

(Gantz stated, “Hamas leaders are hiding in their bunkers. We will hit them when we want to, wherever we want to.” – LS)

“Every single one of Hamas’ infrastructures has been dealt a severe blow,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz says • “We spared no effort to warn civilians, but we never lost sight of our primary mission — to protect Israel and its citizens.”

The Israel Defense Forces “has dealt Hamas a severe blow and we will not hesitate to continue our operations to ensure the Israeli public’s safety,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told reporters Wednesday, in a press briefing held in the GOC Southern Command’s Gaza Sector, where he reviewed Operation Protective Edge.

“We are at the end of a long military operation, which began with an extensive aerial campaign and evolved into a significant ground campaign inside the Gaza Strip. This has resulted in severe damage to Hamas and the destruction of its strategic assets, including its infrastructure, its command and control posts, its ability to fire [rockets] and especially its tunnels’ infrastructure,” Gantz said.

“Every single one of Hamas’ infrastructures has been dealt a severe blow. Hamas commanders, who are hiding in bunkers underneath what they consider sensitive sites, will come out — if they come out — and see the devastation they have, unfortunately, brought on the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF has spared no effort to warn [Palestinian] civilians and to pinpoint its actions, but we never lost sight our primary mission — to protect Israel and its citizens.

“Hamas is to blame for the tragic devastation in Gaza. Hamas leaders caused it by operating in populated areas. I truly hope that this lesson will be internalized by the Gazans, because we will not hesitate to continue our operations, to exercise our full force, whenever and wherever necessary, to ensure the Israeli public’s safety.”

Gantz noted that “the troops are redeploying to continue defending the sector, and we are ready to forge on. We are not done and we are ready for whatever order comes next.”

“If [security] incidents take place we will know how to respond. If developments take place on the ground — we have the ability, the determination and the necessary force to go wherever we are needed, for as long as it takes,” Gantz said.

Commenting on the working relations between the military and the government, Gantz said, “Overall, we work closely together. The government directs the military and we translate their directives into operational and strategic instructions, which can be executed well on the ground.”

Addressing the concerns raised by the residents of the Gaza area communities, who were told by the military Wednesday that they could return to their homes, Gantz said, “I’m convinced that the residents can return to their homes and live their lives here as they did before [the Gaza campaign]. Peace and quiet has and will be restored to the area. IDF troops are not going anywhere. We will remain fully deployed, ready for any future challenge. Together with the residents, we will continue to develop the area’s security.”

Asked about the fact that Hamas’ leaders were unharmed during the operation, Gantz stated, “Hamas leaders are hiding in their bunkers. We will hit them when we want to, wherever we want to.”

Commendations, inquests underway

“There’s no doubt about it — we won,” Golani Brigade Commander Col. Rasan Alian, who was wounded in heavy clashes with Hamas and defied doctors orders to return to his troops, told Israel Hayom.

“We accomplished our missions and we would have been more than willing to carry on. The soldiers wanted to go further [into Gaza], to apply more pressure, and had we been given the order, nothing would have been able to stop us,” he said.

Alian, who has become one of the officers most synonymous with the Gaza campaign, led the Golani Brigade through several fateful clashes in Shujaiyya — a Hamas stronghold — during which 16 soldiers were killed.

The Golani Brigade, he said, killed over 100 terrorists and destroyed three major terror tunnels leading from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

Meanwhile, the IDF has released 27,000 of the 82,000 reservists called up ahead of and during Operation Protective Edge. Some 55,000 reservists remain on active duty, but a military source said the IDF would release them “as soon as circumstances allow for it.”

In the coming weeks, the military plans to review the issue of special commendations for soldiers who demonstrated heroism on the battlefield. A military official said that the Givati Brigade’s Lt. Eitan — the officer who pursued the terrorists attempting to abduct the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin, killed in heavy fighting in Rafah on Aug. 1 — is likely to receive a citation.

The military is also expected to investigate several operational incidents, including the attack on the armored personnel carrier in Shujaiyya, where seven soldiers were killed; the attack on an IDF post near Nahal Oz, where five soldiers were killed; and the tunnel attacks near the kibbutzim of Nir Am and Nahal Oz.

The IDF has already launched an inquiry into the implementation of the Hannibal Protocol — the military directives designed to prevent soldiers’ abductions — during the clash in which Goldin was killed.

The General Staff is also set to debate whether the Gaza campaign was an “operation” or a “war,” since the distinction carries with its significant financial ramifications for both the military and the Gaza vicinity communities.

Among the challenges the military faces outside the battlefield is the growing demand by the international community to investigate the alleged “war crimes” committed during Operation Protective Edge.

The IDF has made sure to investigate operational incidents as they took place, and military sources said the IDF is better prepared to counter any such accusations.

For Cairo deal, Israel calls for ban in Gaza on all but light arms, free hand against tunnels, rocket plants.

debkafile reports exclusively on the terms Israel handed in to the Cairo talks Wednesday Aug. 6 for a durable peace on the Gaza Strip. In the document Shin Bet Director Yoram Cohen, who leads the Israeli delegation, put before the Egyptian intermediaries, the first key condition is based on the Oslo 2 Accords, which restricted Palestinian brigades in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria to bearing light firearms. The second condition would grant the Israeli military the freedom of action to strike a tunnel system designed for terrorist attacks and demolish plants manufacturing missiles.
Israel requires these two measures to be incorporated in any accords reached at the Cairo conference.

The 19-year old Oslo 2 accord, concluded in Washington on Sept. 28 1995, permitted Palestinian security forces to be equipped solely with light firearms take booty by Israel in the Galilee Peace operation against Palestinian forces in southern Lebanon.

The application of this provision to the Cairo accords, if signed, would outlaw Hamas’ possession of rockets of all types and heavy or sophisticated weaponry of any kind.

This provision has replaced Israel’s original demand for the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Its implementation would require Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to get rid of all their heavy weapons, including heavy machine guns and mortars.
Other members of the Israeli delegation are Yitzhak Molcho, personal adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Amos Gilead, political coordinator at the Defense Ministry.
They submitted five more terms for a Gaza deal:
1. An inspection mechanism, whose nature remains to be determined, will be set up to monitor the 1-3 km deep security belt Israel is carving out inside the Gaza Strip along the 75 kilometers of its security border fence. This mechanism will ascertain that no military activity takes place.
2.  Gaza will not be allowed to have either an airport or a deep water port, as Hamas is demanding.
3.  All reconstruction work in the Gaza Strip or repairing the war damage, whether by the international community or Israel, will be channeled through the Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas.
4.  All of Gaza’s border crossings will be manned and operated by Palestinian Authority security personnel. Egypt and Israel have submitted this demand with regard to both their border terminals.
5.  Gaza reconstruction work will take place under international supervision.

debkafile’s sources in Cairo report that, after the senior Palestinian negotiator Assam Ahmed found acceptable Israel’s terms regarding Gaza armaments, a heated altercation erupted between the PA and Hamas delegations. Some Hamas envoys threatened to walk out if those terms were tabled and its own rejected. For now, they have refused to extend the three-day truce beyond Friday, Aug. 8.
The Israeli envoys figure that the negotiations may well stretch out over weeks, if not months.

PM Netanyahu’s statement to the foreign press, You Tube, August 6, 2014