WarSclerotic

13 Nisan 5778 – March 28, 2018

New Palestinian Authority Budget Continues Paying Salaries to Terrorists and Their Families

Photo Credit: MEF

Taylor Force likely won’t be the last American killed as a result of Palestinian terror incitement.

It was revealed on Wednesday that the new Palestinian Authority budget continues paying salaries to terrorists and families of terrorists, and was released around the same time as the U.S. passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts off nearly all US aid to the Palestinian Authority if it continues its ‘pay to slay’ policies encouraging bloodshed and murder. The PA even reversed a policy of hiding the payments and returned to directly and openly paying the Commission of Prisoners, which pays the salaries to terrorist prisoners.

After studying the recent PA budget, Director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Itamar Marcus and Palestinian Media Watch’s Head of Legal Strategies Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch brought it to the attention of Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC) Chair MK Oded Forer to collaborate with his counterparts in the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus (CIVC), especially Rep. Doug Lamborn, who introduced the Taylor Force Act, to bring this to the attention of the American authorities that can trigger the clauses in the law.

MK Forer communicated this outrage to his counterpart Rep. Lamborn and called on the two caucuses to work together to put an end to the impunity of the PA for its rewarding terror.

“The Taylor Force Act was built precisely to put an end to this policy,” Rep. Lamborn said. “It seems like the Palestinian Authority did not receive the message we tried to send by passing this law so now we have to ensure that the U.S. will slash its funding to it. American taxpayer’s money should no longer be used to provide benefits and enticements for the murder of Israelis and others. We will continue to work with both our CIVC and KIVC allies to ensure that this terrible policy becomes a thing of the past.”

According to PMW, 7.47% of the PA’s operational budget is for salaries to terrorist prisoners, released terrorists, and payments to families of “Martyrs” and wounded. The PA’s budget categories rewarding terror equal 44% of anticipated foreign aid.

“For years the Palestinian Authority has promoted terror, glorified terror and rewarded terror,” said PMW Director Marcus, “and tragically the donor countries have indirectly funded these activities by funding the PA. PMW welcomes the new approach by the members of the Israel Victory Caucuses in the US and in Israel. The first step to defeating Palestinian terror is to stop paying for it.”

According to the Taylor Force Act, within 30 days the U.S. State Department must certify to Congress whether the PA and PLO have stopped the payments to terrorists and their families, the so-called ‘pay-for-slay program’ and repealed the pay-for-slay laws. No later than 45 days after enactment (i.e. 15 days after the above certification), State must report to Congress an explanation of why State was unable to certify PA/PLO compliance, plus the total amount of funds to be withheld.

The two caucuses will be working together to highlight Palestinian non-compliance and the continuation of the PA’s policy of providing payments to terrorists and their families.

March 22, 2018

Israeli forces are preparing for Hamas’ mass marches on Israel’s border, which could result in many civilian casualties. 

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

Security forces prepare for Hamas mass march on Israel

Palestinians demonstrate on Israel’s border. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The IDF is preparing for the Hamas-led mass march on Israel’s southern border which they have called for next Friday.

Hamas has called for “all Palestinians” to take part in a mass protest, another “Friday of Rage,” to mark the 100th day since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and pledged to relocate the US embassy to the city.

Hamas wants the protests to begin on March 30 and to last for several weeks, with thousands of Palestinians moving to tent cities to be built along Israel’s border.

Hamas stated such protests would continue until the US’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel “is undermined.”

Israel is preparing for a scenario in which tens of thousands of Gazans will march to Israel’s border fence with Gaza, possibly attempting to take it down and march into Israel.

“We want to frighten the Israelis with the images of massive crowds of people who peaceably gather and sit close to the border,” Hamas spokesman Ahmed Abu Retaima told Bloomberg this week. “We are working to bring out more than 100,000 people for the march.”

The Hamas march is “clearly an attempt to break through the fences, and they are ready to tolerate losses,” Ehud Yaari, an international fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Bloomberg.

Israel fears a situation in which dozens of Palestinians will cross the border and enter Israeli territory, a situation which could result in many civilian casualties.

Yousef Munayyer, an analyst at the Arab Center in Washington, said the border march will force Israel into an unpleasant choice.

“You’re essentially talking about the Israeli military lining up like a firing squad against a wall of Palestinians civilians walking toward the fence,” Munayyer told Bloomberg.

“I don’t think that’s the optics the Israelis want to have out there,” he remarked. However, it appears that Hamas is seeking exactly such a scenario, to exploit the death of its civilians at Israel’s expense and to generate more violence in the region.

By Pamela Geller – on March 27, 2018

Hamas fires rockets into Israel, UN demands Israel pay for damage in Gaza

Hamas is launching rockets into Israel, Israelis are running to shelters, and the UN is hounding Israel to pay for damage in Gaza that came about because Hamas deliberately launched attacks against Israel from civilian areas.

There is NO end to the UN’s anti-Semitic bias. Why is Israel still part of the UN at all?

Yet just days ago, CNN “journalist” Andrew Kaczynski was hitting John Bolton for agreeing with me that the UN was anti-Semitic. This is what passes for “journalism” today.

“Israel needs to pay for damage to Gaza facilities, UN says,” by Tovah Lazaroff and Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, March 27, 2018:

United Nations has demanded that Israel pay compensation for damage done to seven of its Gaza facilities by the IDF during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

“On 22 March, the UN submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel a claim for reimbursement for the losses that the UN had sustained in seven incidents in 2014,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq told The Jerusalem Post in response to an email query.

The UN “also submitted a claim for the losses sustained by the dependents of one of its staff members who was killed in one of the incidents,” Haq said.

A UN board of inquiry looked “into the matter found that the seven incidents in which UN premises were hit were all attributable to the IDF,” he said, adding that the board had finished its work in February 2015.

Israel’s Mission to the UN in New York said it had received a demand for $528,725 for the facilities and $64,449 for the death.

The question of compensation had been a bone of contention between Israel and the UN when the board of inquiry examined the incidents, particularly because Israel has claimed that Hamas hid weapons in weapons in UN facilities and attacked its force from or near those facilities.

The facilities had also served as emergency shelters for Palestinians in Gaza during the war and as such, were supposed to be immune from IDF shelling.

Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said it was “unacceptable” that the organization should make demands for compensation from Israel, and not from Hamas.

“Everyone knows our intention was to protect our citizens, and not harm anyone else, while Hamas uses UN facilities to hide behind,” Danon told the post, noting the terrorist tunnels built underneath UN schools.

“The blame should go on Hamas,” he said.

“Israelis Run to Bomb Shelters as Iron Dome Rockets Launched Around Gaza,” by Avi Abelow, Israel Unwired, March 26, 2018 (thanks to David):

Last night Israelis on the Gaza border were surprised to hear air raid sirens go off, warning them to run to their bomb shelters. Israel then launched Iron Dome rockets to shoot down the projectiles and protect Israeli citizens.

Thankfully no rockets were fired into Israel and nobody was injured.

Israeli citizens from various Southern communities recorded the rockets being launched, before running to their shelters.

What Happened?

It ends up that Hamas did not shoot a barrage of rockets at Israel. Rather, Hamas was conducting a live-fire drill, which mostly consisted of machine gun fire as well as rocket fire.

The IDF also responded to the Hamas drill with tank shells fired on Hamas posts in Northern Gaza….

by Kristina Wong

22 Mar 2018

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/22/bolton-in-mcmaster-out-trump-announces-john-bolton-as-next-national-security-advisor/

AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Breitbart News Edit

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is appointing Amb. John Bolton as his new national security advisor, ending weeks of speculation he would be tapped for the job.

Trump made the announcement via Twitter:

I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018

Bolton’s appointment comes after months of speculation that current National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster was on his way out, after repeated reports that he and the president were not close. It also comes after someone leaked to the press that the president congratulated Putin on his election win after a briefing card had included the note: DO NOT CONGRATULATE.

According to a White House official, the president and McMaster had “mutually agreed” on his resignation, and the two had been discussing it for “some time.” However, the timeline was “expedited as they both felt it was important to have the new team in place, instead of constant speculation.”

“This was not related to any one moment or incident, rather it was the result of ongoing conversations between the two,” the official said.  Trump announced last week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was resigning, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo would take his place.

McMaster, a lieutenant general, said in a statement that he is requesting retirement from the Army, and will leave public service.

“I am thankful to President Donald J. Trump for the opportunity to serve him and our nation as national security advisor. I am grateful for the friendship and support of the members of the National Security Council who worked together to provide the President with the best options to protect and advance our national interests,” he said.

Trump praised McMaster in a statement.

“H.R. McMaster has served his country with distinction for more than 30 years. He has won many battles and his bravery and toughness are legendary. General McMaster’s leadership of the National Security Council staff has helped my administration accomplish great things to bolster America’s national security. He helped develop our America First National Security Strategy, revitalize our alliances in the Middle East, smash ISIS, bring North Korea to the table, and strengthen our nation’s prosperity. This work and those achievements will ensure that America builds on its economic and military advantages. I thank General McMaster and his family for their service and wish them the very best.”

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called McMaster a “true soldier-scholar.”

“His impact on his country and this government will be felt for years to come,” he said.

Bolton was spotted entering the West Wing late Thursday afternoon:

John Bolton spotted entering the West Wing pic.twitter.com/KBJCPgYOak

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 22, 2018

Bolton last served in the George W. Bush administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton is a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and a frequent Fox News commentator. He has also been a regular guest on Breitbart News Daily.

He spoke with Breitbart News Daily on Thursday morning, discussing the Trump administration’s actions against unfair trade practices by China.

March 21, 2018

Israel lifted the censorship gag on details surrounding the daring operation that destroyed a Syrian nuclear threat. 

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

An IAF F-15 (IAF)

A decade after the crucial secret operation, Israel officially acknowledged that it attacked and destroyed the Al-Kibar nuclear facility in Syria, which was in its last stages of construction at the time.

During the night between September 5 and 6, 2007, Israel secretly bombed the nuclear reactor, in accordance with the Begin Doctrine, which states that no Israeli adversary in the Middle East would be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.

In a secret mission known as operation “Out Of The Box,” authorized by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, eight Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft flew along the Syrian-Turkish border shortly before 1 a.m. and destroyed the Syrian nuclear facility.

The Syrian nuclear project operated under a heavy cloak of secrecy for about six years prior to its destruction. The Al Kibar reactor was situated 900 yards from the Euphrates River and halfway between the borders with Turkey and Iraq, far from Syria’s biggest cities, in the Deir ez-Zor region, 280 miles northeast of Damascus.

For two years prior to the attack, officials in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate were monitoring the Syrian nuclear project. Their intelligence suggested that the facility would become active toward the end of 2007, which prompted the IDF to initiate an attack.

In March 2007, the Mossad – Israel’s national intelligence agency – raided the home of the head of Syria’s atomic energy commission in Vienna, where they discovered conclusive information about the reactor.

The information recovered by the Mossad operatives included some three dozen color photographs taken from inside the Syrian building, indicating that it was a top-secret plutonium nuclear reactor. The photographs obtained by the Mossad also showed workers from North Korea at the site. The sole purpose of this kind of plutonium reactor, in the Mossad’s analysis, was to produce an atomic bomb.

Olmert: With or without US support

The attack was launched after intense discussions between the American administration, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, and the Israelis.

At a meeting in Washington on June 19 that year, Olmert told Bush that if the US did not destroy the reactor, Israel would do it, even if it lacked US support. Finally, the US declined to participate but did not prevent the Israelis from carrying through with the raid.

The IAF had very little time to prepare for the attack or to account for possible contingencies, such as retaliation by the Syrian forces. Once the attack plan was ready, however, it was possible to execute it within 12 hours from the moment the order would be given.

Prior to the attack, then-IAF Commander, Maj. Gen. (Res’) Eliezer Shkedi personally addressed the combat crews, feeling it was of operational significance, in order to emphasize the transition from routine security measures to a strategic operation while stressing the pilots’ responsibility. At around 7 p.m., hours before the attack commenced, the target was revealed to the aircrews.

“Combatants, today you will be sent to participate in a mission of great importance to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The mission is to destroy the target and disengage without aircraft losses, as stealthily as possible. The mission is kept under the highest secrecy, both before and after execution, until further notice. I trust you, believe in you, and am convinced of your capabilities. Good luck, Eliezer Shkedi”

The attack

Shortly after midnight, Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni, Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the deputy Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the head of the Operations Directorate assembled in the aerial war room, the Bor, in the heart of Tel Aviv. From there, they followed all aircrafts’ aerial locations and the communication systems.

The “Ra’am” (F-15I) formation that led the assault took off from Hatzerim Air Force Base in the south at around 10 p.m. The second formation left two minutes later, joined by the rest of the “Sufa” (F-16I) fighter jets, and they refueled together in the air. The aircraft took off in radio silence.

The jets flew low to remain undetected. The entire operation took four hours. At around midnight, the leading formation had reached the necessary distance from the target and began ascending in preparation for the attack maneuver. The ordnance drop occurred minutes later. The aircraft broke contact, and the next formations followed in order to attack. After all the munitions were dropped, the final “Sufa” fighter pilot radioed “Arizona from all of us,” meaning that all of the bombs hit their target and exploded as planned.

The Military Intelligence Directorate estimated that the nuclear facility was damaged beyond repair. As the IDF was preparing for Syrian retaliation, it decided that information about the operation should not be disclosed to the general public at the time.

The operation was deemed a success. The nuclear facility was destroyed and an escalation in the region was prevented.

Only a few years later, the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group captured the Deir ez-Zor region. One can only imagine how much havoc they could have wreaked with a nuclear facility in their hands. The scenarios range from an existential threat to the Jewish state to the disruption of the area’s strategic balance.

‘One of the best decisions made in Israel’

The destruction of the Syrian reactor was an historic operation of great significance for the State of Israel and the Jewish People and one of the most important military operations in the IAF’s history.

“When faced with today’s reality, the decision to destroy the reactor is one of the best decisions made in Israel over the past 70 years”, declared Lt. Gen. Amikam Norkin, current commander of the IAF. “The principles according to which the IAF prepared for the attack are also the IAF’s principles today. They help the air force maintain its relevance.”

Two months after the operation, Olmert concluded: “There were many disputes regarding all sorts of alternatives, but in the end, we all know one thing – the strategic force, which makes the difference in Israel’s international strength, is the aerial force. Our aerial force will be the determining factor in all possible confrontations that we will possibly – hopefully not – deal with in the future.”

Lifting of censorship coincided with the publication of Olmert’s memoirs and follows a petition to the High Court of Justice by Israel’s Channel 10, which is now permitted to air an interview with Olmert and the then-Mossad chief, the late Meir Dagan, on the bombing of the reactor.

Current Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, OC Northern Command at the time of the operation, said the message that should be taken from the incident is that “Israel will never accept an existential threat against it. That was the message in 2007, and that is the message to our enemies in both the near and distant future.”

Video added by JK

March 19, 2018

In an angry rant against the Trump administration, Abbas referred to Ambassador David Friedman as a “son of a dog.”

By: AP and World Israel News Staff

Latest News from Israel

The Palestinian president has called the U.S. ambassador to Israel a “son of a dog,” in an angry rant against the Trump administration.

In a speech Monday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pre-emptively rejected an expected White House peace proposal.

He criticized the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the American plan to move its embassy to the city and the cutting off of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the U.N. agency for Palestinian “refugees.”

He also condemned Ambassador David Friedman’s close ties with Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, describing him as a “son of a dog.”

“Some say wait for their plan,” Abbas said, regarding the as-yet-undisclosed Trump peace plan. “What shall we wait for? No, we will not wait, and we will not allow that.”

Earlier Monday, Friedman condemned the Palestinian leadership for its silence in the wake of two deadly terror attacks – a car-ramming on Thursday in Samaria and a stabbing on Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem – that claimed the lives of three people. Another two were seriously wounded, one critically.