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Ya’alon: The conflict might never be resolved

January 22, 2016

Ya’alon: The conflict might never be resolved Defense Minister pessimistic about Israel-Palestinian conflict, says it has no solution so long as the PA incites against Israel.

By Kobi Finkler

First Publish: 1/22/2016, 5:46 AM

Source: Ya’alon: The conflict might never be resolved – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva

Ya’alon at WIZO conference                                               Eli Dassa

The conflict with the Palestinian Arabs will “never be solved” so long as the Palestinian Arabs continue to incite their children against Israel, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday.

Speaking at the World WIZO conference in Tel Aviv, Ya’alon hailed Israel’s success in stopping mass terrorist attacks, a success which, he claimed, has caused the enemy to change its plans and carry out “lone wolf” attacks.

“Due to our success in preventing mass casualty terrorist attacks, our enemies are employing attacks by individuals. We will defeat this wave of terror as well. Israel has the ability to cope with any challenge and develop security measures to protect against all forms of terrorism,” he stressed.

He then went on to express a pessimistic view of the conflict with the Palestinians.

“As long as the Palestinians educate their children to hate us, to kill us, to admire the martyr – the conflict will never be resolved,” said the Defense Minister, adding, “We must implement a policy of the stick against terrorism and the carrot to Palestinians who simply want to live their lives. We must find a way to live our lives in which most Palestinians do not threaten us and benefit from the Israeli economy. We are here, they are here and we must learn to live together.”

Ya’alon also referred to the Hezbollah terror cell from Tulkarem which was exposed by Israeli security forces and was operating under guidelines received from Juad Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“Hezbollah is indeed operating in Judea and Samaria, as do other terrorist groups such as the Islamic Jihad; they are all metastases of Iran. Hezbollah, via Iran, is trying to lure Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to carry out terror attacks within Israel,” he said.

As for Iran, the Defense Minister said that Iran is the greatest threat to Israel today, repeating comments he made earlier this week.

“While the nuclear program is currently suspended due to the agreement with the international community, within 10-15 years and possibly earlier than that, when they feel comfortable financially, they will continue to develop nuclear weapons,” he warned.

Meanwhile, stressed the Defense Minister, the Iranians are working to arm Hezbollah with missiles and weapons. “They finance Hamas in its jihadist war against Israel, and are also working along the northern border,” he said.

Finally, Ya’alon stressed the importance of Israeli public diplomacy within the international community in order to combat the Palestinian propaganda.

“The Marmara which was sent under the auspices of Turkey was made up of jihadists, European statesmen whom I call naive, and anti-Semites,” said Ya’alon.

“When an Israeli officer ordered the Marmara to retreat, the answer he received was ‘go back to Auschwitz.’ The Marmara is an expression of the spirit among some members of the international community who are acting against Israel. The propaganda war is very difficult because it is driven by widespread anti-Semitism and delegitimization of Israel, and so it is hard to fight it,” he added, noting that the international community does not understand how much it is led astray by the pro-Palestinian propaganda.

“Israel’s public diplomacy war requires each of us to become a warrior on social networks, and to speak up for Israel. I call on you, the women of WIZO, to take part in this fight,” said Ya’alon.

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Iran’s long arm

January 21, 2016

Iran’s long arm, The Jerusalem Post, JPost Editorial, January 21, 2016

(Please see also, New Iranian-Backed Terror Group Makes Inroads in West Bank, Gaza. — DM)

ShowImage (20)Thousand of Basij soldiers stage mock seige of Temple Mount in Iran. (photo credit:FARS)

If anyone needed proof how the lifting of sanctions on Iran will hurt Israel’s security, this week provided two examples.

Just days after implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement, we received a reminder that Iran and its proxies remain dangerous enemies of Israel.

Five Palestinians from the Tulkarm area were arrested for planning to carry out terrorist attacks under instructions from Hezbollah, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said on Wednesday.

The head of the cell, Mahmoud Za’alul, had been recruited through social media networks. Using encrypted messages, he enlisted five more men from the Tulkarm area; they were ordered to gather intel and plan terrorist attacks, including preparing explosive vests for suicide bombings.

Hezbollah funded their operation by sending them $5,000 through money changers.

Now that the “crippling” economic sanctions on Iran have been removed, the resources at its disposal – and as an extension at Hezbollah’s – will be significantly greater.

In Lebanon, meanwhile, Hezbollah is consolidating its political power. On Monday, in a development that is nothing short of earth shattering, Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, publicly endorsed his rival, the formal general Michel Aoun, for president of Lebanon.

In so doing, Geagea abandoned his loyalty to Saad Hariri, head of the anti-Syrian Future (Al-Mustaqbal) Movement, for an alliance with the enemy camp headed by Hezbollah, which supports Aoun for president.

This opens the way to the appointment of a pro-Iranian president in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Iran are undoubtedly pleased with the development. If Aoun is elected president, Hariri’s influence – and the influence of Hariri’s main patron, Saudi Arabia – will be greatly diminished.

Finally, in the Gaza Strip, Iran has over the past few months been providing funding to a new terrorist group called Al-Sabireen Movement for Supporting Palestine. Al-Sabireen, which means “the patient ones” in Arabic, was formed in the wake of a break between Tehran and the two largest terrorist organizations operating in Gaza – Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Neither organization has acquiesced to Iran’s demand to support President Bashar Assad in Syria.

Both have incensed the Iranians by remaining silent on Saudi attacks in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthis. Both face their worst financial crisis in two decades after Iran’s decision to cut off support.

Al-Sabireen’s emblem – a gun sprouting from the center of its name in Arabic – is nearly identical to Hezbollah’s.

So far, the organization has about 400 followers in the Gaza Strip, each one receiving a monthly salary of $250-$300, while the senior officials get at least $700, according to The Jerusalem Post’s Palestinian Affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh. Iran has been supplying Al-Sabireen with weapons used to attack Israel.

The Iranians are believed to have supplied their new terrorist group in the Gaza Strip with Grad and Fajr missiles that are capable of reaching Tel Aviv. Also, Iranian funds channeled through Al-Sabireen are said to be used to support the families of killed or arrested terrorists living on the West Bank.

The Iranian-backed organization is also wooing Fatah members. Scores of militiamen once belonging to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip have allied themselves with Al-Sabireen. Most were attracted by the money.

The rise of an unshackled Iran’s influence in the region is bad for Israel. But it is also bad for many of the US’s Sunni allies in the region such as Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. A shared enemy has created a shared interest – the curtailing of Iranian influence.

Implementation of the JCPOA might delay Tehran’s nuclear weapon program. The removal of sanctions, however, has set the stage for the Islamic Republic to increase its destabilizing influence. Iran and its proxies must be stopped.

Categories: Al-Sabireen, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran - sanctions relief, Iran scam, Iranian proxies, Israel, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian terrorists, Saudi Arabia
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The Inside Track From Israel’s Gaza Border Defenders

January 21, 2016

The Inside Track From Israel’s Gaza Border Defenders, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Paul Alster, January 21, 2016

1339Photos courtesy of IDF Spokesperson.

Like it or not, the Iran nuclear deal is done. In much of the Middle East, defense officials in many states believe that a sizeable proportion of the soon-to-be released $100 billion Iranian windfall will be directed toward funding proxy armies of the Islamic Republic, for whom the Jewish state remains the prime target. Israel’s focus is now, more than ever, on defense and surveillance.

In the north, Hizballah, Iran’s proxy Lebanese army, remains a massive threat to regional stability, siding with Syria’s disgraced President Bashar Assad and his saviors from Russia. In Gaza, it is no secret that a previous rift between Iran and Hamas has been smoothed over to further mutual objectives and that another, and possibly more brutal round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas may not be far away.

“The sanctions relief and the nuclear deal with Iran represent a strategic shift that the IDF will have to tackle over the next decade,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot said Monday in a speech at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv. “We also see [Iran’s] attempt to influence Arab Israelis and those in the Gaza Strip, and the estimation is that as Iran’s economic situation improves, over the next one-to-two years, it will divert considerably more resources into opposing Israel, via the Iranian military industry.”

Last week, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) saw first-hand the situation on Israel’s south-western border, meeting with a senior IDF source who cannot be identified for security reasons. Close to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, where Israel oversees the transfer of many hundreds of tons of goods and supplies every day into Gaza,  we scrambled up a sizeable sand dune that offered a panoramic view of the situation on the ground toward the closed Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

“We hear the explosions and the fighting [against the Islamists] on the Egyptian side. The Egyptian army is taking it seriously,” the senior IDF source explained as we looked across the triangular border junction and heard distant noises, apparently explosions. “We hear this every day. Terrorists continue to try to cross from Egypt into Gaza.”

Minutes later, a text message announced that the Keren Shalom crossing suddenly had been closed. It turned out that the Egyptian army reportedly engaged and killed 13 jihadists  just a couple of miles away. Two days earlier, an attempt to breach the Israel-Gaza border fence and plant an IED resulted in an Israeli airstrike reportedly eliminating a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Meanwhile, Hamas continues to test fire rockets into the sea, and in recent months other Islamic militants in Gaza sporadically lob rockets toward Israel. On the other side of the border triangle, Egypt is doing its best to keep a lid on ISIS and other Islamist forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

It’s clear that relations between the Israeli and Egyptian militaries are good, a dangerous common enemy helping to focus minds. Under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt (despite a lack of support from the United States), has taken the fight to the terror organizations, often at a significant cost in Egyptian military lives. The horrific October downing of the Russian passenger jet out of Sharm el-Sheikh brought the scale of the task facing Egypt into focus. Israel remains alert for the jihadists turning their attention and firepower from Sinai, but for now believes that Gazan-based terror poses its most immediate threat.

“It’s been quite quiet with Hamas [since the 2014 Protective Edge war], but they don’t keep quiet for long,” the IDF source said. “We’re not looking for a fight – we have an interest that there will be quiet here – but if we have to deal with Hamas, this time we’ll deal with them properly.”

Many Israelis were dismayed when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2014 without a ceasefire, some criticism coming notably from members of the left-wing opposition and media for allowing Hamas off the hook when many believed it was in utter disarray. Now, despite ongoing attempts to stem the flow of weapons, reports suggest Hamas is rebuilding fast and may have some surprises in store for Israel if there’s another round of fighting.

“Look, we’re quite certain they are still building tunnels,” the official said, planting his heel in the sand and showing how easy it is to dig. “And yes, I’m sure they have new weapons – anti-tank, anti-aircraft etc. Like us, they will want to be better next time, but we understand more. The reality is different. We’re learning all the time what is going in Gaza. The army is always preparing for the war to come and [Hamas] won’t meet the same thing as in [Protective Edge].”

While Israeli soldiers and advanced technology such as its Guardium unmanned patrol vehicles are the first line of defense – the IDF indicated last year that the development of underground tunnel detection systems is also a priority project – the eyes of the military are actually in special units of female soldiers, known as the tazpitanyot. They monitor all movements, looking for suspicious activity, known terror operatives, and attempts to breach the border.

1340 (2)

They work in a series of non-descript trailers and shipping containers belying the fact that inside are massed banks of video screens and radar images, and the ability to combine pictures filmed from aerial blimps with other cameras – both day and night vision. This arrangement allows operatives to zoom in and see Gazans as far as a mile from the border fence.

When anything, or anyone suspicious pops up, there are pictures of ‘Wanted’ terror suspects close to the screens.  They instruct the on-the-ground forces to investigate. Never averting their gaze from the screen during a four-hour shift, each soldier has been trained to identify every landmark, tree, or rock within her specific area of surveillance. “If there’s even a single branch missing from a tree, they’ll spot it” the women’s commanding officer said. They also have remote control of the machine guns sited on border watch towers.

No security system is 100 percent foolproof, and during the first two weeks of the last round of fighting, four terror tunnels emerged on the Israeli side, only being detected at the last moment.  In two cases, the IDF fought gun-battles leaving  at least 10 terrorists and six Israeli soldiers dead. Hamas had hoped to kill civilians before luring Israeli soldiers back through the tunnels then kidnapping them or causing mass casualties.

Methods and practices of surveillance are being continually reviewed, but no-one in the Israeli military doubts the tatzpitanyot’s crucial front-line role in its border security, both north and south.

Categories: Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, IDF, Iran - sanctions relief, Iranian proxies, Israel, Israel borders, Siani, Sisi, Syria
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Palestinians: Western Media’s Ignorance and Bias

January 21, 2016

Palestinians: Western Media’s Ignorance and Bias by Khaled Abu Toameh January 21, 2016 at 5:00 am

Source: Palestinians: Western Media’s Ignorance and Bias

 

  • Foreign journalists based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have for years refused to report on the financial corruption and human rights violations that are rife under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas regimes. Palestinian “suffering” and the “evil” of the Israeli “occupation” are the only admissible topics.
  • Another Ramallah-based colleague shared that a few years ago he received a request from a cub correspondent to help arrange an interview with Yasser Arafat. Except at that point, Arafat had been dead for several years. Fresh out of journalism school and unknowledgeable about the Middle East, the journalist was apparently considered by his editors a fine candidate for covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  • Western reporters would do well to remember that journalism in this region is not about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian. Rather, it is about being “pro” the truth, even when the truth runs straight up against what they would prefer to believe.

Two Western journalists recently asked to be accompanied to the Gaza Strip to interview Jewish settlers living there.

No, this is not the opening line of a joke. These journalists were in Israel at the end of 2015, and they were deadly serious.

Imagine their embarrassment when it was pointed out to them that Israel had completely pulled out of the Gaza Strip ten years ago.

You have to have some pity for them. These foreign colleagues were rookies who aimed to make an impression by traveling to a “dangerous” place such as the Gaza Strip to report on the “settlers” living there. Their request, however, did not take anyone, even my local colleagues, by surprise.

These “parachute journalists,” as they are occasionally called, are catapulted into the region without being briefed on the basic facts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sadly, correspondents such as these are more the rule than the exception. A particular clueless British reporter springs to mind:

When Israel assassinated Hamas’s founder and spiritual leader, Ahmed Yasmin, in 2004, a British newspaper dispatched its crime reporter to Jerusalem to cover the event. To this reporter, the region, as well as Hamas, were virgin territory. His editors had sent him to the Middle East, he said, because no one else was willing to go.

Well, our hero reported on the assassination of Ahmed Yassin from the bar of the American Colony Hotel. His byline claimed that he was in the Gaza Strip and had interviewed relatives of the slain leader of Hamas.

Sometimes one feels as if one is some sort of a lightning rod for these tales. Another Ramallah-based colleague shared that a few years ago he received a request from a cub correspondent to help arrange an interview with Yasser Arafat. Except at that point, Arafat had been dead for several years. Fresh out of journalism school and unknowledgeable about the Middle East, the journalist was apparently considered by his editors a fine candidate for covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the three decades of covering this beat, journalists of this type have become quite familiar to me. They board a plane, read an article or two in the Times and feel ready to be experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Some of them have even assured me that before 1948 there was a Palestinian state here with East Jerusalem as its capital. Like the ill-informed young colleagues who wished to interview the nonexistent Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip of 2015, they were somewhat taken aback to learn that prior to 1967, the West Bank had been under the control of Jordan, while the Gaza Strip had been ruled by Egypt.

Is there some difference between an Arab citizen of Israel and a Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza Strip? My foreign colleagues may well not be able to say. Does the Hamas charter really state that the Islamist movement seeks to replace Israel with an Islamic empire? If so, my international co-workers may not be able to tell you.

One memorable journalist, several years ago, asked to visit the “destroyed” city of Jenin, where “thousands of Palestinians had been massacred by Israel in 2002.” She was referring to the IDF operation in the Jenin refugee camp where nearly 60 Palestinians, many of them gunmen, and 23 IDF soldiers were killed in a battle.

Pity aside, this degree of incomprehension — and professional laziness — is difficult to imagine in the Internet age.

But when it comes to covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ignorance apparently is bliss. Misconceptions about what goes on here plague the international media. The binary good guy/bad guy designation tops the list. Someone has to be the good guy (the Palestinians are assigned that job) and someone has to be the bad guy (the Israelis get that one). And everything gets refracted through that prism.

Yet the problem is deeper still. Many Western journalists covering the Middle East do not feel the need to conceal their hatred for Israel and for Jews. But when it comes to the Palestinians, these journalists see no evil. Foreign journalists based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have for years refused to report on the financial corruption and human rights violations that are rife under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas regimes. They possibly fear being considered “Zionist agents” or “propagandists” for Israel.

Finally, there are the local journalists hired by Western reporters and media outlets to help the cover the conflict. These journalists may refuse to cooperate on any story that is deemed “anti-Palestinian.” Palestinian “suffering” and the “evil” of the Israeli “occupation” are the only admissible topics. Western journalists, for their part, are keen not to anger their Palestinian colleagues: they do not wish to be denied access to Palestinian sources.

Thus, the international media’s indifference in the face of the current wave of stabbings and car-rammings against Israelis should come as no surprise. One would be hard-pressed to find a Western journalist or a media organization referring to Palestinian assailants as “terrorists.” In fact, international headlines often show more sympathy toward Palestinian attackers who are killed in the line of aggression than toward the Israelis who were attacked in the first place.

Of course, the above tales hardly apply to all foreign journalists. Some correspondents from the US, Canada, Australia and Europe are both very knowledgeable and very fair. Unfortunately, however, these represent but a small group among mainstream media in the West.

Western reporters, especially those who are “parachuted” into the Middle East, would do well to remember that journalism in this region is not about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian. Rather, it is about being “pro” the truth, even when the truth runs straight up against what they would prefer to believe.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

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Palestinian militia discussed for E. Jerusalem to help bar terror and block ISIS influence

January 21, 2016

Palestinian militia discussed for E. Jerusalem to help bar terror and block ISIS influence, DEBKAfile, January 21, 2016

Palestinian_Police480

Israeli and Palestinian security officers are exploring the possible formation of a new Palestinian militia to take charge of enforcing law and order in the Arab districts of Jerusalem and halting the anti-Israel terrorist attacks emanating from those districts.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources disclose that the dialogue is led by senior Israeli Shin Bet and police officials and the Palestinian General Intelligence (Mukhabarat) chief Maj. Gen. Majid Faraj.

Our sources cannot confirm that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or other top officials, such as Public Security Minister Gilead Erdan, are fully in the picture, but it will certainly have been brought to their notice.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is kept up to date.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is kept up to date.

The plan was first broached in top Israeli police circles, who first asked the Shin Bet and IDF if they had any objections to the creation of a special local Palestinian force or militia, whose members would serve under the orders of the Israeli Police, with a status similar to that of Jerusalem Arab permanent residents, who serve in the local police force.

The new militia would undertake responsibility for maintaining order and security in the Palestinian districts of East Jerusalem, and a commitment to prevent the continuation of terror attacks from the districts under their authority.

This plan gained rapid momentum in recent days over concerns on both sides over the rapidity with which the Islamic Sate was gaining adherents in Palestinian communities.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott disclosed this week that an estimated 14-16 percent of Palestinians support ISIS – the highest proportion in the Arab world, where the average is no more than 5-6 percent.

In a little-noticed incident on Dec. 3, 2015, a Palestinian General Intelligence officer called Mazen Aribe, 37, suddenly turned his official rifle on Israeli soldiers. After he injured two, their comrades shot him dead.

Investigators of the incident later confirmed that it bore the hallmarks of an ISIS attack.

Aribe, who happened to be the nephew of the senior Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, was a highly respected intelligence officer and a loyal supporter of his boss, the a/m Maj. Gen. Faraj.  His sudden turn to violence against Israeli troops set off alarm bells in the Palestinian intelligence services as well as the Shin Bet and Israeli police.

The progress of the talks for establishing the new force, since named the “Palestinian Popular Police for East Jerusalem,” can be measured by Israel’s consent to extend “a measure of autonomy” for certain administrative municipal appointments for its areas of control, provided their work is fully coordinated with Israeli government and municipal authorities.

The discussions cover the Palestinian-populated districts of North Jerusalem – Shoafat, Hizme and Beit Hanina – and the two big refugee camps at Shoafat and Anata. Many of the recent terrorist attacks against Israelis were perpetrated in the last four months by dwellers of these sections of Jerusalem.

The Old City and the Palestinian villages of Issawiya, A-Tur and Jabal Mukabar have not been covered in the bilateral security discussions.

Gen. Faraj is the live wire promoting the initiative. He is motivated most of all by the opportunity for his agency to gain a foothold in East Jerusalem. For decades, Israel has consistently blocked Palestinian attempts to establish their ruling bodies in its capital.

While the two negotiating parties formally agree to the new militia coming under Israel’s security services, its da-to-day operations will effectively be subject to Faraj’s intelligence agency.

In recent interviews, Faraj has made a point of stressing that cooperation between Israel’s army and Shin Bet and Palestinian security forces remains solid and must continue, notwithstanding the current wave of Palestinian terror.

He also claims that his officers have thwarted 200 terrorist attacks and their detention of 100 would-be terrorists with large arms caches, had foiled several more.

Faraj is clearly doing his utmost to bring to Israel’s attention the efficacy of the forces under his command and, by the same token, how valuable the new militia would be as a security, anti-terror asset for the city.

DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism sources note that the realization of the new Palestinian Police Force project – if it does get the green light in Jerusalem – would crown the four-month Palestinian knife intifada with a huge achievement, which has long proved elusive – the Palestinians would plant their first security footholds in the Arab neighborhoods of Israel’s capital. This would no doubt also provoke a flaming controversy on Israel’s political scene.

Categories: Abbas, Islamic State, Israel, Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian terrorists
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In Tehran, Iraqi Hizbullah Leader: We Will Retaliate Militarily for Al-Nimr Execution on Saudi Soil

January 21, 2016

In Tehran, Iraqi Hizbullah Leader: We Will Retaliate Militarily for Al-Nimr Execution on Saudi Soil, MEMRI-TV via You Tube, January 21, 2016

 

 

According to the blurb following the video,

During a press conference at the Fars News Agency in Tehran, Sheikh Akram Kaabi, Leader of the Hizbullah Al-Iraq (“Al-Nujaba”) militia, threatened Saudi Arabia: “Our retaliation for the blood of Sheikh Al-Nimr will take place on your own turf.” He further said: “When I say that we will retaliate – of course, I mean military retaliation.” The statements were posted on the Internet on January 20, 2016.

Categories: Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia
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Cartoons of the Day

January 20, 2016

H/t Freedom is Just Another Word

My chair

H/t Vermont Loon Watch

speech

Categories: Humor, Iran scam, Israel, Obama and Iran, Palestinians, SOTU
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New Iranian-Backed Terror Group Makes Inroads in West Bank, Gaza

January 19, 2016

New Iranian-Backed Terror Group Makes Inroads in West Bank, Gaza, Washington Free Beacon,  , January 19, 2016

Screen-shot-from-al-Sabireen-propaganda-videoScreen shot from al-Sabireen propaganda video

A new Iranian-backed terror group is making inroads in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, where it operates underground with the potential capacity to deliver devastating attacks to Israel, according to regional experts who have been investigating the organization’s rise.

The group, which goes by the name Harakat al-Sabireen, was established around May 2014 but has begun in recent months to boost its public profile on social media and brag about its plots to wage jihad against Israel, according to information gathered by regional analysts and provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

Al-Sabireen is believed to receive $10 million a year from Iran via funds that are smuggled through a large network of tunnels built by terrorists to facilitate illicit travel beneath the Gaza Strip, according to estimates disseminated in the Arab language press.

Like Hezbollah, the Iranian-funded terror group that controls territory along Israel’s northern border, al-Sabireen is being used by the Islamic Republic to indirectly wage war on the Jewish state and foster unrest in the Palestinian territories, according to experts, who view the group’s rise as a sign that Iran is not interested in scaling down its global terror network following the recent implementation of the nuclear agreement.

A State Department official who was not authorized to speak on record said that officials are aware of al-Sabireen and its activities. However, the group has not been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization, though it is possible this could occur in the future.

Al-Sabireen says it has established an armed wing with militants in Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to a recent interview with the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.

“Given the tense relationship between Tehran and Hamas the past few years, it makes sense that Iran would look to form another proxy in Gaza,” Grant Rumley, a Middle East analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “However, Sabireen’s entire model of expansion hinges on its ability to present itself as a Palestinian, non-sectarian movement.”

Like Hezbollah, al-Sabireen’s official logo closely resembles that of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is responsible for giving orders to these types of terror groups.

The group’s charter condones violent jihad and promotes attacks on “the racist Zionist body” and “America the great Satan,” according to a copy published by the group on its official Arabic-language website.

Al-Sabireen has taken to its website and Facebook page in recent months to praise operatives who have been killed while conducting reconnaissance missions on the group’s behalf.

In one posting from late October, the group celebrated the death of one operative who was killed “after direct targeting from the Zionist forces while he was leading a monitoring and reconnaissance team.”

Mourners raised flags during a funeral ceremony for this individual from a variety of Palestinian political groups, including Fatah, which is largely viewed by Western governments as a moderate voice, according to photographs posted by al-Sabireen on its Facebook page.

It also has been plucking recruits from rival terrorist groups, according to Rumley.

“It’s unclear exactly what Sabireen’s operational capabilities are right now, but we know that they’ve pulled recruits from a more established terror group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that they’ve lost at least two fighters in two separate Israeli strikes, so they’re on Israel’s radar,” Rumley said.

Al-Sabireen has been present at pro-Hezbollah rallies in Gaza that were also attended by leading Hamas officials.

While not much is known about the group’s composition, it appears to have two main leaders, one an operational leader and another who provides intellectual guidance.

Hisham Salem, the terror group’s top leader, formerly served as a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a State Department-designated terror organization, according to information provided by regional analysts. Salem, who is in his early 50s, was raised in the Gaza Strip and began referring to himself as al-Sabireen’s leader in 2014.

Salem claimed in a recent interview with the Palestinian press that armed members of the group are currently in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

“We have an armed branch whose goal it is to wage war on the Israeli occupation everywhere,” Salem was quoted as saying. “Within this framework we have members in the West Bank and Jerusalem who will soon receive financial and military support from us.”

A recent propaganda video produced by the organization and posted to YouTube shows soldiers marching through Gaza with AK-47s.

Al-Sabireen’s second in command, Mohammad Abu Nadi, frequently writes on al-Sabireen’s official website and praises Palestine as integral to the Arab world.

Al-Sabireen has taken a hardline stance against the United States, claiming in September on its Facebook page that the United States is responsible for “producing terrorists.”

The group’s Facebook page remains active with near-daily postings despite attempts by Facebook to shut it down.

While al-Sabireen has faced difficulty in expanding its base in Gaza, where the Hamas-controlled government cracks down on rival terror groups, it has been able to gain a foothold in the West Bank, where it can directly challenge both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Categories: Gaza, Hamas, Harakat al-Sabireen, Iran - sanctions relief, Iranian proxies, Israel, Jerusalem, West Bank
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Report: Kerry May Have Exposed Israeli Collaborator on Erekat’s Team

January 18, 2016

Report: Kerry May Have Exposed Israeli Collaborator on Erekat’s Team

By: David Israel Published: January 18th, 2016

Source: The Jewish Press » » Report: Kerry May Have Exposed Israeli Collaborator on Erekat’s Team

Palestinian Authority official Seab Erekat meets John Kerry Wednesday under photo of the golden-domed mosque on the Temple Mount.

Palestinian Authority official Seab Erekat meets John Kerry Wednesday under photo of the golden-domed mosque on the Temple Mount.
Photo Credit: Flash 90

Following reports that an employee of the PLO negotiation affairs department who worked for 20 year as an aide to Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Ramallah was arrested for “collaborating with Israel,” on Monday the London-based Arabic daily Rai Al-Youm revealed that the order to search for an Israeli spy on the negotiations team came two weeks ago from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who realized private conversations of PA seniors regarding their political position were known to the US based on Israeli information.

According to Rai Al-Youm, the protocols from secret high level meetings in Ramallah had been leaked to Israel for many years, and the Israelis regularly passed them on to Washington. As State Department officials were turning on the pressure on Abbas to reach a political compromise in the peace negotiations, they revealed their knowledge of intricate details of the Palestinian position, which raised Abbas’s suspicions about a leak. The chairman began questioning European officials, who confirmed to him that the US was receiving a regular flow of information about PA internal meetings from Israel.

Apparently, part of the reason why the arrest of the PLO Israeli collaborator has only taken place this week had to do with the attempt to keep the internal investigation away from Saeb Erekat himself, who only learned about the arrest a week ago. Erekat has been the PLO chief negotiator for years and was renowned for his uncompromising position.

The final round in the negotiations opened in July 2013, with Tzipi Livni heading the Israeli team, vs. Erekatr at the head of the Palestinian team. The talks came to a halt April 2014, when Israel balked on releasing the fourth group of security prisoners, and in response the PA applied unilaterally to join 15 UN institutions, in violation of the peace accords. The anxious negotiator at that part of the encounter was Secretary of State John Kerry, who was desperately trying to push both sides to continue the negotiations.

At some point there, in April 2014, Kerry apparently cited raw information the US was not supposed to have, thus exposing a 20-year operation Israel maintained inside the PLO top command.

About the Author: David writes news at JewishPress.com.

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Putin bypasses Israel, sets up joint war room for S. Syria with Jordan

January 14, 2016

Putin bypasses Israel, sets up joint war room for S. Syria with Jordan, DEBKAfile, January 14, 2016

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By teaming up with Jordan for a joint war room to cover operations in southern Syria, Putin has gone around Netanyahu’s back and acquired a helper for evicting Syrian rebels from southern Syria.

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In a pivotal step reflecting the changeability of military and political deals in Israel’s neighborhood, Jordan has almost overnight agreed to establish a shared war room with Russia for the concerted conduct of their operations in Syria. This represents an extreme reversal of Amman’s policy. Until now, Jordan fought against Russia’s protégée Bashar Assad from a joint war room north of Amman called the US Central Command Forward-Jordan, as part of a lineup with the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But this week Jordan shifted onto a new plane.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources say Jordanian King Abdullah’s decision to team up with Moscow starts a whole new ball game rolling on policy-making and intelligence-sharing. He doesn’t plan to shut down his shared command center with the US and Israel, but the center of gravity of Jordan’s military and intelligence efforts will be redirected to the new center with Russia, representing a major earthquake in those areas.

Amman is working hard to downplay the new partnership, presenting it as designed to foster better coordination between the American and Russian military efforts in Syria and the war on the Islamic State.

That picture is misleading.

With all due respect to the Jordanian monarch, his military and his intelligence services, they are not exactly qualified for the role of coordinator between the two world powers. The US and Russian presidents handle this in person. And in fact, the new Russian-Jordanian war room did come up, according to our Washington and Moscow sources, in the latest telephone conversation between the two presidents on Jan. 13.

Obama then held a quick meeting with King Abdullah at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and asked for an explanation.

For the various rebel militias holding out in large parts of southern Syria, including the Israeli border regions, the new Jordanian-Russian war room is bad news. Hitherto, Jordan provided the rebels with their main pipeline for fighters, weapons and funds from the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The US even ran training camps in Jordan for Syrian rebel fighters.

This pipeline is now likely to be shut down or reduced to a minimum.

The Jordanians gloss over their shift, claiming it is designed to force the Syrian rebels of the South to accept a ceasefire and join peace talks with the US and Russia on Syria’s future. That is no more than diplomatic-speak for the real purpose, which is to compel them to give up the fight against Assad, and make way for Moscow to achieve its key objective, which is to restore the Assad regime’s control over the South.

Ever since his major intervention in Syria, Putin has tried to persuade Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to pull the rug from under the Israeli-backed rebels in the South. They are deemed as a necessary buffer for securing Israel’s northern border and blocking the reimposition of Assad’s authority there.

The content of the exchanges between Putin and Netanyahu has only been shared with tight circles of confidants in Jerusalem and the Kremlin, so little is reliably known about their areas of agreement and dispute.

There is no doubt that the prime minister spoke firmly about Israel’s abiding concern that, once Assad regained control of the South, he would open the door up to the Israeli border and let in his allies and Israel’s arch enemies, Hizballah and the mostly-Iraqi Shiite militias fighting under the command of officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

By teaming up with Jordan for a joint war room to cover operations in southern Syria, Putin has gone around Netanyahu’s back and acquired a helper for evicting Syrian rebels from southern Syria.

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