10-Jun-06: Warnings

As of this evening, there are 11 'specific' terror warnings and some 80 general terror alerts - somewhat up on the average daily status of the past few months. 

The police have increased their alertness across the country, according to Yediot Aharonot. From tomorrow morning, police will be concentrating their efforts on securing crowded places and will deploy in greater than usual numbers in and around Jerusalem and at entrances to cities, as will Border Guard units and civilian volunteers. 

The dominant Palestinian Arab faction Hamas vowed yesterday to attack Israeli civilians - the only interesting dimension of this warning being that it was delivered by press release this time and not, as is customary, by Qassam, Katyusha, rifle and dagger.

10-Jun-06: Hamas Takes 'Credit'

Palestinian child being exposed to the best that his parents' society can provide for him, at a rally in Gaza today described by Reuters as part of an internal struggle for power.

Israeli towns in the vicinity of Gaza have suffered for months from endless bombardments, almost daily, of Qassams, Katyushas and mortars. A little game has been played all this time, in which various Arabic-named groups have claimed responsibility while Hamas, the largest of the terrorist organizations by far, has pretended to be holding back, observing a bogus truce.

This morning, the silly game ends. 

Hamas puts out an announcement taking "credit" for an attack on Sderot, announcing this was "only the beginning", that the range of its Qassam attacks will grow and that Hamas will no longer honor its "self-declared" "truce" with Israel. 

"The earthquake in the Zionist towns will start again," according to a leaflet distributed at a Hamas rally Friday night. Hamas "will choose the proper place and time for the tough, strong and unique response." 

We have only one question: why do otherwise skeptical reporters and editors repeatedly - obsessively - buy such self-serving nonsense from the Hamas thugocracy, ignoring Hamas' deep involvement in daily acts of civilian-directed terror? 

The incredibly short attention span of the global media when it comes to anything related to Palestinian terror, and the resulting shallow published reportage that passes for analysis, are costing lives on both sides of this awful war.

9-Jun-06: Stopped

For the second day running, Israeli forces have caught terrorists in the act, and stopped them permanently by means of decisive action. Today, an IAF aircraft strikes against a group of Palestinians fleeing from a Qassam launch site in northern Gaza. They are said to be members of the same terrorist gang headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana (about whom see this morning's report).

9-Jun-06: Qassams

At about 5 this morning, several hours after the IDF eliminated the terrorist explosives expert Jamal Abu Samhadana, 2 Qassams are fired from the northern Gaza Strip into the town of Sderot - where, by small coincidence, Israel's defence minister Amir Peretz has his home. One lands right next to an apartment building, shattering windows but nothing more serious; the other falls in an open area. There are no reports of injuries.

8-Jun-06: Missiles

Early this evening, two more Qassam rockets crash into Israel, close to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. No injuries, no damage. It pains to say it, but at some point soon, Israel's amazing run of recent good fortune is going to end and one of these lethal flying bombs will exact a price in blood (as they have done many times in the past).

8-Jun-06: Qassams

Kibbutz Gevim and the industrial zone of Sderot suffer damage to vehicles and buildings this morning with the firing of 3 Qassam missiles into Israel from Gaza. Structures belonging to the new high-tech center established by global software giant Amdocs on Hanegev Street in Sderot are reported damaged. Damage is also caused to the infirmary of Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

8-Jun-06: Still Militating

Agence France Press, on the other hand, possibly working from
a different reality, captions yesterday's picture of these
gunmen in Gaza thus: "Hamas paramilitaries prepare to be repositioned
and posted away from the view of the
Palestinian people". Repositioned? Who's having a lend of whom?

Fatah and Hamas, the two armed-to-the-teeth armies that dominate and depress every aspect of life in the Palestine towns and cities, are in an escalating face-off. To us, this seems at the root of their impoverishment; beyond that, it's clear that their long-complaining society is heading inexorably into civil war and even more bloodshed. In the past few weeks, observers have noted the establishment, and then the standing down, and then the re-establishment, of various 'special' forces representing each of the sides. We reported below on newsagency articles about armed bands being withdrawn from the streets... but we also expressed extreme skepticism as to whether this was anything more than the customary wishful thinking that often passes for news reportage in this region. Seems some media people now share our doubts. AP, (see "Hamas militia still on Gaza streets") makes plain that despite all the talk of redeployment, there are thousands of freshly-armed, newly-attired 'militia' men (i.e. the same gangs of terrorists) loose, armed and ready to fire on the streets of Gaza and elsewhere, today.

7-Jun-06: Alert

A heightened security situation is in effect this evening in the Sharon area, north of Tel-Aviv. Intelligence information suggests a terror cell is planning a specific attack.

7-Jun-06: Positions?

"Not too major" terrorist, probably 7 years old, holds a "not too
major" weapon during whatAFP calls "a demonstration in support of
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of
Ramallah" on 6th June. Click for larger version.

An Israeli newspaper says today that

"Israel is having a hard time figuring out the exact position that Hamas political leaders in Gaza have adopted regarding terror attacks. It appears that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh wants to refrain from terror at this stage, but he and his associates are allowing members of the military wing some room to maneuver, as long as the attacks are not too major and there is no official claim of responsibility." 

An opportune moment to reflect that when decisions about the well-being of an entire population are taken - as they are in Israel - by politicians with 24 hour a day armed personal guards; by politicians who enjoy Knesset transport privileges that shelter them from sending their children on buses - they can indulge in such linguistic gymnastics.

The rest of us can only sit back and be appalled by the notion that a terror operation can ever be "not too major". Seems it's only "not too major" when it happens to other people.

And what, by the way, is an example of a terror attack that's "not too major"? Would it be a stabbing? a shooting? an explosives-filled rocket fired into town?

7-Jun-06: Stabbings

An Israeli girl of 18, and a young male soldier are the latest victims of a Palestinian stabbing attack. (Knives are a significant part of the current terrorist arsenal.) 

This one occurs near one of the Gush Etzion communities, south of Jerusalem. 

The woman is injured first: the attackers fling a rock at her, striking her head. They then get closer and one manages to stick a knife into the 19 year-old male's back. 

Both Israelis are now being treated after being rushed to hospital. A chase is underway in the vicinity of the village of Nahlin which is where the Palestinian 'heroes' fled.

6-Jun-06: Another Qassamiracle

The Qassam crashed through the ceiling of the Sderot apartment

A woman is lightly injured by shrapnel; several others are treated for shock; and the just-vacated bed of a teenage boy, inside his family's apartment, is destroyed along with much of the apartment. 

Those are the thankfully minor results of a another Qassam missile attack in the Israeli town (un-'occupied'; never disputed) of Sderot. The damaged apartment happens to be right next to a school. The Gaza thugs who fired it would have been happier - we can be 100% certain - if the rocket had devastated the school. 4 additional Qassams land in open spaces this morning and do no damage. 

UPDATE: One more, for a total of six for the day. For people living in the fire zone, numbers are not the issue. If one hits your home or a family member, that's the one that changes your life even if people far away feel relaxed about the 'small number' and 'light damage' that generally prevails.

5-Jun-06: Qassam

Another 'home-made' rocket packed with explosives crashes into the fields near the Negev farming community of Netiv HaAsarah at about 9 tonight. Thankfully no injuries; this was not the intention of the thugs in Gaza who dispatched it. UPDATE: A second Qassam, tonight. No injuries.

5-Jun-06: Carving a Solution

Scene at an Israeli security checkpoint (Click for more)

With stabbings of Israeli civilians by Palestinians a constant danger, 60 knives are found in a Palestinian vehicle passing through an IDF checkpoint outside Tul Karem. Machsom Watch and the journalists who routinely excoriate Israel for its belligerent preoccupation with security will ignore the report. 

Fortunately portions of the Israeli media do not. Perhaps you need to be the parents (as we are) of a child murdered by a terrorist who passed through an IDF security checkpoint that same day without hindrance to be sensitive to this issue.

4-Jun-06: Rocket Tally

A total of 54 Qassam rockets crashed onto Israel during the month of May. This is a smaller total than in recent months. The reduction is said to be due to aggressive Israeli measures aimed at the rocket launch areas in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

4-Jun-06: Gaza -v- Ramallah

Photo editors at the major news agencies routinely call Fatah and its leader Abbas 'moderate'. Some 2,500 of these 'moderates', armed with automatic rifles and throwing nazi salutes, perform in Jenin yesterday. Their black t-shirts are emblazoned with "Special Protection Unit" on the back and Arafat's face on the front.

As further indication of the ongoing non-truce, Reuters, AP and AFP are flush with photos taken at a remarkable rally in Jenin yesterday. Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization has formed its own 2,500-member "security" unit - in fact, an armed political militia - to make the point that Hamas, whose competing militia emerged last month, will not have things their own way. 

Lethal violence between the two armed gangs and their warlords has broken out several times in the past month. The death toll seems to be of little interest to reporters since the potent involvement of Israeli forces is simply not there. (For instance, a senior Hamas 'activist' was shot in the chest yesterday in a drive-by shooting but no one seems to have reported it apart from some of the Israeli media.) 

Yediot quotes a Fatah spokesperson saying Abbas, whose power base is in Ramallah, refuses to travel to Gaza unless Hamas dissolves its competing militia. We wonder what would happen if each of these two catastrophically ineffective thugocracies got its own fiefdom. Gaza to Hamas; Ramallah to Fatah; and let their followers vote with their feet. 

PUZZLE: Why don't the mainstream media ask the obvious question: where is the money for these well-armed, well-dressed, expensive militias coming from? The PA and Hamas after all are deeply in a financial crisis. 

Or are they?

1-Jun-06: Truth in Advertising

Reuters circulated this photo of a home-made Islamic Jihad terrorist today

The news agency of the government of Kuwait publishes a press release today, issued by "Al-Quds brigades", the self-described "military wing" of Islamic Jihad. The release announces the shelling of "Nahel Ouz", described as a "settlement in eastern Gaza". It goes on: "Al-Quds brigades said the shelling took place dawn on Thursday in retaliation to the Israeli crimes committed against Palestinians." 

Now let us tell you from experience how very few journalists or analysts are going to have the background knowledge, sense or interest to figure what was said here. 

Nahal Oz is a small kibbutz located in Israel, established in 1951 north of the border with the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. Its location was never occupied or disputed, other than in the mind of the Jihadist release author and his Kuwaiti publicist. 

Islamic Jihad exists to wage terrorist war on Israeli civilian society wherever it finds us, and has no need for a military wing; it's entirely military, a full-featured terrorist organization. 

And for journalists and analysts enamoured of the "cycle of violence" approach to the middle east conflict, the "retaliation" line is the most interesting part. 

When terrorists fire live explosives at towns and homes, you are faced with two choices. You can call it what it plainly is: terrorism, barbarism, murder. Or you can adopt the rhetoric of the thugs and call it 'retaliation'. But then you're stuck with trying to make sense of retaliation for what? 

And when you read the words of the thugs themselves, claiming to retaliate for "Israeli crimes committed against Palestinians" then you know this is nothing to do with retaliation, everything to do with the urge to destroy a hated enemy. 

Can anyone see painful compromise in the interests of peace coming from these people or their media mouth-pieces?

1-Jun-06: First-Person Shooter Story

In the Israeli community of Eli

Attempted murders, and especially of the Israelis so oddly termed settlers by the media, are frequent in these stressful times. So much so that many people little attention to the details.

Yisrael Jarmon who lives in Eli, an Israeli town of some 2,500, set out to drive into Jerusalem this morning, the eve of the Shavuot festival. At about 10 am, two Palestinian Arabs stand at the the side of the road. He approaches, and one of them throws a large rock, forcing Jarmon to slow down. The second Arab then opens fire with what appears to be an automatic rifle. Jarmon stays focused on driving straight ahead and reaches the town of Ofrah without injury.

He finds that 3 bullets struck his vehicle; one lodges itself in the steering wheel; another penetrates his door. He's fine, thank heavens.

The shooters remain alive, free, armed and motivated to try again in the coming days or hours. It's impossible to understand Israel's strategic defence needs without at least knowing about daily murder attempts like this one.

Did it make your newspaper?

May 16 to 31, 2006 Chronicle of Attacks

2006-05-31	Children in a Sderot school during a missile attack drill: a daily reality in this small town within firing range of the thugs of Gaza. The first Qassam missile - a steel tube filled with explosives - crashed into Sderot in February 2002. They have become a daily occurrence, and regularly kill and maim civilians. Sderot has no military bases but several schools and kindergartens. 4 Missiles: Around 6 this morning (and so far unreported by a single media channel outside Israel, according to Google), 4 separate Qassam missile strikes hit the southern town of Sderot. One explodes in an apartment building, injuring 2 people who require hospitalization and causing serious damage. One strikes - and explodes - a cluster of cooking gas cannisters in the courtyard of a residential building. One lands near Kibbutz Or Ha-ner causing damage, and a fourth lands in an open space. Though the Gaza Strip is frequently described (wrongly) as the most crowded place on earth, the terrorists who fire missiles like these daily manage to do so free of interference from anyone (police, army, Force 17, security militia) on the Palestinian side of the border who all appear to have a speck of dust in their collective eyes. Israeli forces have the capacity to pulverize the vicinity of the launching areas (which is also where the terrorists most likely live) with artillery or aerial weaponry, but choose not to because of the risk of civilian losses among the Palestinians. If you or your children lived in Sderot (not occupied territory, never disputed), could you make sense of that? UPDATE Islamic Jihad takes responsibility and promises more rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
2006-05-30	Missiles: Two more Qassam landings around noon; no reports of injuries or damage. The missiles strike near Kibbutz Karmiyah and Kibbutz Zikim, dispatched by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
2006-05-30	Home-made: Qassam and other lethal projectiles are fired into Israel multiple times each day in this current hot phase of the ongoing war waged by the Palestinian Arabs. Associated Press photographer Hatem Moussa took this picture (at right; others here) which gives some useful insight. AP's caption says it's of Palestinians taking away the body of a militant killed while preparing to fire a missile (on the left) into Israel. AP calls the missile home-made. Why? Does this change anything? Or are they simply trying to fraudulently elicit some sympathy from the viewer? And with whom was this anonymous militant affiliated? Islamic Jihad? Maybe one of the Fatah 'action' brigades? The PA police perhaps? Was he a Hamas 'activist'? It matters not one bit. The distinctions between one terror group and another exist to advance a lazy and false narrative: weak Palestinians, strong Israelis, Hamas-honoring-a-truce. We've met many journalists passing through Jerusalem; hard to believe any of them can tell the difference between a terrorist from one Palestinian terror faction or another. They simply pass along whatever their local sources tell them. And a Hamas truce? A ceasefire? It's a journalistic fiction in the service of Hamas and some misplaced sense of defending an underdog cause. As you view today's news pictures of grieving Palestinian relatives wailing photogenically over the bodies of 'militants' permanently prevented by Israeli fire from shooting off their 'home-made' missiles, ask yourself what these missiles are designed to do; and what, other than luck and forceful Israeli action, is preventing them from doing even more damage. And finally why did reporters and their editors give virtually zero coverage to last week's 'home-made' missile that destroyed an Israeli school classroom? (Our report on that is here.) That Israeli school-children were not blown to pieces that day is a miracle... which was certainly not the intention of the barbarians and their home-made hatred.
2006-05-29	Mortars: Palestinian terrorists this evening lob mortar shells over the Gaza border. One lands near an army base in the western Negev, causing damage but thankfully no injuries. Another lands in an open area. (This was not their intention.)
2006-05-29	Crossing: Karni is the name of the main crossing point where Israeli goods pass into Gaza. It has been attacked by Arab terrorists multiple times with considerable loss of life. When Israel learns of an impending attack on it, as has happened routinely during the past year, and shuts it down temporarily, the howls of protest from the media and foreign politicians are deafening since closing Karni means suffering for the people of Gaza. Chris McGreal for instance routinely does this in the pages of the influential British daily, The Guardian. Last Thursday, under the headline "How can people live, I wonder?" he wrote: "The Israeli government has justified the persistent closure of Karni with what it said was intelligence about impending attacks. Others are sceptical." The trouble is, Israel's fears are seriously real and the McGreals of this world, about the intelligence of whose reporting we are skeptical, are never called to account for their agenda-driven mischief. Today provides an example. 3 Palestinians are spotted this morning attempting to scale the security barrier in the vicinity of Karni. Taking no unnecessary risks, IDF forces shoot to kill. One of the Palestinians dies; two others flee. On the body of the dead man there is a Kalashnikov rifle and a ladder nearby. He turns out to be an 'activist' 'militant' 'resistance fighter' of the Popular Resistance Committees. His death qualifies in Palestinian terms for 'martyrdom' since he was engaged in planting explosives at the security fence. Mothers of sick Gaza children unable to get adequate food or medicine because of Karni's closure might not entirely approve of his new sanctified status. ("Supply shortages spark health crisis in Gaza" NY Times 8-May-06, for instance.) But who listens to them? Certainly not Hamas or the PA.
2006-05-29	Terror: As of this morning, there are 80 general terror warnings in effect. 15 are classified as specific alerts. Most relate to the Islamic Jihad organization.
2006-05-29	Israeli infantry soldier on duty in the Nablus area this week Thwarted: Israelis are focused on the troubled northern border with Lebanon this morning. But to remind us that the threat is relentless and constant, the authorities hold multiple concrete warnings of terror attacks, leading the IDF to throw up sudden roadblocks in key locations. As a result, 2 Palestinians are stopped this morning at one such checkpoint near Nablus. They arouse the suspicion of the young soldiers manning the post and attempt to flee. They are subdued after flinging their bag away which turns out to be packed with explosives for an intended terror attack against civilians. Explosives safely disposed of; terrorists (bomber and driver) safely behind bars. No apology yet from Machsom Watch or other critics of Israel's security checkpoint policy.
2006-05-28	Israelis sitting out missile attacks in a bomb shelter on Kibbutz Menara, northern Israel today. Border Alight: The cold-blooded Hizbullah strategy which has caused so much misery in Israel's north in past years is being played out again - with predictable results. This morning, in addition to the Katyusha attack we reported earlier, Hezbullah launch large-scale attacks right along the Israel-Lebanon border including additional Katyusha firings on communities and military bases plus mortar shells and sniper and machine gun fire attacks. Heavy fire is currently being exchanged. There are casualties and property loss. Developing. UPDATE: Sunday evening, a wide swathe of towns in the north from Kiryat Shmona to the coastal resort of Nahariya are in danger of missile strikes. Thousands of residents are ordered into the bomb shelters this evening. Lebanon meanwhile pours scorn on a 'warlike' Israel while media headline writers reach for the familiar context-free cliches: "Israel bombs militant targets in Lebanon"; "Islamic Jihad denies claim it attacked Israel"; "Islamic Jihad claims rocket attack on north Israel"; and so on.
2006-05-28	Northern Exposure: A Sunday morning barrage of three (at least) Katyusha missiles lands in the Safed area, reminding us Israelis that we are surrounded by barbarians in every direction. Two people are lightly injured today; there is property damage. Palestinian terror groups have carried out many such attacks in the past, in particular Hezbollah whose terrorists periodically fire the rockets at Israeli targets, and are reported to have stockpiled many thousands of Katyushas. The last such attack from the north was on 3-Feb-06. Three background notes of importance: (1) Today's rockets land a few kilometers further south than in any previous attack from Lebanon is known to have landed in Israel. (2) Earlier this month, a Palestinian woman was intercepted by Israeli security smuggling electronics, instructions and specifications for assembling explosives (including reference to Katyushas) and for carrying out terror attacks. (3) Palestinian terrorists in the south have fired Katyusha missiles into Israel on 3 occasions since March 2006.
2006-05-27	Missile Attack: A Qassam missile crashes into the small agricultural community of Kfar Maimon this evening. Fortunately no injuries. (This was not the intention of those who fired it from the Gaza Strip.)
2006-05-27	Stabbing: A Jewish teenager, 14, is stabbed in the back by a Palestinian next to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City late on Sabbath afternoon. His injuries are light. (This was not the intention of the attacker.)
2006-05-27	Withdrawal Part 2: Yesterday we expressed our skepticism about widespread media reports of Hamas withdrawing its new 'special forces' from the streets of Gaza. Tonight, it's reported they're back on those streets.
2006-05-26	Withdrawal?: The media are afroth this afternoon about a reported Hamas decision to "withdraw its special police forces from tension areas where clashes with the official Palestinian security forces have been taking place in recent days". We reported their initial deployment two weeks ago. Have a look at the AFP picture at right, a snapshot of the very well-armed Hamas 'special forces' in action against their Fatah brethren this week. Recall that Hamas have vowed never to disarm any members of the "resistance". And then ask yourself: (a) if these gun-toting thugs are being withdrawn, where are they withdrawing to? And (b) what is being done with the weapons that were plainly issued to them? Then note for yourself that this question has not been asked or answered by any of today's media reports. Instead, the excitement of Hamas 'scaling down' the violence by a 'withdrawal' dominates the region's news. How quickly people forget what the terrorists actually want.
2006-05-26	It Continues: A Qassam is fired into Israel again this morning. It lands in an orchard causing property damage but no injuries. (This was not the intention of those who fired it.) Elsewhere this morning, a routine inspection at an IDF checkpoint near Bethlehem turns up a Palestinian carrying a 15 centimeter knife, en route to places where Israelis can be found.
2006-05-25	Missiles: Two Qassam rockets are fired into Israel early this morning. No injuries reported. (This was not the intention of those who fired them.)
2006-05-24	Checkpoints Work: Despite endless criticism of IDF security checkpoints (calling them a form of collective punishment for instance) by people whose lives are not threatened by government-sponsored Palestinian terror, you just can't escape the fact that they do what they're supposed to do. Tonight, IDF soldiers manning a checkpoint north of Nablus spot a Kalashnikov rifle (archive picture right) in a Palestinian car. Weapon seized; owner arrested; lives saved.
2006-05-23	Seven people were murdered, 30 injured, when Ibrahim Hamed's gang attacked Jerusalem's Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim Street in 2003. To paraphrase the BBC's Caroline Hawley: Why would the murderer of the saintly Dr David Applebaum and his daughter Nava who was to be married the next day, have to be arrested - now? We feel the question tells more about the person asking than about the moral or strategic issue it raises. Klotz Kashe?: The BBC features prominently in this blog's Hall of Shame. Illustrating the harm caused by uncritical media parroting of the "Hamas is having a truce" nonsense, the BBC's Caroline Hawley writes "...it is not clear why the army have moved against Hamad now..." which is what they did so brilliantly yesterday against one of the most notorious terror practitioners alive. After all, says Ms Hawley, "Hamas has not carried out any suicide attacks for 15 months..." On the run for the past 8 years, Ibrahim Hamad has murdered dozens of Israelis; he is among the most hardened and brutal murderers in this brutal and cruel war. Hamed's gang and the suits (like Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader) who provide its political facade don't deny that terrorism is one of the tools at their disposal, a tool they regard as legitimate. Yet the BBC's Ms Hawley still wonders why an army charged with protecting Israeli society after more than 1,100 murders-by-terrorists in five years might want to arrest Hamed... now. A better question is why the BBC would knowingly provide a platform for naive and dangerous views like Ms. Hawley's. Perhaps someone might explain to her how, ultimately, people's lives are placed at mortal risk by such moral and political befuddlement.
2006-05-23	Red Alert: A "hot" warning is issued this evening by the security forces throughout the center of the country. This includes the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway and Highway 443. Warnings of this kind are issued when intelligence information is obtained pointing to a specific terrorist en route to a specific location or region.
2006-05-23	AP today distributes this pic of the murderer's mother with his portrait at the family home in Silwad, near Ramallah. AP failed, for the moment at least, to offer any photos of the mothers of Hamed's victims. Freshly Retired: Ibrahim Hamed is not a household name. Perhaps he ought to be. He has been on Israel's most-wanted list for years. As head of Hamas's West Bank terror operation - called the Izzedine al Qassam gang - he claimed credit for the murders of dozens of Israelis. That career is now on hold: he is captured alive today near Ramallah by Israeli security forces, and emerges from his hideout dressed only in his underwear, according to the BBC. 'Suicide rather than capture' is evidently meant for other people's children.
2006-05-21	It Continues: At least one more Qassam rocket lands around 8pm tonight in the western Negev. Fortunately no injuries.
2006-05-21	Still More: Another Qassam rocket fired from Gaza lands at about 6pm near Zikim in Israel's western Negev. And for anyone wondering if the Palestinian leadership understands the moral depravity involved in lobbing lethal explosives over the fence into people's back yards and school grounds, the Palestinian president provides the answer in a little-reported quote today. Speaking on May 15, 2006, Mahmoud Abbas said: "The futile firing of missiles needs to be stopped, [as they] mostly just give Israel a pretext to escalate its aggression against our citizens in the Gaza Strip." Who says the "moderate" Palestinian Arab leadership entirely lacks a moral compass?
2006-05-21	Today's Qassam crashed through the wall of the school, and landed in an empty classroom without exploding (Ynet) More Rockets: Two more Qassams (for a total of 3) this morning in the Sderot neighborhood; one falls harmlessly, the other crashes into a yeshiva (school) classroom. It's Sunday here, a regular working day in Israel, and all the pupils are temporarily out of their classroom when the Qassam strikes, having their morning prayers in the school's chapel (beit midrash). So instead of this being a report about a massacre of children, it turns out to be just another in the hundreds of reports of missiles fired by attempted murderers on civilian targets in Israel while their government, the Hamas-controlled PA, looks on, probably smiling. The students are terrified by the near-catastrophe; the parents rush to school to take them home; the army's sappers arrive to deal with the explosives; and the rest of us are left wondering how long our luck can hold out. Outside of Israel, mainstream media gave it barely a passing mention because, after all, no blood flowed, so almost none of your friends even knows it happened. And when Israeli forces eventually do identify the people who did today's planning, financing and firing, and - hopefully - find the right way to permanently prevent them from executing cold-blooded acts of terror like this one again, news report consumers from Oslo to Osaka are going to wonder when those Israelis are going to finally stop their "aggression" against the "poor", "defenseless" Palestinians. Accurate and contextual reporting does matter.
2006-05-21	Rockets: A Qassam lands this morning at Tzomet Gevim, just outside Sderot. When the terrorists fire these deadly weapons, they pray for maximum damage to Israeli lives and property. Today's result: two civilian victims of shock. Thankfully, that's all.
2006-05-20	Current Warnings: As of tonight, Israel's security forces (police, army, border police) are aware of 83 concurrent terror-attack warnings, 16 of them classified as 'concrete' (red alerts). Most originate in the northern Samaria district, mainly in Nablus. We believe it is impossible to understand the security measures Israel puts in place without knowing about these constant threats. So why is this never reported in your newspapers or TV news?
2006-05-20	Pisgat Zeev's shopping mall in Jerusalem's northern suburbs Stabber: Our daughter was murdered in a Jerusalem pizza restaurant at a time - August 2001 - when few seriously believed there was a need for, or much that could be expected from, security guards posted outside stores, malls, theatres and restaurants. But almost every day since then, someone, somewhere in Israel has been stopped by alert security guards and prevented from carrying out the next headline-grabbing terror attack. Tonight it is the turn of the Pisgat Zeev shopping mall on Jerusalem's north side. A Palestinian man, 19, is stopped at the entrance to the mall after attracting the attention of the guards and prevented from entering. He pulls a 30 cm (12 inch) knife from his underwear and screams while waving the knife and trying to stab whomever he can. He is subdued, taken away by police and confesses to having come with Jew-stabbing on his mind. Fortunately tonight will not be his big night.
2006-05-19	Hawara checkpoint, near Nablus: Daily inconvenience to one side; daily threat of murder and maiming to the other Transitioning: The Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus, is the largest security cross-over in the West Bank. This morning, a Palestinian passing through under the eye of Israeli security forces is stopped and found to have four pipe-bombs and a 20cm knife stashed into his pants (Hebrew bulletin here). An entire literature exists - mainly of the protest, outrage, defamation and vilification variety - to describe Israel's self-defense strategy at these crossings. For instance Machsom Watch (machsom is Hebrew for barrier): try to find even a single mention there of terrorists prevented from carrying out their evil plans. (But if you're looking for rudeness and superficiality, you'll find plenty of that there.) Though this happens routinely, daily in some places, the people who want you to know how really rude and insensitive it is of Israel to impose these military checkpoints on the Palestinians become deathly quiet whenever attempted murders are frustrated there. And they are, constantly. Nablus is now the nerve center of Palestinian terror; a Jerusalem Post report says "nightly raids carried out by IDF troops in Nablus and the nearby refugee camps [are what keep] suicide terrorists out of Israel's cities". Matters to some; utterly irrelevant to others.
2006-05-18	Shooting: An Israeli couple are shot this evening by Palestinian Arab gunmen near the town of Tapuah. The man is moderately wounded; his wife lightly injured. They continue driving to Tapuah Junction, where they receive medical treatment before being transferred to a hospital. The al-Aqsa Brigades, loyal to Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, take responsibility.
2006-05-18	Missile Barrage: Six more Qassam rockets are fired this afternoon from the northern Gaza Strip (let's be clear: from areas abandoned by Israel in the name of peace last summer) into Israel. One lands near "a strategic facility"; one falls just outside an IDF base at Zikim. Fortunately no one injured - but that was not the intention. Meanwhile the Jerusalem area where we live has been the subject of two separate "concrete warnings" of a terror attack today - still in effect as we write this. UPDATE: The terror alert is removed this evening but only after large security contingents are first deployed throughout the city, with roadblocks on the main highway to Tel-Aviv, in northern Jerusalem and at French Hill Junction.
2006-05-17	Live television coverage of the Fatah/Hamas clashes Cops Again: Yesterday we noted the new terrorist "security" force formed by Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, the PA's president, today vetoes its establishment; Hamas responds by announcing the immediate deployment of the force, confirming that these are nothing more than terrorist thugs operating under a different public relations cover; no need to prepare uniforms, training or other clap-trap. Violence has been escalating in Gaza since Hamas won the March elections; there are daily casualties among both Hamas and Fatah. All of this is fuelled by a power struggle between Abbas and the Hamas Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh. Haaretz says "A key area of dispute is control over the security forces." So much control, so much dispute, so little security.
2006-05-16	Lawlessness in Gaza has been a fact of life for decades. Now civil war seems to be brewing Good Cop, Bad Cop: Leveraging its bogus status as “truce” observer, Hamas has announced a new paramilitary force made up of 3,000 re-purposed terrorist 'militants'. The initiative’s surreal blend of terror and law enforcement earns a compelling analysis by Matthew Gutman in USA Today, quoting one of the recycled 'cops': “For us it is the same, defending Palestine (by attacking Israel) and ending the chaos. We are serving the Palestinian people.” Fancifully titled the Security Forces Support System, the Hamas creation is headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, a notorious terrorist long on the run from the Israelis. With an appalling list of barbaric outrages to his name and blood on his hands, he is at the top of Israel’s “most-wanted” list. He told the Telegraph (UK): "We have only one enemy and that is the Jews," but that's alright because his force "will also act against corruption and lawbreakers". The formation of this Hamas force, and the choice of its head, are seen as an exercise in muscle-flexing and perhaps a precursor to full-scale civil war with other power blocs, notably Fatah. USA Today quotes an Israeli analyst with an eye for the economic efficiency of the new Hamas business model: “It can provide law and order in the morning and terrorism in the evening.” Which conveniently leaves their nights free.
2006-05-16	Rockets: Nativ Ha'asara, a small farming community near Gaza, comes under rocket attack again at 5 this morning. A Katyusha missile (much more accurate and much longer range than the usual Qassam) narrowly misses a residence, damaging a chicken coop and greenhouses, and killing livestock. The goal of Islamic Jihad who took credit was, of course, to kill Israelis and not poultry. No one on their side of the fence stopped or bothered them; this is the normal condition of Israel's Gaza border with the Palestinian Authority. Katyushas are familiar to Israelis living on Israel's border with Lebanon where Hezbollah has made liberal use of them for terror purposes for years. Both Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are sponsored by Iran.

May 1 to 15, 2006: The Daily Chronicle

2006-05-15	Hit: If there's a polar opposite to the scattershot daily firing of lethal missiles every-which-way into Israel by Gaza-based terror groups (we have numerous reports below), it's what Israel did today. An Israel Air Force missile hits a pickup truck filled with terrorists from the Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad. This happens east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, less than 1 Km from the border with Israel. It's where Palestinian terrorists fire Qassam rockets daily into Israel - hundreds of them since Hamas came to power. Four terrorists are wounded in this strike; their vehicle is left a wreck of twisted, burnt metal. The contrast between the terrorists and the Israeli military is sometimes falsely described by reporters in terms of equipment; one side has "nothing but their bodies" and the other has sophisticated American equipment. The real difference is that the terrorists among the Palestinian Arabs have, for generations, been destroying whatever they can on the Israeli side, with no regard for the humanity of their victims: killing and terror for their own hate-filled sake. Israel's military, by contrast, has decades of experience applying the smallest amount of force needed, as accurately as circumstances permit, to take out the evil. Today's hit appears to illustrate this well.
2006-05-15	Ashqar dispatched terrorists to Israeli cities, guided by Palestinian Islamic Jihad headquarters in Syria. His murderous career is now officially terminated. Neutralized: The 'militant' 'activist' who engineered the Palestinian terror massacre in Tel-Aviv that cost the lives of eleven innocent civilians last month is found by Israeli forces yesterday in Qabatiyeh, near Jenin. Elias Kheri Muhammad Ashqar (picture right) dies in the shoot-out that follows. Ashqar was a dominant terror figure in the Northern Samaria district. The American teenager who died yesterday after struggling to stay alive this past month was one of his 40+ victims. Mahmud Abbas (described, it should be noted, in AFP's report as "moderate') responds today by calling Israel's neutralization of the terrorist a "crime" amounting to a "dangerous escalation [that] will lead the region to more violence and instability". Strangely, the deaths of eleven Jews is not a "dangerous escalation" for AFP or Abbas. However Israel's success in locating him and taking the needed steps to prevent additional terror outrages is. Note: there was no "innocents-killed-in-cross-fire" dimension in even one of the eight terror attacks ascribed to al-Ashkar because the Syria-sponsored Islamic Jihad with whom he was affiliated deliberately sought out (seeks out) civilians in Israeli urban settings, expressed delight that in the Passover massacre they managed to kill not only Israeli Jews (and 2 Romanian visitors) but an American Jew, and proudly claimed the deaths and destruction in Tel-Aviv as a glorious victory that advances their cause. A Hamas delegate to the Palestinian legislative assembly (who happens to be a clansman of our daughter's murderer) is quoted today calling Israel's elimination of this terrorist “a war crime”, helpfully suggesting that "the world must intervene to stop the massacre". Fatah, Abbas' party, also call yesterday's events in Jenin a massacre. It pays to understand the local lexicon; otherwise a reader of news reports might fail to fully grasp what's being said here.
2006-05-14	Baruch Dayan Emet: Daniel Wultz from Miami, 16 years old and visiting his Israeli cousins, was critically injured in the Passover terror bombing near Tel Aviv’s Old Central Bus Station. Daniel died of his injuries at Ichilov Hospital today, making the toll from that massacre 11 dead and dozens still seriously injured and maimed.
2006-05-14	Palestinian fishing boats off Gaza Not Fishing: Just 5 days ago, we wrote about a fishing-boat-load of weapons and high-grade explosives spotted and seized by Israeli naval forces off Gaza. Today there is a replay. Again the Palestinian arms smugglers dump the explosives (nearly half a ton) into the sea; again the Israeli forces retrieve them; and again, no one even dreams of demanding that the government of the Palestinians lives up to its responsibilities to police its own territory. The PA and Hamas are in the middle of a truce, after all, right? The Jerusalem Post says today's haul is the fifth naval intercept since Israel abandoned the Jewish communities of Gaza last August. Abbas, the then-head of the PA, said last August as the Israelis marched out of Gaza, that "Today is the beginning of the fishermen's journey to Jerusalem". He probably had today's attempt (and the others like it) in mind. That leaves us wondering how long before AFP, Reuters and other context-less originators of news reports treat us to heartbreaking stories of starving fishermen and aggressive Israeli naval blockades. Not long, we fear. UPDATE: The head of Israel's navy says: "There is no intention of halting Palestinian fishing at this stage... This is their only source of income, and most have no connection to the smuggling. As long as we have solutions, we prefer to let the fishing continue."
2006-05-13	This picture comes from an anti-Israel website purporting to illustrate the cruelty of Israel's checkpoint system Seized: Following concrete warnings (what in Israel are called hatra'ot hamot) last week of a terror attack, a special IDF mission enters Nablus where suspects are apprehended today; an explosive belt (the kind used by terrorist bombers) weighing seven to 10 kilograms (15 to 22 pounds) is seized and detonated by army sappers. Also today: wary young soldiers at an IDF checkpoint near Ramallah - a checkpoint of the sort universally condemned by critics of Israel - stop a Palestinian yellow taxi for inspection and find several pipe bombs. No injuries in either event. Over recent weeks, the number of security warnings in effect at any given moment has stood at fifty or more. That these particular explosives, and the people carrying them into Israeli towns and cities, were intercepted is a quiet blessing that we Israelis take for granted, that most news media ignore, and that people outside Israel almost never hear about. (And by the way, two more Qassam missiles crashed into Israel's Negev region tonight.)
2006-05-12	Doha?: An international conference officially titled 'Muslim Scholars Gathering for the Support of the Palestinian People' met in Doha, Qatar, this week. The conference's final statement supports "the right of the Palestinian people ... to wage holy war to regain all their homeland and liberate their land from the river to the sea." The phrasing, as Haaretz's Arnon Regular points out, means that the conference, and the small army of top-level Islamic religious figures (including the head of the International Confederation of Islamic Scholars, pictured) assembled there from all parts of the world, does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Haaretz's insight leaves us to ask of these prominent Islamic scholars: how do their views differ from those of Ahmadinejad of Teheran? A key leader of the allegedly-truce-observing Hamas regime, Khaled Mashaal, speaking in Doha, called on Fatah (whose people boycotted the conference) and Hamas to close ranks on "liberating Palestine, not recognizing Israel and adopting the path of Jihad and resistance." Viewed in this light, the steady barrage of missiles falling daily on southern Israel amounts to a statement of religious piety. (UPDATE: Another Qassam strike at 4pm this afternoon.)
2006-05-12	Ignorance: Four more Qassam rockets slam last night into open fields near Israeli towns. They are fired from an area of Gaza evacuated last summer by Israel and controlled now by Hamas. Qassam explosions are now so common, a daily occurrence, that most news media, and policy makers too, find it convenient to ignore them. But for the people living in the target zone, other people's ignorance (and the media's insistence of an ongoing truce by Hamas) is not making these lethal threats to their lives and the lives of their children go away.
2006-05-11	Nabbed: The Jerusalem Post reports today on the IDF's interception and arrest of two armed self-admitted Hamas agents carrying several thousand dollars in cash and planning (by their own proud confession) to establish a terror cell in Ramallah, a few minutes drive from our Jerusalem home. Quoting the Shin Bet, the report says the terrorists acted on direct orders from the Hamas leadership. (But how true can this be, when TIME Magazine, Reuters, BBC, Telegraph UK, Al Jazeerah and other impeccable and worthy sources say Hamas is still "observing a unilateral ceasefire"? Truly, a puzzle.) Now here's the really intriguing part: under current Hamas/PA policy, having been arrested by the Israelis, these Hamas agents (or unwitting tourists, depending on whom you want to believe) now start to receive substantial monthly payments (US$1,000 and up) while in Israeli jails. This is because of a policy revealed by the independent Funding for Peace Coalition, administered by the Palestinian Minister for Prisoner Affairs and funded by donor states, mostly European. Keep this in mind when you next hear of Gaza children suffering (and they do) because the PA's budget for medical treatment has dried up.
2006-05-10	Bad Neighborhood: Jordan reveals today it has arrested 20 Hamas 'activists' planning to carry out attacks, and to stockpile a vast cache of weaponry including Iranian-made rockets, in the kingdom. Jordan has already scrapped a planned visit to Amman by the Palestinian foreign minister, a Hamas activist himself. Jordan says this is all part of a Hamas push to recruit 'activists' from the Palestinian territories and send them to Syria and Iran for "military, security and intelligence" training. Jordanian intelligence services say there are still weapons hidden in the kingdom "that represent a big threat to national [Jordanian] security". AFP says "Jordan is due to broadcast the confessions of some of the suspects arrested on state television on Thursday". We wonder if this will induce TIME Magazine to modify the assertion in its current issue that Hamas "is currently observing a unilateral ceasefire". Some ceasefire.
2006-05-10	Restraint: The rocket barrages continue: 3 Qassam missiles fired from Gaza land in Israel this morning; no damage reported - but that, of course, is unintentional. The targets, as hundreds of previous times in the past several months, are the town of Sderot (never "occupied", never disputed) and the southern outskirts of the city of Ashkelon. Speaking yesterday to the residents of Ashkelon, the IDF's chief says: "I cannot offer you a timetable for a solution to the problem... because it takes time, but we also have capabilities. The implementation of these capabilities demands that we cross lines that we do not want to cross; we do not want to fire into population centers (in Gaza), and unfortunately they (Palestinian terrorists) are taking advantage of the fact that we are not a terror state and never will be. However, we have the option, should the need arise, of a ground operation.” From personal experience, awareness by non-Israelis of this self-imposed restraint on Israel's part in the face of constant deadly attacks is close to zero.
2006-05-09	Airport? There are still-sketchy reports tonight (around midnight) of a Lau missile being discovered on Highway 40 near Kibbutz Naan. YNet is reporting that police "found the missile after an anonymous message regarding suspicious activity in the area... sappers were working to neutralize the explosives." Lau is Hebrewish for LAAW, meaning Light Anti-Armour Weapon. Naan is located a few minutes drive from, and under the flight path of aircraft using, Ben Gurion airport. Sounds alarming, but could be a simple misunderstanding. Alternatively another of those miraculous near-misses that are buried in the rush of other news and forgotten.
2006-05-09	Alert: As a result of concrete intelligence, an elevated terror alert is in effect in much of the country including Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem since mid-morning. An unofficial report says Magen David Adom, the country's ambulance service, pushed its own alert status up to the second-highest level at about noon. Unclear by evening whether the alert level has been reduced. Another day, another round of worries for ordinary Israelis trying to decide whether to go by bus, whether to avoid shopping centers, whether to keep the children indoors.
2006-05-09	Explosives: It is announced today (after a news blackout is lifted) that three 'innocent' Palestinian fishing vessels were intercepted a week ago, smuggling half a ton of weapons-grade explosives into Gaza. The Palestinians dumped sacks of TNT into the sea when intercepted by alert Israeli naval forces - who promptly retrieved them. Haaretz says "the damage such a high amount of explosives could have caused is immeasurable." Had the immeasurable happened, this story might have appeared on your evening news. But it surely won't.
2006-05-09	Fair Warning: Islamic Jihad proudly claims responsibility for yesterday's missile barrage on the southern flank of Ashkelon. YNet says they "issued a statement claiming that three of the rockets were of the Quds 3 series, missiles with an improved fire range" and that "should the Ashkelon power station (right) suffer a direct Qassam hit, Israel will likely launch a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip." So that's the name of the game, ladies and gentlemen. Tag. With real-life targets. Based on the tenor of the news reports we see, and those which don't happen (see below), it's evident that most of the media, and most governments, think it's right and proper that Israel should hold its hand and wait for the destruction to happen. What an absurdity.
2006-05-08	Missiles: 4 more Qassam missiles (and according to some reports, 8 missiles) rain down on Israeli communities (Zikkim, Karmiya, Yad Mordechai) and their surrounding fields and it's not even 10am. There is no doubt where they emanate from (PA territory) and no doubt who is in charge in PA territory (Hamas). So why do reporters and their editors insist, up until this morning, on repeating the mantra that Hamas is observing a truce? (Could it be something religious?)
2006-05-06	Law and Order: Against a background of almost-daily attempted (often frustrated) bombings, and missile and rocket attacks on Israel, the Palestinian Interior Ministry provides valuable insight today into how it deals with violent lawlessness: a new campaign to confiscate "illegal" weaponry in the Gaza Strip. The Jerusalem Post's ever-reliable reporter on Arab affairs, Khaled Abu Toameh, quotes the Palestinian ministry's spokesman clarifying that the campaign will ensure that the only people to carry weapons will be police "...and members of the resistance groups who are confronting Israeli aggression." Can you imagine being the neighbor of a country with an official policy of this sort? Welcome to the new middle east. The appointment of a head for this new force was widely reported last week because he's a notorious terrorist, but the details of this explicit policy are getting far less coverage.
2006-05-05	Foiled: Israelis are totally jaded when it comes to 'unidentified suspicious objects'. Traffic in Israeli cities is disrupted frequently while army sappers are called to examine what usually turn out to be harmless objects: forgotten brief-cases or shopping bags. But not always. Today, Sabbath Eve, one of the more pressured times of the week, the authorities are called to Gush Etzion junction after people waiting for a bus at the intersection spot what they think might possibly be a dangerous... something. The busy junction is closed to traffic while the object is gingerly examined. This time, it's the genuine article: a bomb connected to a timer. It's defused by Border Guard sappers in the nick of time: 20 minutes before it was set to explode. One of our children happens to be right at the spot, en route to a school Sabbath away. Everyone's journey is delayed, but thank goodness the outcome is not worse. Somewhere nearby, there is a bomber planning his next attempt, along with his driver, his financier, his look-out, his logistics planner, his raw-materials supplier - in fact an entire industry of hatred, all tying to live up to Meshaal's dictum of four days earlier (see below).
2006-05-05	Rocket Attack: Almost unreported, and 100% consistent with what we reported yesterday, 5 lethal Qassam rockets crash into Israel this morning, near several communities. No one is injured - but that's entirely a matter of circumstance, luck and time. The terrorists make explicit what we know from other sources: their goal is to rain destruction down on Ashkelon which is well within their range but somewhat beyond their skill level, for the moment at least. UPDATE: And they continue this afternoon, according to Israel Radio, as more Qassam rockets land near Jewish towns.
2006-05-04	Taking Credit: Islamic Jihad, one of the highest-profile terror organizations, routinely engages in self-promotion efforts including reporting on its successes. Today, they issue a press release, picked up by fringe Israeli media and, as far as we can tell, by no one else. IJ boasts that 56 of its Qassam missiles were shot into southern Israeli towns and communities during April 2005. The explicit goal, they say, is to damage the city of Ashkelon (pictured, right), home to a power plant serving all of Israel and, by the way, tens of thousands of residents - and based on their track record they ought to be believed. By IJ's own account, not one day passed last month without at least one Qassam being fired into Israel. Serious question: if none of these acts of war was reported in your newspaper or TV news (and this includes the Israeli media), how meaningful or informed is the analysis you and your neighbors are getting? Jihad's spokesman says the terror will continue because this is the way “to liberate holy Palestinian land and remove the occupier”. This has little to do with post-1967 occupation (Ashkelon is not disputed territory) or politics... but everything to do with ongoing hatred, intolerance, barbarism and terror.
2006-05-03	Independence Day Missiles: Little reported, 2 Qassam rockets are fired from the northern Gaza Strip into area of Sderot, briefly interrupting Independence Day celebrations in the south of Israel. One woman, visiting family in the area, suffers an anxiety attack on hearing the "Red Dawn" alert system and is treated by a Magen David Adom ambulance team; no other injuries or damages -- not from lack of intent on the part of the authorities in charge of the Gaza Strip: the Hamas government.
2006-05-01	Suicide as Strategy: AFP identifies Khaled Meshaal (right) as "Hamas supremo" and quotes these memorable words of his: "Our enemies don't understand that a suicide operation is a natural right." Having published this helpful clarification, AFP shows its deep knowledge of what happens daily in this area by adding: "Hamas, which is responsible for the majority of suicide bombings during the five-year intifada, has not carried out any such anti-Israeli attacks since agreeing to a temporary period of calm early last year." If you know the name and email address of AFP's fact-checks editor, send him/her to us please. Meanwhile those of us concerned with understanding what's really going on need to internalize the contents of this piece of authoritative analysis; it's an article from a respected research establishment, describing Hamas' strategy of masquerading for the benefit of a compliant media while continuing (via selected sub-contractors) the deadly business it boasts about to its Arabic-speaking constituency.