Hamas TV: Hamas Fighters Are Civilians, But All Israelis Are Soldiers
Recent videos played on the official Hamas TV station give valuable insight into the Hamas military strategy as well as the death count’s they give to the U.N.
ecent videos played on the official Hamas TV station give valuable insight into the Hamas military strategy as well as the death counts they give to the U.N.. According to the terrorist organization, all Israelis are soldiers, making them legitimate targets, and all Hamas fighters are civilians.
A host on Al-Aqsa TV Sunday claimed that all Palestinians are civilians, including the Jihad Fighters, which is one of the reasons they can make the claim that 80% of the dead in the Gaza war are civilians. In fact, based on the claim below, it’s a wonder they consider any of the dead as combatants.
We know that the Palestinian public is a civilian public. Even the [PA] Security Forces – traffic police and the civil defense – are all civilian forces. Even the Jihad fighters in the battleground are actually Palestinian civilians fulfilling their religious and national duty. This is why [we cannot make] the distinction and say ‘a civilian car’, ‘a civilian target’ and so on – since we have no regular army and no real military targets, as the occupation is trying to claim in its propaganda.
As a way to condone the Hamas rocket attacks and tunnels built to enable attacks on civilians, Hamas TV interviewed Sheikh Bassam Kayed, the Head of Palestinian Islamic Scholars Association in Lebanon, on July 20th. The Sheikh encouraged Hamas to massacre Israeli civilians, telling them, “ignore the whole world that says they are civilians” because “they are all soldiers.”
My wish for the Jihad fighters, if they hear these words, is that they enter the settlements (i.e., towns in southern Israel) – blood for blood, killing for killing, destruction for destruction and massacre for massacre. Defeat them! Although we massacred their soldiers, we say [about Israeli civilians]: Son of Al-Qassam [Hamas fighter], son of Islam, they are all soldiers; they are all invaders; they are all criminals; have no mercy on any of them. Son of Islam, ignore the whole world that says they are civilians.
Announcement follows unconfirmed reports that the Egyptians would agree to the deployment of some 1,000 PA policemen along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
For the first time since its men seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas announced on Monday that it would not oppose the return of forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the Rafah border crossing.
The announcement came as Israel and Hamas launched indirect talks in Cairo in a bid to reach an agreement over a long-term cease-fire.
The announcement also came following unconfirmed reports that the Egyptians would agree to the deployment of some 1,000 PA policemen along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Izzat al-Risheq, one of the Hamas officials to the Cairo talks, said that his movement was not opposed to the idea of placing the Rafah terminal under the control of Abbas loyalists – but only on the basis of “partnership” with the PA.
“We have notified President Abbas and the brothers in the Palestinian Authority that we are ready as of now to hand over the Rafah terminal to President Abbas,” al-Risheq said.
The Hamas official said that his movement also had no objections to Abbas and the PA overseeing the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
“We support the formation of a national body headed by a clean, transparent and professional personality” to be in charge of the reconstruction,” he added.
“Everyone is facing a crisis; Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. International and regional realities have changed and we must interact with these circumstances for the sake of our people and cause.”
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official and head of the Palestinian delegation to the cease-fire talks, said that the PA and all its institutions would be responsible for the implementation of any agreement that is reached under the auspices of the Egyptians.
The PA would also be in charge of renovating the Gaza Strip, he said.
The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are being held under the auspices of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service. The Egyptians are hoping to reach an agreement before the expiration of the latest cease-fire, which went into effect on Sunday midnight.
No details were available about the results of Monday’s talks in Cairo.
However, unnamed Palestinian sources were quoted as saying that so far no progress has been achieved at the Cairo talks.
The sources told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that in wake of Israel’s response to the demands presented by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, “the talks are headed toward failure.”
According to the sources, Israel has rejected the Palestinians’ demand to open the Erez and Karni border crossings indefinitely to individuals and goods.
Israel agreed, however, to keep the Kerem Shalom border crossing open and to increase the number of trucks loaded with food and goods permitted into the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
As for the Rafah border crossing, Israel’s reply was that it had nothing to do with this issue, the sources added. On the other hand, the Egyptians said that they would be prepared to reopen the Rafah terminal provided such a move does not affect security in Sinai.
The sources said that Israel has expressed strong opposition to the opening of the airport and seaport in the Gaza Strip.
With regards to Hamas’ demand that Israel release Palestinian prisoners who were detained over the past two months in the West Bank, the sources said that the Israelis have agreed to free those who were part of the Schalit prisoner exchange.
Israel has also agreed, the sources claimed, to release the fourth batch of prisoners who were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords and who were supposed to be freed earlier this year as part of a US-sponsored agreement between Israel and the PA, but only in return for the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed during Operation Protection Edge.
Also Monday, Hamas’ armed wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, said it was prepared to provide information about the fate of the two soldiers in exchange for a list with the names of Israeli “collaborators” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, who is a member of the Diplomacy-Security Cabinet, said Monday that in the end, there will be no alternative to decisively defeating Hamas in Gaza.
“At this point, the Cabinet took the turn that it took, but in the end, Hamas’s declared aim is the destruction of Israel, so sooner or later we will have to go inside, into Gaza,” he told Channel 2.
As for cooperation with Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, and the possibility that control of Gaza will be handed over to the PA, Bennett said that “Abu Mazen is a partner for terror, he is a partner in a unity government with Hamas, which fired 3,400 rockets at us, and he funds Hamas terrorists in jail.
“The entire direction of a Palestinian state is over,” Bennett emphasized. “Hamas have ascertained the death of the Palestinian state. All of Israel’s citizens know that a Palestinian state would crush Israel’s economy and bring tunnels to Kfar Saba and rockets on central Israel.”
Bennett reminded viewers that the PA chairman is leading international lawsuits against Israel, and has turned to UN institutions in order to harm Israel.
Bennett implicitly criticized cabinet members for being overly optimistic at a certain point in the military operation. “I think there was a very big and baseless optimism in the initial phases, as if Hamas is down for the count. In the end, a decisive victory needs to be brought about, forcefully and continuously, without letup and without lulls.”
“I am leading a policy of victory, strength and deterrence, and not all sorts of technologies, but rather, a policy that will cause Hamas and all of our surroundings to understand that you do not mess with Israel,” he said. “This has to be brought back, the deterrent approach, or we will not be here.”
The media feeds antisemitism with its biased articles about Israel and then is shocked! shocked! at the surge of antisemitism.– AP)
The longer Israel’s war against the barbaric nihilist jihadists of Hamas drags on, the more anti-Israel protests take place around the world, and the more antisemitic those protests become. I addressed this subject a few weeks ago when the Gaza war began, but as we can see, the phenomenon has only worsened. What’s more, this obsession with Gaza’s victims highlights the hypocrisy of the protestors when you consider their utter lack of response to the barbaric atrocities being carried out by ISIS, Assad in Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria and so much more Muslim-on-Muslim violence.
This tweet illustrates the one-sidedness so clearly:
Two images: 1) Stop the War's campaign against Israel; 2) Stop the War's campaign against the mass murderers of ISIS pic.twitter.com/slvnZby8sO
Here is the Bolt Report from (I think) Australian TV giving just a short list of the antisemitic protests that have taken place recently – and that does not include all of the protests in my above-mentioned post.
Since I’m an ex-Londoner I’m going to concentrate for now on the ugly displays of antisemitism that have occurred in Britain.
To start with, some politicians have gotten in on the act in a most despicable way, and it must be borne in mind that politicians act when they feel they have the public behind them, and conversely many members of the public take their lead from their politicians. This has therefore carries the danger of a ripple effect for Britain’s Jewish community.
The notoriously anti-Israel Galloway told a meeting of the Respect Party which he heads that Israelis of any persuasion were “not welcome” in Bradford, where serves as MP.
“We have declared Bradford an Israel free zone,” he told party activists at the meeting in Leeds.
“We don’t want any Israeli goods. We don’t want any Israeli services. We don’t want any Israeli academics, coming to the university or the college. We don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford if any of them had thought of doing so.
“We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel. And you have to do the same.”
As noted on the Guido Fawkes blog which initially posted the video, Israeli tourists are hardly going to be rushing to make changes to their holiday plans, as Bradford is not a tourist attraction by any means. Some areas of the city suffering from the worst levels of social deprivation in all of the UK, and is a hot spot for Muslim extremism.
Galloway has a long history of anti-Israeli bigotry. He was branded a racist when he stormed out of a debate after finding out that his opponent was Israel, saying “I don’t debate with Israelis.” He has also publicly aired several bizarre anti-Israel conspiracy theories, including claims that Israel was engineering unrest in Ukraine, and that the Jewish state had given chemical weapons to Al Qaeda – comments he then denied making despite them having been recorded.
His declaration notwithstanding, a crowd of cheeky Israelis challenged his authority with a visit to Bradford, complete with flags!
This morn. group of Israelis went 2 pay a visit to George Galloway #Bradford. He wasn't home. pic form tv. Well done pic.twitter.com/Vjhj3zGfH4
— Be a VOICE not an ECHO 🎗️ (@globalhasbara) August 10, 2014
Personally, I wouldn’t have graced the place with my presence, but good for them.
Lord John Prescott wrote a revolting article in the Mirror accusing Israel of turning Gaza into a concentration camp resembling the Warsaw Ghetto (I shall not link to his execrable screed). Blogger Ray Cook took him to task for his ignorance and provocation in an excellent fisking.
She alleges that the even-handed position adopted by Britain towards the two combatants is “morally indefensible”. This suggests that Lady Warsi wanted far greater condemnation of Israel than has been forthcoming from David Cameron and his ministers. But how would that have helped matters? “Megaphone diplomacy,” as Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary called it, might make some people in the West feel better – but it does not deal with the issues that brought about the carnage in Gaza. Nor is Lady Warsi impartial in her interpretation of what is “morally indefensible”. She might have been on surer ground had she been equally condemnatory of Hamas and its bombardment of Israel with rockets.
Palestinian flag flies from Glasgow City Hall
The Glasgow local council also got in on the act of supporting Hamas by flying a Palestinian flag from City Hall, causing consternation, antagonism and a general outcry:
Glasgow’s council has provoked controversy by flying the flag of the Palestinian people from the City Hall.
They seemed oblivious of the hurt and fear this would cause the local Jewish community:
“We met with people from the Jewish Representative Council … The last thing we want to do is offend anyone and we absolutely condemn any anti-Semitism anywhere and we feel for the victims of the conflict no matter which side they are on.
“We are working with the Jewish Representative Council to try and allay any fears they might have but we feel absolutely that we have to show solidarity with the victims of this conflict, many of whom are innocent children.”
Hmm. But not Israeli children obviously. They don’t deserve anyone’s solidarity or sympathy.
David Meikle, the Scottish Conservative councillor, said he was disappointed the decision was taken without consulting members and said it could cause division in the city.
He added: “I not that the Lord Provost has also written to the mayor of Bethlehem advising them of the decision to fly the flag. I failed to read in the letter where the Lord Provost mentions the plight of the Christian population in Bethlehem who are leaving owing to harassment.
“I also failed to see in the letter any condemnation of the Hamas terrorists who have declared war on Israel and their use of civilians as human shields to protect its forces.”
Since only the Palestinian flag will be seen fluttering above the chamber’s Victorian cupolas, we can presume that Ms Docherty’s sympathies do not extend to the men, women and children terrorised day and night by Hamas’s rockets, 180 of which have been fired into Israel within the space of just three days.
It is worth reminding ourselves who started the present conflict in Gaza because it is plain that Glasgow, and other councils who have also decided to fly the Palestinian flag, seem congenitally incapable of trying to understand its byzantine roots, preferring to demonstrate their “caring” attitude by implying that all the blame lies at the feet of the Israelis and their government.
The Daily Express bravely reminds its readers how these pro-Palestinian gestures rapidly descend into antisemitism:
Indeed, the very idea that we have a government in Edinburgh who seek to aid organisations endlessly committed to the destruction, not just of Israel, but also of the Jewish people, is sickening.
It is, of course, unthinkable that any of these councillors would agree to a similar gesture demonising any other ethnic group or nation. Just imagine the furore if the Italian, the Polish, the Chinese, the Pakistani, the Indian or even the English communities were effectively being held up to general vilification.
Yet it seems that demonstrations of anti-Jewishness are somehow allowable in the world of right-on municipal thinking.
In a move condemned as “anti-Semitic”, a London theater has shocked the British Jewish community by refusing to host the UK Jewish Film Festival this coming November, because the event is sponsored by the Israeli embassy.
The Tricycle Theatre was to have been the main venue for the UKJFF for the eighth year running, hosting 26 separate screenings and six gala events, according to the Jewish Chronicle, but venue directors told festival organizers that they did not want to be “associated” with the Israeli embassy.
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But when asked by Arutz Sheva whether they had ever previously refused to host an event which had ties to a country involved in an armed conflict, and how it could justify asking Jews to renounce ties to their own homeland as a precondition to being hosted at the venue, the theater said it had “nothing to add” to Rubasingham’s comments.
The decision has been attacked as anti-Semitic by prominent British Jews, including the Jewish Chronicle‘s editor, Stephen Pollard:
One user Jay Stoll wrote on Twitter: “There is a planned protest outside Cambridge Synagogue on Shabbat? Is this some sick joke? Unjustifiable.”
Another, Diana Muir Appelbaum described it as “vile anti-Semitism gnawing at the heart of a university.”
Michael Cahn, one of the organisers, initially posted the invitation to the Cambridge Palestine Forum’s Facebook page.
Sunday Express journalist Ted Jeory was abused as he asked about black flag in Tower Hamlets[Ted Jeory]
A horrifying article by Ted Jeory, a non-Jewish journalist, tells us how he was verbally abused and physically threatened simply for taking a photo of an ISIS flag flying in the Muslim-majority borough of Tower Hamlets:
WAS told this morning by a community activist in east London to be kind in this article to the Bengali Muslim youths who threatened violence last night…and who told me to “F*** off Jew, you’re not welcome here.”
So let me state her well-meaning view that they’re “good boys” and that they’ve been raising much money for the victims of the terrible violence in Gaza.
My wife, a Bengali Muslim herself, disagrees.
She thinks they’re a “disgrace”, both to their families and to their shared community.
My wife is always right.
…
A few more youths, all of them mid-late teens, a couple a little older, joined the group.Then one stared at me.“Are you a Jew?” he asked.I’m not. I have a large nose; I fitted his stereotype.I glared back at him. “What if I were? Would that be a problem for you?” I asked.“Yeah,” he said. “F*** off Jew, you’re not welcome here.”
The Mayor of Tower Hamlets is a controversial figure in himself. To give him credit however he did try to calm the situation down:
About five minutes’ walk away from the Will Crooks estate is the Tower Hamlets town hall.
There last week, the borough’s directly elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, ordered the flag of Palestine be raised as a “humanitarian gesture of solidarity” with Gaza.
His decision created national headlines.
Some applauded his principles; others worried his action would stoke the fires of division, that his example would somehow legitimise hatred among those less able, or willing, to spot the difference between the policies of an Israeli government and the views of the British Jewish community at large.
But to the mayor’s credit, when he heard about the incident in Poplar last night, he asked council officials to have the black flag taken down.
Sometimes it takes a non-Jew to see the situation with clarity: (emphases are mine):
It may well be that yesterday’s incident was just local hooligans looking for a cause and identity, and acting territorially on their estate.
But I think there’s probably more to it than that. They seemed to want a Jew-free zone.
The conflict in Gaza has unleashed what I think has been latent anti-Semitism in the minds or far too many in Tower Hamlets.
A few years ago, I was called ‘Ted Jewry’ by one former councillor.
He later apologised.
But social media, particularly during Ramadan, when the violence in Gaza was at its peak, was awash with pro-Hitler prejudice against Jews.
The terms ‘Jew’ and ‘Zionist’ have been used interchangeably as a form of abuse.
Official reaction to these displays of antisemitism have been predictably shock, horror and outrage. Even the Guardian (!) has denounced this phenomenon. And in the Independent, Yasmin Alibhai Brown turns herself into a pretzel worrying about the surge of antisemitism, but claiming at the same time that the charge of antisemitism is used by “Zionists” to “silence criticism of Israel” – otherwise described by David Hirsh as the Livingstone Formulation.
But there’s no reason that the UK media be given a clear pass when they themselves, through their tendentious reporting with its distortions, smears, libels of Israel in their reports from Gaza, have only encouraged such displays, and when their letters pages are full of leftist radical chic complaints about Israel’s behaviour from “Outraged from ‘Ampstead”. For examples see CiFWatch here and here and anything and everything on BBC Watch.
Until they confront their own built-in anti-Israel bias they are nothing but hypocritical.
People are aghast. Yet this lynch-mob mentality has been building for years. Every time Israel takes military action to prevent further Palestinian attacks, it is falsely presented as the aggressive persecutor of the innocent.
Unless British Jews join this demonisation, they are deemed complicit with Israel’s ‘war crimes’. As a result, attacks on British Jews always spike during Israel’s wars. So much for the supposed distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Even more appalling is the silence in the face of all this of the political class.
…
Anti-Semitism can never be eradicated. Yet much could be done to push it back under its stone if both the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition were to display moral leadership and state a number of home truths. This is what David Cameron should say: ‘I am utterly appalled by the attacks on the Jewish people on the streets of Britain and in our public discourse. This hatred and bigotry is being fuelled by warped and distorted reporting about the Gaza war.
…
‘Frankly, in Iraq and Afghanistan we showed nothing like the care Israel is taking to avoid killing civilians wherever possible, even sacrificing its own soldiers to do so.
‘I have become aware that this Jew-hatred is fuelled by falsehoods about Israel’s historic and legal rights. Accordingly, Philip Hammond will ensure that the Foreign Office corrects its untrue claims about the ‘occupation’ and ‘illegal settlements’.
…
And this is what Ed Miliband should be saying: ‘I am horrified, not just because of the resurgence of the madness from which my own family so grievously suffered in the Holocaust, but also because we on the left bear no small responsibility for this current obscenity.
…
‘We ignore Muslim on Muslim violence in Iraq, Yemen, Libya or Gaza. We ignore the 800 or so civilians killed in Ukraine. In Syria, more than 200,000 people have been slaughtered, 2,000 in the past two weeks alone. Yet we don’t march against Assad or Putin, only against Israel.
‘We think we are progressives building a better world. We tell ourselves anti-Semitism is right-wing. We are terribly wrong. Today, anti-Semitism is overwhelmingly on the left.
…
All of that would help. So do you think there’s any chance that either of them will say it? No, me neither.
Such silence and worse by our politicians makes them complicit in this resurgence of the oldest hatred. Small wonder many British Jews now feel so betrayed, so nauseated and so alone.
Everything that Melanie Phillips writes is the truth, and moreover, is applicable to every single country in the world in which antisemitic demonstrations, disguised as fury at Israel’s actions in Gaza, have taken place.
As to the inherent hypocrisy in all this faux-outrage, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch puts it so clearly in his “Are you anti-Israel Test”:
If in the past year you didn’t CRY OUT when thousands of protesters were killed and injured by Turkey, Egypt and Libya, when more victims than ever were hanged by Iran, women and children in Afghanistan were bombed, whole communities were massacred in South Sudan, 1800 Palestinians were starved and murdered by Assad in Syria, hundreds in Pakistan were killed by jihadist terror attacks, 10,000 Iraqis were killed by terrorists, villagers were slaughtered in Nigeria, but you ONLY cry out for GAZA, then you are not pro HUMAN RIGHTS, you are only ANTI-ISRAEL.
We must not allow either the politicians or the media to get away with their slander and smearing of Israel which then incites the masses to antisemitism. They must be challenged at every turn. Certainly the likes of the IDF Spokesman Peter Lerner, Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Danny Ayalon amongst others have done sterling work in the English-speaking media. And yet – our message is not trickling down to the antisemite-in-the-street.
Perhaps local Jews have to step out of their comfort zone and confront the media like this New York Jewish protest outside the CNN offices, protesting their anger at their bias:
(Couldn’t they get a well known “neutral intellectual” such as former President Jimmy Carter? He would feel right at home in the “death to Israel” echo chamber. Like the rest, he wouldn’t concern himself with Israel’s evidence or, for that matter, any bothersome aspects of international law and custom on warfare. — DM)
The Prime Minister’s Office says the commission is akin to a ‘kangaroo court’; Foreign Ministry says Israel does not plan to cooperate with the investigation.
A United Nations Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York Photo: REUTERS
International Canadian law expert William Schabas — known for his past criticism of Israel — will head the United Nations Human Rights Council’s probe into the IDF’s action in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the last two months.
The commission is tasked with identifying those responsible for “violations of international humanitarian law,” and with holding the violators accountable and ending their impunity. It’s expected to deliver its report to the UNHRC in March, 2015.
UNHRC President Ambassador Baudelaire Ndong Ella announced the appointments to the three-member panel on Monday in Geneva.
Also of note on the panel is British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin, who is engaged to American Hollywood star George Clooney.
The third panelist is legal expert Doudou Diene of Senegal, who was a UN special investigator on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
When the probe was first announced in July the Prime Minister’s Office said it was akin to a “kangaroo court.” The Foreign Ministry has said that Israel does not plan to cooperate with the investigation.
The latest UNHRC investigation against Israel, has been equated with the infamous UNHRC Goldstone Report that accused Israel of war crimes during Israel’s military incursion into Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, known as Operation Cast Lead.
According the Geneva based UN Watch, Schabas lauded the Goldstone report and said that its primary author, South African jurist Richard Goldstone should be “on next year’s Nobel short list.”
It called on Schabas to recuse because in the past he said that Prime Minister Netanyahu and former President Shimon Peres should be indicted before the International Criminal Court.
“Under international law, William Schabas is obliged to recuse himself because his repeated calls to indict Israeli leaders obviously gives rise to actual bias or the appearance thereof,” said UN Watch’s executive-director Hillel Neuer said.
“You can’t spend several years calling for the prosecution of someone, and then suddenly act as his judge,” said Neuer. “It’s absurd — and a violation of the minimal rules of due process applicable to UN fact-finding missions.”
From 2002 to 2004 Schabas served on the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission and in 2010 drafted a report to the Secretary General on the death penalty.
(With the PA monitoring the Rafah crossing, what could possibly go wrong right? Please see also Don’t rely on Abbas. — DM)
Announcement follows unconfirmed reports that the Egyptians would agree to the deployment of some 1,000 PA policemen along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Rafah Crossing Photo: REUTERS
With regards to Hamas’ demand that Israel release Palestinian prisoners who were detained over the past two months in the West Bank, the sources said that the Israelis have agreed to free those who were part of the Schalit prisoner exchange.
Israel has also agreed, the sources claimed, to release the fourth batch of prisoners who were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords and who were supposed to be freed earlier this year as part of a US-sponsored agreement between Israel and the PA, but only in return for the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed during Operation Protection Edge.
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For the first time since its men seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas announced on Monday that it would not oppose the return of forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the Rafah border crossing.
The announcement came as Israel and Hamas launched indirect talks in Cairo in a bid to reach an agreement over a long-term cease-fire.
The announcement also came following unconfirmed reports that the Egyptians would agree to the deployment of some 1,000 PA policemen along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Izzat al-Risheq, one of the Hamas officials to the Cairo talks, said that his movement was not opposed to the idea of placing the Rafah terminal under the control of Abbas loyalists – but only on the basis of “partnership” with the PA.
“We have notified President Abbas and the brothers in the Palestinian Authority that we are ready as of now – rather than today – to hand over the Rafah terminal to President Abbas,” al-Risheq said.
“Before that, we handed over [to the PA] ministries in order to remove obstacles to lifting the siege on our people.”
The Hamas official said that his movement also had no objections to Abbas and the PA overseeing the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
“We support the formation of a national body headed by a clean, transparent and professional personality” to be in charge of the reconstruction,” he added.
“Everyone is facing a crisis; Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. International and regional realities have changed and we must interact with these circumstances for the sake of our people and cause.”
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official and head of the Palestinian delegation to the cease-fire talks, said that the PA and all its institutions would be responsible for the implementation of any agreement that is reached under the auspices of the Egyptians.
The PA would also be in charge of renovating the Gaza Strip, he said.
The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are being held under the auspices of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service. The Egyptians are hoping to reach an agreement before the expiration of the latest cease-fire, which went into effect on Sunday midnight.
No details were available about the results of Monday’s talks in Cairo.
However, unnamed Palestinian sources were quoted as saying that so far no progress has been achieved at the Cairo talks.
The sources told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that in wake of Israel’s response to the demands presented by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, “the talks are headed toward failure.”
According to the sources, Israel has rejected the Palestinians’ demand to open the Erez and Karni border crossings indefinitely to individuals and goods.
Israel agreed, however, to keep the Kerem Shalom border crossing open and to increase the number of trucks loaded with food and goods permitted into the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
As for the Rafah border crossing, Israel’s reply was that it had nothing to do with this issue, the sources added. On the other hand, the Egyptians said that they would be prepared to reopen the Rafah terminal provided such a move does not affect security in Sinai.
The sources said that Israel has expressed strong opposition to the opening of the airport and seaport in the Gaza Strip.
With regards to Hamas’ demand that Israel release Palestinian prisoners who were detained over the past two months in the West Bank, the sources said that the Israelis have agreed to free those who were part of the Schalit prisoner exchange.
Israel has also agreed, the sources claimed, to release the fourth batch of prisoners who were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords and who were supposed to be freed earlier this year as part of a US-sponsored agreement between Israel and the PA, but only in return for the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed during Operation Protection Edge.
Also Monday, Hamas’ armed wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, said it was prepared to provide information about the fate of the two soldiers in exchange for a list with the names of Israeli “collaborators” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This is a guest post by an Israeli soldier who recently spent 17 days fighting in Gaza. The words are his…the anger is mine. I hurt for this young man, for what he witnessed, for the friends he lost. I thank him for allowing me to post this here; I thank him for his service and love of Israel and hope he knows that this love is returned. He has our pride, our love, our gratitude.
From an Israeli Soldier to Ban-Ki Moon and the United Nations
This morning, after 17 nights of sleeping in my IDF uniform and shoes, i finally woke up at home. Sadly, I woke up to a very disturbing headline produced by the head of the U.N.
Mr. Ban-Ki Moon declared yesterday that Israel has committed countless war crimes during Operation “Protective Edge” and called for the prosecution of those who bombed and fired at UNRWA institutions in Gaza.
I would like to share with you some of my experiences during this operation. I do not feel the need to elaborate about the hurt, anger and pain I feel today, after losing friends and soldiers, because hurting is, unfortunately, the fate of both sides of the conflict.
Yet, I do feel the need to explain why I believe the U.N declaration yesterday is false and biased. A team of soldiers that serves in my unit entered an UNRWA health clinic in Khan Younis on July 30th. According to Israeli intelligence, this health clinic allowed Hamas to dig a terror tunnel in the first floor of the building.
When the soldiers entered the clinic (and found the terror tunnel), twelve 80 kilo barrels of explosives were activated, killing three of our soldiers and injuring most of the other members of the team.
Mr. Ban-Ki Moon, if you want to prosecute those who bombed UNRWA institutions in Gaza, please Sir, go ahead.
Unfortunately I can not share the details of the missions I took part in during this operation but I feel the urge to share with you the decision making process that is held when it comes to bombing terror centers and terrorists.
I will first say that the IDF uses the smartest and most expensive missiles available in order to kill terrorists, and terrorists only. These missiles are very accurate and strike only the places where the terrorists hide, causing minimal damage to the neighborhoods adjacent to these terror locations.
The decision making process that is held by the commanders of the IDF includes viewing the area and understanding that there are no innocent bystanders that might get hurt from the bombing.
Please believe me when I say that I have held my fire countless times, knowing that terrorists will get away, because innocent people might have been hurt.
I am not afraid to write this information because it is already known and used by Hamas terrorists that launch their rockets from schools and hide in hospitals. They already know our merciful policy.
Mr. Ban-Ki Moon, if you want to prosecute me for war crimes, go right ahead. I will leave all my details below, for your convenience.
[A Soldier’s Mother adds: I have deleted them and Mr. Ban-Ki Moon, if you wish to prosecute this IDF soldier, you will have to go through me and every other citizen of Israel first!]
Hamas is a problem that waits for a U.N solution. I, as well as the rest of the world, hurt for the loss of innocent lives in Gaza. I really do. But with that said, our country cannot continue living with the threat of rockets being launched at us.
Mr. Ban-Ki Moon, perhaps instead of blaming Israel for supposedly committing war crimes, the U.N should concentrate more on fixing this terrible problem in order that no more Israeli civilians, no more young Israeli soldiers, and no more innocent Gazans will die.
— A Soldier of the Israel Defense Forces
(Name withheld until such time as the world wakes up and recognizes the true guilty party in Gaza)
(The video, posted on August 9th, gets on-topic at about the 4 minute mark. — DM)
This week’s Glazov Gang was joined by Titans Michael Hausam, writer at IJ Review.com, Monty Morton, a conservative entrepreneur, and Ann-Marie Murrell, the CEO of PolitiChicks.com.
The Gang gathered to discuss The Left’s Romance With Hamas, analyzing the media’s moral equivalency about a death cult and the target of its terror. The guests also focused on “Why Jews are Not Allowed to Defend Themselves,” “A U.S. Administration’s Betrayal of Israel,” A Radical-in-Chief and the Islamic State’s Killing Fields,” “Jews Fleeing France,” and much, much more.
The approaching 13th anniversary of the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on America is causing concern in US intelligence and counter-terrorist quarters about possible surprises ahead.
The Kurdish Peshmerga fight against encroaching Islamic State troops gained a broad new dimension Monday, Aug. 11, when the US began airlifting large quantities of military equipment, including ordnance, from Jordan and Israel to the semiautonomous KRG capital, Irbil. The US maintains 10,000 special operations and marine forces at the King Hussein Air Base in northern Jordan, with large stocks of ammunition that were originally destined for the rebels fighting Bashar Assad in Syria. They are now being redirected to the Kurdish effort to stop the rapid Islamist march on their republic, along with supplies from the US emergency stores maintained in the Israeli Negev.
DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that for some weeks, those stores and other US facilities in southern Israel have been in the sights of IS elements, which arrived in Sinai six months ago to reinforce Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, the local offshoot of Al Qaeda.
The US, Israel and Egypt have taken care to keep this development under their hats. But in the last month, while Israel was engaged in Operation Defensive Edge against the Palestinian Hamas, IS and Al-Maqdis shot rockts from Sinai at US and Israeli military facilities in the Negev, in support of Hamas. Their attacks were described by Western observers as intense on some days as the Palestinian rocket barrage against the Israeli population.
The speed with which the American military effort in northern Iraq has spiraled in four days – from limited air strikes on IS targets Friday, Aug. 8, to direct arms supplies Monday – will soon confront President Barack Obama with the need for a speedy decision on whether to send American troops back to Iraq.
US air strikes are clearly limited by the lack of an organized list of targets. All they can do now is bomb chance targets as they are picked up by reconnaissance planes or satellites. To be effective, the US Air Force needs to be guided in to target by special operations forces on the ground, who can supply precise data on the movements of IS fighters and mark them for air attack with laser designators.
Another shortcoming is the small number of US fighter-bombers available for Iraq. The aircraft which conducted four attacks on IS forces came from the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier in the Gulf, which has 70 warplanes on board. This is not enough aerial firepower to stop the Islamists’ advance.
They are also disadvantaged by being prevented from striking IS forces in Syria, a limitation which further curtails their effectiveness, as it did in the US war against Saddam Hussein.
In the years 2003-2007, Al Qaeda had the great advantage of an open Syrian border. Instead of maintaining the bulk of its forces in Iraq, they could slip across into Syria out of range of US attack.
Obama will not overcome any of these military issues by his determined focus on sorting out the political situation in Baghdad. Replacing Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki by having his rival, Deputy Speaker Haider al-Abadi, nominated to replace him Monday – even with the backing of Sunni and Kurdish factions who detest Maliki – won’t affect the warfront. This change may generate inter-factional violence in the capital. And it will not quickly stiffen the Iraqi Army or enhance the Kurdish Peshmerga’s ability to curb the Islamists’ rapid advance. Bringing them up to scratch by restructuring and retraining them on modern operational lines, and providing the Iraqi army with an effective air force, will take anything from two to four years.
Last week it was discovered that, among the Islamist fighters who died in US air strikes Friday and Saturday, was a large group, estimated by intelligence sources as up to 200, of American citizens fighting in the ranks of Al Qaeda’s IS in Kurdistan and western Iraq.
The Islamic State never releases facts and figures about its losses. However, Sunday, Aug. 10, a spate of threats imbued with a sense of revenge started appearing on social media, such as: “This is a message for every American citizen. You are the target of every Muslim in the world wherever you are.” Another was more brutal: “ISIS is ready to cut off your heads, dear Americans, O sons of bitches. Come quickly.”
The approaching 13th anniversary of the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on America is causing concern in US intelligence and counter-terrorist quarters about possible surprises ahead.
WarSclerotic 
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