Published on Aug 9, 2014
Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – United States Back In Iraq To Attack ISIS
Krauthammer: You Either Do Air Strikes Seriously Or Don’t Do Them At All
Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement – Striking ISIS – The Fight For Iraq – 8-10-2014 Bellow
EU ministers in search for united front on arming Iraq Conference of European foreign ministers in Brussels also to include discussion of situation in the Gaza Strip
By Alex Pigman August 15, 2014, 2:08 pm
via EU ministers in search for united front on arming Iraq | The Times of Israel.
russels (AFP) — EU ministers convened in Brussels on Friday in a rare summertime meeting to seek unanimous approval for the shipment of arms to Iraqi Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists.
France and Britain have already moved ahead with plans to provide weapons to beleaguered Iraqi forces, but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius pushed for the talks to mobilize an EU-wide response to the crisis in Iraq.
“I asked for this meeting so that all of Europe mobilizes and helps the Iraqis and Kurds,” Fabius said as he arrived for the talks.
Italy, which currently holds the EU’s rotating leadership and whose foreign minister Federica Mogherini is shortlisted to become the next EU foreign affairs chief, also called for talks.
“The Kurds need our support,” she said as she arrived at the meeting.
“It is important for us that there be a European agreement,” she added.
Defense matters are strictly the purview of member states and the push for an EU stance to send arms to a conflict zone is a rare one.
But alarming images of Iraqi minorities, including Christians, under siege by jihadists have struck chords in European capitals.
EU governments are also alarmed by the Islamic State’s ability to attract radicals from Europe who then return home to the West battle-hardened.
Ahead of Friday’s meeting, support for a strong message on arming Iraq was growing, even from member states historically less inclined to back military adventures abroad.
Usually cautious Germany this week pledged to work “full-speed” on the supply of “non-lethal” equipment such as armored vehicles, helmets and flak jackets to Iraq.
Germany is a major arms manufacturer and going into the meeting, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier seemed ready to boost German action, despite national restrictions limiting arms exports to raging conflicts.
“Europeans must not limit themselves to praising the courageous fight of the Kurdish security forces. We also need to do something first of all to meet basic needs,” he said.
Sweden, which is usually reluctant to participate in military missions, stressed, however, that the EU’s “great power is in its humanitarian response.”
“Other countries have power to do other things,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
Current EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who officially convened the meeting, had been criticized earlier in the week for the bloc’s slow response to the unfurling crisis in Iraq.
But a senior European official, speaking in the run-up to the talks on Thursday, deplored the “distorted” view of a shut-down EU in August.
This was “at best unfair,” he said. The European Union “is not on holiday.”
Earlier this week, the European Commission announced it would boost humanitarian aid to Iraq to 17 million euros ($22 million), and gave the green light for special emergency measures to meet the crisis.
But Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, who is also attending the meeting, said the real challenge in helping civilians was access, not funding.
Also on the agenda will be the crises in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip and a request by Spain to address the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
UN to vote on measure to combat al-Qaeda-linked fighters
Security Council calls to disarm and disband Islamic State, al-Nusra Front and other such groups
By Edith M. Lederer August 15, 2014, 2:38 am
via UN to vote on measure to combat al-Qaeda-linked fighters | The Times of Israel.
NITED NATIONS (AP) — UN Security Council members have reached agreement on a draft resolution that would punish the recruitment and financing of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria and demand that all al-Qaeda-linked groups disarm and disband immediately, diplomats said Thursday.
Britain’s UN Mission, which currently holds the council presidency, said the resolution will be put to a vote at 3 p.m. EDT (19:00 GMT) on Friday. Diplomats expect it to be approved unanimously.
The resolution was drafted in response to the recent offensive by the Islamic State extremist group, which has taken control of a large swath of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, brutalizing civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, as well as increasing terrorist activity in Syria including by al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.
It demands that the Islamic State group, Jabhat al-Nusra, “and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with al-Qaeda cease all violence and terrorist acts, and disarm and disband with immediate effect.”
It also demands that “all foreign terrorist fighters” associated with the Islamic State group, which is a splinter group of al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups “withdraw immediately.”
The draft resolution expresses the council’s readiness to impose sanctions on those recruiting, supporting and fighting for terrorist groups.
It names six people to be added to the sanctions blacklist and encourages the council committee monitoring sanctions “to urgently consider additional designations” of individuals and entities supporting the Islamic State group or Jabhat al-Nusra.
The Security Council adopted a wide-ranging resolution immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States to tackle terrorism, demanding that countries adopt national laws to combat terrorism and cooperate in bringing the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of terrorist acts to justice. The council also extended sanctions against the Taliban in Afghanistan, which were imposed in 1999 to cover al-Qaeda and later its far-flung affiliates.
The draft resolution urges all countries to meet their obligations under the 2001 resolution and reaffirms its requirement that all countries prevent the financing and active or passive support for terrorist acts.
It notes “with concern” that oil fields controlled by the Islamic State group, Jabhat al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda-linked groups are generating income that is supporting their recruitment efforts and ability to carry out terrorist operations. It warns that any involvement in financing terrorism may lead to sanctions.
The draft resolution calls on all countries to take measures to suppress the flow of their citizens and residents to fight for terrorist groups and bring those who do to justice. It also encourages governments to engage with communities and individuals who are “at risk of recruitment and violent radicalization to discourage travel to Syria and Iraq” to fight for the Islamic State group, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups.
Senators use harsh language to call UNRWA on its outrageous ties to Hamas and its one-sided condemnations of Israel
By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Published: August 14th, 2014
via The Jewish Press » » Bi-Partisan Senate Trio Demand Answers From Kerry on UNRWA Conduct in Gaza.
At least some members of the U.S. congress finally realized that if weapons belonging to Hamas were found in UNRWA facilities, questions need to be asked of UNRWA employees as to how those weapons got there, who put them there, who observed them, what – if anything – was done to remove them (or to keep them there), along with other pertinent and essential lines of inquiry.
U.S. senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), sent a letter last week to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, demanding an investigation into the actions of the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) during the fighting in Gaza.
The senators used very strong language to condemn the agency on several different bases.
First, the discovery, on three different occasions, of Hamas weapons in UNRWA facilities, whereupon the weapons were returned to the terrorist organization, Hamas.
Second, UNRWA has repeatedly issued statements condemning Israel and ignoring the wrongdoing of Hamas.
And third, the senators pointed out the very troubling close affiliation between Hamas and UNRWA, the irrefutable proof of which was the election of 25 Hamas candidates were voted onto the 27 member UNRWA ‘s workers’ union board in 2012.
Next, the senators explained why they are convinced it is appropriate for them to demand such an investigation into UNRWA: we pay for it! The United States contributed $294 million in 2013. It is the single largest donor to UNRWA. Since 1950, more than $5 billion U.S. taxpayers’ dollars were funneled into UNRWA.
Senator Mark Kirk is a member of the Senate Appropriations sub-committee which has jurisdiction over the Department of State, as well as U.S. contributions to U.N. activities. Kirk said in a statement posted on his website:
I am demanding a credible and independent assessment of UNRWA’s actions during this crisis. Given UNRWA’s ties to terrorism in the past, U.S. taxpayers deserve immediate answers and full transparency regarding their intentions and actions. The State Department must make clear to the U.N. that it need to take all necessary steps to prevent Hamas from using taxpayer-funded property to launch attacks against our allies.
Senator Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, added:
When leaders and organizations of the United Nations blur the clear distinction between a nation-state defending itself and a terrorist organization attempting to murder civilians, Americans take note. When an organization funded in part by the U.S. suggests that the two are morally equivalent, U.S. taxpayers take note. Israel is undertaking extraordinary efforts to avoid civilian casualties while Hamas cynically uses other Palestinians as human shields and deliberately attempts to kill Israeli civilians. U.N. resources and personnel cannot be complicit in Hamas’ violent terrorist actions.
Senator Marco Rubio is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rubio had the following to say:
As the U.N.’s leading source of funding, American taxpayers will not tolerate the use of U.N. facilities by terrorists to stage attacks against our allies. We know Hamas has been using civilians as human shields and stores its weapons and fighters in civilian buildings, but for the U.N. to stand idly by while Hamas attacks Israel from its facilities is an outrage. This is the latest example of why the U.S. needs to bring greater transparency and accountability to the U.N. by pursuing reform of its programs and institutions.
The text of the letter the senators sent to Secretary of State Kerry:
Dear Secretary Kerry,
We write to express our profound concern with the troubling role the United Nations Refugee and Work Agency (UNRWA) has played during the ongoing crisis in Gaza, including multiple instances of weapons found at UNRWA schools as well as one-sided statements from UNRWA leadership that unjustly condemn Israel. For instance, on July 14, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl stated that Israeli security forces are acting “contrary to international humanitarian law” and also called Israel’s Gaza blockade “illegal.”
As you know, UNRWA admitted on July 17, July 22nd, and July 30th that it found rockets belonging to Hamas on its property. We commend UNRWA’s quick condemnation of these incidents, but are concerned with the ultimate fate of these rockets, which UNRWA claimed to have turned over to the “local authorities” or have gone missing. We fear that this means these rockets may have found their way back into Hamas’ hands.
We urge the State Department to launch an independent investigation into these incidents and to call on the United Nations leadership to hold UNRWA accountable, including by reprimanding or dismissing the UNRWA staff responsible as appropriate, as well as asking the U.N. to ensure that these incidents never take place again.
In the course of your investigation, we ask you to examine the fate of these rockets, what measures the U.N. took to secure UNRWA property, and how the U.S. intends to work with the U.N. to make sure incidents like these are never repeated.
As you know, the United States is the largest donor to UNRWA and has contributed almost $5 billion to the organization since 1950. The United States taxpayers deserve to know if UNRWA is fulfilling its mission or taking sides in this tragic conflict.
We look forward to your reply,
Sincerely,
Now that the strong statements have been made and a letter from three members of senate committees with jurisdiction over the State Department and the U.N. has been sent to the secretary of state, it behooves Israel’s supporters to demand follow-through.
US Sends More Advisers to Iraq, Steps Up Air Strikes
Tuesday, 12 Aug 2014 07:23 PM
via US Readies More Advisers for Iraq, Steps Up Air Strikes.
Breaking:
The Obama administration has sent about 130 additional military personnel to Iraq, U.S Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Tuesday, as Washington seeks to help Iraq contain the threat posed by hardline militants from the Islamic State.
Hagel, speaking to troops in California, said the soldiers had arrived in the area around Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital, Arbil, earlier in the day on Tuesday.
A U.S. defense official, in a statement issued as Hagel was speaking, said the soldiers sent to northern Iraq would “assess the scope of the humanitarian mission and develop additional humanitarian assistance options beyond the current airdrop effort in support of displaced Iraqi civilians trapped on Sinjar Mountain by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.”
Earlier Story:
Iraq’s new prime minister-designate won swift endorsements from uneasy mutual allies the United States and Iran on Tuesday as he called on political leaders to end crippling feuds that have let jihadists seize a third of the country.
Haider al-Abadi still faces opposition closer to home, where his Shi’ite party colleague Nuri al-Maliki has refused to step aside after eight years as premier that have alienated Iraq’s once dominant Sunni minority and irked Washington and Tehran.
However, Shi’ite militia and army commanders long loyal to Maliki signaled their backing for the change, as did many people on the streets of Baghdad, eager for an end to fears of a further descent into sectarian and ethnic bloodletting.
Sunni neighbors Turkey and Saudi Arabia also welcomed Abadi’s appointment.
A statement from Maliki’s office said he met senior security officials and army and police commanders to urge them “not to interfere in the political crisis”. At least 17 people were killed in two car bombings in Shi’ite areas of Baghdad – a kind of attack that has become increasingly routine in recent months.
As Western powers and international aid agencies considered further help for tens of thousands of people driven from their homes and under threat from the Sunni militants of the Islamic State near the Syrian border, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would consider requests for military and other assistance once Abadi forms a government to unite the country.
However, U.S. officials said the Obama administration was already considering sending more military advisers to Iraq. Speaking on condition of anonymity, several said a decision to send at least 70 extra military personnel was likely later on Tuesday, although a final decision had not yet been made.
Underscoring the convergence of interest in Iraq that marks the normally hostile relationship between Washington and Iran, senior Iranian officials congratulated Abadi on his nomination, three months after a parliamentary election left Maliki’s bloc as the biggest in the legislature. Like Western powers, Shi’ite Iran is alarmed by Sunni militants’ hold in Syria and Iraq.
“Iran supports the legal process that has taken its course with respect to choosing Iraq’s new prime minister,” the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the Supreme National Security Council was quoted as saying.
“Iran favors a cohesive, integrated and secure Iraq,” he said, adding an apparent appeal to Maliki to concede.
Abadi himself, long exiled in Britain, is seen as a far less polarizing, sectarian figure than Maliki, who is also from the Shi’ite Islamic Dawa party. Abadi appears to have the blessing of Iraq’s powerful Shi’ite clergy, a major force since U.S. troops toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraqi state television said Abadi “called on all political powers who believe in the constitution and democracy to unite efforts and close ranks to respond to Iraq’s great challenges”.
One politician close to Abadi told Reuters that the prime minister-designate had begun contacting leaders of major groups to sound them out on forming a new cabinet. The president said on Monday he hoped he would succeed within the next month.
A statement from a major Shi’ite militia group, Asaib Ahl Haq, which has backed Maliki and reinforced the Iraqi army as it fell back from the north in June, called for an end to the legalistic arguments of the kind used by Maliki to justify his retaining power and urged “self-restraint by all sides”.
It said leaders should “give priority to the public interest over the private” and respect clerical guidance – a clear reference to indications that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani favors the removal of Maliki to address the national crisis.
While U.S. officials have been at pains not to appear to be imposing a new leadership on Iraq, three years after U.S. troops left the country, President Barack Obama was quick to welcome the appointment. Wrangling over a new government since Iraqis elected the new parliament in April has been exploited by the Islamic State to seize much of the north and west.
Obama has sent hundreds of U.S. military advisers and last week launched air strikes on the militants after they made dramatic gains against the Peshmerga forces of Iraq’s autonomous ethnic Kurdish region, an ally of the Baghdad authorities.
Kurdish president Masoud Barzani told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that he would work with Abadi, the White House said.
U.S. officials have said the Kurds are also receiving direct military aid, and U.S. and British aircraft have dropped food and other supplies to terrified civilians, including from the Yazidi religious minority, who have taken refuge in remote mountains. The United Nations said on Tuesday that 20,000 to 30,000 Yazidis may still be sheltering on the arid Mount Sinjar.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the Yazidis’ plight on the mountain as dire. “I urge the international community to do even more to provide the protection they need,” he told reporters.
Kerry, who on Monday had warned Maliki not to resort to force to hold on to power, said on Tuesday that Abadi could win more U.S. military and economic assistance.
“We are prepared to consider additional political, economic and security options as Iraq’s government starts to build a new government,” he told a news conference in Australia, where he also reaffirmed that Washington would not send combat troops.
“The best thing for stability in Iraq is for an inclusive government to bring the disaffected parties to the table and work with them in order to make sure there is the kind of sharing of power and decision-making that people feel confident the government represents all of their interests,” Kerry added.
It remains unclear how much support Maliki, who remains acting premier, has to obstruct the formation of a new administration. One senior government official told Reuters that his fears of a military standoff in the capital had eased as police and troops had reduced their presence on the streets.
“Yesterday Baghdad was very tense,” he said. “But key military commanders have since contacted the president and said they would support him and not Maliki.”
In both Shi’ite and Sunni districts of the capital, many spoke of a sense of relief and cautious hope for change.
“I’m very happy Maliki will not be prime minister again. I hate him; he killed my sons and broke my heart,” said 68-year-old Um Aqeel as she walked in the Karrada shopping district.
Saying two of her sons had died in violence in the past year – one while serving as a soldier in the north in May – she said: “Maliki knows only the language of war and never believes in peace, just like Saddam. Yesterday when I heard he was out I felt justice has been done by God, and my two beloved sons who were killed because of him will rest in peace.”
But as Um Aqeel offered sweets to passers-by in the mainly Shi’ite area to share her satisfaction, one man, Murtadha al-Waeli, warned her angrily that she was wrong to celebrate.
“Soon you will all regret Maliki’s going,” he said. “It was he who built a strong army. Iraq will fall apart after Maliki, and we will lose the battle with the terrorists. Shi’ites will pay a high price for losing Maliki. Just wait and see.”
In the mainly Sunni district of Adhamiya, where many people have long resented what they saw as Maliki’s determination to keep Sunnis out of positions of influence, cafe owner Khalid Saad said he hoped Abadi would learn a lesson from the past by keeping his distance from Iran and leaving Sunnis in peace.
“Maliki treated us Sunni like aliens,” he said. “We hope Abadi will learn from Maliki’s fatal mistakes and pull the country back from its sea of troubles.
Iraq crisis: ‘It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead’On board Iraqi army helicopter delivering aid to the trapped Yazidis, Jonathan Krohn sees a hellish sight
via Iraq crisis: ‘It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead’ – Telegraph.
Mount Sinjar stinks of death. The few Yazidis who have managed to escape its clutches can tell you why. “Dogs were eating the bodies of the dead,” said Haji Khedev Haydev, 65, who ran through the lines of Islamic State jihadists surrounding it.
On Sunday night, I became the first western journalist to reach the mountains where tens of thousands of Yazidis, a previously obscure Middle Eastern sect, have been taking refuge from the Islamic State forces that seized their largest town, Sinjar.
I was on board an Iraqi Army helicopter, and watched as hundreds of refugees ran towards it to receive one of the few deliveries of aid to make it to the mountain. The helicopter dropped water and food from its open gun bays to them as they waited below. General Ahmed Ithwany, who led the mission, told me: “It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead.”
Two American aid flights have also made it to the mountain, where they have dropped off more than 36,000 meals and 7,000 gallons of drinking water to help the refugees, and last night two RAF C-130 transport planes were also on the way.
However, Iraqi officials said that much of the US aid had been “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact.
Handfuls of refugees have managed to escape on the helicopters but many are being left behind because the craft are unable to land on the rocky mountainside. There, they face thirst and starvation, as well as the crippling heat of midsummer.
Hundreds, if not more, have already died, including scores of children. A Yazidi Iraqi MP, Vian Dakhil, told reporters in Baghdad:
“We have one or two days left to help these people. After that they will start dying en masse.”
The Iraqi Army is running several aid missions every day, bringing supplies including water, flour, bread and shoes.
The helicopter flights aim to airlift out refugees on each flight, but the mountains are sometimes too rocky to land on, meaning they return empty.
Even when it can land, the single helicopter can take just over a dozen refugees at a time, and then only from the highest point of the mountain where it is out of range of jihadist missiles. Barely 100 have been rescued in this way.
The flights have also dropped off at least 50 armed Peshmerga, Kurdish forces, on the mountain, according to Captain Ahmed Jabar.
Other refugees have made their way through Islamic State lines, evading the jihadists to reach safety, or travelling through
Kurdish-controlled sections of Syria to reach the town of Dohuk. So far the Yazidi refugees left behind have survived by hiding in old cave dwellings, drinking from natural springs and hunting small animals, but with families scattered across Mount Sinjar, a barren range stretching for around 35 miles near the border with Syria, there are fears aid will not reach them all unless the humanitarian relief operation is significantly stepped up .
Hundreds can now be seen making their way slowly across its expanse, carrying what few possessions they managed to flee with on their backs. Exhausted children lie listlessly in the arms of their parents, older ones trudging disconsolately alongside while the sun beats down overhead.
The small amount of relief the peshmerga militia can bring up into the mountain is not simply enough.
One pershmerga fighter, Faisal Elas Hasso, 40, said: “To be honest, there’s not enough for everyone,” he said. “It’s five people to one bottle.”
The refugees who made it out described desperate scenes as they awaited help from the outside world.
“There were about 200 of us, and about 20 of that number have died,” said Saydo Haji, 28. “We can live for two days, not more.”
Emad Edo, 27, who was rescued in an airlift on Friday at the mountain’s highest point explains how he had to leave his niece, who barely had enough strength to keep her eyes open, to her fate.
“She was about to die, so we left her there and she died,” he said.
Others shared similar stories. “Even the caves smell very bad,” Mr Edo added. According to several of the airlifted refugees, the Geliaji cave alone has become home to 50 dead bodies.
Saydo Kuti Naner, 35, who was one of 13 Yazidis who snuck through Islamic State lines on Thursday morning, said he travelled through Kurdish-controlled Syria to get to Kurdistan.
He left behind his mother and father, too old to make the rough trip, as well as 200 sheep. “We got lucky,” he said. “A girl was running [with us] and she got shot.” He added that this gave enough cover for the rest of them to get away.
Mikey Hassan said he, his two brothers and their families fled up into Mount Sinjar and then managed to escape to the Kurdish city of Dohuk after two days, by shooting their way past the jihadists. Mr Hassan said he and his family went for 17 hours with no food before getting their hands on some bread.
The Yazidis, an ethnically Kurdish community that has kept its religion alive for centuries in the face of persecution, are at particular threat from the Islamists, who regard them as ‘devil worshippers’, and drove them from their homes as the peshmerga fighters withdrew.
There have been repeated stories that the jihadists have seized hundreds of Yazidi women and are holding them in Mosul, either in schools or the prison. These cannot be confirmed, though they are widely believed and several Yazidi refugees said they had been unable to contact Yazidi women relatives who were living behind Islamic State lines.
Kamil Amin, of the Iraqi human rights ministry, said: “We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them.”
Tens of thousands of Christians have also been forced to flee in the face of the advancing IS fighters, many cramming the roads east and north to Erbil and Dohuk. On Thursday alone, up to 100,000 Iraqi Christians fled their homes in the Plain of Ninevah around Mosul.
Refugees said the American air strikes on IS positions outside Erbil were too little, too late. They said they felt abandoned by everyone – the central government in Baghdad, the Americans and British, who invaded in 2003, and now the Kurds, who had promised to protect them.
“When the Americans withdrew from Iraq they didn’t protect the Christians,” said Jenan Yousef, an Assyrian Catholic who fled Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town, in the early hours of
Thursday. “The Christians became the scapegoats. Everyone has been killing us.”
The situation in Sinjar has irreparably damaged the notion of home for the Yazidis. For a large portion of them, the unique culture of the area will never return, and they will therefore have nothing to go back for.
“We can’t go back to Sinjar mountain because Sinjar is surrounded by Arabs,” said Aydo Khudida Qasim, 34, who said that Sunni Arab villagers around Sinjar helped Islamic State take the area. Now he as well as many of his friends and relatives want to get out of Iraq
altogether. “We want to be refugees in other countries, not our own,” he said.
*Additional reporting by Richard Spencer, Erbil
Bennett: Salary transfer to Hamas is calm for money to terrorism
Senior minister slams agreement taking shape in Cairo, calling it a ‘dangerous euphemism’; ‘It’s a diplomatic protection: Pay us – we’ll shoot at your later, don’t pay us – we’ll shoot at you now,’ Bennett says.
Roi KaisLatest Update: 08.12.14, 16:10 / Israel News
via Bennett: Salary transfer to Hamas is calm for money to terrorism – Israel News, Ynetnews.
Economy Minister and member of the Security Cabinet, Naftali Bennett, has gone on the offensive on Tuesday against an agreement taking shape in Cairo with the Palestinian factions, the details of which were published for the first time on Ynet on Monday night.
Details of an agreement obtained by Ynet show Israel has agreed to ease the blockade on Gaza, but not lift it entirely. In contrast, there is no agreement to demilitarize Gaza, as demanded by Israel.
Ynet has learned that Israel will agree to transfer the Hamas government salaries through a third party – facilitating the payment of Hamas officials’ salaries. It was further agreed that Israel would gradually expand the fishing area off the Gaza coast, initially expected to be six nautical miles. It was also decided that construction materials will enter Gaza under close supervision.
Bennett called the expected salary transfer “a dangerous euphemism. It’s a diplomatic protection: Pay us – we’ll shoot at your later, don’t pay us – we’ll shoot at you now.”
Bennett said that if this proposal goes to a vote in the cabinet, he will work with all of the tools at his disposal to convince the other ministers to reject it.
“The money will be transferred to the terrorists who are digging under our feet, to the rocket manufacturers, and to those who shoot at us. It’s very simple. It’s a ‘calm for money to terrorism’ formula,” he said.
The economy minister claimed this would “both leave the state of Israel with the continuation of Hamas’ strengthening, and harm our deterrence.”
“You can’t fight Hamas with one hand, and fund it with the other. The claim the money won’t go to terrorism when you give it to Hamas is false, to say the least, and this is exactly why Hamas is insisting on getting this funding,” he added.
Another issue close to agreement is that Israel will double the number of trucks entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing to approximately 600 trucks per day. Similarly, a decision by Israel to increase the monthly quota of permits for entry into the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing is also close to being finalized. At the same time, criteria for entry into Israel from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will be broadened.
A member of the Palestinian delegation told a Islamic-Jihad affiliated news site on Tuesday that a long-term ceasefire agreement could be reached by Wednesday.
The source claimed the agreement would include the lifting of the Gaza blockade, but failed to provide any details on that.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Yusef al-Hasayina told the site the Palestinian delegation is halfway through discussions on the major issues on the table.
“The Egyptian side has agreed to significant easing on the Rafah border crossing. There’s great determination among the Palestinian delegation to reach a real agreement that will bring to the end of the aggression and removal of the siege. Things in the Cairo talks will become clearer during the next 24 hours,” al-Hasayina said.
An Israeli official, on the other hand, was quoted by the media on Tuesday morning as saying no progress has been made in the talks.
“The gaps between the sides are big and there is no progress in the negotiations,” said an Israeli official, who declined to be named. There was no immediate comment from Hamas, the Islamist group that dominates Gaza.
A Palestinian official with knowledge of the Cairo talks told Reuters, on condition of anonymity: “So far we can’t say a breakthrough has been achieved … Twenty-four hours and we shall see whether we have an agreement.”
In the negotiations held Monday, the parties did not reach an understanding regarding the Gaza ports. Hamas sources in the Gaza Strip said Monday evening that it would be possible to delay in dealing with the airport and seaport if Israel agrees to the rest of their requirements. The sources noted that such a situation would still require an agreement in principle for the establishment of the ports.
Attila Somfalvi and Reuters contributed to this report.
Hamas Clarifies Truce Would Only Be to Plan Next War
Hamas leadership in Gaza and Qatar reportedly divided over continuing terror war or stopping to ‘plan next campaign.
‘By Ari YasharFirst Publish: 8/12/2014, 3:55 PM
via Hamas Says Truce Would Only Be to Plan Next War – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.
Even as Israeli representatives are in Cairo to discuss a truce with Hamas on Tuesday, the terrorist group is taking pains to clarify it has no intentions of desisting from trying to wipe Israel off the map.
Hamas’s “military wing,” the Al-Qassam Brigades, released a statement presenting its position on the ongoing talks in Egypt.
“The warriors in Gaza are waiting with Allah’s help to renew the fighting, or to return to planning the next campaign. There’s no escape. Either jihad or planning (for the next jihad),” declared the statement.
The remarks leave no doubts that even in the case of a truce, from Hamas’s perspective the lull in fighting would only be an opportunity to rearm for the next terror war on the Jewish state. This facet is particularly concerning in light of reports of Israel agreeing to finance Hamas’s officials in Gaza as part of an agreement.
Slamming this proposal, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) stated Monday “this is political protection money: you pay us, then we’ll shoot you later; you don’t pay us, then we’ll shoot you right now. …It is impossible to fight our enemy with one hand and to fund it with the other.”
Further demonstrating how Hamas appears to view the talks as a chance for financial gains and to prepare for the next round of fighting is analysis suggesting that Hamas agreed to the current 72-hour ceasefire, which began on Sunday night at 12 a.m., as a means to gain Saudi and UAE funds.
Hamas divided over ending or continuing the war
Azzam al-Ahmed, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) delegation in Cairo for the truce talks, told Walla! on Tuesday that the talks are advancing, but “the gaps are still wide.”
The PA official, who represented Fatah in the Hamas unity deal in April and led negotiations in forming the unity government, insisted that Hamas’s period of controlling Gaza is over, and called for Israel to concede to Hamas demands for a sea and airport while supporting the PA in taking control of the Hamas enclave.
Another senior official from the PA delegation told Walla! that there are estimations that the current ceasefire may be extended by an additional 72-hour period.
Revealing Hamas’s position on the talks, the official commented “I’m still not sure that there’s a decision by Hamas to end this war.”
“There’s a great disagreement now between the Hamas leadership in Qatar headed by Khaled Mashaal, and between the senior members of the organization in Gaza. Doha (Qatar’s capital – ed.) is urging Mashaal all the time not to agree to Egypt as an intermediary,” disclosed the official.
The Gaza branch of Hamas also seems to hold enmity towards Egypt; just this week a senior Hamas leader, Mustafa Sawaf, urged the Palestinian Arab negotiating team to reject Egypt as an intermediary and find another third-party country to help Hamas realize its demands.
Liberman to ‘Post’: First get rid of Hamas, then hold PA elections, then pursue regional accord
By HERB KEINONLAST UPDATED: 08/12/2014 15:34
As long as Hamas is strong on the ground, controls Gaza, and is popular in Judea and Samaria, a diplomatic process is simply impossible,” foreign minister says.
Getting rid of Hamas is a necessary condition for any wider diplomatic breakthrough, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Tuesday.
“In order to make a diplomatic process possible, we have to get rid of Hamas,” he said. “As long as Hamas is strong on the ground, controls Gaza, and is popular in Judea and Samaria, a diplomatic process is simply impossible.”
Liberman’s comments came following skeletal diplomatic plans presented recently by two of his colleagues on the eight-person security cabinet: Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid. Each of those plans leaned heavily on the Palestinian Authority, with Livni calling for a renewal of negotiations with the PLO (of which the PA is an organ), and Lapid calling for an international conference.
The foreign minister, during the interview conducted in his Jerusalem office, said it would be a mistake to build any process right now based on PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Abu Mazen’s [Abbas’s]legitimacy does not exist,” he said. “After we get rid of Hamas, the next stage is elections… We have to sign an international agreement with somebody with whom there is no doubt whether he has the authority to sign an agreement with us.”
Abbas does not have that legitimacy or authority, because there has not been an election in the PA since 2006, Liberman said.
“First topple Hamas, then elections, then a diplomatic process,” he said.
But the diplomatic process Liberman envisions is not a return to Oslo-style separate negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Rather, he envisions something much larger, which he termed a “regional comprehensive solution.”
“It is important to emphasize that our conflict is not a conflict with the Palestinians. Therefore, all the attempts to solve the conflict with the Palestinians failed,” he said.
The failure on the Palestinian track time after time was because of a faulty diagnosis, he stressed.
Israel’s conflict is not with the Palestinians, but rather with the Arab world, and has three dimensions: the Arab countries, the Palestinians, and the “split identity” of the Israeli Arabs, Liberman said. What was needed was one package that would solve – or as he said, “arrange” – Israel’s “relations with all three dimensions at one time.”
“This is the only way it will work,” he said. “The Palestinians alone do not have the critical mass to finish a deal with Israel that will demand many difficult decisions. If they do not feel that the Arab world is with them, they will not do it.”
In a departure from his position in the past, Liberman said the 2002 Saudi initiative could form a “basis” for arranging Israel’s relations with the Arab world, as long as it does not include any reference to a Palestinian right of refugee return.
“I think the Saudi initiative is much more relevant today than it was previously,” he said, adding that the central idea behind the initiative was not only an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, but also an arrangement with the entire Arab world.
Asked what has changed to make him more amenable to the Saudi initiative, the foreign minister said there was a greater commonality of interests than there was a decade ago between Israel and the moderate Arab world.
Liberman pointed out that at the summit in Riyadh in March between US President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch – according to media reports – raised three issues: Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the spillover effect of the conflict in Syria on the region.
“These are exactly the three problems bothering us,” he said. “So where there is a commonality of interests that is clear to everyone, there is an opportunity.”
While a separate agreement with the Palestinians would only be a “headache” for Israel, since there would be constant demands and friction over issues such as border crossings and taxes, there would be benefits in a wider arrangement that includes ties with Saudi Arabia and the moderate states in the Persian Gulf, Liberman said. “I think they understand now that no one from the outside will solve the problems of the Middle East,” he said.
He stressed that such an arrangement would have to include arrangements regarding the Israeli Arabs, and that he would insist on redrawing borders to transfer land and populations.
“When talking about [land] swaps, the [Arab] Triangle [east of Kfar Saba] needs to be part of a future Palestinian state,” he said, restating a position he has long advocated.
Liberman said he could not countenance a situation whereby Israeli citizens hold a sympathy strike with Hamas in Gaza during a time of war, while Israelis – both Jews and Muslims – were being killed by Hamas.
“From my perspective, those who identify with Hamas during a time of war should not be Israeli citizens,” he said, adding that the “dividing line” was not whether one was Jewish, Christian or Muslim, but rather whether one was loyal to the state, its symbols and values.
Studies were under way to check the feasibility of his ideas, Liberman said. An international conference would be the last stage of this “regional comprehensive solution,” and numerous understandings would have to be drawn up beforehand, he said.
Liberman said the commonality of interests he spoke of was not only recognized by governments, but was trickling down to the people as well.
“In order to understand what is happening in the Arab world, to see the difference in the Arab world, turn on Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya to see how things are broadcast,” he said. “ It is like night and day.
While he characterized the Qatar-backed Al Jazeera as a “brainwashing tool” for global terrorist movements, he said the Saudi-supported Al-Arabiya “understands that the central problem is the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the suffering in Gaza is not because of Israel, but because of Hamas.”
While extremely critical of the role Qatar is playing by funding terrorist groups not only in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia and even Europe, he did not exaggerate the leverage the country has over Hamas.
Qatar was hosting Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Doha, and funding them handsomely, to ensure that they only operate outside Qatar, the foreign minister said. He characterized this as Qatar paying “protection money” to the terrorist organization.
“It is paying protection money in order to ensure security and quiet and calm inside Qatar, so they would work only outside,” he said. “I don’t know how much they are able to influence Hamas. I think Hamas has more influence on Qatar, than Qatar does on Hamas.”
Liberman was not optimistic about the outcome of the cease-fire talks being held in Cairo, saying that Hamas’s minimum demands were much more than Israel could give – in both the short and long terms. In the short term, he said, Hamas will stymie Israel’s demands for disarmament of Gaza, and also the introduction of any effective supervisory mechanism to ensure that money and construction materials pouring into the Strip after the conflict will not be diverted for Hamas’s use.
Furthermore, certain long-term goals of Hamas – such as a sea port – are things that Israel could never agree to.
“Hamas’s ultimate demand for a sea port is designed to bypass all the supervisory mechanisms we want to set up,” Liberman noted. “It is clear that the whole idea of a sea port is to smuggle in weapons, construction materials, terrorists and advisers from Iran and other places.”
Regarding the composition of the UN Human Rights Council commission named to investigate the Gaza operation, Liberman would not say whether Israel would cooperate with the probe, saying “We don’t have to say what we are going to do.”
He did, however, blast the appointment to the panel of Canadian professor William Schabas, whom he said not only thinks that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – but also former president Shimon Peres – needed to face charges at the International Criminal Court.
Considering Schabas’s record, Liberman said, he was surprised the UNHRC did not appoint Hamas head Khaled Mashaal to lead the inquiry, since their ideas about Israel are “more or less the same.”
On another issue, Liberman – when asked what he meant recently when he said that Israel would respond to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s anti-Semitic comments if they continued after Sunday’s presidential elections – said that while Israel was not looking for any conflict or friction with anyone, “we cannot accept a situation where we are someone’s punching bag.”
“We are trying to preserve correct ties with Turkey,” Liberman said. “We have no interest in creating a conflict.”
He pointed out that trade with Turkey has increased over the past few years, and that the Foreign Ministry approved recent requests from Ankara to send drugs and humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as to fly injured Palestinians to Turkey for medical treatment.
Political crisis roils Baghdad as Maliki refuses to cede power
By MICHAEL WILNERLAST UPDATED: 08/12/2014 01:16
Iraq’s president nominates successor to longtime PM; US warplanes conduct bombing campaign on Islamic State fighters at base of Mount Sinjar; Obama wants unity gov’t in Baghdad “as quickly as possible.”
via Political crisis roils Baghdad as Maliki refuses to cede power | JPost | Israel News.
WASHINGTON – In a political challenge to a country already under assault by an extremist Sunni army, Iraq’s longtime prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is refusing to cede control as his term of office nears its end, suggesting over the weekend a willingness to use force to stay in power.
The power struggle in Baghdad is compounding a military crisis in northern Iraq, where the Islamic State, a radical religious militia holding swaths of Iraqi and Syrian territory, has challenged the control of the government.
At the invitation of that government and citing a moral imperative, the United States continued a military assault on Islamic State assets on Monday, including targets outside the city of Erbil as well as its first airstrikes against targets near Mount Sinjar. One series of bombings, at the base of the mountain refuge for religious minorities, included checkpoints, trucks, and US-made humvees commandeered and operated by the terrorist network.
Earlier on Monday, Iraq’s President Fouad Masoum nominated Haider al-Abadi as Maliki’s successor, after strong encouragement from Washington to abide by the country’s decade-old constitution.
Speaking to reporters from Martha’s Vineyard, US President Barack Obama congratulated Masoum and Abadi, encouraging the leadership to “unite Iraq’s different communities” and to “form a new cabinet as quickly as possible.”
Reiterating America’s commitment to the Iraqi people, Obama repeated his belief that a diverse, representative government in Baghdad was a necessary partner to meet the difficult task of confronting the Islamic State.
Abadi is a Shi’ite and a member of Maliki’s Dawa Party.
But Abadi’s own party colleagues publicly rejected his appointment on Monday, charging that his nomination had “no legitimacy” and that Abadi “only represents himself.”
In a demonstration of his anger, Maliki – still technically prime minister after eight years in power – ordered a show of force on the streets of Baghdad on Sunday leading up to the announcement, which was welcomed by the US, United Kingdom and United Nations.
The US has noticed “no discernible change” in the security presence in Baghdad, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington, adding that Maliki is still the country’s prime minister.
Abadi has 30 days to form and present a new government before Maliki officially steps down.
US Vice President Joe Biden called Masoum and Abadi on behalf of the United States, to congratulate them on the step forward.
“The prime minister-designate expressed his intent to move expeditiously to form a broad-based, inclusive government capable of countering the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and building a better future for Iraqis from all communities,” the White House said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry came out with a statement congratulating Abadi — and warning Maliki not to “stir the waters” with violence in the streets of the Iraqi capital.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon extended his congratulations, but with a rare critique of the internal politics of a member state.
Ban “is concerned that heightened political tensions coupled with the current security threat of Islamic State could lead the country into even deeper crisis,” his spokesman said.
The US, meanwhile, continued its aid airdrop on Mount Sinjar, where thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority remain trapped by IS fighters bent on their extermination.
A fourth US airdrop of ready-to-eat meals, tents and thousands of gallons of water successfully landed on the mountaintop overnight, as London committed to the effort with fighter jets to guide its own cargo planes full of aid.
The greater question of how to secure safe passage for the Yazidis is still challenging the US military, however, which is “right now gripped by the immediacy of the crisis,” in the words of one Pentagon official.
“We’re currently assessing what we can and can’t do,” a Pentagon spokesman said.
“What is most important right now is that we deliver the much-needed water and shelter and food.”
But the White House reiterated its commitment to the prevention of genocide against the Yazidis, which was one of two primary justifications Obama cited last week as he authorized the use of force against the Islamic State.
“We’re reviewing options for removing the remaining civilians off the mountain,” deputy US national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. “Kurdish forces are helping, and we’re talking to the [United Nations] and other international partners about how to bring them to a safe space.”
The UN mission in Iraq said it is preparing a humanitarian corridor to permit the Yazidis to flee to safety.
Yazidis are followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism. They are viewed as “devil worshipers” by the Islamic State’s Sunni extremists, who ordered them to convert to Islam or face death.
US fighter jets continued firing on the Islamic State on Sunday, striking several vehicles en route to Erbil, where the US maintains a consulate.
The State Department said the US has begun to arm Kurdish fighters in “full cooperation and coordination” with Baghdad, to help defend the northern territories with ground forces.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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